Reports

Another great evening at Sierra Speakers. The theme was Ringing In the New, Brushing Aside the Old, and you could tell lots of people were on board with this theme.

We had a room full of guests. Welcome everybody! We hope you had a wonderful time. Would the person who took home the guest sign-up sheet get in touch so we can get in touch with all of you?

We had two terrific speeches from two very experienced speech makers. Anna Lien, our brand new co-president, told us why her mother calls her a trouble-maker. If you know Anna you know why most of us found this hard to believe, but the imagery in her speech was fantastic, and she had us all smiling as she told her story.

Jim Fox, a long time member, but a guest last night, talked to us about the Krupps family dynasty. We all got a fascinating history lesson going back to the Franco-Prussian War. Fun fact number 1 – the British licensed the bomb technology they used in the first world war from this German company. Fun fact number 2 – to collect on this licensing agreement, the Krupps had accountants on both sides of the water counting bomb blasts. They matched their figures and agreed upon the amount the British owed the Germans for bombing them.

Michael Simpson was our Toastmaster, he kept the meeting moving along smoothly, and he had at his side Tim Ryan as Jokemaster. Tim, a British ex-pat, told us a joke about the Irish, involving beer and libraries. We are eagerly looking forward to a response from our Irish ex-pat….

Table Topics was especially lively this week (thanks to Michael Guerin), as we heard some great stories involving New Year’s Eves past – both biggest regrets and best nights ever. Keith Hoang gave us some great predictions for 2011, if it’s even half as good as Keith promises, we are in for a pretty spectacular year.

Thanks to all who showed up and if you were a guest and are thinking of joining us, just jump in. The hardest part is the anticipation, each speech gets easier, and the sooner you join, the sooner you’ll be a better public speaker.

See you all next week, Thursday, January 13th 2011.

Happy New Year!
Sierra Speakers had our final meeting in 2010 and it was a good one!

New member Brian Cutter filled us in on the Golden Gate Bridge – not just the real reason it’s red and not gold, but also what design elements we should be looking for when we cross it, and why they are significant.

Anna Lien updated us on a project she completed last summer – successfully coaching three Toastmaster presidents to achieve their club goals. With this speech, Anna completed her High Performance Leadership project. She is on her way to attaining her DTM (Distinguished Toastmaster), the highest level in TM. Congratulations Anna!

You may already know how bad bottled water is for the environment, but did you also know that it consistently loses to tap water in blind tastings? Michael Simpson’s speech gave us the statistics to back us up when we are making the sustainable choice.

Table topics were all about preparation for the new year. Matt McCabe, another new member, kept the questions interesting. One or two of us even answered the question as it was asked.

Toastmasters Steve Aitkins and Tim Ryan ensured a lively meeting – we heard about Tim’s Mom’s excellent holiday planning skills involving a turkey and an outhouse. We also learned that outhouse is British for porch.

And for those who were interested, Steve Aitkins had a video of his infant son taking a bath.

Steve and Anna Lien were elected co-presidents, Matt McCabe stepped up as Treasurer, Tim Ryan will take on a piece of the PR work and I seem to be writing these updates.

Please join us at this week’s meeting Thursday January 6th -

Katherine Florio
Secretary
Sierra Speakers

Team work was the theme of our meeting last Thursday as our tiny but brilliant Toast Master Elizabeth Cruz led us through another Sierra Speakers’ meeting at the Schwab building.

Andrew Reed kicked of the organized speeches with a talk on his experiences at the coal face of a non-profit organization. It is always good to hear about members’ real wold experiences and Andrew’s speech seemed well beyond the level of a second speech.

Next up was Anna Lien, giving her second speech from the Advanced Manual: The Entertaining Speaker. Her speech was entitled ‘Laugh and Learn’ and well, we all did just that. Anna entertained us all using a combination of visual aids, audience interaction and of course, great speaking skills.

Finally, we had our president Steve Aitkins. Fresh back from a trip to Italy, Steve also gave a speech from the Advanced Manual: The Entertaining Speaker. His allocated 13-15 minutes seemed to fly past as he talked to us about cultural differences and what we can learn from other countries. A very entertaining speech from Steve, all the more impressive since he only stepped up for the speaking slot that very same day!

The evaluation team consisted of Matthew Walsh, in his inaugural performance as GE, supported by his team of functionaries, and Shaun Abram was our Table Topics master.

