Minutes of meeting, October 16th 2014

Venkat opened the session of 16th October with a joke about a beggar who donates a cookbook to the person who offered him alms. We had 2 visiting guests at our club this week:  Jeff and Chris. Dilip presided over the meeting and shone his thoughts of wisdom as a seasoned Toastmaster (TM), time and again . He was also the humorist of the day and spoke about a kid who got better at math when he joined a school which had a man nailed to a cross in its campus. Not knowing who was nailed to the cross, the kid thought it was a punishment for not doing well in math and bucked up his math scores. The theme of the day was 'Excel and motivate' and true to its meaning, the session was definitely motivating.

(Dilip adorns the podium as he brings the meeting to a start in the pic below)

Praveen was the toastmaster of the day. Praveen, though fairly new to this role,  was remarkable as a TM  (in pic below behind the podium) as he displayed a natural ability to tie up various segments of the meeting with his intelligent and appropriate comments.The word of the day was inquisitor which means an excessively harsh questioner. Most, but not all of the speakers managed to use this term. 

Bhoomaiah was speaker#1. His topic was from the special occasion speeches manual. He was supposed to talk about what he would say in his acceptance speech for the Distinguished Toastmaster award. He met all the speech requirements for the speech as he covered the key points of growth he had achieved by using the tried and tested techniques of public speaking e.g., storytelling, sandwich method of speech evaluation/feedback, making difficult conversations. etc prescribed in Toastmaster workshops. He was evaluated by Bharti who provided a comprehensive and detailed evaluation of the functional value of Bhoomaiah's speech. 

Vidya was speaker#2 and she spoke on "What does it take to raise the bar for oneself". She spoke about using the various energy centers in the body and explore one's ability to bring in different energies to a situation to excel and explore one's potential. 

Vidya was evaluated by Kavitha. Kavitha mentioned that Vidya met the speech requirements, had a great presence on stage and needed to readjust the content of her speech to make it lighter and use the speaking time more objectively. Kavitha and Vidya were the winning duo, as the best evaluator and the best speaker of the day, respectively.

Dilip chose an extremely innovative theme for the Tabletopics session. He chose the Nobel Prize winning topics in the Nobel Prize, IG section where awards are given to improbable research which makes people laugh and then think. Kudos Dilip for choosing such an innovative theme and enlightening us about it!!

Praveen spoke about the Physics Nobel prize for "Discovering that some people would be physically capable of running across the surface of a pond - if those people and that pond were on moon"> Praveen calmly and slowly dissected the idea and analyzed how this finding could be used for living on the moon (Praveen speaking in pic below). 

In the table topics session, Venkat spoke about the Nobel Prize in Physics: "Measuring the amount of friction between a shoe and a banana skin, and between a banana skin and the floor". Displaying exceptional perception of the application of this finding, he quotes examples in real life where this finding can be used to estimate the damage and put to practical use. (Venkat during table topics session, in the pic below)

Jeff, our visiting guest was the best table topics speaker of the day with his bold and super humorous speech on what he thinks about the IG Nobel Prize: "Chimpanzees can identify other chimpanzees individually from seeing photographs of their rear ends". (Jeff receiving the prize from Praveen in pic below)

As the leadership evaluator of the day, Deep appreciated the fact that we had better time management this time, the guests were introduced at the beginning of the meeting, which was nice. He mentioned that one person should not be assigned 2 heavy roles in one session as it would affect the quality of performance of the role taker. (Deep during Leadership evaluation in pic below)



Kavitha had actually brought a surprise for all of us. She got a  cardboard surf board and extended a warm invitation to Monterey Bay for District 4 conference on Nov 8th: http://d4tm.org/fall-conference-2014. The surfboard is mounted on the white board behind the podium in the pics above. We all enjoyed your surprise Kavitha, you made it a very special invitation! That concludes a summary of the meeting of October 16th at Vox Toastmasters, IBM.

