Latest Meeting Summary

March 1, 2010

Monday was a great Westford Expressions meeting! Neither Susan Van Abs or Doug Sheadel could make it to this evening’s meeting, so I stood in as VP of Membership to give the president’s remarks at meeting beginning and end. I mentioned that the Westford Expressions International Speech Contest is coming up on March 29. Doug sent an email out this past week with an advertisement. I encouraged members to think about participating. I then introduced our Toastmaster for the evening – Xinbo Kan – who did a great job of rolling with some last-minute changes to put on a smooth meeting. His meeting theme was “All in a Toastmasters magazine.” The most recent magazine had an article about a man who had stuttered for 60 years and joined Toastmasters to help strengthen his speaking skills. He suggested we be unforgettable – extend the boundaries of speaking and performing, maybe by jumping on the table (which he actually did to show how it’s done – and we all thought the Olympics were over!).

We didn’t have any guests this evening.

Our grammarian was William Lam. It was his first time as grammarian with Westford Expressions. He gave us a power class in how to perform the role of grammarian and ah/um counter. His grammar suggestions and the attention he paid to different types of connector words were impressive! The word of the day was “skillful” and adjective meaning “possessed of or displaying skill, expert.” Several people used the word of the day throughout the evening.

Marceline Parent was our first speaker. Her speech, “Keiser Karel and Rice Pudding,” was a folktale story about Emperor Charles in Olin. In the 1500s, has emperor of the Roman Empire. Marceline told us an entertaining and humorous speech of how the mayor decided they would impress Keiser Karel by making him a batch of their famous rice pudding. And the presentation ceremony ended with the mayor and a batch of farmers slapping each other and splashed in rice pudding. The emperor got a great laugh out of this and rewarded the town for it.

Jean Forrester was our second speaker who delivered her Ice Breaker speech --project #1 from the Competent Communicator manual. Her speech, “My Exercise Plan – Pain, Pretzel and Pleasure”, was a fun tale of how she decided she need needed to exercise and the path she decided to take to get that exercise. She joined a power exercise class (pain), then a yoga class that ended up being a power yoga class (pretzel), and then power-walking with her dog (pleasure). Jean did a great job of delivering well-constructed first speech.

There was no third speaker so Stephen Clough pitched in by giving us an extended Table Topics session. His topics were in keeping with Xinbo’s Toastmasters magazine theme. He brought in a pile of old Toastmasters magazines and asked each participant to pick any magazine and speak about anything mentioned or seen on the cover. Anees Buxamusa spoke about overcoming speaking obstacles. Bob Burch spoke about moving from toxic to nourishing humor. Noorain Buxamusa’s topic was using storytelling. Marina Sosokina’s topic was speaking about the unspeakable which she edited to be something more inspiring. Mark Wall spoke about being skillful and the Olympics. Nancy Rawlings had the best ways to prepare for a speech. Deepak Parmar encouraged downloading public speaking audio lessons to help develop speaking skills. Carole Keyes’ topic was the power to change the world with your speech. Yan Lin spoke about speech organization and the art of speech. Liyan spoke about speaking up. Brian Johnson spoke about the do’s and don’ts of speaking to children.

Brian Johnson provided us with delicious and healthy treats for our snack break.

Gerard Wadman and Adonis Evangelista did a great job of providing thoughtful and constructive evaluations of the evening’s speeches. They pointed out good speech constructs: excellent use of voice volume and inflection, descriptive storytelling, and clear progression and presentation of the speech. And suggestions for future improvement: making use of longer pauses, watching your position in regard to the audience so no one gets a “cold shoulder,” and an opening that clarifies the personal motivation that launches into the body of the speech.

I was our General Evaluator. I pointed out that having only 2 speakers had allowed us the opportunity to expand Table Topics and give almost everyone a chance to speak – possibly a meeting framework we might want to consider having occasionally so everyone gets a chance to speak. I congratulated the evening’s team for working well together to carry Xinbo’s theme throughout the meeting. Also, I congratulated Xinbo for smoothly handling a couple of last-minute scheduling changes.

Our Timekeeper was Ross Losch. He gave us an enthusiastic report of his timing. He did a great job of keeping us all on time and alerting us if we were running past our allotted time. No one ran over time to any extreme – time usage was efficient. We somehow even ended the meeting a few minutes early.

Business items for the end of the meeting:
- Membership dues for the next 6 months ($39) are due to Jeff Caisse by March 15th. You may give checks to him at the next meeting or you may mail them to him at: Jeffrey Caisse, 84 Crooked Spring Rd., N. Chelmsford, MA 01863-2307
- Please consider participating in Westford Expressions’ International Speech Contest coming up on March 29 – as a speaker or volunteering to help with the contest management.