Soundwaves Toastmasters - Des Moines, Washington

Strawberry Success!

2008-07-08T17:24:00.000-07:00

Our booth at the Burien Strawberry Festival was a success! Thank you John Dolbeck for pulling it all together. We made $76 on the book sale (I made the trip to Half Price Books today and cashed in on the rest of the books).

We gained 2 new members from the drawing. Welcome John Pass and Kay Brandt! We hope to see both of you at our next meeting on July 17th.

We made a number of good contacts. Daniel McCain, Debra Webster, Lorraine Wesolowski, Brooke Kamarainer, Lucy Krakoviac, and Kathy Keene have all conversed with me and said they would like to join us, too. We look forward to meeting all of you soon!

I have called and/or emailed everbody who gave us their contact information so we might see some more visitors as we go one.

Thanks to everybody for your donations of time, energy and books, And a special thanks once again to John: THANK YOU!!!

New Officers 2008-2009

2008-07-08T16:22:00.000-07:00

We are pleased to announce our new officers for the 2008-2009 Toastmasters year:

President - Sara Johnson
VP Education - John Dolbeck
VP Membership - Sam Clemmens
VP Public Realtions - Theresa Frasch
Secretary - Mary Videen
Treasurer - Elora Smith
Sergeant at Arms - Mindi Estus

We are happy to have Division D Governor, Sam Clemmens, and the Executive Assistant to the District Governor, Theresa Frasch participating as officers in our club.

Sam is a recent member of Soundwaves but a Toastmaster member since: 02/01/2005.
Theresa is a Charter member of Soundwaves, the club started in 2000.

Sara Johnson is a returning Charter Member of Soundwaves, joining us again this year. John Dolbeck, a member since: 10/01/2004, is returning as VPE after a brief hiatus. Mary Videen, a member since: 04/01/2002, is continuing her role as secretary. Elora Smith, a member since: 04/01/2006, is continuing her role as treasurer.

Thank you to all who volunteer their time and energy to Soundwaves!

And the Winners Are...

2008-04-11T20:46:00.000-07:00

John waiting his turn for the interview after the competition

Theresa receiving 2nd Place from Valerie Tims and Michael Sun.

John and Theresa in the "serious pose"

John and Theresa in the "that's more like it" pose

Thanks to Maria Wilson for the photos!

Each and every one of us possesses a unique power, and that power was the theme of the Division "D" contest that took place under a cloudy and cooler than normal evening of April 4, 2008 at at the beautiful campus of the High line Education Resources and Administration building. The theme of the contest was, "The Power of Perception." Everyone has a different perception of what a good speech is as they hear it. The judges who judged each speaker and evaluator throughout the evening paid attention to each and every detail of the speakers and evaluators and gave their final call at the end of the night. The following is how Soundwaves Toastmasters Club did in the Division "D" Contest.

As usual, the night of the contest began with a delicious potluck meal in the room adjacent to the room where we hold our contest. The potluck was not a disappointment as there was quite a variety of foods and beverages to eat and drink. The room was set up and ready for the contestants, fellow Toastmasters and their families and friends. All were fed and were ready for the festivities of the Division "D" contest by 7:00, the starting time.

Valerie Tims, Division "D" Governor called the contest meeting to order at precisely 7:00 PM. She welcomed all of us and gave the theme of the evening and then called upon Mr. Clyde Jones, DTM to preside over the thought of the day and flag solute. Afterwards, the Division "D" ccontest team was introduced by Valerie Tims. Toastmasters opening remarks were done by Bruce Meaker, DTM and the contest rules and procedures were then given. Announcements weer made by the chief Judge, Tom Gray, ATM and the lectern was handed back to the evening's Toastmaster, Bruce Meaker.

The evening's contest speakers were: Bruce Bullock, Debra Thomas, Stelian Paraschiv, Bev Klenk and our Theresa Frasch. This writer didn't write down the specific order the speakers spoke during the contest, however, Theresa Frasch took home the second place position with her speech, "Lessons of the Bicycle." If Bruce Bullock is unable to make it to the Spring conference on May 10th where the District 2 International Speech and Evaluation Contest will take place, Thereaa Frasch will represent Soundwaves Club. Congratulations to Mrs. Frasch and Mr. Bullock for their outstanding speeches. The other speeches were very well done and the Toastmasters clubs that the individual speakers represented for the fantastic contest are to be congratulated as well. Great job!

When all five speakers were done with their speeches, they were all called back up to the front of the room by the evening's contest coordinator, Bruce Meaker, to be interviewed. One by one, Mr. Meaker asked the individual speakers questions ranging from their speech topics, what clubs they represent and how long they have been involved in Toastmasters. The speakers then received certificates of appreciation for their efforts. Then it was time for a ten minute break for refreshments.

After the break, the contest meeting reconvened around 8:30. This was the Evaluation contest and there were four Evaluation contestants for this contest. They were: Bill a, Karen Evons, our own John Dolbeck and Rodney Handscom. The contest coordinator, Bruce Meaker, assigned the order in which the four contestants were to give their evaluations and they all were eager to do their best in evaluating the evening's guest speaker, Jean Gillett. Then Bruce Meaker had the timer remind the crowd about the times of the individual evaluators and than called Ms. Gillett to the front to give us his speech for the individual evaluators to work with. When Ms. Gillett's speech was completed, the Sergeant at Arms escorted the evaluators out of the room, according to Toastmaster's rules, while the contest coordinator, Bruce Meaker, interviewed the evening's guest speaker.