--Vidyangi S. Patil (Vox, Toastmasters, IBM)

Minutes of meeting for Oct 9th 2014

At Vox Toastmasters, every meeting brings in new ideas and topics to enhance our perception of communication. Thursday evenings at Vox Toastmasters, IBM has become a fun learning journey and an integral part of life now. No matter what the passing week was like, the Toastmasters meetup is something rejuvenating, filled with lots of warmth and smiles and something to look forward to.

We had Kavitha playing Toastmaster for this week's session. As always she was in control of the session and pulled through a great show. There was also a mention of a speech about being an ideal Toastmaster by Bhoomaiah where he was referencing Kavitha as the ideal Toastmaster. 

The session was presided by Dilip and as always he opened the session with his sparkle of grace and inspiration. Bharati was the humorist and brought smiles to our face with her joke on how people try to mask their opinion about a baby resembling a monkey. We had 2 prepared speeches this time. Praveen brightened  up the crowd by slowly and gradually building up the humor about his new window seat at work, next to a busy customer support professional. He brought out the benefits of having a seat close to open and fresh air. All in all it was super humorous. Mohan did the second prepared speech on how to save education costs. As always he analysed the concept in depth and came up with very creative and practical suggestions to support his ideas. It was quite apparent that he had done a thorough research about the government policies to support his thought process. Mohan was the best speaker of the day. 

Isabelle evaluated Praveen's speech and her feedback suggested better usage of the joke to open the speech, She also touched upon the need for clearer conclusion and better reference to technical terms for non-technical audience.

 Dilip was the best evaluator of the day and he evaluated Mohan (receiving his award from Kavitha in above pic) He appreciated the choice of topic by Mohan and said that it is a topic which many people can relate to and he applauded the great content organization in Mohan's speech. He also emphasized the need for supporting ideas with suitable facts in Mohan's speech. 

The table topic session was fun and opened the stage to our visiting guests. Mubeen spoke about seasons and his experience living in the mid-west and bay area. Sunil was the best speaker of the day as he spoke about his joy of living and schooling his children in Laurelwood school in Santa Clara He spoke about he decided not to move to Cupertino for better schools. Isabelle spoke about how she would prep up if she had to travel impromptu. So much for the meeting of October 9th. So long until next week.

Kavitha the Toastmaster of the day presenting the award for the best speaker in Table topics section  to Sunil. Well done Sunil! It was your first speech and you won!

-- Vidyangi S. Patil (Club Secretary, Vox Toastmasters, IBM)

Minutes of meeting October 2nd 2014

October 2nd was a special day. We celebrate Mahatma Gandhi's birthday on this day and it is also considered as the International Day of non-violence. It is on this day that 'Clean India' drive was launched by Narendra Modi, the reigning Prime Minister of India. Falling in line with the theme, the word of the day was placid. As always every member who attended the meeting was given a chance to speak during the meeting and managed to use the word of the day: placid. 

The President of Vox, Dilip opened the meeting with a token of appreciation for all Voxers who are in office. He awarded them with a beautiful badge showing the logo of Toastmasters. While handing over the token he also spoke about how each member went out of their way in managing various operations at Vox Toastmasters smoothly. He mentioned every contribution in terms of new PR initiatives, documentation of minutes of meeting, managing Twitter and Facebook accounts, arranging open house events, having new members in the club and retaining them, spreading awareness about Area and District level leadership training workshops, etc.

The Toastmaster of the day allowed for all the roles to be introduced by the members who were assigned respective roles. Kavitha impressed us, yet again! with the way she introduced her role as a timer. She started of with reference to the movie 'Lake Placid' and also managed to use the word of the day: placid. 

Vidya was the speaker of the day. She spoke about the various energy centers in the body and how each energy center can boost the presence and personality of an individual. She was the best speaker of the day. Anand was the best evaluator and brought out all the positives of Vidya's speech. He also encouraged her by commenting on her natural speaking ability, stage presence, great usage of body/body language and the importance of winding up the speech with higher energy and gusto.

