2007/12/13 Club Meeting Minutes

Total 14 members attended the meeting: Cindy, Jane, Jennifer, Jie, Joe, Ken, Kerry, Lisa, Louise, Mike, Sam, Sarita, Shyam, Stephanie. Total 4 guests attended our meeting: Beth, Binbiya, Hilary, Michael. Michael decided to join our club. Welcome Michael!

The agenda for the meeting is as follows.

Sergeant At Arms	Lisa -- called meeting to order at 7:30pm.
Spark Master	Ken -- read to us Christmas quotes.
President	Joe -- welcomed everyone to the meeting.
Toastmaster	Sam -- introduced functionaries for the meeting: Joe: Master Evaluator Jennifer: Grammarian. The word of the day: confabulate Mike: Ah Counter Cindy: Timer
Table Topics Ken, as the Table Topic Master, asked us to talk about our favorite holidays. 5 members + 2 guests participated in the table topics: Beth (guest), Jane, Lisa, Michael (guest), Mike, Sarita, Shyam. Beth won the Most Improved Table Topic Speaker award.
Business meeting	Joe, representing Louise, asked members to vote on continuing renting the room for our club meetings at the rate of $30 per meeting. This motion has been proposed and approved by all attending members. Joe proposed a motion to change award ribbons from Most Improved series to Best series. This motion has been approved.
Snack Master	Sam
Prepared Speeches
Speaker 1	Shyam: "Why I don't have a finance job", Speech #1 (Ice Breaker) from the Communication and Leadership Manual.
Speaker 2	Jie: "Know the enemies and know yourself", Speech #10 from the Communication and Leadership Manual.
Speaker 3	Sarita: "My life so far", Speech #1 (Ice Breaker) from the Communication and Leadership Manual.
Speaker 4	Kerry: "Harassment", Speech #4 (Professional Speaker) from the Professional Seminar Manual.
Shyam won the Most Improved Speaker award.
Evaluation
Evaluator 1	Stephanie evaluated Shyam's speech
Evaluator 2	Jane evaluated Jie's speech
Evaluator 3	Louise evaluated Sarita's speech
Evaluator 4	Lisa evaluated Kerry's speech
Stephanie won the Most Improved Evaluator award.
Meeting Adjourned.

2007/11/08 Club Meeting Minutes

We combined forces with the movers and shakers of High Spirits of Belmont Toastmasters to rock Belmont on November 8, 2007. The theme of the meeting is "Earthquake". Total 19 members attended the meeting: Alaka, Farley (guest), Ken, Jane, Jason, Jennifer, Jie, Joe, Laurie, Linda, Louise, Lynne, Margot, Michael (guest), Sam, Shay, Shyam (guest), Stephanie, Zet. . The agenda for the meeting is as follows.

Sergeant At Arms	Ken (SCB, HS) -- called meeting to order at 7:30pm.
Spark Master	Margot (HS) -- read a passage about love, life and joy.
President	Joe (SCB) -- welcomed everyone to the meeting.
Toastmaster	Jie (SCB) -- introduced functionaries for the meeting: Zet (HS): Master Evaluator Stephanie (SCB): Grammarian. The word of the day: fungible Joe (SCB): Ah Counter Jennifer (SCB): Timer
Foreshock (Table Topics) Lynne, as the Table Topic Master, asked us to talk about things that happened in our life. 4 members + 1 guest participated in the table topics: Farley (guest), Ken (SCB, HS), Sam (SCB), Shay (SCB), Stephanie (SCB). Stephanie (SCB) won the Most Improved Table Topic Speaker award.
Business meeting	A motion is proposed that Jane will serve as new VPE, since Kerry requested to step down. All members voted and approved this motion. A motion is proposed that every member that will attend the Christmas Party will be charged with $15 per person. All members voted and approved this motion. Shyam became the newest member of SCB. Welcome Shyam!
Snack Master	Shay (SCB)
Mainshock (Prepared Speeches)
Speaker 1	Laurie (HS): "The Moral Story ... May Not Be the Most Important Story", project #3 from the Moral of Story in Storytelling manual.
Speaker 2	Louise (SCB): "I Will Be Successful This Time!", speech #2 from Interpersonal Communication of ACL manual.
Speaker 3	Jason (HS): "A Crash Course in Ski Jumping", speech #5 from Competent Communicator manual.
Jason (HS) won the Most Improved Speaker award.
Aftershock (Evaluation)
Evaluator 1	Jane (SCB) evaluated Laurie (HS)'s speech
Evaluator 2	Linda (HS) evaluated Louise (SCB)'s speech
Evaluator 3	Sam (SCB) evaluated Jason (HS)'s speech
Sam (SCB) won the Most Improved Evaluator award.
Meeting Adjourned.

