08-09-10 Fiesta Club Meeting Recap

Hola mis companeros de Toastmasters!

Below is a recap of our 08-09-10 meeting:

Jennifer Chan our club President (Presidente) opened the meeting at our new meeting location at Rockefeller Center. Jennifer welcomed members and our guests: Amelia Abad,the past district Governer who is now serving as our District Club Success Chair in charge of promoting a "Perfect 10 Club". Mark LaVergne who I had the pleasure of meeting at the last competition I participated in when I took home 2nd place also attended. And finally, Pauline Wilson, one of our members brought along her sister (hermana).

Ken Oehlkers was our Toastmaster for the day and the meeting theme he presented was Summer activities (Actividades de Verano)

Jennifer Chan presented our Word of the Day (Palabra del dia): "After" (Despues)

Pauline Wilson was our Ah Counter

Yours truly - The Timer (Reportera Cronografica)

We had 4 groups for the "una conversacion en Espanol" session/Spanish Conversation portion of the meeting. This is when we pair up fluent speakers with those who want to learn Spanish. The conversation is always lively and enjoyable.

Primer Oradora - 1st Speaker (Betty Picket)
Betty presented speech #3 (Get to the Point) from the Competent Communicator manual. The objective of "Get to the Point" is to make sure that every element of your speech focuses on one goal.

Just like last time, Betty gave a thoughtful and enthusiastic presentation. The title of her speech was "My favorite fruit" ("Mi fruta favorita"). The favorite fruit, was an avocado. You may not think there is a lot to say about avocados but Betty gave us a 5 minute 12 second presentation about all the tasty and wonderful things associated with them. The strengths of Betty's speech were: she met the speech objectives, gave a winning smile, which puts her and the audience at ease, had a good pronounciation of the Spanish words she did use, and presented the speech with a nice balance of both Spanish and English.

Evaluador - Evaluator for Betty's Speech (Dale Blagrove)
What an honor to have Dale Blagrove, not only attend the meeting but also step in at the last moment when we were short a Speech Evaluator. Thank you! (Muchas Gracias, Dale!) Dale is an old Toastmasters pro and although he only said about 3 words in Spanish, he did a fine job evaluating Betty.

Segundo Orador - 2nd Speaker (John Schaffer)
John presented speech #1 (Ice Breaker) from the Competent Communicator manual. The objective of the "Ice Breaker" is to introduce yourself to your peers while providing the speaker with a benchmark for their current public speaking skill level. Note: That John has already completed the CC Manual in English at another club. I commend him on going through that manual again in a foreign language.

For those of you that did not know it, John was a boy scout. He gave a thoughtful, charming and funny presentation about his experiences from both then and now. The strengths of John's speech were his: wit, humor, smile and well organized content. Like Betty, John also has a fairly good handle on Spanish language pronounciation. He also followed our new format and incorporated both English and Spanish in his presentation. Areas for improvement include: not forgetting to employ TM skills at all times, such as: maintaining eye contact with the audience. A recommendation for the future would be to memorize the Spanish portion of the speech, if possible, so that the notes don't become a distraction for everyone.

Evaluador - Evaluator for John's Speech (Julian Hernandez)
Julian did a great job evaluating John's presentation. We could see how Julian's experience as a foreign language teacher comes in handy. Some of Julian's strengths as a presenter are: his ability to look comfortable at the lectern, his relaxed pacing and clear articulation. Only recommendation, as Dale pointed out in his general evaluation, fluent speakers can spend a little more time on correcting some of the grammatical or pronounciation errors new speakers can learn from.

Special presentation by Amelia Abad
Amelia, who is from the Philippines took a chance and greeted us with a greeting in (Espanol). Nice job, Ameila! Amelia spoke to us about the importance of building and maintaining a Perfect 10 club. Her energy and enthusiasm was greatly appreciated and from the looks of it, Fiesta Toastmasters is off to a terrific start on building a Perfect 10 club! It's nice to know that we have her support during the year ahead. Muchas gracias, Amelia!

Next up - Temas de Mesa - Table Topics
A special thanks to our Table Topics Master, Marcia Melendez! She was kind enough to accept the role when I called her at 9am that morning (manana). Marcia led us through a terrific Table Topics session, she was well prepared. Even our guest, Mark LaVergne went up to answer one of the questions. Table Topics continues to be the most nerve-wracking, yet enjoyable portion of the meeting. Bravo Marcia!

Finally, our General Evaluator (Evaluador General)(Dale Blagrove)
Dale, as always gave a thorough evaluation including everything from our timing, room set-up to each evaluator and Table Topics participant. The main point that Dale brought to our attention is that all fluent speakers in the club should make sure to help non-speakers improve by noting errors in pronounciation and word usage.

Lastly, since no one used our word of the day (palabra del dia) at the meeting, I will use it now. We're looking forward to the Fall and to increased member attendance after (despues) vacation (las vacaciones). Muchas gracias to all who attended, for making our first meeting at Rockefeller Center, a memorable one.

hasta la proxima - til next time,

Marina Aris
VP, Education - Fiesta Club TM


P.S. I am fluent in Espanol, my door is always open for anyone needing to practice their speech before presenting it to the club. If other fluent members are interested in mentoring or helping non-speakers, please let me
know.