Hard Topics, Communication Styles and Living in a Tree - a penchant for adventure at EarlyBirds

Dear Members, Guests and Friends,

We inducted our newest member, TM Roslyn - Welcome aboard!

TM The Tom gave us a choice between hard topics and easy peasy topics, and guess what we picked...

* I, Ana, am grateful of the alphabet A to J and fully cognizant of the easy peasy life that I enjoy.

* DTM Mary Helen overcame her reluctance to physical activity and became a runner and is now a walker.

* TM Jose asserts people can change on their time, not anyone else's.  He quit smoking, moved to Spain and regained spirituality - not necessarily in that order.

* TM Jim G. has a fantastic wife and hence also has a fantastic life.  The secret is Stayin' Alive (sung to the tune of Stayin' Alive by the Gree Gees)

* TM Roslyn worked hard to chase the close - money, property, prestige.  Now she has slowed down and finds time to smell the flowers.

* TM Marie has nothing to stop her from getting what she wants and she's grateful for unplanned blessings of yesterday - dancing impromptu with husband Guy right in front of the dinner casserole bubbling on the stovetop.  She Won Best TAble Topics Award.

Along came the prepared speeches...

* TM Gail used multiple communication styles while discharging her duties as a Catholic Diocese High School Principal - addressing the elephant in the room - how to pronounce plural diocesiseseses....  She Won Best Speaker Award.

* TM BeckyJo, consummate storyteller, who is self-banned from bookstores, lived an adventure read in a book while at Hanahau'oli School in Makiki Street, Honolulu, and leading 3 classmates to learn to live in a tree in the Makatuki Mountains while hitchhiking in the opposite direction and running into Principal Gail West. She Won Best Speaker Award.

As far as evaluations are concerned...

* TM Randolph is fascinated by TM Gail's rich life while dancing at a Salsa Party with her Cuban guidance counselor and would recommend more vocal variety while singing "My Hips Don't Lie"...

* DTM Mary Helen praised TM BeckyJo's passionate, creative tale of escapism in the jungles of Hawaii and suggested BeckyJo play around with her camera so she can make eye contact with her audience during storytelling.  She Won Best Evaluator Award.

The Word of the Day was

PENCHANT, noun

Strongly marked taste in a person or an irresistible attraction in the objection

Example:  Wolves have a penchant for howling at the full moon.

Here is the link to the recording:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNViqvL-7Ek

See you next week!

Ana Illsen

Recap Writer

Fwd: Assorted topics, Parenting and Public Relations - a prolific morning at EarlyBirds

Dear Members, Guests and Friends,

DTM Jim D. led us in assorted table topics.  We discovered that...

* I, Ana, have occasionally ventured out to other grocery stores, but inevitably I circle back to the old familiar aisles of my closest Publix.  Floridian to the core!

* TM The Tom conveniently gets gas at a station behind his favorite Publix store.  A full tank lasts him about six months from all the driving he does!

* TM Gail ran her family's restaurant at the tender age of 6 - hostessing, managing the cash register and making sure the business got repeat customers who returned in awe of her. She Won Best Table Topics Award.

* TM Jim G. has driven his RV to all 50 states (except Hawaii, since it was not amphibious) and his favorite is Florida, while his least favorite is the Rio Grande Valley, epicenter of  the sci-fi  film Chaos for the Hoarder.

* TM Marie has no cities or airports to avoid because her philosophy is to go with the flow and turn adversities into blessings.

* TM Preeti praised LL Bean for their outstanding customer service- they take 1-year-old returns without blinking and you actually get a live person when you call in - imagine that!!!

* TM Chris's best customer service was the divemaster in Cayman Islands who dove into the depths of the ocean to retrieve Chris' prescription diving mask.  That's impressive!

* TM BeckyJo looooves Cherry Garcia, Cherry Garcia, Cherry Garcia - whiichever size she gets, she eats!  She's in a predicament when pints are buy one get one free..

Along came the prepared speeches....

* TM Randolph was voluntold by a certain DTM for this speech to tell the story of how different we are as parents with our firstborn and our baby.  We can't help but remember that insanity is hereditary - we get it from our kids!

* TM Aleta reinforced that trust and credibility are the foundation for any good Public Relations plan - and toss aside the by-laws if possible before you read them!  She Won Best Speaker Award.

In terms of the evaluations...

* TM Terri praised TM Randolph's parenting skills in finding a balance between having dreams for our kids and pushing those dreams on our kids.  Big difference!

* TM BeckyJo praised TM Aleta's spot-on facial expressions and her commitment to excellence.  She was left pondering how many coffees has Aleta had beore she signs on to EarlyBirds?? She Won Best Evaluator Award.