2007/10/26 Club Meeting Minutes

We held a combined meeting with High Spirits of Belmont Toastmaters club on October 26, 2007. Total 16 members + 2 guests attended the meeting: Alaka, Efrosini (guest), Farley (guest), Jane, Jason, Jie, Joe, Laurie, Linda, Ken, Kerry, Margot, Mike, Patty, Sam, Sarah, Stephanie, Zet. The agenda for the meeting is as follows.

Sergeant At Arms	George (HS) -- called meeting to order at 7:30pm.
President	Alaka (HS) -- welcomed everyone to the meeting.
Words of Wisdom (Spark Master)	Joe (SCB) -- read from a David Brook's column about using technologies in our lives, outsourcing our brain to external devices.
Toastmaster	Patty -- introduced functionaries for the meeting: Mike (SCB): Master Evaluator Sarah: Grammarian. The word of the day: assiduous Margot: Ah Counter Linda: Timer Jason: Vote Tabulator
Table Topics Kerry (SCB), as the Table Topic Master, gave us tips about how to do an introduction (of a person or an item). All 18 people in the meeting participated in the table topics. Efrosini won the Most Improved Table Topic Speaker award.
Business meeting	No issues.
Prepared Speeches
Speaker 1	Jane (SCB): "The Learning Experience", project #2 from High Performance Leadership Manual.
Speaker 2	Alaka: "A Wedding Toast"
Jane (SCB) won the Most Improved Speaker award.
Evaluation
Evaluator 1	Margot (HS) evaluated Jane (SCB)'s speech
Evaluator 2	Jie (SCB) evaluated Alaka (HS)'s speech
Margot (HS) won the Most Improved Evaluator award.
Meeting Adjourned.

2007/10/18 Club Officer Meeting Minutes

A club officer meeting was held on October 18, 2007. 4 club officers attended the meeting: Jennifer, Jie, Joe, Sam.

Several issues were discussed during the meeting.

• Kerry would like to step down as VPE because of her schedule. Joe will fill in as VPE for now. At the next club meeting, Joe will be approaching members for candidates to take on VPE full-time.
• We talked about the incoming two combined meetings with High Spirit club. Joe suggested to schedule our newest member Sarita to have her ice-breaker speech on November 8.
• Jennifer and Sam will form a committee to organize our Christmas party together with celebrating our club 60th anniversary on December 6. One suggestion is to use evite to send invitation to previous members. Jie will look for the old member information.
• Joe will promote the District Conference on November 17, and encourage new members to participate. We talked about holding a White Elephant Auction event to raise money to promote this conference. However, it is a little too late. We will hold such an event for the next conference.
• Sam is looking into the possible press release about our club.
• Jie will keep our club website updated.

Several projects and ideas were also discussed.

• Sam will send emails to club members, promoting a club logo contest. Club members will vote for logo at the Christmas party.
• We still need to look into making a new club sign for regular meetings.
• Joe suggested to digitally archive club documents.
• Sam suggested to use Facebook to promote our club.

2007/10/11 Club Meeting Minutes

Total 10 members attended the meeting: Cindy, Jane, Jennifer, Jie, Joe, Ken, Mike, Sam, Sarita, Stephanie. The agenda for the meeting is as follows.

