TOASTMASTERS CLUB 1841
FRIDAY <> AUGUST 20, 2010
KISSIMMEE UTILITY AUTHORITY
HUMOROUS SPEECH AND EVALUATION CONTESTS
CALL TO ORDER & PLEDGE: MARK TOOMEY, SGT. AT ARMS
CONTEST PURPOSE
Speech contests are an important part of the Toastmasters International Education Program. Speech contests provide an opportunity for proficient speakers to gain contest experience, and they provide interesting education programs for who are not participating in the contest to learn by observing.
TEST SPEAKER <> NEIL ALLEN, ATMS, CL
MINIMAL EFFORTS GET MINIMUM RESULTS
When a child is born into the world, what do they know? Virtually nothing. When a child is born, what’s on their brain… NOTHING. Eventually parents, relatives, teachers, friends and others will have an impact on their lives. They begin to fill in like this coloring book in my hands and they fill in the open areas.
Eventually, children decide they want something better out life, like better grades, better pay, a better car. But what are they giving in return. Society is seeing more and more people wanting more and more but giving less.
My brother-in-law is visiting me and he is a professor. He is appalled at how little some of these students don’t know. They want to do less for more.
Toastmasters gives us the opportunity to reap greater rewards for a greater effort expended. This week my daughter Cami came into her job and made a suggestion that would help maximize the job of scooping ice cream. “Wouldn’t it help if I scraped the edges into the middle to help with dipping the ice cream?”
If we all gave a little more like Cami did we’d be better Toastmasters. By showing up early, not on time, by doing more than expected, we can improve our club.
As we grow, if we want to complete the whole picture in this coloring book, it’s going to take maximum results with a maximum effort, not a minimum effort.
EVALUATION CONTEST SPEAKERS
PAM LEONARD, ATMB
Neil is a very professional speaker. He opened with a question and used a prop to answer the question.
He told stories and utilized his props to embellish the stories. He showed how our lives change as the props show the pictures first without color and then with it.
Neil used personal stories about his daughter Cami, and that helps to keep us attentive because we know her from her presence at our meetings.
You built us to a climax in the middle of your speech.
You challenged us to take a blank sheet and to fill in the good things to help us all to get better on the platform.
MARIBEL URREA
Neil’s presentation topic was interesting and that got our attention. The topic is very much about who Neil is personally and how he operates his own life in Toastmasters.
He made great eye contact and spoke to all of us. He used great examples from his own life, telling personal stories.
His examples touched me because I have a two year old daughter. As a parent we always want to give our children the best but are we getting a good return on our investment into our children?
The same could apply to how we do our jobs. Are we getting the best results from our efforts on the job? Can we do better.
You challenged us to do a better job to get better results.
HUMOROUS SPEAKING CONTESTANTS
The humorous speech contest is designed to show the purpose of humor in speeches while not relying on on liners for a speech. The competition begins with club contests and winners compete upward through the area, division and district levels.
The Humorous Speech Contest has three purposes:
1. To provide an opportunity for speakers to improve their speaking abilities and to recognize the best as encouragement to all.
2. To provide an opportunity to learn by observing the more proficient speakers who have benefited from their Toastmasters training.
3. To recognize the value of humor in speaking.
DAVID MC KIM
A GOOD DAY SHOPPING IS…
A good day shopping is…yet to be determined. Shopping, by definition, is the examination of items with the intention of buying. When I first go married, my wife wanted to go to a Mall on the weekend
Why do you shop? If you need something, you buy after you price the best deal.
For example, last weekend was tax-free weekend. That’s when I go clothes shopping. My e-mail is elcheapo! I’m cheap. When I visit Pennsylvania, I take an empty suitcase because there is not tax in PA.
When you go shopping for shoes, what’s the big deal? For men it’s black or brown and do they fit? Not much else to discuss unless you want tennis shoes, and that’s a no-brainer.
As a teenager, I was a mall-rat but we did not go to shop for clothes, we went there to shop for girls.
Shopping should be about finding what you need at the best price. Period! Why spend a whole day looking a saw for one which we may purchase a year from now? Men are from Mars and women are from Venus (the book). Women invented the mall. No doubt in my mind.
A good day of shopping other than Home Depot, Lowes or Bass Outdoor World is what was described in Star Trek a place “Where no man has gone before.”
LARRY MATTERN
JOHNNY CAT
The story of Johnny Cat is a true story about a little town that I’m from in Ohio. My wife and I had two children and times were tough in the little town that I was in. All the steel mills were closing. It’s the little things that wear on you.
We sold our home but had to get a new place to live. To placate my wife, we found a new place to live and I promised her I would get her a cat. My son named the black cat “Lucky.”
Johnny Cat was a popular cat litter at the time. I was looking for a prop and found this one on the internet. I wish I had heard Neil’s speech earlier… I would have actually prepared for this speech.
So when Tony called me and asked me for the title of my presentation, he confirmed to me that it would be titled “Johnny Cash.” NO TONY, Johnny Cat. We finally got the title right.
When my wife announced to me that Johnny Cat had passed away and we had to bury it. Several days later a cat came to the door “meow, meow, meow.” Turns out it was our Johnny Cat. We buried the wrong cat… a case of mistaken identity.
ERIK BARROWS, ACB
WHAT MAKES A MAN?
Recently on sports talk show networks all over the nation, they’ve been talking a lot about this story with Rex Ryan, head coach of the New York Jets and Tony Dungy, former head coach of the Indianapolis Colts.
Rex Ryan is the typical Alpha-male style of coaching with lots of cursing and abusive language. Tony Dungy is the opposite and doesn’t see the need for the abusive language.
I was washing dishes in the kitchen humming a tune and then realized how ridiculous it was. What makes a man?
One of my co-workers asked me to work for him on Saturday because it was his son’s birthday and he forgot to take off. Is that what it takes to make a man? A guy who sits with his remote and asks his wife “Is there anything you want to watch before football season starts?”
Ernest Hemingway said there are four things that make a man:
1. Plant a tree.
2. Have a son.
3. Write a book.
4. Fight a bull.
I can’t win a fight with my wife, let alone a bull. If any of you Alpha-males out there can tell me what makes a man, let me know.
****************
EVALUATION CONTEST
WINNER: PAMELA LEONARD
FIRST RUNNER-UP: MARIBEL URREA
****************
HUMOROUS SPEECH CONTEST
WINNER: DAVID MC KIM
FIRST RUNNER-UP: LARRY MATTERN
