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