Sergeant At Arms	Ken -- called meeting to order at 7:30pm.
Spark Master	Sam -- convinced us that things are not always what they appeared to be.
President	Joe -- welcomed everyone to the meeting.
Toastmaster	Jennifer -- introduced functionaries for the meeting: Jane: Master Evaluator Jie: Grammarian. The word of the day: Egregious Joe: Ah Counter Jie: Timer
Table Topics Ken, as the Table Topic Master, challenged us to be archaeologists. 9 members participated in the table topics: Cindy, Jane, Jennifer, Jie, Joe, Mike, Sam, Sarita, Stephanie. Mike won the Most Improved Table Topic Speaker award.
Business meeting	Louise reported offline that total 16 members were renewed their membership.
Snack Master	Jane
Prepared Speeches
Speaker 1	Stephanie: "Buy, Earn and Sell" from Specialty Speeches #3: Sell a Product.
Speaker 2	Mike: "A Different Kind of African Adventure" from Entertaining Speech #1.
Evaluation
Evaluator 1	Cindy evaluated Stephanie's speech
Evaluator 2	Ken evaluated Mike's speech
Ken won the Most Improved Evaluator award.
Meeting Adjourned.

2007/09/27 Club Meeting Minutes

Total 6 members attended the meeting: Jie, Joe, Kristin, Louise, Sam, Stephanie. Our guest Sarita came back and joined our meeting again. She decided to join our club. Welcome Sarita! The agenda for the meeting is as follows.

Sergeant At Arms	Joe -- called meeting to order at 7:30pm.
Spark Master	Kristin -- gave an inspirational spark.
President	Joe -- welcomed everyone to the meeting.
Toastmaster	Joe -- introduced functionaries for the meeting: Kristin: Master Evaluator Stephanie: Grammarian. The word of the day: Agglomeration Stephanie: Ah Counter Joe: Timer
Table Topics Jie, as the Table Topic Master, invited us to speak about hobbies. 5 members participated in the table topics: Joe, Kristin, Louise, Sam, Stephanie. Sam won the Most Improved Table Topic Speaker award.
Business meeting	Joe encouraged everyone to attend Division H contest on Oct 13, 2007.
Prepared Speeches
Speaker 1	Sam: "You + Sales Process = Millionaire Club" from Speeches by Management #3: Manage and Motivate.
Speaker 2	Stephanie: "Alex, the African Grey" from Specialty Speeches #2: Uplift the Spirit.
Stephanie won the Most Improved Speaker award.
Evaluation
Evaluator 1	Louise evaluated Sam's speech
Evaluator 2	Jie evaluated Stephanie's speech
Jie won the Most Improved Evaluator award.
Meeting Adjourned.

2007/09/13 Club Meeting Minutes

After two club contest meetings, we held our regular club meeting on September 13, 2007. Total 11 members attended the meeting: Cindy, Jane, Jennifer, Jie, Joe, Ken, Kerry, Louise, Sam, Shay, Stephanie. A guest, Sarita, joined our meeting. The agenda for the meeting is as follows.

Sergeant At Arms	Ken -- called meeting to order at 7:30pm.
Spark Master	Joe -- read a passage from the book "Fountainhead" by Ayn Rand.
President	Joe -- welcomed everyone to the meeting.
Toastmaster	Shay -- introduced functionaries for the meeting: Kerry: Grammarian. The word of the day: insipid Kerry: Ah Counter Jie: Timer
Table Topics Jennifer, as the Table Topic Master, prepared fun questions about "back to school". 8 people participated in the table topics: Jie, Joe, Ken, Kerry, Sam, Shay, Stephanie, and our guest Sarita. Sam won the Most Improved Table Topic Speaker award.
Business meeting	Louise reminded everyone about club dues: $45 per person. Attended members voted and approved to have a combine party for our club 60-year anniversary and Christmas party. We will invite previous club members to join this party. Joe proposed a new style of evaluation form. Attended members approved to use this new form.
Snack Master	Ken
Prepared Speeches
Speaker 1	Cindy: "Organization for school and the office": her #10 speech, the last speech, from the Communication and Leadership Manual. Congratulations to Cindy on achieving her CTM.
Speaker 2	Louise: "Break The Ice": from Advanced Communication and Leadership Series -- Interpersonal Communication.
Speaker 3	Jane: "Yes, you should be there": from Leadership project -- sharing the vision.
Louise won the Most Improved Speaker award.
Evaluation
Evaluator 1	Stephanie evaluated Cindy's speech
Evaluator 2	Joe evaluated Louise's speech
Evaluator 3	Jennifer evaluated Jane's speech
Stephanie won the Most Improved Evaluator award.
Meeting Adjourned.

2007/08/23 Club Meeting Minutes

We held our club-level humorous speech contest in this meeting. Total 14 members attended the meeting: Lisa, Sarah, Joe, Stephanie, Shay, Jane, Todd, Jie, Jennifer, Louise, Mike, Ken, Salina, Kristin. The agenda for the meeting is as follows.