The Word of the Day was

PROLIFIC, adjective

Producing or able to produce large amounts

Example: When we join Toastmasters, most of us are prolific users of Umms Errs and other fillers.

Here's the link to the recording......

https://www.youtube.com/live/uBjqUSIytAU

See you next week!

Ana Illsen

VP Education

A morning encumbered with praise for Toastmasters, deck-building and motorcycle riding

 

We hope to have our dear Ana back next week, meanwhile, please bear with me as I try to follow Ana's method of recapping our weekly meeting. Chris G.

We started on time after Mary Helen snapped Jim out of his techno-induced coma, and Tom Quinn was voluntold to deliver the invocation. Well-done Tom!

Pam Schrimsher led us in Table Topics with an end in mind. She wants to collect pieces of these mini-speeches this morning to make a promotional video about our wonderful club. She asked that we come up with one word that sums up. We learned that:

• Randolph Bastein just can't quit us. He joined Earlybirds when he needed to get better at speaking for his work. When he got busier at work he figured he could not continue in Earlybirds, but Kip Barkley told him, "Just do what you can." That was 4 years ago and Randolph is a treasured member of our club still today. Inspired.
• Terri Montealegre was hooked by all of the members of Earlybirds but especially Ana, our membership-recruiter-in-chief. Joining Earlybirds has reawakened her early memories - that train really does exist. Fantastic.
• Chris Guld is so happy to have an audience for her stories. It's what gets her up so early in the morning. By the time the meeting is over she is wide awake and Enriched with the Variety of the meeting.
• BeckyJo Bean is looking for a fight, but she's been disappointed. Of all the diversity of opinions and thought represented by the members of Earlybirds we remain surprisingly civil. Even when we met for breakfast - no food fights broke out. Surprising Friendships. 
• Tom Quinn misses the in person meetings but is so happy that he doesn't have to brush his teeth or wear pants when he meets with us in our little boxes. He likes us, he really likes us! He says we are the Greatest.
• Roslyn Parker, filling out the membership application as she spoke, has been in and out of Toastmasters for years. After visiting Earlybirds once, she is ready to be committed. She won Best Table Topics award.

Then came the prepared speeches.

DTM Jim Day endures being membership chair for his Harley motorcycle club and he told us how his clubs members are Olympic champions in riding motorcycles from Florida to Homer Alaska without GPS, or motels. We all listened in horror as he showed pictures of people sleeping next to their bikes for only 2 hours as they rode for 22. We're so glad he was telling us about the other people who did this .. not him.

Aleta Richmond decked her co-worker with a 12 foot board as the saw broke the board apart and turned it into a see-saw. Not to worry, the removal of the board revealed a pot of honey worked by a swarm of bees. Not to worry, she had plenty of benadryl and ice for the bee stings. We learned that hex-head construction screws can be removed to allow recycling of the boards to another part of the deck, and leftover railings can be modified and you can save a lot of money by building a deck yourself as long as you are a very talented woman. She won Best Speaker award.

Then came evaluations.

Randolph Bastein lamented the 15 seconds overtime that disqualified DTM (don't time me) Jim Day because he liked this speech so much. Hoka Hey - tell us more. He won Best Evaluator award.

Chris Guld praised Aleta for standing up and putting her whole body into her language and we would never have noticed that we couldn't see her deck if she hadn't said "Sorry." 

The word of the day was Encumbered: to be held back, weighed down, overburdened.

It's all about Toastmasters, sandwiches, and bed-wetting, a Transformational morning at Earlybirds

This recap is -sadly- prepared by Chris Guld in the absence of our invaluable Ana Illsen. Her husband , Alex, passed away on Saturday, August 3, 2024. There will not be a funeral service; however, donations can be made to Life Essentials in memory of Alex Illsen and sent to Life Essentials, 7680 Stirling Bridge Blvd, Delray Beach, FL 33446 or online www.lifeessentialsprogram.com. Take care of yourself Ana, we look forward to welcoming you back when you're ready.

The meeting started on-time with an invocation and a joke by Terri Montealegre.