Clear and succinct, with the confidence and charm of a seasoned Toastmaster, Mohan swept the crowd away with his joke. Praveen chose the theme for table topics in keeping with the significance of the day. We had 3 new guests viz., Robert, Mubeen and Richu. Mubeen spoke about the leadership initiative he would take for the next 4 to 5 years as in educating people because he thinks without education the progress of a nation would be stinted. Mark shared the best speaker of the day award as he narrated his experience about volunteering for firefighting and as a paramedic and the satisfaction he gained in saving lives of people.  Richu shared the best speaker award as she spoke about the one single change she would bring about if she were the President of the country. She said she would promulgate the principle of feminism and equality of men and women. All speakers used the word of the day effectively.

For the table topics: Kavitha said that rather than choosing one ideal place to live in the rest of her life, she would like to explore placidity in traveling to one new place every day and meeting new people all the time and exploring newer cultures. Mohan spoke about what he would do if he were to  donate money to a needy/hungry person when he had just got swindled. He chose to be alert and aware of not being swindled again before he donated his money to the hungry person.

Nothing skipped the evaluator's eye this time as Dilip went into a detailed evaluation session starting with the way the session started, the courtesy of introducing the visiting guests as the first thing, starting on time, the way the speaker of the day was evaluated, the comments on the creative expressions by the timer, usage of word of the day, observations which were skipped, order and timing of events, etc. Dilip was all for precision, quality and strict process and organization in his evaluation session. The visiting guests appreciated this aspect of our club proceedings and mentioned that this is a compelling reason for them to sign up for membership with Vox Toastmasters. So much for the session of October 2nd.

Looking forward to see you guys at the Open House and Halloween Spooktacular event. Check out the Facebook page for more details: https://www.facebook.com/VoxTM?ref=br_tf

--Vidyangi S. Patil, (Club Secretary, Vox Toastmasters)

Photo credits:
http://www.images55.com/category/gandhi-jayanti/page/9/

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/02/modi-launches-indian-clean-up-campaign

Minutes of meeting 28th August 2014

Take a chance! What can we do differently or better, everyday? How can we make our Toastmaster clubs better? Break barriers with yourself, and there was more. This was a session not to be missed! The meeting of August 28th was special in more than one ways. We had a visiting guest all the way from Florida Abbey and our youngest club member Aparna wins the best table topic speaker award of the day!

As Kavitha put it, Dilip set the tempo and theme for the day with his President's address: "Take a chance". he quoted an example of Anna Kendrick who took a chance and acted in an improv movie very contrary to her conservative upbringing. He spoke about the star of the TV series:  Breaking Bad who stopped taking short cuts in life after he found his true passion in acting.

Abbey, our visiting Toastmaster opened the session with her joke about a hard drive which makes all computer professionals exhausted all the time. She was also the best speaker of the day with her project on getting comfortable using visual aids. She brought out a huge bag filled with unexpected yet creative choice of visual aids and spoke about ways to make Toastmaster club meetings better.

Some of Abbey's  pointers highlighted visiting other clubs to bring in newer ideas on running meetings, club members introducing themselves to the guests, show up early during club visits to grab on roles which are not filled, applauding every participant with gusto and a loud applause. She says her heart goes pitter patter whenever she visits a new club and takes on a new speech, every single time, but she keeps going and the experience of taking the risk is worth it. She emphasized the importance of food in binding the club members together. She also spoke about high performance leadership workshops and their impact on improving public speaking and leadership skills.

Vidya was the Table topics master of the day. Her theme for the day was: "What can we do differently or better". Praveen spoke about how he would start his day better by doing Yoga and waking up one hour earlier than usual. Isabelle spoke about breaking barriers with herself by learning to communicate better in English, her native language being Spanish. She spoke about training for a marathon as well. Dilip spoke about ending his day better by hitting the gym, and after a shower starting his evenings fresh to take on more at the end of the day. Our winner was little Aparna as she shared her thoughts about the art work she created in her art studio as she displayed her vision of summer, winter, spring and fall seasons.

