We immediately jumped into the business of the day, voting and inducting John F. into Diablo 598.  Please welcome John F. to our club if you haven’t already.  Our three guests, Matt, Michael and Netta, introduced themselves to our group.  It was wonderful having so many guests in one evening.  Please come back and bring your friends!  The usual business of the evening was discussed (Conference help needed – see Lou, District 57 Job Fair this Saturday, Pleasanton – see Ashley, Officer Nominations being accepted, Elections May 15 – see Ron) and then “Reds” introduced our week’s Toastmaster / Emcee, Ron.

Ron quickly started us off with some song and dance, Chattanooga Choo-Choo, to be exact and kept us moving at a quick tempo all evening long.  Our General Evaluator, Lou, introduced the first half of his evaluation team after which, we lindy-hopped into Table Topics.  Alice provided us with many dulcet (WOD – meaning pleasing to the ear or generally pleasing or agreeable) table topics and even invited our guests to join in.  Everyone hit the right chord with their responses – all but one person used the word of the day and one more that didn’t make the necessary time minimum.  Bravissimo!

Our scheduled Jokemaster wasn’t in attendance; a request went out to any 598’r that wanted to amuse us but alas, our Toastmaster Ron stepped up to ‘humor’ us.  Thanks Ron (talk about extemporaneous speaking!).

After our customary break, the second set started up with three prepared speeches.  Howard was “Speaking in Praise” from the Advanced Special Occasions manual about his friend and neighbor “Mom the Mailman”.  She was the oldest female mail carrier in the nation and just an all-around great person.  He was recognizing her 40 years of service, retiring at the young age of 83 at her retirement party (three years later)!  It was a “Special Delivery”!  Thanks Howard.

Our second solo act was Steven “Shags” who told us “You Can Lick the Spoon”. Hmmm, were tasty delights in sight for us?  Absolutely!  Shags is going through the basic manual again, working from the “Visual Aids” project.  He showed us the necessary ingredients for a (fantabulous) red sauce and teased our tastebuds with samples after the meeting.  Buon appetito!  (I hear that the recipe will shortly be made available to all members via e-mail)

Our third speaker, Thomas V. be-bopped in with the question of “Should You Own a Gun?”.  This project’s objective, also from the basic manual, was to “Organize Your Speech”.  This was a very compelling speech with some serious questions and many thoughts to ponder.  Thomas bit the bullet by broaching this topic, one that is many times bypassed because of the potential volatility, but Thomas sailed right through it and created some pause for thought.  Thank you Thomas!

Our General Evaluator / Head Critic began introducing the evaluators for each of our stellar performances.  Christine, Denise and Carol all brought it to the stage with beneficial feedback on the speaker’s presentations.  The critiques were solid and supportive, outlining only a few discordant points from each speech.  Great show!

The supporting General Evaluation team members provided their feedback to their respective roles.  Lou had nothing but dulcet remarks regarding the overall meeting performance as GE.  Ah, such sweet sounds!

Our Sparkler / Faux-Pas judge, Rosa Lynn, removed the Faux-Pas award from the set and presented the Sparkler to our newest member John.  She felt he was deserving of this for his wonderful table topic response while incorporating the word of the day too!  Congrats!

Okay, folks, time for our drumroll now …TTTRRRTTTRRRTTTRRRTTT, the night’s winners are:                      

Best Table Topics – Carie

Best Evaluator - Denise

Best Speaker – Howard

No - I did not forget to update the Best Table Topic and Best Evaluator winners.  It was deja vu all over again this week!

See what fun you missed?  Aren’t you upset that you couldn’t experience the real deal?  Perhaps, we’ll see you next week!  As the famous Duke said, Duke Ellington, that is . . . “We Love You Madly” even if you don’t show up every meeting but we sure would love for you to “Take the ‘A’ Train” to our meetings.

So remember, where else can one have so much fun while learning to speak and listen and lead, than right here in our own club where superb speakers and leaders we do breed! Carie 

Saturday, April 19^th, 2008, Diablo 598ers gathered together at the Grissini’s Restaurant in the Hilton hotel in Concord, also known as the gathering place for “Post Toasties - 599.”

We had a cozy meeting room to ourselves and about 28 members, family, friends and past members attended the affair. Bill Woolfolk and Ron Jue co-chaired the event. The menu offered a selection of roasted half chicken, penne primavera alfredo and linguini with clams.  For desert, we had a wide range of choices from tiramisu, cannoli, chocolate truffle, coppa spangola, mixed berry cake to gelato of the day.  Various libations flowed continuously and everyone enjoyed their meal.

Past member and former President, Thomas Cloney, returned to join us as our Keynote Speaker for the event. He asked us “How Are We Doing?” He was not merely referring to how we are doing in our lives, etc, but more importantly, are we improving as people and individuals. The speech left everyone inspired and uplifted.

