XLTM Meeting Minutes for October 22, 2006 (by Minghui)

The following members attended the meeting: Len, Liqun, Eric, Jin, Irene, Sherry, Will, Jenny, Stan, Robin, Cindy, Cunlin, Elena, and Minghui. We had one new guest, Joby and a returning guest, Anil. Welcome, Joby and Anil!

Sherry was the Toastmaster of the day. This was the 2^nd time recently Sherry has been challenging this role. She started the meeting on time at 12:45, and conducted the meeting with skill and confidence. Sherry has set a good example for other members in terms of being aggressive in taking challenging roles. The more you try, the more you improve!

Cunlin shared his thought of the day with what he heard before, “butterfly…caused hurricane” He further extended the thought claiming that it is possible small things can have a big profound impact. This is very true, and you can even find many old Chinese sayings to support it. He concluded his thought by reminding us that, someday small things may have a big impact to our future.

Irene taught us a new word “Gesticulate”. It means making gestures to show your attention, which can also be thought as a part of body language. Since one of our goals as a Toastmaster is to use as much body language as possible to enhance our speeches, this is a very important word. Irene gracefully gesticulated her attention to leave the podium after the speech, showing a vivid example of how to use this word.

Jin was the Joke master. He first quoted Cunlin’s thought of “small things may impact your future”, and then shared a story of a customer in a restraint, trying to taste the famous soup. The customer was served three kinds of soups, but he did not even try to taste. When the confused waiter brought the manager up, and asked him the reason, he said that he did not have the spoon. What Jin really wanted to say was: Doing the right thing is even more important.

We had three prepared speakers, each covered an important area of our interests: Enjoy life, China situation and skills of interpersonal communications.

Cindy shared her recent adventure with her friend’s family at "Xel - Ha". It is basically a water theme park with spectacular nature aquarium of the world. You can swim with Dolphins, have some adventure activities, or water activities such as diving or snorkeling. Cindy enjoyed a lot of pedaling alone in the deep water, following the fish and taking pictures. But her biggest adventure was when she was left behind in the river, and found herself under the water. She was scared, desperate, and shouted twice for help. Amazingly, she seemed to have pretty long time to think a lot in the “could be the last” minutes. It was not until the 3^rd time she shouted for help that a handsome young man came to rescue her. It is great to enjoy life, but don’t forget to protect yourself first.

Eric was the 2^nd speaker. He gave us another China Report by summarize the progress of the last 25 years, and predicting what is going to happen in the near future. He was greatly impressed by the big change of Shanghai airport, the Real Estates market, the telecommunication areas et al, and thanked Deng for his great vision and the Cat Theory. In fact, Deng set the tone of the development for the 2nd time when he was visiting south China . Eric pointed out that the major parties who are taking advantage of these globalization opportunities are: 1) multi-national companies, such as Motorola, 2) the local private companies, and that the 3^rd party was the hard working average people, who are not really getting much benefit. This is the biggest challenge for China in the near future, and that the government is trying to do something about it. Another prediction from Eric was that the Real Estates market in China is going to crash in the near future.

In the Q&A session, Elena and Guest Joby asked if the regular people are paid well, and if China is still a so socialist country. To that Eric’s answer was “100% not”.

Len gave his #1 speech from the ATM menu, interpersonal communications, with Robin helped in the role play part. Len first explained the four basic steps taught in the manual: 1) Get started, 2) Talk about the basic, 3) Deepen a little bit, but not that personnel. 4) Extending personnel feelings. Len then emphasized the importance of listening carefully to the other person, and paying attention to the other party’s body language. For example, “crossing arm” tells that the topic was not comfortable, and “facing the side” means trying to change the topic. Len seemed very successful in the talking with his guest Robin, because Robin never even tried to cross her arm. She did faced the side sometimes, but that was because she wanted to face the audience.

Robin hosted the table topic session again. The questions this time were about the Mid Term Election. Since election is a very sensitive issue, she made sure that she was “politically right” in asking the proper question. Listed below are the topics and speakers.

1) Will US have a woman president? (Elena)

2) Will minority be president?(Joby)

3) If no candidate you like, but you have to vote, what do you do(Len)

4) Do you have concerns about whether your vote will be counted?(Jenny)

5) Negative election (Minghui)

6) Impact of election on your life (will)

Minghui was the general evaluator. He first called Will, Liqun and Stan to evaluate the speeches of Cindy, Eric and Len, then called Jenny for the grammar, and Irene for the speech time feedback. The meeting was another success with wonderful speeches, interesting topics and impressing guests. Enjoy Life, Charge for Career and Personnel communication characterized this meeting as such. What could be improved was the meeting time control. Speech information confirmation before the meeting, backup plan and more attention to flags are what could help.

Liqun led the club business session. He first confirmed the schedule for the Open House, and then setup a backup plan of using our TM class room, in case the Teacher’s lounge is not available.

The meeting ended on time at 2:30 pm.