Fall Toastmasters pictures

Four years ago this month I helped get a Toastmasters public speaking and leadership development club started at my work - having been directed to a Toastmasters club in MN during my first year at St. Thomas. For all of the past four years - although I'm hoping to wrap this up this spring - I've served in the same office I served for a few months at the William Mitchell (law school) Community Toastmasters club in St. Paul (vice president for education). We meet twice a month - on the first and third Wednesdays from 1 to 2 p.m. - and also have officers' meetings (well, sometimes). Like my club in MN, we've struggled with membership and activity level. Club members are - ideally - supposed to complete the basic public speaking program by giving 10 speeches in one year. This is too much - but we've lagged far behind this - with guest speakers, videotaped speeches (including this year - by Governor Palin!), and programs that I've sometimes led - filling things in. I finished the basic program two years ago - and this has helped my speaking at work, at church, and elsewhere - both exptemporaneous speaking and prepared speaking - Besides members giving 4-10 minute prepared speeches, we also participate in impromptu "Table Topics" speaking in which we speak for 1-2 minutes on a topic we get seconds before. Pictured above is our third president, Susan, who's had health kept her away all fall. Standing below - at an August meeting (Susan's last?) is the person who replaced Susan as our fourth president, Glenn.

Below is Glenn after being selected.

At a meeting in September we had a big crowd, and relative newcomer Eric gave a great speech with tips about buying guitars. (A couple of years ago we made it possible for people who do not work at the Presbyterian Center to join - Eric works downtown, and Glenn in fact works in Middletown.)

Here's a West Side pastor who was a guest and participated in Table Topics.

We even had three homeschooled kids at this September meeting.

My Research Services colleague, Becki, gave one of her three speeches this year in October.

On a beautiful Sunday in late October half a dozen of us did something Vincent has done with the Crescent Hill church youth group the previous three year - walk in the Community Hunger Walk to help raise money for local food assistance programs. Three things went wrong - I brought Frisco and Eva brought her dog. Since Frisco doesn't usually get along with other dogs, I walked without them (more on my bad dog later). Also - my shoe fell apart (the first of two times that month a shoe fell apart) and I had to walk almost a mile like that.

There's Glenn and his wife and Eva and her dog (I think Buddy is the dog's name) crossing the 2nd Street bridge (one of only three bridges across the Ohio River - the lone non-freeway bridge - the one that runs right next to my building - the one Stephanie crosses almost every day on the way to work - and then back again (sometimes she takes the I-65 Kennedy Bridge if it's not too slow)- essentially, in front of me (I'm still walking towards IN).

While I was trying to take the picture below (which turned out nice), I momentarily took my eyes off of Frisco. Soon there was a commotion and yell in front of me. There were only four dogs total in this entire walk - we'd already avoided one (Buddy), and we'd had an unfortunate run-in with one of the other dogs. A year before a man who happened to be blind was appointed as a judge. We saw Judge Holton at a Hilary Clinton event in May. But by the fall he was running to keep his position against the very well financed and attractive daughter of the Democratic Metro Council president (and enjoyed some support from local Republicans - The enemy of my enemy . . . ?) Well, when I looked up from taking a picture, I realized that Frisco had attacked Judge Holton's guide dog. Judge Holton passed it off as nothing, but the woman who was with him was angry. I realized why the difference - He hadn't seen Frisco attack his dog. I felt terrible - and rushed away - without really apologizing, however - but felt even rose when - after the two ran very close all election night - Katie King pulled ahead of Judge Holton to displace him.

We had another good meeting in November, with Becki and Glenn.

Ada participated in Table Topics.

So did Susan, another new community member, the pastor of a downtown congregation.

Glenn helped preside over a much smaller all-Table Topics meeting later in the month.

New member Patricia and Eva also partiicpated.

In December we had just one meeting and - as we often do - had a potluck.

Betsy - like Eva and me, a charter member - from back in January 2005 - joined us for the potluck and December meeting.

One guest joined us for this meeting, held - somewhat unusually- in the 5th floor conference room.

This summer club officers agonized about possibly folding the club and we decided not to do so. Like my club in MN, however, we continue to struggle. I've taken on a decent amount of responsibility for the club over the years, and - partly after my health scare in December - I'm trying to phase out - from my VP for Education role and in general. Whether new leadership will emerge remains to be seen. Ironically, Toastmasters is one of two self-help/self-improvement organizations that my father participated in when - as a first-generation immigrant - he was trying to climb his way into the ranks of academia and then the world of LA accounting. Of course, I'm in two self-help/self-improvement groups - Weight Watchers, too. We toyed with adding Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University - which seems patterned off of Weight Watchers too - we'll see what the new year is going to bring in terms of Toastmasters. It's been quite a ride - going back to our first two presidents, Brunhilda and Debra. I been to two regional Toastmasters events (one in Indianapolis, one in Louisville). For more info on our club, see http://peacespeakers.blogspot.com/

For more on Toastmasters in general, see http://www.toastmasters.org/

-- Perry