YBToastmasters

Friday, March 24, 2017

Loyalty Day's Second Speech

The Toastmaster of the Day was Brian. He turned the time over to Dee, the princesses chaperone, so she could practice announcing the princesses. Because of the four speeches, the meeting ran differently. There were no table topics, or theme. Brian introduced each of the evaluators by having the evaluators meet the princesses, each waving to each other.
Laura spoke first on how valor means to look beyond yourself. She gave examples such as a firefighter, a soldier, and everyday citizens. During her speech she talked about her coach who spends his free times giving soccer lessons to kids who cannot pay for them. Beto could not afford lessons when he was younger, but had someone teach him out of compassion. River was the speech evaluator for Laura. She said that Laura looked confident when she was giving her speech and had great stories to demonstrate her points. One thing she did suggest is to make sure to look at both sides of the room since Laura prefers looking to her left.
Chelsea was the second speaker of the day. She talked about how there are several immigrants who are brave enough to come to a country they know nothing about, and do not even speak the language of. During her speech, she talked about her parents who came here from a different country to provide a better life for their family. In her speech she said everyone is fighting their own battles, and we do not know what those are. Lee was her evaluator who suggested walking around a little bit to allow her to relax, and talk to the audience like a buddy. He complimented how well written and structured her speech was, and suggested that after practicing it, she could give it with only bullet points.
Sydney gave her speech third, talking about PTSD and veteran unemployment. Her story was of going to Portland with her youth group to participate in a program called night strike. They went out and helped homeless people in Portland and she learned just how similar she is to the homeless people. In her speech, she talked about how some many of the people who fought for us to live comfortably, now live on the streets, and we need to bravely help them, the way they fought for us. Liamons was Syndey's evaluator, who said her speech had a great focus and was well organized. One thing he did suggest was to raise her voice to proclaim her call to action at the end.
The last speaker was Galilea who talked about the bravery of our history, and how she looked at the past to give her an idea of our future. In her speech, she said that the pilgrims were literally going to a new world for their freedom. She then gave us several different examples of valor, including the civil rights movement, going to the moon and people volunteering to go on rescue missions for 9/11 and hurricane Katrina. Galilea then brought her story back to Newport with Sam Case developing the town called Newport. Avital was the evaluator for Galilea's speech, saying that she brought such a positive story to brighten everyone's day. One thing she suggested was to have a bigger font so that Galilea could lay her paper on the table.
The word of the day was eloquent given by Peter. Lauralee was the general evaluator, and Paul was the timer.

Sunday, March 19, 2017

Christa's contest speech

In Christa's contest speech, her first one without any notes, she talked about how she moved from Alaska during a storm in the January. This was during a white out storm where it was so cold that the hair in her nose froze. While traveling, they had three flat tires, with one on their U-Hal and another on their car. During the speech, she also talked about how her back window shattered. Because of the window breaking, she had to strip in freezing weather to get all of the glass out of her clothes- Christa described this as mooning the wolves. While trying to repair the window, they went to a hardware store, and she was trying to convey that she needed plastic to cover the window to the locals, who did not understand what she needed. It took her hours to get back on the road and fix the window with packing tape and plastic.

Saturday, March 18, 2017

Speech evaluation contest

Lauralee was the test speaker for the Speech Evaluation contest, who gave her speech on the Soul of Spain. A test speaker gives a speech that is not a part of the contest. Instead, the speech is used as a way to show a person's ability to give an evaluation. She said that the soul of a culture can be seen through the music of a country. Her speech gave demonstrations of the music throughout this history of Spain, such as the flamenco music that started in the 1800's, the church music that came from the Greek influence and today's popular culture.

Lauralee was evaluated by Dave, from our home Toastmasters, Lily from area 31 as well, Joseph from area 35, and Kathy from area 35. Dave suggested to sell the speech by using clothes similar to traditional Spanish attire, and to speak louder when referring to the PowerPoint, because Lauralee's voice trails off when directed at a different area in the room. He also gave several compliments including how well researched the speech was, and how the soul of Spain was a journey through their history. Lily gave several criticisms as to how to make the speech better including needing to move more around the room to engage the audience and gesturing more.

Joseph talked about how there were several technical difficulties that Lauralee had to overcome before giving the speech, but how she was able to work through them. He suggested next time, when technology is cooperating, to stand to the side of the lectern to be able to move around the room. Kathy complemented Lauralee about being able to get over the nerves from the multiple technology failures before the speech. She said that given the short time to prepare, and lack of materials needed for the speech, that Lauralee gave a good speech. Kathy talked about how, once the speech is more practiced and she has the materials she needs for the speech, that Lauralee should add demonstrations such as during the time when Lauralee says that the top half of the flamenco dance is from Greece, being more ridged, and the bottom half is more Arabic and is more flowing. Lastly, Kathy said that she liked that Lauralee added the soul of Spain to both the beginning and ending, but would have her add when Lauralee is talking about more to the introduction.