XLTM Meeting Minutes for April 1, 2007 (by Will)

The following members attended the meeting: Eric, Will, Ning, Jenny, Minghui, Connie, Cindy, Len, Xian, Robin, Sudhin, Jin, Cunlin, Teressa. Bing and Mei were there only for the 1^st 3 speeches. Sharon visited us as a guest and submitted her application during the break. We had a special guest, Mervyn of Watson Wyatt Toastmasters club downtown who was practicing his contest speech for the Central North Division Contest on Thursday April 5. Mervyn brought his wife to visit us and see him speak.

Josh was the Toastmaster of the day. He started the meeting on time at 1:15pm. A few members came in just before the meeting started as Josh pondered changing some roles if they did not show up.

Robin gave her thought of the day about her Toastmasters experience. She joined last year and became an officer soon as our club’s Vice President of Membership. She grew much more than she thought in Toastmasters. Robin also became the President of a work-related organization, which gave her more responsibilities. She encourages all of us to try something new.

Cindy taught us a new word “perpend”. A noun, it means to reflect upon, to consider carefully, to ponder.

Sudhin gave the Funny Bone about an experience in his hometown in India. He and a friend went to a bar by the beach after their graduation ceremony. They heard an argument at next table. One of them consumed alcohol more than he should have. Then he threw something to the ocean and told other person "you haven't given as much to me as you should"!

The 1^st speaker was Mervyn who gave his contest speech titled “It is the best of times”. It was about facing the prospect of getting twins – while his wife liked it, he dread it. During the pregnancy, he tried to cope with a situation in life that he considered unfavorable. Compared with his sister-in-law's battle with breast cancer - she looked at it as a positive outlook. When they were born, all his fears went away. Though he had challenges handling twins at the beginning, he found it special to see two babies smiling at him rather than one.

Xian delivered her 2^nd speech (Organizing Your Speech) titled “Understanding the Cultural Differences”, starting with seeing his kids speaking up and voicing their opinions, something he never experienced as a kid. At work, he took a training class on culture and noted how children here use “show and tell” in class, encouraging others to share their views and be individualistic. Xian learned about working successfully across cultures as dealing with those from other cultures is different from dealing with only Chinese people, where leaders are respected and not questioned. Another difference from Chinese culture that his kids are learning is using positive feedback and encouragement. Xian believes that it’s great for his family that his children are going through American culture.

Jin gave speech #5 (Your Body Speaks) titled “Worst-Case Solution” about learning how to handle the worst-case scenario while trying something new. One example was getting his son to start riding a bike without training wheels, allowing his son to try and fail. Much of his speech is about his 1^st experience skiing with his family. While his daughter had no difficulty skiing, Jin struggled for a long time, requiring extra help from his instructor. In the end, he gave his kids a lesson on preparing for a worst-case scenario, his kids however enjoyed watching him struggled! This was Jin’s final speech for his Competent Communicator – congratulations!

Minghui was the 4^th speaker, giving speech #4 (How to Say It) titled “My Trip to San Francisco”. He missed a few of our club meetings recently to attend a business meeting there. It was located at the Hyatt near the Bay Bridge, a 10-minute walk to Chinatown. After the meetings each day, he walked around, at times going to Chinatown to get a meal. He also used his time there to visit friends in Silicon Valley. The conference is called Open Mobile Alliance with 500 participants around the globe. The main issue there was to consolidate technology to allow a customer to have a unified standard. He looked at how the presenters were speaking as if he was in a Toastmasters meeting and noted the difference between presentations and meetings conducted by Europeans versus those by the Chinese.

Break at 2pm, resumed at 2:05pm.

Len was the Table Topics Master. He asked audience if they had an April Fools story - none responded. He then asked the following questions

Irene - "Highlight of your Spring Vacation" - Stayed at a resort 4-5 days, kids enjoyed pool and beach, spent day at a safari tour.

Connie - "What part of the Sunday paper you perpend first?" - Not a newspaper person, uses Internet for news. Read entertainment on NBC News yesterday about lady ran away with a prisoner.

Sharon - "If you can be empowered with one supernatural ability which one you choose?" - Be a psychic, know what we're thinking and predicting the future of them.

Ning - "How do you think you can qualify to be in the Guiness Book of World records?" – Mind was completely blank, Jin helped her by suggesting changing topics.

Teressa - "If you could bring one person to life and live with them for a day, which one you could choose?" - Had a hard time picking one, chose Albert Einstein.

Jenny - "When you want to get away and take time to think, where would you go?" - stay in bedroom and close door, couldn't find somewhere at workplace.

Mervyn's wife - "If you could select this year's Person of the Year, who would you select?" - Al Gore due to global warming issues.

Eric - "What do you think the next fad is going to be?" - Daughters listen to music, all own iPods, like to listen to Justin Timberlake. He watches American Idol and enjoy, struggled to come up with a fashion trend. Thought of iPhones.

Will was the general evaluator. Stan, Cunlin and Jenny evaluated the speeches of Mervyn, Jin and Minghui respectively. Bing was assigned to evaluate Xian but was not present for evaluations. After the evaluations, Will deferred the Grammarian, Timer and General Evaluation reports to the meeting minutes so members can give comments on Mervyn’s speech. Several gave good remarks and gave suggestions for improvement.

There was suppose to be a new member induction ceremony for Joby and Connie, but Joby was in India so Connie was presented with a name badge and new member certificate during the break. Ning gave timers report, mentioning that most speakers went over 7 minutes. Mervyn spoke for 7:13 for his contest speech.

At the business session, Josh went over Area Governor report, wants to see members to bring more guests, especially friends who have seen us improved. He also encourages members to take up club officer position for next year. Elena wants to be a club officer, Josh encouraged Liqun to be next year's president. Also advised members to attend District 30 Spring Conference – Len already sent club registration.

Len commended Minghui and Cunlin for competing in the Area Contest last Thursday. Josh mentioned that we should continue the end-of-year picnic at same place in Huntley.

Best speaker went to Mervyn.

Meeting ended at 2:52 pm. We will meet in two weeks on the 15^th as next Sunday is Easter.

General evaluation comments:

- Josh did a great job handling the meeting as it remained on schedule.

- Everyone did a great job with time – the speeches were just over 7 minutes which is fine.

- Would rather see the meeting minutes done by anyone other than the General Evaluator – the Secretary should take notes if present, if not then someone with no role or a small role at the beginning of the meeting should do the job. The General Evaluator has enough things to do, especially as we are starting to use the new Competent Leader manual.