Kavitha was the general evaluator of the day, Praveen was the timer of the day. Kavitha was also the grammarian of the day and she delivered her speech as  effectively as always capturing ways in which every person could have improved and performed better. She discouraged the use of cell phones during the meetings and also pointed out that the stage needs to be used more effectively. She was all praises for Dilip for inspiring people to raise the bar, applauded Vidya for sharing her effortless speaking, energy and ability to share inspiration, praised Abbey for bringing in such new and creative ideas in improving club participation and involvement in meetings.

So much for the meeting of August 28th. Chao till next time.

-Vidyangi S Patil
Club Secretary, IBM Vox Toasmasters Club

Minutes of meeting August 21st 2014

The meeting of 21st August at Vox Toastmasters IBM began with Dilip sharing his experiences as a Toastmaster and working with mentors at Toastmaster over the past few years. He spoke about his personal development, about power of writing down concise, achievable and practical goals, and the advantages of taking on new leadership roles. He spoke about how the Vox Toastmasters club had been a constant source of inspiration for him to keep developing himself as a leader in all spheres of life. As Dilip calls it his motto from Toastmasters: "Raising the bar", exploring new challenges as you explore your own untapped potential! 

His speech was followed by Mohan's address as the Toastmaster  for the day as he opened the session by expressing his love for Thursdays as he gets to be a part of fun evening Toastmaster sessions at Vox, IBM. He introduced the humorist of the day Vidya who brought out the advantages of humor in life, use of humor to beat fears and inhibitions and appropriate use of 'the beep' word for cleansing out frustrations. This was followed by a moving speech by Deep about the time around Indira Gandhi's(ex-Prime Minister of India) assassination and the unfair atrocities against the Sikh community. Deep sent chills down the spine as he narrated the details of his personal experiences. He wound up his speech with a call for peace and ability to forgive, as higher traits in building a community. Bhoomaiah expressed his expert evaluation of Deep's speech by calling for enactment rather than narration for delivering a story filled with personal experiences. Deep's speech met all the requirements of the speech manual and his speech was applauded for that.

Isabelle brought back smiles to our faces as she disclosed the table topics of the day. She opened the theme for table topics by narrating her experience of falling into water as a child. We were delighted to welcome 2 new guests XP and Phoebe. XP spoke about a thoroughly wrong day in Vietnam and Phoebe charmed us with her experience as a child where she embarrassed herself by falling into a penny fountain, when she was all dressed up to meet her aunt. Venkat spoke about his experiences on the flight from India to US and how he wondered about a totally new cuisine which included broccoli (uncommon in India), and we had Praveen talk about his experience joining the boarding school for the first time. Phoebe was the undoubted crowd favorite .XP and Phoebe! we  would love to see you back!!!

Vidya was applauded for her job as a general evaluator and she emphasized time and again about avoiding filler words and getting the grammar, pronunciation and sentence structure right. XP and Phoebe expressed their feedback about the club being very organized and friendly to new speakers.

So much for the meeting of August 21st! More excitement with Area contests on humor and evaluation coming up in the next few weeks.

-Vidyangi (Club Secretary, IBM Vox Toastmasters)

PS: I will be uploading more picture shortly.

Minutes of meeting August 14th 2014

(Posted on behalf of Dilip A. K.)

Toastmasters meetings are getting better every week. The Leadership skills of the members are developing at an equal pace as their Communication skills. Each and every member is giving their 100% to ensure they carry out their leadership role successfully: And for the new members the encouragement and support of the fellow members is helping them develop their skills.


This week Preya was the Toastmaster and ensured all roles are filled before the meeting started. Starting on a lighter note, Mohan's joke on techniques of remembering had everyone in splits. Mohan has quickly mastered the skill of delivering the punch line, keeping the audience waiting for it.

In prepared speeches Dilip working on his 'Speeches by Management' manual took on a challenging topic of delivering a low performance rating to a member of his team.

The techniques he learned from the speech guidelines were effectively used by him to provide a specific but sincere delivery of the bad news. He was evaluated by our experienced guest Toastmaster, Nicole who provided suggestions on how to further improve Dilip's speech by highlighting the recipient's positive contributions as well. The tone of the voice, rate of delivery and effective use of pauses were the highlights of Dilip's speech.

