Here is a list of some of our members who have chosen to make their profiles public.

Here are some standout blogs from 2021 BEFORE Alisa Clickenger lent her expertise to more natural blogging.  Some of these below are copied from weekly PDF’s Judy Groff did while secretary and a few are from Karen Alexander as club president.  At the bottom is a link to another site that has blogs back to 2017.

9-24 Meeting & 9-25 Picnic

As is the routine, S-A-Arms Don Glovan led the pledge and President Carole Kitchen opened with a welcome and brief remarks.  What was not routine was to have two of our top speakers, Jeanne Resen and Ron Climer, speaking in top form on the benefits of Toastmasters and our support team delivering so effectively to follow the lead of Toastmaster Katie Dean.

In attendance were the following: Ron Climer Stan Coss Ray Daley, Katie Dean, Don Glovan Hoyt Griffith, Sally Jones, Carole Kitchen, *Betty McCallister, Jeanne Resen, and Susann Swan.  *And good laughs from Betty’s thematic joke.

Toastmaster Katie said the “Hobby and Interest” theme had been inspired by her husband who has recently taken up piano lessons.  She said he practices faithfully each day on this hobby interest.  In her transitions she reinforced the idea that hobbies “expand your mental bandwidth.

Shortly after the meeting she made this announcement of a chief interest of her own in News Flash One:

“I have some exciting news – I am candidate for US Congress. 

I’m running against Madison Cawthorn (and all the other folks running against Madison Cawthorn). I was busy this week prepping for a candidate forum, which occurred last night. It went well! Over the past few weeks I’ve inserted myself in the top three, and sometimes front runner, depending on the county. 

Check out our platform and website! www.electkatiedean.com 

Jeanne Resen spoke on her reflections in concluding her Presentation Mastery Pathway.  She revealed that she came “darn near quitting Toastmasters.”  She said it was that draining for her because “not all of us are wired for technology.”  She took copious notes and with “tenacity and pain” she proceeded towards the project requiring yet another technological challenge, the visual aids in a power point.

      All the frustration and arduous effort had two major, positive impacts.  She transferred her new computer and Zoom skills to her drama auditions during Covid, and she also helped her son the lawyer with chores that required computer skill.

     Jeanne said 900 actors submit auditions, 30 are called back, and one gets the job.  Her tenacity with Pathways and Zoom prepared her to film herself with proper lighting and distance and audio and uploading so that she could continue her work as an actress in commercials.  She had to really dig in, but her Toastmaster experience had given her the skill to make it work.

    Jeanne’s immersion in Toastmasters she said opened the doors of growth, and now she’s excited to choose and continue a new Pathway.  “You’ll see a lot of me,” she vowed. 

News Flash Two:

    Stan Coss, last year’s VP of Education, who’s recently been drained completing his DTM on the old legacy system, would interject here that Pathways should not be so hard a task.  It’d not be so hard if the VPE could assist more members transitioning from the old to the new system.  Stan’s announcing here that, in the absence of any member at FSTM wanting the role, he will commit to continuing as VPE beyond the three month interim, that he will better learn the system so he can be a better resource. 

      Ron filled in with a back pocket on “How to Write a Three-Minute Speech in Three Days.”  In his intro for the Toastmaster, he said he’d supply the answer to why smart people should stay in Toastmasters forever.

      Ron paraphrased Winston Churchill’s saying that it took him a month to write a three minute speech but if he had an hour speech he could give it right away.  Cutting out all the fluff was the tough, time-consuming task.

      Many don’t get the grip on what and how to throw out all the unnecessary stuff Ron said.  He gave three instances to show time is important.  He said his old Toastmaster club would stand up and give an ovation to silence a speaker 10 seconds after the red light was reached.  Ron said the Brevard County School Board would escort speakers out that violated the time limit.  He then spoke briefly on his own experience from just this Tuesday in speaking before the Volusia County School Board in Florida.  (See news flash below)

      “Get to the point and glean out the fluff!” Ron said.  Bring your own clock if you need to he said.  Ron finished at 5:40 for his 5-7 minute speech.

       Four table topic speakers were prompted on the theme by Table Topics Master Ray Daley:  Susann Swan, Don Glovan, Hoyt Griffith, and Stan Coss.

     Evaluator Sally Jones complimented Jeanne on her powerful speech that recounted overcoming Pathways obstacles with positive results.  Understandably, she was at a loss when it came to giving grows and asked for assistance with members in their chat.

    Evaluator Stan Coss’s main grow for Ron’s very strong speech is addressed in this link that Ron emailed out directly after the meeting.  It supplies not just more detail on his personal experience but gives the link to the actual speech itself.

News Flash Three:

If you would like to see  my three minutes speech, here is a link .  Fast forward to 4:23:19   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pl3zHaQX0fE&t=16081s  

This is a Hoot!  This is the entertaining, outspoken Ron Climer we’ve grown to love, the Ron Climer these school board members, and the 5,005 (and counting) viewers, won’t easily forget.