Then came the highly anticipated “roasting” of our immediate past president, Ron Jue. Former President and last year’s “roastee”, Carie Featherstone, got the first shot at roasting Ron, turning up the good-natured heat on Ron’s Table Topic prowess, his gestures and his decibel ranging vocal abilities.  Next was Thomas Valdriz, who decided to “celebrate” Ron instead of “roasting” him. With a few changes to the roasting participants, Carol Sturman and Ashley Harkness stepped up and gave us a hilarious rendition of the “Ronster Mash” with dance steps and Ron-ish gestures! I’m sure Ron will have much to celebrate and remember after this experience under the spot light.

This year’s awards were paired down from last year’s and were much more streamlined. For the “Most Improved Toastmaster” award, the club voted for Rosa Lynn Adams. She has come a long way from her first speech!  The “Kramer” award represented the member who is most creative and generally associated with “thinking out of the box.” That went to none other than our very own Carol Sturman, who has not only enhanced our knowledge of the herbal and plant species, entertained us with her many humorous speeches along with running a meeting backwards one time. Finally, the “Step-Up” award referred to the member who always jumps in to help out at a moment’s notice.  Our immediate past President, Ron Jue, was most deserving of this award.

Our current President, Howard Adams, closed the meeting with his thoughts on the event. He most definitely approved of this year’s food (you’ll have to ask him about that one).

Many of us were pleasantly surprised to see Spencer Hinsdale and his girlfriend join us. We hope that he will return in the future. Ashley served as Historian and took many photos which I hope we will see on the web site.

I think I speak for all of us that attended, the event was a great success and much merriment was had by all.  If you missed the event, hopefully you will join us next year!

Diablo 598 Reporter,

Alice Tsai

We had a full evening with four speeches, but our Toastmaster Shags calculated how many Table Topics our Topic Master Barbara could run through and run she did!  Barbara quickly and adeptly ran five, including two of our guests,  table topics.  Questions ranged from “What is one of your happiest memories?” to “Could you survive alone in the Wilderness”.  I think it is safe to say that the responses were wild and well-done!  No one eschewed (WOD – meaning to avoid or shun) their creativity and fun during table topics.

Shags then offered us a jocose moment from Rosalynn, our Jokemaster.  Rosalynn easily entertained us with a cute “Can of peas” joke.  Jolly good!

After our break, we started into the educational portion of our meeting.  Shags introduced our first speaker, Christine.  Christine worked on her 9^th project, Persuade with Power, by encouraging all of us to enjoy the benefits of Pomegranate juice.  After a sample swig of this potent potable, eyes were brighter and these folks were anxious to run out and purchase some Pomegranate Juice of their own.  Great speech Christine and good use of your visual aids!

Shags presented our second speaker, Ashley.  Ashley’s speech objective was to accept an award.  Shags presented Ashley with an award that had previously been awarded to him at the last Regional Training.  Ashley’s education and training programs were recognized for their innovative thinking within District 57.  Ashley graciously accepted the award and spoke highly of the organization and provided kudos to those that have aided him in his efforts throughout the year.  If only all award recipients could be so well spoken and generous!

Our third speaker, Bill informed us of the S.M.O.G. process.  This is useful to every driver that ever has or ever may receive a moving violations ticket.  This acronym stands for Signal – Mirrors – Over the Shoulder – Go!  This beneficial information should aid each of us in making safe and legal lane changes.  Thank you Bill for the SMOG check!

Ron, our fourth speaker, asked for some practice for the upcoming Table Topic Contest.  Our Toastmaster presented Ron with two table topics and Ron aced both of them, (as always).  His first response gave insight into the impact his father has had on Ron’s outlook and ability to commit to success.  The second reply was focused on how Toastmasters has changed Ron’s comfortableness with speaking and leading and how important it has been to him.  Well done and good luck Ron! 

We changed our typical evaluation format to further assist Ron.  We immediately jumped in to a ‘Round Robin’ evaluation of Ron’s Table Topic performance.  The feedback was dutifully noted and on target to help Ron advance to the next level of competition.  Good luck Ron!

Our ‘back to the regular program’ evaluators, Joe, Alice and first time evaluator, Denise gave effective and supportive evaluations for each of the other three speakers, focusing on key strengths and one or two improvements.  The remaining evaluation team members provided their Grammarian and Ah-Counter reports with great panache. 

Pat, our evening’s General Evaluator gave her thoughts on the overall meeting.  She was pleased with the overall conduct throughout the meeting, but was kind enough to show us how to properly shake hands and turn control of the speaking area over to the upcoming speaker (the person leaving should shake and walk behind the person accepting control).

Our Sparkler / Faux-Pas Judge, Carie, presented her Faux-Pas award to Lou.  During Lou’s performance as Assistant Toastmaster, he had a few small missteps but the piece de resistance was omission of the Pledge of Allegiance!  The Sparkler award was presented to past member / current guest Marion for bringing her usual mirth and merriment to the meeting. 