Sergeant At Arms	Lisa -- called meeting to order at 7:30pm.
Spark Master	Sarah -- pitched in and read us a funny story.
President	Joe -- welcomed everyone to the meeting.
Toastmaster	Stephanie -- introduced functionaries for the meeting: Lisa: Grammarian. The word of the day: vacuous Shay: Ah Counter Jane: Timer
Humorous Speech Contest
Todd, as the Toastmaster for the contest, explained contest format and rules.
Contestant 1	Jie: "Wonderful Discoveries"
Contestant 2	Louise: "Thanks Stephanie"
Contestant 3	Joe: "The Big Scream"
Contestant 4	Jennifer: "My Brag Stories"
Joe won our club-level contest, and he will be representing us to compete in the H3 area contest on September 8th. Louise won the second place. If Joe can't make it to the contest, Louise will take over.
Snack Master	Sarah
Business meeting	Louise reported our club budget. She proposed a motion to increase our next 6-month membership dues from $44 to $45, as a result of the increased room rental fee. This motion was approved by the attending members. Ken suggested that we may hold auction table topic speeches to raise some funding in the future. All officers were trained. (Yah!)
Evaluation
Evaluator 1	Mike evaluated Joe's speech
Evaluator 2	Ken evaluated Jennifer's speech
Ken won the Most Improved Evaluator speech.
Table Topics Jane, as the Table Topic Master, asked us to express opinions about laying off. 7 members participated in the table topics: Salina, Ken, Shay, Louise, Kristin, Todd, Sarah. Salina won the Most Improved Table Topic speech.
Awards	Stephanie and Todd gave out awards.
Meeting Adjourned.

2007/08/16 Club Officer Meeting Minutes

Our club officer held the second officer meeting on August 16, 2007. 5 officers attended the meeting: Joe, Kerry, Sam, Jennifer, Jie.

President: Joe

Recruiting for the area-level contest roles. Encouraging club members to use CL manual. Kerry volunteered to give a talk on CL manual sometime later. Encouraging theme meetings, such as roman party. Christmas party. We may consider to combine Christmas party with other clubs. Kerry volunteered to organize this. Organizing demo meetings at Belmont or San Carlos library. One potential date is 2007/10/18. Official club name -- San Carlos/Belmont Toastmasters Club New club sign. Sam volunteered to look into this.

VP Education: Kerry

Work on schedule for after September Ask members about having Toastmaster for the meeting to send out meeting reminders. Give a talk on the CL manual Organize the Christmas party

VP Public Relations: Sam

Website updates: create a map with driving directions. Some guests get lost using the direction provided by Google map. Organize the contest for club logo in September. Have posted club meetings on craigslist and zevents. Will try some other efforts, such as press release, putting stickers in speech related books in public libraries.

VP Membership: Jennifer

Prepare brochure for guests. Prepare New Member Kits. Organize open houses.

Secretary: Jie

Continue on writing meeting minutes, with the agenda-style format. Ask about member progress. Find and post club constitution, by-laws, charter, history.

2007/08/09 Club Meeting Minutes

We held our club-level evaluation contest in this meeting. Total 15 club members attended the meeting: Lisa, Sarah, Joe, Ken, Kristin, Stephanie, Cindy, Louise, Mike, Jane, Kerry, Shay, Jie, Todd, Jennifer. We also had a guest speaker, Alaka, from the High Spirit Toastmasters Club. Thanks Alaka for being our test speaker for our contest! The agenda for the meeting was as follows.

Sergeant At Arms	Lisa -- called the meeting to order
Spark Master	Sarah - gave advice on "stop worrying"
Toastmaster	Joe -- described the meeting agenda and introduced functionaries
Evaluation Contest Alaka, our guest test speaker, delivered "An Amazing Vacation" speech. Total 7 members participated in the evaluation contest: Jie, Kerry, Sarah, Louise, Jane, Kristin, Shay. Kerry won the contest, and will represent our club to compete in the area-level contest on September 8th. If Kerry can't make it, the second place winner Jane will take her place. The third place winner is Kristin.
Snack Master	Louise
Prepared Speeches Todd delivered his "Innate Nutrition" speech. This is the speech #7 "Research Your Topic" from the Communication and Leadership manual.
Table Topic Master	Lisa -- talk about childhood
Ken, Stephanie, Alaka, Kerry, Kristin, Todd participated in the table topic. Stephanie won the Most Improved Table Topic Speaker.
Master Evaluator	Ken -- evaluated the whole meeting. His suggestion to take home is "come up with good conclusions for evaluations".
Evaluator	Jennifer -- evaluated Todd's speech
President	Joe -- gave out awards and adjourned the meeting