The Eyes and Ears Team finished their reporting:  Timer, Don Glovan; WOD, Carole Kitchen; Ah-Counter, Stan Coss; Grammarian, Hoyt Griffith.  The GE/TTE, Susann Swan, addressed primarily the glows of the table topic speakers and gave glows for the whole meeting with a grow that there be an agenda done as a PDF.  She noted that Katie had done an outstanding job in organizing and conducting the meeting, especially as she’d stepped up to volunteer just days after the assigned TM had to cancel.

March 5, 2021

James Bender was Toastmaster and Deb Lee was visiting Division Director. Carol Kitchen as double dose joke master and Don Glovan as forgiving ah-counter had to leave in the last few minutes before this snapshot. Table Topics Master was Betty McCallister, WOD “confabulate” was supplied by Karen Alexander, and Judy Groff was Speech Evaluator Two. Sally Jones was Grammarian, Hoyt Griffith as GE/TTE, Susann Swan was “bystander,” and Katie Dean was timer. Don Groff and Mark Engebretson were some of the TT responders. The theme was on America’s Place on the World Stage.

https://youtu.be/i-ncW6I43qA This in 12 minutes gives one speech about a mentor and an overview of the roles in Toastmasters, including table topics.

https://youtu.be/aIi23CYoU2Y This is a link to the joint Rotary/TM meeting of December 21, 2020. Karen Alexander was the Toastmaster, Don Groff was the speaker on the Adopt-a-Highway project, Stan Coss was the speaker on a model of the ice-breaker, Mark Engebretson was joke master, Hoyt Griffith was TTMaster, Jeanne Resen was word master, Dick Miley gave the mentoring moment on the TM/Rotary partnership, and Judy Groff and Ray Daley were speech evaluators.

Two notable speeches were revised to be even better, Mark’s Christmas trilogy of jokes (at 8:38) and Don’s Adopt a Highway TM/Rotary proposal (at 23:50).  The model of an ice-breaker you’ll not see from the actual meeting.  It had two technical issues (photos not advancing and not monitoring the close distance to the screen), so the speaker revised it, and it’s been inserted (at 15:09). 

  “Lassie,” August 20,

Attendance:  Susann Swan, Karen Alexander, Don Glovan, Jeanne Resen, Judy Groff, Don Groff, Betty McAlister, Carole Kitchen, Sally Jones, Ron Climer, Stan Coss, Dick Miley, Hoyt Griffith, Mitchell Robinson (guest), Melinda Lowrance.

Our Toastmaster this morning, Susann Swan, gave us a nostalgic theme of “Lassie”. Susann shared how this fluffy dog began on paper, moved into movies, then the well-known television series. She cleverly wove this theme throughout the meeting, including the introduction of the great Elizabeth Taylor in one of the Lassie movies.

In keeping with this theme, Word Master Melinda Lowance choose “FLUFFY” as our word of the day. This descriptive word was used four times throughout our meeting. As our Jokemaster, Hoyt Griffith, gave us a great start with a couple of punny jokes.

Our speaker, Sally Jones, shared fascinating insight on THOUGHTS ARE THINGS. She told us about the seven free doctors, yes free, including the SUN, NUTRITION, EXERCISE, AIR, MEDITATION, AND LAUGHTER. Sally delivered her message with great enthusiasm and humor. I especially liked the critic of her neighbors laundry, claiming she needed lessons in laundry. This went on for quite some time until she noticed the laundry suddenly appeared cleaner. Turned out her husband had cleaned the window. Be careful what window you are looking at others through. Thoughts are things, they can lift us up or drag us down. Great speech Sally!!

Next our VP Public Relations, Judy Groff, presented the direction she and the PR committee are taking to get the FSTM word out into our community. They are developing an email list of recommended invitees to our meetings. My favorite recommendation was the simple, direct community advertisement of Tee Shirts. All of their ideas are well thought out and I believe have the potential of expanding awareness of FSTM.

Don Glovan served as our Table Topics Master and kept all of his questions relating to the canine kids we all have. Dick Miley share BOOTS with us; Jeanne Resen shared the hilarious experience of the Great Dane her children brought in and her husband waking up to being licked in the face; Stan Coss told us of his heroic Bichon Frise saved his home from a grease fire gone wild; Ron Climer shared his sidesplitting story about his talking puppy; Hoyt Griffith sent his beagle to the hospital to get help after a car wreck; and lastly who could not imagine Melinda Lowrance’s puppy in her closet with each paw in a different shoe. All very creative with much appreciated entertainment.
Carole Kitchen presented a thorough and effective evaluation of Sally’s speech. She told us how Sally glowed in several aspects of her THOUGHTS ARE THINGS and also gave Sally a couple of growing opportunities.

This was followed by the EYES and EARS reports by Wordmaster Melinda Lowrance, Grammarian Don Groff, Timer Don Glovan (with help from Susann Swann), and Ah Counter Karen Alexander. Our General and Table Topics evaluator was filled by Betty McCallister who did a great job reviewing the entire meeting, focusing on the evaluator and table topics presenters.

Once again with thank you for ZOOMing with us.
My best to you,
Karen Alexander, President

http://fstoastmasters.blogspot.com/  :   This is the blog of 134 posts since November 2017

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