After the official meeting ended, we had the all important club elections. Thanks to everyone who stepped up to help with the running of the club and the official results will be announced shortly.

A big thank to all our guests for coming along, including James, Andrew and David.
And a big Sierra Speakers welcome to our brand new members Magnus and Willerie who were voted in at the end of the meeting. Welcome to the club guys and we look forward to hearing your icebreakers soon!

Tonight’s meeting will be at the usual time and place – The Schwab building at 7pm. Former president Helen Chao will be our Toast Master, so we should be in for a good night! Hope to see you all there…

Last week saw another entertaining Sierra Speakers meeting at the Schwab building. The theme of the meeting was ‘passion’ and we certainly saw lots of it in both the organized and impromptu speeches.

We had a lively opening from our Sergeant At Arms, Elizabeth Cruz, who had a Q&A with the audience about their passions and interests. Next, our Toastmaster for the evening, Shaun Abram, shared his passion for martial arts before turning things over to the General Evaluator, Corito Sevilla who introduced the evaluation team for the evening.

The speeches were kicked off by Aaron McClay giving his second speech from the Competent Communicator manual, entitled “Flying High”. Aaron talked us through his fear of flying (or rather, fear of crashing!), the adventures this had gotten him in to and how he is overcoming his aerophobia.

Next, we had Mike Simpson giving us his 3rd speech from the Advanced Manual: Speaking to Inform. This had to be hands down the most memorable speech I have seen at Sierra Speakers. Mike shared with us his passion for yoga, including some breathtaking demonstrations of yoga positions. It is now official: Mike Simpson can give a better presentation standing on his head than most of us can on our feet!

Helen Chao was our Table Topics Master for the evening. Pretend you’ve written a book and explain why. Titles included ‘Still stripping after 25 years’, ‘Knitting with Dog Hair’, ‘How to cook Husbands’ and much more! The answers were surprising, funny, and all well delivered.

For the evaluation section, we had a new format where each speaker had not one, but two evaluators. This enabled more people to practice their evaluation skills and the speakers get valuable feedback from varying perspectives.

Finally, a special thank you to all our guests for coming: Newcomers Angel Mata, Lisa Farrell, Mahesh Naidu and Debora Becattini; Return guests Chuck Schulz and Magnus Johansson; And former members Rich Israels, Jim Fox and Nelson Lau. It was great to see you all! You are all welcome back any time.

Elizabeth Cruz is scheduled to be our Toastmaster at this week’s meeting. Hope to see you all there…

Hi fellow Toastmasters,
Thursday night was another riveting and entertaining Sierra Speakers meeting at the Schwab HQ building. 3 very experienced speakers, an enthralling table topics session and a good turn out of both regulars and guests made for a fun night all round.

Sergeant At Arms Elizabeth Cruz opened the meeting up with an interactive Q&A about holidays and Memorial day. The indefatigable and always engaging Anna Lien took over as our Toastmaster for the meeting, themed around paradoxes and ironies. Then our General Evaluator for the evening, Jennifer Rooke, introduced us to her trusty evaluation team before we got to the main event of the evening: The speeches.

Andrea Lo gave a moving speech about her grandmother Ming and the importance of family. This was Andrea’s 10th speech, so a huge congratulation to her on receiving her Competent Communicator award!

Richard Wilson gave us the “Speaking to inform’ speech from the advanced manual, with a title of “Chicago 1968″. A well researched and very well delivered piece about the politics, ‘Yippies’ and turmoil of Chicago.

And rounding of the organized speeches was Helen Chao with an entertaining and lively speech which used the difficulties of climbing as a platform to explain teamwork. Motivational and educational.

Next up, we had Michael Susko leading Table Topics. Michael is one of my favorite Table Topics masters and this meeting was no exception. The theme was problem solving and participants discussed how they have tackled, overcome or plain old ignored problems in the past. A good mix of experienced members and guests resulted in a fun round of impromptu speaking.

At the end of the meeting, William Chiu, a very welcome guest from Stagecoach speakers, won a prize for his lively Table Topics answer. Helen Chao won the best speech award and Richard Wilson won the Grammarian award for best use of word of the day. Congratulations to you all!

Overall, a fun and engaging meeting, as usual! Hope to see you all at Schwab for next week’s meeting…

Shaun