Monday, May 29, 2017

For Lauralee's speech tomorrow

https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/10-074.html

homeschoolmissionmars.blogspot.com

Wednesday, May 24, 2017

Short summary

Peter was the Toastmaster of the day, evaluated by River, who said that he ran a humorous and smooth meeting. Laimons spoke about our healthcare system and how it varies greatly between carriers. Diane was the speech evaluator for Laimons, who said that he was very passionate about his speech. John told us the story of his life, from how he enjoyed camping, to his journey to find his path, from becoming a doctor, to going into environmental science in 2008. Avital was his evaluator, who talked about his use of body language, and being more open. Brian was table topics master, and Paul said his favorite animal was a sloth, who said that his morning resembled that of a sloth. Diane said that she enjoys scuba diving and seeing the fish for her table topics. Both Paul and Diane were table topics winners.

May 23rd review

The Toastmaster of the day was Peter, whose theme of the day was relationship humor. He was evaluated by the first time general evaluator, River. She said that Peter made us groan by his jokes, but ran efficiently. River said that Avital had a great balance of compliments and improvements that she told to John. Diane was complimented for her thorough evaluation of Laimons.
There were two speaker of the day. Laimons spoke about healthcare, and his recent open heart surgery he went through this last year. He talked about how the healthcare his family has, bluecross and medicare. He said that our healthcare system is broken and we need to work on our system, so we are not stuck with it. Diane was his evaluator, and she said he was very passionate about his topic. and used his voice to convey his message.
The second speaker was John, giving his ice breaker speech. He talked about how he loved going fishing and camping when he was younger, but decided to be a doctor during his first year at OSU. After second guessing his plan, he moved to to University of Oregon, where he pursued the humanities. In 2008, he decided to go into environmental science. Now he works for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. His evaluator was Avital, who said he had good volume, and did not heavily rely on his notes. One thing she did suggest was for him to be more open with his gestures.
Brian was the table topics master of the day. He asked River who her favorite pet was, and she talked about her dog Sadie. She, River's dog, is a 15 year old Jack Russell mex, and tries to play with a soccer ball that is way too big for her. Paul said his favorite animal was a sloth, since that is how he felt when he fell back asleep this morning. Diane was asked whether she preferred scales or fur, and he told us about how she enjoys scuba diving. She said she enjoys taking pictures of these fish. Paul and Diane were the winners of table topics.
Lauralee was the timer of the day, and Lee was the grammarian of the day, with the word Avow and Aver.

Friday, May 19, 2017

Our Table Topics winner

River talked about how she had a Volkswagon beetle that she learned how to drive a stickshift on. She said that her dad took her around the back roads in Texas to teach her how to drive it, and assured us that she did master being able to change gears and not roll backwards on hills. River was the table topics winner.

Wednesday, May 17, 2017

Highlights of May 16th

The Toastmaster of the day was Dave, for his last time as a Toastmaster for Newport Toastmasters. He talked about how he has made a lot of friends at our club. Brian was the general evaluator who said that Dave ran a smooth, and punny, meeting.
Avital talked about how she used to work for Microsoft before she was diagnosed with a disease that changed her life. Now she goes around to teach others that the impossible, like healing, can happen. Lauralee was her evaluator who said that she was very energetic and expressive with her hands.
Christa talked about the dangers of overfishing, and how there needs to be management and laws in place to protect fish from becoming endangered. She also talked about the importance of plans to increase populations of fish. Lee was her evaluator who said that she did a very good job on applying why fish need to be managed to our live because of the way Newport is supported by the fishing industry.
River, the table topics winner, talked about how her first car was a Volkswagon beetle that she learned how to drive a stickshift in Texas.