Moving into the Table Topics session conducted by Deep, he added humor to the topics with a theme of "Superfluous". 

Shaking some of the foundations of the American culture he required Praveen to justify buying a larger than needed house and Mohan for purchasing a larger than required car. Isabelle justified spending the extra lottery money on traveling and purchasing a large house and a boat. Our guest Toastmaster, Nicole suggested investing our tax money on the younger and the older generations, as we'll need it at a later time as well. Our guest Toyin had a perfect reply to using an extra hour in a day: Watching reality TV and was the best Table Topics speaker of the day.
With Praveen performing the leadership role of the General Evaluator provided valuable suggestions on how to further improve our future meetings. On his team, Isabelle delivered an accurate report of proper usage of the English language and count of the use of the superfluous filler works. Our guest Toastmaster, Judy kept accurate time and provided the winners list for the Awards.

With a thoroughly enjoyable and educational meeting wrapped up Kavitha is the Toastmaster for our next meeting. I'm looking forward to yet another dynamic and fun filled meeting next week.

Posted on behalf of Dilip A K (Club President, Vox Toastmasters Club) by Vidyangi (Club Secretary, Vox Toastmasters Club)

Minutes of meeting August 7th 2014

Its always new! Every one of the Toastmasters meetings and every week! Its new all the time! Every Toastmasters club has a unique flavor, so also the meetings we attend every week. Ask me what was new this at Vox Toastmastes Club, San Jose this week, and here you go.

We had 3 new guests viz., Scott, Salvador and Taylor and they came with new energies, goals and had something new to add to the club. 

Dilip presided over the meeting and declared it open. Mohan was the toastmaster of the day and introduced the word of the day: burgeon. Kudos to all members who made it a point to use the word of the day. Kavitha as always was hinting the usage of the word of the day, she even used printed documents and waved at the speaker signalling the usage of the word of the day! Way to go Kavitha. Mohan also enabled members to introduce their roles viz., Grammarian, Vote Counter, Timer, General Evaluator, Volume monitor and Leadership Evaluator. 

The meeting opened with a joke by Praveen which set the tempo high for all of us. (Pic attached above)

Kavitha was the speaker of the day. She spoke on ways to make Vox Toastmasters club successful. She spoke about making Vox Toastmasters a melting pot of cultural exchange from all over the world. She addressed ways to retain members in the club. For instance: she referred to ways to bring a smile on the member's face, involving new members, enabling older members of the club to guide and mentor the newer members, etc. She endorsed our new member Scott for taking on a role instantly in the first meeting. Well done Kavitha! once again you make it very hard for the evaluators to spot errors in your speech.Kavitha was the speaker of the day. 

We had some great table topics by Dilip, who was the table topics master of the day. We had 6 table topics speakers for the table topics session this time. Table topics sessions are meant to improve our ability to think on our feet and thats what Dilip displayed in his list of table topics. He came up with these topics on the fly. Scott, our new member was again the first to pick a topic and spoke about the way he connected better with nature by diving with sharks, Bhoomaiah spoke about diving into exploration of Bay Area by better means of networking. Salvador spoke about how he would enjoy his job in Disney land as a meet and greet person at the entrance. Vidya spoke about how there are no ways to fail or cherish failures,  and nothing is ever a failure but everything is just an experience. 

Our new member Taylor also ventured on a topic about connecting with the world in better ways using social networking. Salvador and Vidya were the joint winners of the table topics session. 

Thinh was Kavitha's evaluator for the day. He highlighted the clear organization in Kavitha's speech. He also mentioned how the talk would benefit even a wide audience as it talked about polishing the skills of an individual and making him more well rounded. 

We had home made cup cakes, courtesy Kavitha and Aparna.

Thinh was also the best evaluator of the day.

The guests were asked to share their thoughts about the session. Scott talked about how the gibble can be better used in the meetings. Salvador said that the meeting was organized and useful. Taylor had come with an open mind and liked what he received. 

We ended the meeting by greeting little Aparna for her birthday. 

-Club Secretary, Vox Toastmasters IBM

Vidyangi