2007/07/26 Club Meeting Minutes

Joe, served as Sergeant at Arms for the meeting, called the meeting to order at 7:30pm. Total 14 members attended the meeting.

Jie, as the Spark master for the meeting, described the observational humor, which is a type of humor based on making funny remarks about daily life. Practicing observational humor often can help us hone our humor skills.

Sam, as the Toastmaster for the meeting, introduced our functionaries for the meeting, each of which describes his/her duty. Mike, as the Grammarian, picked the word of the day: soiree, which Sam quipped that this is a CEO-kind of word.

Todd, as the Table Topic master for the meeting, introduced his topic: given 1-3 choices, which person would you like to be? 12 members participated in this section. Some member wanted to be Genghis Kahn. Some wanted to be Mayor Newson. Some wanted to be the Billy the kid. It was fun. Kristin won the Most Improved Table Topic Speaker for the night.

In our club business meeting, Louise reported on our club budge, and Joe asked for a motion to approve our updated club event schedule for 2007-2008, which can be downloaded from our club website www.scbtoastmasters.com (members only). This schedule was approved by all attending club members.

Following this is our snack break -- thanks to Kerry.

After the break is the prepared speech section. Kritin gave her first speech -- the "Ice-Breaker" speech in the Communication and Leadership manual, telling us about herself.

Louise gave her speech on "the Firing of the City Manager", explaining why firing the manager, and the procedure about the firing. This is her 5th speech in the Communication and Leadership PR manual.

Salina talked about her shopping experiences in Beijing, and gave us very good shopping tips. This is her 5th speech in the Communication and Leadership manual.

Shay explained to us "Why are prescription drugs so expensive". This is her first speech in Advanced Communicator manual.

Kristin won the Most Improved Speaker for the night.

Next is the Evaluation section. Kerry, as the Master Evaluator, introduced each evaluator to evaluate the speaker. Ken evaluated Kristin. Cindy evaluated Louise. Joe evaluated Salina. Stephanie evaluated Shay. Joe won the Most Improved Evaluator for the meeting.

Sam gave out the awards, and the meeting adjourned.

2007/07/12 Club Meeting Minutes

Lisa, as our new SAA, started our meeting at 7:30pm. We had a full agenda for the meeting. Total 15 members attended the meeting.

Jane, as the Spark Master for the meeting, told us a very inspiring story -- a story about a cracked pot. The lesson is that a cracked pot can offer something that not-cracked pot can't offer. So be just the way you are.

Salina, as the Toastmaster for the night, introduced functionaries for the meeting, each of which describes his/her duty. We also picked the word of the day: verity.

Shay, as the Table Topic Master, introduced her table topic -- say something about our new president Joe. Total 13 members participated in this section. We all learned something new about Joe and Sam snagged the Most Improved Table Topic Speaker Award at the end.

In our club business meeting, our president Joe handed out the tentative event schedule for 2007-2008 Toastmaster Year. This schedule (club-events-2007-2008.xls) is also posted in our club website: www.scbtoastmasters.com. All attending club members approved this schedule.

A brief break was right after the business meeting. Thanks to Joe for the snacks.

The prepared speeches section is after the break. There were total four speeches. Ken gave a "demo meeting", introducing Toastmasters to non-Toastmasters. His speech assignment was on "Vocal Variety".

Jie gave a speech on "the power of data warehousing". She introduced what data warehousing is and what it can do. Her speech assignment was on "Getting Comfortable with Visual Aids".

Stephanie chose one topic from 5 possible topics, and gave an impromptu speech on "going green". She presented the reasons that we need to go green and gave us some practical examples of how to do so. Her assignment was on "Speak off the Cuff".