Okay, folks, time for our drumroll now . . .TTRRRRTTTRRRRRTTTRRRRRTTT, the night’s winners are:                      

Best Table Topics – Carie

Best Evaluator - Denise

Best Speaker – Bill

Sorry to those that couldn’t make it can’t get the full fun and frolic that we actually experience in our Thursday evening at the Sizzler, but this will have to do.  Hope to see you in person next week at our meeting! 

So remember, where else can one have so much fun while learning to speak and listen and lead, than right here in our own club where superb speakers and leaders we do breed!  Carie

After the usual General Evaluation roles were introduced, it was time for Carie to run the Table Topics show.  As each participant was called upon, a question was selected related to the theme.  The responses were ’spot-on’ . . . Hubert felt our success as a club stems from our structured, yet informal meetings; Rose could not identify a bad Toastmaster meeting - she learns from each meeting; Lou joined Toastmasters years ago and is still learning, but better than that, he is now sharing his experiences with newer members.  There were many more great responses, but the piece de resistance came from none other than Carol.  She was asked if she tried to persuade her friends and family to attend Toastmasters meetings.  Her acquaintances and family are not as excited about speaking in public as we are, but Carol showed her supreme ability to think quickly on her feet.  She wowed us with the winning Table Topic (again)!  Well done Carol and keep trying to persuade your friends, family and foes to visit and join us!

Speaking of extemporaneous, our scheduled Jokemaster was not able to make our meeting, so Ron stepped up to the task and presented a ‘groaner’ of a joke.  “Weweechu” really had a better joke!  :)  Thanks for stepping up to the plate though and for giving it 100%!

Our three speakers came prepared to knock all of our socks off with great speeches.  Christine used visual aids to show us the joys and pains of owning pets.  She even tried to auction her three dogs off to the lowest bidder, but then rescinded the offer.  Her three pups are too much of her family and even with all of the problems they give, the happiness far outweighs any issues.  Great use of visual aids Christine!

Rosalynn then presented an “Abstract Concept” on how the colors that we wear can impact our moods.  She looked great in her red outfit and the information that was presented was well organized and ‘colorful’.  This advanced project is difficult and Rosalynn sailed through the project with flying ‘colors’.  Thank you Rosalynn for this great information!

John gave a faux radio interview on the Sophia Project.  His interviewer, “Shags”, led John through many questions surrounding John’s favorite cause.  This speech was well thought out and informed many of us of the hidden treasure that hides in our Oakland backyard.  John, as a Board member of the Sophia Project, spoke eloquently on the worthwhile work and encouraged each of us to check our their link for more info (www.sophiaproject.org).  Well done on the speech and great work with our community John!

Our evaluators, Carol, Shags and Thomas V. provided effective and supportive evaluations for each of the three speakers. 
The remaining evaluation team members provided their reports with great panache.  Our General Evaluator, Alice gave her thoughts on the overall meeting.  She was pleased to better understand the theme and agreed that we need to keep our members interested.  She did mention that it is somewhat frustrating when attempting to confirm members for their roles and calls or emails are not returned.  Editorial comment:  Please make every effort to be aware of when you are assigned a role.  Confirm your availability with the VP Education, Toastmaster or General Evaluator.  If you cannot make your role, the onus of filling that spot falls on you.  It just helps the entire process go smoother.

Our Sparkler / Faux-Pas Judge, Pat, presented her Faux-Pas award to Lou.  Her rationale was that while counting time down to the end of the break, he noticed that Christine was still preparing the speaking area.  Pat felt that he should have ”made Christine feel less nervous by not announcing the time”.  Danged if you do and danged if you don’t, Lou!  She then presented the Sparkler award to John in his ongoing role as VP Education.  She appreciates the four week agenda that is passed out weekly.  Well done John! 
Okay, folks, time for our drumroll now . . . TTTRRRRRTTTRRRRRTTTRRRRRTTT (or something to that effect), the night’s winners are:                      

Best Table Topics - Carol                       

Best Evaluator - Shags                      

Best Speaker - Rosalynn

Sorry that those that couldn’t make it can’t get the full fun and frolic that we actually experience in our Thursday evening at the Sizzler, but this will have to do. 
Hope to see you in person next week at the Contra Costa Water District for our Area B6 International Speech and Table Topic Contest.  Remember, it is Thursday, March 20 with doors open at 6:30pm, contest beginning at 7pm.  Be there or be square.  Oh, just one more thing, bring your check for $39 for dues if you haven’t handed them over to Rosalynn yet.  We just have until the end of the month gang! 

So remember, where else can one have so much fun while learning to speak and listen and lead, than right here in our own club where superb speakers and leaders we do breed!  Carie