Another Great Meeting and Lessons Learned 10/20/09

Last night  the Gem City Toastmasters Club gathered for our weekly Tuesday night meeting. This turned out to be no regular meeting as right from the outset our Toastmaster, Kathy Clifton explained the ‘Theme’ by teaching us the general how-to’s of a Toastmasters Meeting.

Kathy covered not only the Nuts & Bolts of times and topics, but she also covered the greeting and special handling of Guests and then offered a special group Congratulations to our Competition Participants Barbara Cook and John Becker.

Our Speakers offered more lessons through their presentations!

Barbara Cook shared through talk and example some of the lessons she’d taken from her competition this past Saturday, and generous feedback she’d received from some of her fellow competitors taht we all could use to improve our presentations.

Barbara skillfully showed how much more powerful a speech can become simply by moving out in FRONT of the lectern. She also showed examples of gestures both behind and in front of the lectern, proving through example how much more open and useful the same gestures can be when combined with a full body presence not hidden by the lectern.

Our second speaker for the evening, Dwayne Phillips again entertained and challenged us through his masterful story telling speech modal.  Dwayne has enetertained us many times by sharing experiences from his past for simple enjoyment purposes. Last night he added a new layer to his story by using it to inspire us all to stand up for injustice in support of others.

Dwayne told of moving from the city to the rural country life at a young age, and how he became the target of the school bully. He skillfully used comedy and positive feedback throughout his story to assure us that this was not a sad or distressing childhood but merely the way things were and despite the school stresses – he actually believes that he had a great childhood. We all laughed when he explained how he had ‘Yellow Fever’ (an self induced allergic reaction to school buses) to try to get out of going to that stressful place in his young life.

The meeting ended on time and we all went home with a lot to think about and a satisfaction of being a better person and a better speaker because of the lessons we had learned.

Respectfully Submitted,

Jim Alvord | President

Gem City Forum Toastmasters Club # 296