Review of May 14th

The Toastmaster of the day was Dave, for his last time as a Toastmaster for Newport Toastmasters. He talked about how he has made a lot of friends at our club, like Peter who he enjoys talking about fishing with, and Paul who has been a friend through church and Toastmasters. Brian was the general evaluator who said that Diane, our grammarian, gave a great description of her job, and Dave had a smooth meeting.
There were two speakers of the day, Avital and Christa. The first speaker was Avital, who gave a practice speech for a conference she will be speaking at soon. She talked about how she used to work for Microsoft before she was diagnosed with a disease that changed her life. After that she left her job to find a way to heal, which she did. Now she goes around to teach others that life can be better than it is now. Lauralee was her evaluator who said that she was very energetic and expressive with her hands. Her volume was really good, and she was expressive in her facial expressions. One thing that Lauralee did point out was that her speech was a very brief overview on how Avital has her eyes on the goal and how she puts service first. Something Lauralee suggested was that she adds some specific examples of how she does that.
Christa was the second speaker of the day, who gave her second to last speech for her competent communicator. She talked about why fish need managers. During her speech she talked about the tragedy of the commons, which is a theory about how if there is a field to graze, shepherds will continue to grow their herds to exploit the land to get more money. Similarly, fishermen would continue to fish to gain more and more profit, which would cause overfishing, leading to the collapse of the population of fish. To combat this, there are limits on how many of a type of fish you can catch, there are plans put in place to protect populations of fish, and bolster fish populations that are endangered. Lee was her evaluator who said that she did a very good job on applying why fish need to be managed to our live because of the way Newport is supported by the fishing industry.
Paul was in charge of table topics today, who decided to try something new for table topics today. He had the members write down their own table topics and allow people to choose from the three table topics prompts their neighbor wrote. Brian, a guest, talked about why he came to Toastmasters. He said that since his mother was a Toastmaster, and Lee had invited to come see what Toastmasters was like, he decided to try it out. River talked about how she had a Volkswagon beetle that she learned how to drive a stickshift on. She said that her dad took her around the back roads in Texas to teach her how to drive it, and assured us that she did master being able to change gears and not roll backwards on hills. River was the table topics winner.
John was the timer, and Diane was the grammarian of the day with the word of the day being elevate.

Tuesday, May 16, 2017

A Picture with the group

We all took a picture with Dave for him to remember us by. '


Missing from the picture: Laurie, Pen, Peter, Laimons, and Diane.

Going away gifts

Paul presented Dave with a tasmanian devil tie
Brian presented Dave with an award for his service to Newport Toastmasters

Today was Dave's last meeting with us

Here is Dave as the Toastmaster with all his Toastmaster awards

Monday, May 15, 2017

Come Join Us

Our meeting will be tomorrow at 7:00 AM at Pig 'N Pancake in Newport Oregon. Please join us and ask us questions!

Saturday, May 13, 2017

Meet our Sergeant at Arms for 2017

Paul handing Lauralee the table topics award

Hi Lauralee and all,

I am Paul Brookhyser, the retired engineering technician, husband of 49 years, father of three adults ages 41, 37 and 35 and now part time youth minister of 24 students in the 7th and 8th grades Wednesday nights at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Newport. I joined Toastmasters in 1983 to organize my competing thoughts and ideas and to help the then young and upcoming engineers I worked with to gain confidence and self esteem in all social communications.
My favorite thing about Yaquina Bay Toastmasters is its humor and spontaneity.  The club members are genuinely concerned about the success and satisfaction of its newest members of any age. We all needed training wheels at one time and we all learned from our successes and our stumblings too. It is truly a thrill for me to see shy new members progress in their assignments and transform and learn to forgive themselves and others for their uniqueness.
My greatest personal reward for continuing in Toastmasters is the freedom it gives me to boldly try new things that my shyness has prevented in the past. I have gained freedom of expression. I have taught, acted on stage, song solos, and danced. Now when I meet new people I am enthusiastic about their lives and their learning.

Thanks for asking,
Paul

Meet of 2017 treasurer

Lee and Laurie with the Table Topics award

My name is Laurie Weitkamp, a member of Yaquina Toastmasters since 2006ish.  Professionally, I'm a fish biologist. Back in the mid 1990s I did a leadership program, which identified public speaking as a skill I needed to improve, so I joined a toastmasters club and the rest is history. Compared to any other commercial program that teaches public speaking, Toastmasters is a bargain.
As a scientist, I have to give a lot of talks, such as at scientific meetings to my peers, and in a variety of venues to the public. I find attending toastmasters keeps my speaking skills sharp, so I'm effective in my presentations. It gives me the confidence to stand in front of a crowd and know "I can do this!". I've also also learned a lot about giving good evaluations, pointing out what was done well with how the speaker can improve. This skill is directly applicable to my work, since I often have to evaluate the work and writing students and my peers.