Cindy gave a persuasive speech on why we should "bike to work". She provides us her supporting materials from several different aspects, such as the environmental affect and the health. Her assignment was on "Persuade with Power".

Stephanie and Cindy tie for the Most Improved Speaker Award.

Following this is the Evaluation section of the meeting. Louise, as the Master Evaluator of the meeting, introduced each evaluator to evaluate each speaker.

Mike evaluated Ken -- very effective demo meeting. Comments were to skip the detailed history of Toastermasters.

Lisa evaluated Jie -- very good use of visual aids and good introduction examples. Comments were to (1) use more colors on slides; (2) write out some technical terms, such as OLAP.

Joe evaluated Stephanie -- very good use of humor. Comments were to give some counter-examples.

Kerry evaluated Cindy -- very effective supporting materials and very good use of graphics. Comments were to (1) use personal stories to enhance the effects; (2) make words in the visual aids easier to read.

Louise evaluated the whole meeting, and asked for Grammarian reports from Jennifer and Ah Counter reports from Sam. The Most Improved Evaluator for the night is Kerry.

Salina gave out awards for the night.

At the end, Joe held an induction ceremony for Kristin and we voted her in as our newest club member. Welcome Kristin!

The meeting adjourned shortly after 9:30pm.

New Club Officers Kickoff Meeting

Joe, as the incoming president for our club, organized the new club officers kickoff meeting on June 21, 2007. Six incoming club officers attended the meeting:

President:  Joe
VP of Education (VPE): Kerry
VP of Membership (VPM): Jennifer
VP of Public Relation (VPPR): Sam
Secretary: Jie
Sergeant at Arms (SAA): Lisa

We started the meeting with the simple Spaghetti dinner. After that, Joe handed out the agenda for the meeting. The agenda is listed below with the discussion notes.

8:30pm Distinguish Club Program goals

Toastmasters Internationals set up Distinguish Club Program (DCP) goals to determine the health of a club. To achieve a Distinguish Club award, a club needs to have at least 20 members or net growth of at least 5 members. In addition, DCP defines total 10 goals. For each club, at least 5 goals need to be satisfied to be recognized as a Distinguish Club.

We identified the strength of our club: supportive, friendly, dynamic, and organized. Currently, we have 18 active members (or paid members) in our club. To achieve a DCP award, we need to work harder to attract new members.

8:45pm Reports, plans, ideas from each area of responsibility (7 minutes per officer)

In this section of the meeting, each club officer talked about his/her key responsibilities, what we have done well, what needs to be improved.

As the club president, Joe will work with club officers to set our club goals and plan how to achieve these goals.

As the VPE, Kerry will (1) make meeting schedules, (2) work on various mentoring programs, such as a mentor coach for each different style of speeches, (3) do more recognition on members when they achieve goals, (4) refresh meeting procedures once in a while.

As the VPM, Jennifer will work on building new membership, such as (1) follow up with guests, (2) hold open houses, (3) design welcome folders for guests.

As the VPPR, Sam will (1) improve our website, (2) post our meeting schedules to craigslist, (3) make and post flyers, (4) possibly do some press release, (5) post meeting videos to YouTube.

As the Secretary, Jie will (1) take meeting minutes and post them on the blog, (2) update club roster, (3) update member progress after each meeting.

As the SAA, Lisa will (1) call meetings to order, (2) collect and count ballots, (3) keep track of meeting supplies, such as evaluation forms, ribbons, etc, (4) make new signs for our club meetings.

As the Treasurer, Louise missed the first meeting, but she is an experienced treasurer. She will (1) collect membership dues and submit them on time, (2) make room rental arrangements for our club meetings.

9:30 Schedule for 2007-2008

In this section of the meeting, we talked about the overall schedule for 2007-2008. Joe has posted a tentative schedule to our website www.scbtoastmasters.com for members only.

Welcome to the San Carlos/Belmont Toastmasters meeting minutes Blog site!

This blog records meeting minutes for the San Carlos/Belmont Toastmasters, including regular club meetings and club officer meetings. I hope this can serve several purposes:

1. If you are a club member and you were not able to attend some club meetings, this blog can inform you what you have missed.
2. If you are a club member, you can find out what club officers are up to in the club officer meetings.
3. If you are not familiar with our club meetings, or Toastmasters in general, I hope that this blog can give you some idea about us.

Any comments are most welcome.