Travelers Noontime Toastmaster #2532

Meeting Minutes – October 23, 2008

Our Mission: The Travelers Noontime Toastmaster (TNT) Club is dedicated to helping individuals improve themselves by sharpening their speaking, listening and thinking skills, all of which are necessary for success at work and at home. We provide a supportive environment with opportunities for public speaking and leadership development.

Chairperson: Sid Yudowitch

Toastmaster: Joyce Grose

Timer: Stephen Peterson

Quiz Master: Lora Ashcraft

Grammarian: Today’s word of the day was riant, an adjective which means: Smiling, cheerful.

Joyce Grose’s Toastmaster tip for the day was – Gratitude. Joyce shared an article she read where a person sent a note of appreciation after an interview and ending up getting the job. This person showed her Gratitude for getting an interview and she was rewarded. She expressed how we should all show people your appreciation and gratitude to the people around you. It makes everyone feel good.

Speaker 1:

Roger Arnold, “: “The Great Divide” (ACM – #3 The Sales Training Speech, 15-25 min.) [Actual Time = 27m8s]

TNT Toastmasters were to imagine themselves as sales trainees as Roger walked through a sales training seminar. Roger talked about the competition and how salespeople need to build self confidence and differentiate themselves from their competitors. As Roger dressed in this hat, scarf, and gloves, we hiked the steep mountain from Transactional Selling to Consultation Selling and ended at the peak, i.e. the Trusted Advisor. As we hiked, we learned about the different type of sales people, their sales focus, and their relationships with their customers. Roger brought a realistic view into the seminar by cleverly engaging two toastmasters, Michael O’Brien and Kristi Bathgate into a little role playing. Handouts on Professional Selling Skills and Examples of Circumstance, Needs and Need behind the Need also enhanced his presentation. I think everyone came away with a high level understanding of the different professional selling skills.

Evaluator: Daniel T Guinan [Actual Time = 3m 28s]

Table Topics:

Chairperson – Kristi Bathgate. Kristi enjoys the fall season, e.g. smell of leaves, holidays, getting together with family so her questions were about autumn.

1. Ian Neveu: [Actual Time = 1m 9]

Do you like to jump in leaves as a child? Yes, Ian grew up in Killingworth a small town with a lot of trees, hence a lot of leaves. He enjoyed playing in the leaves until one day when he jump in found raked in the leaves was a surprise from his dogs. After that, Ian realized playing in the leaves could be pretty messy and ugly to clean up

2. Ranga Dasari:[Actual Time = 1m 40s]

Feeling on any autumn holiday? Coming to American in May at the age of 20, Ranga never such a weird and almost scary custom as Halloween. He soon found out through talking with friends and co-workers that it’s a tradition meant mostly for children. Giving children candy for dressing up makes them happy and gives them a lot of energy.

3. Richard Helldmani:[Actual Time = 1m 40s]

If you could be anything for Halloween, what would you dress up as? Our guest Richard Heldman volunteered and was very funny. He was a former Toastmaster and seemed very comfortable speaking. After speaking about a few other items, he said he would dress up as something from one of the batman movie.

General Evaluator:

Bob Kirkendall

Bob’s overall evaluation of the meeting:

• Meeting went well;

• Room was set up, everyone helped out;

• Liked that Roger distributed his hand-out at each seat on the table prior to the start of the meeting

Suggestions for improvements:

• Distributed agenda each seat on the table prior to the start of meeting;

• Role introductions were good; minor observation, forgot to cal on Quiz Master;

• Minor discussion about the timing during a speech; instead of talking which could disturb the speaker, pass a note.

Club Business:

• Kristi reminded everyone that next week is theme meeting.

• Lora announced that there is still time to submit articles to Lisa Lew for TNT’s News Letter.

• Our guest Richard Heldman brought to our attention that our web site show the meeting place as 2PB, need to be changed to 8PB-2 West Conference room. Note: As of Friday, October 24, 2008, it has been changed.