I've been a member of Toastmasters since 1996. I stay because it keeps my speaking skills sharp, but also because I enjoy getting to know my fellow toastmasters and we have a lot of fun at meetings.

2017 president


Brian Norris

My name is Brian Norris, and I have been married to my best friend, Donna Norris, for over 33 years. I am a dad to four wonderful daughters, a grandfather of five, and am the Co-Owner and Manager of Bateman Funeral Home.
I attended a few meetings several years ago in Mexico with a friend when I was a manager at UPS. I wanted to work on my public speaking and I remembered the positive experiences I had in Mexico so I decided to check into Toastmasters in Newport.  I found out that Lee Ritzman was a member and he invited me to visit. I enjoyed the meeting so I joined. Since I have been a member of Yaquina Toastmaster, I have received wonderful advice and coaching from the club. Everyone in the club wants you to be successful, which is very encouraging.  All of the club members are willing to help; it's my favorite thing about the club is how wonderful they are.
This next year, I will continue to grow the club with more members and work on mentoring those members so we can participate in a fun, positive, safe place to practice public speaking.
If you are debating on coming to our meetings, I know it can be a little scary to go somewhere new and “try to fit in”. I promise you that if you give us a try, you will be happy you did. We meet at Pig 'N Pancake in Newport, Oregon at 7 am on Tuesdays.

Meet our 2017 Vice President of Membership

Lee presenting the Table Topics Award
Lee Ritzman

I am retired after a career in public works administration. I was born and raised in Utah, and graduated with a masters degree in civil engineering from the University of Utah. While at the UofU, I met and married Kathleen – we have 5 children and 13 grandchildren currently in three different states.
I had just started as Public Works Director/City Engineer in Newport when two colleagues invited me to attend Toastmasters with them. Kathleen and I both went – she enjoyed it because her public speaking skills were much better than mine – I went along. It was not long before I realized that improvement in my speaking ability could benefit my career. That was in 1994. Other than a 3-year gap, we have both been members of Toastmasters since then.
We have both accepted the opportunity to serve in various leadership positions, including club and district offices. We have also enjoyed District training sessions and conferences, and have participated in speech and evaluation contests. Best of all, we have met some great people.
My experience with Toastmasters has helped me tremendously with public presentations and the ability to think and respond quickly while on my feet. I have also learned that those skills help a lot, but are not a replacement for preparation.
I continue to enjoy the fun atmosphere in the Toastmasters meetings and watching others gain experience and skill as well.

Thursday, May 11, 2017

Table Topics 5/9

The Table Topics Master of the day was Avital, who asked some tough life questions. She asked Diane why we make excuses, who said the question made her think of a saying she uses. Diane said that excuses are like armpits, we all have them and they stink. Christa Colway, our table topics winner of the day, talking about how she feels like it is better to express your feelings then suppress them, but she works with a lot of level headed people who joke that she is crazy for her New York attitude.

Brian's speech 5/9

Brian was the second speaker of the day, who gave his speech, Lost in Translation. His speech went through how he was a general manager for UPS working in Tijuana, Mexico and going across the border between the States and Mexico. While working there, he went to cross the border one day like he always did. This day was different, and the border patrol were more strict. While inspecting his car, he accidently said there was a hooker, instead of a pillow in his car... and that was only the beginning of his problems. His speech evaluator was Laimons, who said he had a fluid delivery of the speech, and that it met the purpose of his book speech, the humorous advanced manual speech three.