• We couldn't tell that Randolph Bastein was unprepared for the TopicMaster role as he led us in a variety of fun and thought-provoking topics. 
• We learned:Terri Montealegre uses YouTube calming music videos to train her new, energetic puppy.
• Jim Guld likes to reverse-sear his steaks, but his most majestic meal is a sandwich because he is the sandwich king.
• Mary Helen Day would invite Shonda Rhimes to her late night talk show to discuss Gray's Anatomy as long as she made sure to laugh a lot.
• Gail West likes dancing but only when she's in a happy mood and has a line dance routine led by Chris Guld.
• Aleta Richmond uses her chocolate-induced hyperness to do many things, including how to breathe and be serene with Tai Chi.
• Chris Guld needs an imaginary friend from history, but they would need to be a dancer who would join her in dancing to Polk Salad Annie.
• Pam Schrimsher would be both the funniest and the smartest in any room as long as everyone else was infected with brain worms.
• Jim Day is working hard to waste time on the Internet but he keeps getting distracted by the need to fix all those airplanes so they won't lose their doors.
• Randolph Bastein is scoflaw who calls on himself to speak but we didn't dare correct him as we don't want to wet our beds. He won Best Table Topics Award

Next we had one prepared speech and then a report about the recent TLI (Toastmasters Learning Institute)

Mary-Helen, the vice president of membership of Early Bird Toastmasters, inspired us with challenges and rewards of recruiting new members and retaining current ones. She emphasized the importance of expanding the group's social networks and attracting younger members to sustain the group for the next decades. She encouraged the members to be proactive in inviting new people and to see themselves as ambassadors for the group. We look forward to a "Family Day" in a future Earlybird meeting.

Chris and Jim Guld also sang the praises of Toastmasters as an organization and how much they enjoyed attending a face-to-face meeting at the Florida Atlantic University campus in Davie this past weekend. Chris reviewed information on the "Moments of Truth" breakout session and Jim enjoyed the "Evaluate to Motivate" session which emphasized the sandwich approach much to Jim's delight. We should expect both of these topics to be revisited in future Earlybird meetings.

 
For evaluations, TM Randolph put on his 3d hat of the morning and evaluated Mary Helen's speech, saying it was so good that he wanted to become a member again! (We need to capture clips from both Mary Helen's speech and Randolph's evaluation to create a promo video for Earlybirds!)

The word of the day was
Transformation, noun
a marked change in form, nature, or appearance
The caterpillar's transformation into a butterfly is a beautiful example of metamorphosis.

The YouTube recording is at: https://www.youtube.com/live/nN78DAZFM6k
OR - you can see it on our Earlybird Blog: https://earlybirdtm.blogspot.com/

Summer, Frisella of Puglia, Eulogy and A Life Well Lived - a morning with moxie in EarlyBirds

Dear Members, Guests, and Friends,

We received the visit of our new Area Director, TM Marc Flanagan.  Welcome TM Flanagan!

The Tom Quinn started us with a self-composed inspirational invocation.  This was followed by very a propos Table Topics about Summer, led by TM Jarrett.

* TM Marc has foggy recollections of summer camps where he learned that he would not become a professional tennis player or polo player.

* TM Terri will soon regale us with Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.

* TM The Tom recited a poem about summer breeze, makes me feel fine, blowin' through the jasmine in my mind....   He Won Best Table Topics Award.

* TM Randolph marveled at the moxie required to participate in the Summer Olympics, which were sparked by a nefarious Munich 1938 Nazi olympics.

* TM Gail is busy researching the meaning of dog days of summer.  Keep us posted, please!

* TM Jim G.'s summer school consisted of the School of Hard Knocks, where he learned a trade or the family business.

* DTM Jim D. has had summers of fun and sun - Hurricane Andrew was definitely not fun, but riding his Harley is and what tops it is his recent trip to Germany with DTM Mary Helen.

Along came (3) prepared speeches...

* TM Paolo delighted us with a local dish from Puglia called La Frisella - dry bread moistened in water, cherry tomatoes, basil, goat cheese and extra virgin olive oil.  This was paired up with an exquisite rose wine.  We are all preparing the recipe right now!

* TM Pam gave a eulogy for a family member whose vocation was to study bats, mice, critters hidden in black creeks - not glamorous but her absolute favorite!

* TM Chris gave us a hodgepodge of her life served with a smile - from huskies in Alaska to bi-coastal living to meeting her hero and travelling cross-country in a RV for 15 years.  She Won Best Speaker Award.

And then came the evaluations...

* TM Randolph admires TM Paolo's qualities as showman extraordinaire and has become a devoted rose wine connoiseur.

* TM Aleta liked TM Pam's eulogy and suggested maybe she add a little subtle humor to it to lighten it up.  She Won Best Evaluator Award.

* DTM Jim D. was blown away by TM Chris' visual aids and was most impressed with TM Chris saving an injured pelican while kayaking off the coast of California.

The Word of the Day was

MOXIE, noun

= Courage and determination

_ Enery and pep

- Know-how

Example:  It takes a lot of moxie to circumvent life's curves.

Here's the link to the recording:

https://youtube.com/live/MIXvGlCACgE?feature=share

See you next week!

Ana I.

Recap Writer