China Capital Toastmasters Meeting Minutes

Meeting of January 17, 2008
Was called to order at 7:01p.m. Attendance:     17 members   5 guest(s)

Meeting Officials

Theme:

“Take the Moral High Ground”

Word of the Day:   Superior

Evaluator Contest:

Ben Wu gave a speech called “A Volunteer Matchmaking Club is the Way”.  In his speech, Ben proposed setting up a “Matchmaking” service within the club where single members can be matched.

We had 6 contestants who each were given 2 minutes to provide an evaluation of Ben’s speech.  The contestants were (in order of evaluation given):

Kevin Irwin, Diana Shi, Sally Li, Sunny Lin, Yachan Dong, and Yann.

Members were asked to rate each evaluation, via closed ballot.  Yann won the contest.

Prepared Speeches:

1:

David Oliver gave the No. 1 speech evaluated by Diana Shi

Entitled: “How I Came to China”

Speech Evaluation:

Great first speech.  Didn’t feel it was the first time you were presenting in front of the group.  You didn’t seem too nervous.  Your organization was great.  You have a beautiful voice.  You can improve in your time management, however.  The first third of your speech could be reduced to about 2 minutes.

2:

Yann gave the No. 4 speech evaluated by Sally Li

Entitled: “Magic Diving”

Speech Evaluation:

As Yann is one of the best evaluators, he shows his skills in his speech.  The description of being underwater was excellent.  Your body language was very effective.  Your eye contact has certainly improved over your past speeches – eye movement has slowed down considerably.  Your closing was very effective.  You seemed a bit too calm, however, when you were confronted by the shark!

3:

Yvonne Xu gave the No. 2 speech evaluated by Kevin Irwin

Entitled: “Most Beautiful Countryside in China”

Speech Evaluation:

You seemed to be very comfortable, fitting in well in the club with your speech.  You looked at your phone after it rang, however.  In the future, it will be best to ignore it.  A suggestion to improve the content: describe what you saw, not what you missed.  Adding some historical facts was effective.  Try to be a bit clearer in your topic – who was there, how, why, etc…

Awards:

Best Evaluator: Yann

Best Prepared Speaker: Yann

Best Evaluator: Sally Li

MEETING ENDED AT: 9:05 p.m.

Announcements:

1.      Next week we’ll be holding a video-recorded speechathon!  Please discuss with Connie if you want to fulfill a role.

2.      We will be having a video recorded Speechathon on January 24.  Please inform Selina if you are interested in presenting a speech.

3.      To future Toastmasters: please try to tell a joke during your monologue. 

The minutes of this meeting were prepared by Secretary: Chris