Dave's speech 5/9

There were two speakers on Tuesday. Dave was the first speaker, who gave his farewell speech called Punmanship. He personalized his puns for his audience including don't spell part backwards... its a trap, for the educators in the room, for the scientist he said don't trust atoms... they make up everything. To end his speech, Dave said for us to make sure to add puns to our speeches, because it is our repunsibility. His speech evaluator was Peter, who made sure to match his tie to Dave's for his last speech. One thing Peter complemented Dave on was his use of pauses to emphasize his point.

Welcome!

We would like to welcome our new members from this month, Diane and John, and our guest Brian.

The Toastmaster of 5/9

The Toastmaster of the day was Lee, whose theme of the day was his son, whose birthday was this week. He shared what historically went on during that day, and who else shared his son's birthday. The general evaluator was Lauralee, who complimented Lee on explaining the process of table topics and what the evaluators do for the guest and new members. Lauralee also reminded our evaluators that it is important to both compliment and give ideas on how to improve, not just compliment.

Review of May 9th

The Toastmaster of the day was Lee, whose theme of the day was his son, whose birthday was this week. He shared what historically went on during that day, and who else shared his son's birthday. The general evaluator was Lauralee, who complimented Lee on explaining the process of table topics and what the evaluators do for the guest and new members. Lauralee also reminded our evaluators that it is important to both compliment and give ideas on how to improve, not just compliment.
We would like to welcome our new members from this month, Diane and John, and our guest Brian.
There were two speakers on Tuesday. Dave was the first speaker, who gave his farewell speech called Punmanship. He personalized his puns for his audience including don't spell part backwards... its a trap, for the educators in the room, for the scientist he said don't trust atoms... they make up everything. To end his speech, Dave said for us to make sure to add puns to our speeches, because it is our repunsibility. His speech evaluator was Peter, who made sure to match his tie to Dave's for his last speech. One thing Peter complemented Dave on was his use of pauses to emphasize his point.
Brian was the second speaker of the day, who gave his speech, Lost in Translation. His speech went through how he was a general manager for UPS working in Tijuana, Mexico and going across the border between the States and Mexico. While working there, he went to cross the border one day like he always did. This day was different, and the border patrol were more strict. While inspecting his car, he accident said there was a hooker, instead of a pillow in his car... and that was only the beginning of his problems. His speech evaluator was Laimons, who said he had a fluid delivery of the speech, and that it met the purpose of his book speech, the humorous advanced manual speech three.
The Table Topics Master of the day was Avital, who asked some tough life questions. She asked Diane why we make excuses, who said the question made her think of a saying she uses. Diane said that excuses are like armpits, we all have them and they stink. Christa Colway, our table topics winner of the day, talking about how she feels like it is better to express your feelings then suppress them, but she works with a lot of level headed people who joke that she is crazy for her New York attitude.
The word of the day was inertia, as provided by our grammarian of the day, Christa. The timer of the day was Paul. 
Have a good day!

Sunday, May 7, 2017

How Newport Toastmasters has been involved in their community

How Newport Toastmasters has been involved in their community:
This last week two of our members were invited to speak at the community college. Oregon Coast Community College STEM Club had members that were interested in learning about NOAA. This eventually lead them to ask Christa Colway, and Laurie Weitkamp, to speak to them about their experience as members of NOAA. They both did an excellent job, and the club members really appreciated it.
When reaching out to STEM Club to see what they thought, one member, Hillari, said "It was really interesting! I had no idea that NOAA was so involved in our community... They did a really good job explaining what they meant.." Another member said that "She (Christa) had a really clean presentation that was through and really well organized... I was really impressed at how well Laurie handled all of the questions we asked her at the end." Rebecca said she appreciated that Christa asked why people were coming to the event to make sure she hit everyone's interest.

Friday, May 5, 2017

Meet our 2017 president

Brian Norris as he received his award for participating in a speech competition

Brian Norris

My name is Brian Norris, and I have been married to my best friend, Donna Norris, for over 33 years. I am a dad to four wonderful daughters, a grandfather of five, and am the Co-Owner and Manager of Bateman Funeral Home.
I attended a few meetings several years ago in Mexico with a friend when I was a manager at UPS. I wanted to work on my public speaking and I remembered the positive experiences I had in Mexico so I decided to check into Toastmasters in Newport.  I found out that Lee Ritzman was a member and he invited me to visit. I enjoyed the meeting so I joined. Since I have been a member of Yaquina Toastmaster, I have received wonderful advice and coaching from the club. Everyone in the club wants you to be successful, which is very encouraging.  All of the club members are willing to help; it's my favorite thing about the club is how wonderful they are.
This next year, I will continue to grow the club with more members and work on mentoring those members so we can participate in a fun, positive, safe place to practice public speaking. 
If you are debating on coming to our meetings, I know it can be a little scary to go somewhere new and “try to fit in”. I promise you that if you give us a try, you will be happy you did. We meet at Pig 'N Pancake in Newport, Oregon at 7 am on Tuesdays.

Review of May 2nd

Hello all,
This last meeting was the business meeting, where our current officers talked about how we have grown by quite a few members, and are close to our goal for becoming distinguished, only needing three more members to get to 20 members. Lauralee announced that we hit our goal of 3,000 people reached, and now will be focusing on engagement. The last part of the business meeting was the important elections! Our new officers will be: Brian as president, Diane as Vice President of Education, Lee as Vice President of Education, Lauralee as Vice President of Public Relations, Laurie as treasurer, Christa as Secretary, and Paul as Sergeant at Arms.
The Toastmaster of the day was Avital, whose theme was "what if", which was a question posed to her during a recent training. She talked about the possibility of achieving your dream, or getting the job you want. The idea was that if you believe something will happen, your positive outlook will help you achieve your goal. She was evaluated by Laimons, who said that her ability to improvise was good since the speaker did not show up to the meeting, but it would have been smoother if she had started the process of finding a hotseat speaker at 5 or 10 till seven so they would have more time to prepare.
Dave was chosen as the hotseat speaker, who gave his speech called the Happy Hooker, which talked about fishing. His love of fishing started when he was very young, when his grandfather took him fishing for the first time. He was so excited that he caught a fish, he threw his pole in the water! Dave's grandfather helped him reel in that first fish that was surprisingly still on the hook. Throughout his life, he continued fishing, even when he was in Vietnam, though they did not appreciate fishing with grenades. While he traveled the United States, he went fishing in several different states. While fishing with his friend three fingered bill, a snake fell into their boat, and Dave jumped into the water. His friend informed him that there were more water moccasins in that water than in their boat.
Leanna, a guest, came to our meeting, and was the speech evaluator for Dave because he was scheduled to be the original speech evaluator. She described what a sandwich method was for the new members and guest, saying that she would first say what Dave did good, then give him some advice to improve the speech, and end with something she liked a lot. Leanna said that she liked how his voice conveyed the story, and his talent of storytelling. One thing she would change though is how he started with "fellow toastmasters" since the beginning of a speech is so important to catching the attention of the audience. Instead, she said she would switch when he said that he was hooked on fishing, and put that before saying "fellow toastmasters".
Brian was in charge of table topics, whose theme was also what if. He asked John what he would do if he found a genie in a bottle on the beach. John said that he would first ask how many wishes he would get. After that, he would start with a large wish that would include everyone, then start on asking for things for himself. Lee was asked if he had all the time in the world, what hobby he would pursue. Instead of talking about himself, he said that his wife, who quilts, would need all the time in the world to finish every quilting projects she wants to do because she has two rooms of materials and projects. Paul won table topics saying that at his family reunion, he asked them to share an embarrassing story. During his mini table topics session, he discovered the wording of his question affected how people answered.

Monday, May 1, 2017

Join us!

Come join us at Pig 'N Pancake for Tell a Tale Day! It is located at 810 SW Alder st, Newport Oregon. We will be starting at 7:00 AM and be done in time for work, 7:50 AM.

Roles 5/2

The Toastmaster of the day will be Avital, generally evaluated by Laimons. There will only be one speaker, since this will be the business meeting. River will be the speaker, evaluated by Dave. Laurie will be the grammarian and Brian will be in charge of table topics. Peter will be the timer.