One by one, each of the evaluators entered the room from outside and gave their evaluations. All of them were good but we thought our club member, John Dolbeck, who took home third prize, gave the best evaluation of them all. Congratulations, John, for a good job. Again, the other evaluation contestants were just great! The clubs that they represented are to be congratulated for helping the evaluators to achieve their good standing that enabled them to participate in the contest.

When all of the evaluators gave their evaluations, Bruce Meaker called them back up front in the order of their evaluations and interviewed them. After the interviews, they received certificates of appreciation and participation for their efforts in the evening's contest.

With the evening's festivities winding down, the contest coordinator, Bruce Meaker made some announcements and asked others if they had announcements to be made concerning upcoming events. Information was then shared about the upcoming Spring International Speech &. Evaluation Contest that will be held at the Conference Center in Shoreline, Washington on SSaturday, May 10. Acknowledgments of all of the people who helped make the evening possible were made and the lectern was then handed back to the contest coordinator for the excitement of the awards ceremony. The awards were handed out by Michael Sun, DTM,LGET and Valerie Tims helped.

Now that the speeches were given, the evaluations were complete and the awards were handed out, it was now up to Valerie Tims to send us on our way into good evening. She made some closing remarks and ended our Division "D" Toastmasters contest for the Spring season. We look forward to a great and glorious Casino Royale Spring conference at the Conference Center in Shoreline on May 10, 2008.

Mary E. Videen, Secretary
Soundwaves Toastmasters #5777

Area 41 Contestants Planted and Grew Blooms of Brightness

2008-03-17T21:05:00.000-07:00

On the very last Friday of the Winter season, Toastmasters, families and friends gathered at the beautiful campus of the Highline Education Resources Administration Center in the heart of downtown Burien to have the second round of the Spring contest season.

The evening started around 6:00 with a potluck meal that was delicious as always. The menu ranged from salads, spaghetti and meatballs, breads, a tasty fruit punch, and a heaping helping of snacks ranging from cakes, cookies and other entries that were guaranteed to fill up a hardy Toastmaster's pallet! Everyone pitched in to make the Area 41 potluck a huge success once again!

At the end of the potluck, Chief Judge, Sharyn Solum, called all of the contestants to gather in the far corner of the lobby to be briefed on the contest rules. All of the contestants have been in other contests before so there was little need to explain the various rules and timing issues to both speakers and evaluators. Numbers were drawn to present the order of each contestant during the briefing and each of the contest participants knew what to expect during the program.

There were five International Speech contestants and five Evaluation contestants who were to evaluate the 'Test Speaker,' Bob Hays form Kirkland Eclectics Toastmasters club.

Two people were chosen to be the Sergeant at Arms for the contest. They were; Mary Videen from Soundwaves/Sunuppers and someone from another club.They were to escort the evaluation contestants from the room after Mr. Hays's speech and make sure that nobody leaves or enters the room while the speech contest was in progress. With the order of the speeches and evaluators given and the rules laid down for the evening's contest, everyone departed the corner and returned to the potluck room or to the contest room, anxious for the actual contest to begin.

Since this is a Soundwaves report, this writer will not give a detailed roundup of each of the five speakers other than to say that all were good in their right and were truly worthy of this competition. Carol Page from the Leading Knights Club took home the 3rd place position. Peggy Morgan of the Sunuppers club brought home the 2nd place position with her speech and the coveted 1st place trophy was awarded to the lady who taught us all the "Lessons of the Bike," Theresa Frasch! Congratulations to all the winners, especially to Theresa for her driving into the audience the old adage, "Practice! Practice! Practice!" All of the speaking contestants planted the seeds for their individual speeches and all of the speeches surely bloomed successfully into full blossoms that were a pleasure to listen to.

When the speeches were all completed, the evening's Toastmaster, Franni Turean, called each of the contestants back to the front of the room in the order they spoke. She interviewed each one of the speakers and gave them special recognition awards for their efforts. When all were interviewed and given their awards, they returned to their seats and raffle numbers were drawn for the first of two drawings for the exciting prizes on the raffle table. Franni then called for a ten minute break to eat some more and socialize before the evaluation contest.

The contest meeting reconvened with the evening's Toastmaster calling upon the 'Test Speaker,' Bob Hays from the Kirkland Eclectics Toastmasters club to do an incredible speech. When his speech was completed, both Sergeant at Arms escorted all of the speech evaluators out of the room and into the lobby for five minutes to jot down their notes. This practice took about five minutes while the Toastmaster, Franni Turean, interviewed Mr. Hays.

Then one by one, each of he five evaluation contestants were escorted back into the contest room for his or her evaluation presentation. I should add that both Sergeant at Arms took away the contestants notes before escorting the contestants back. Each contestant got their notes back as they entered the room to do their evaluation. When the last of the contestants was escorted back into the room, the Sergeant at Arms were able to return to their designated places for the rest of the evening.

There were five evaluators for the evaluation contest and our very own John Dolbeck took home the first place award for the evaluation contest. He, along with the first place contestant of the speech contest, Theresa Frasch will advance to the next round of the Spring contest season; Division "D" contest on Friday April 4th at the ERAC building.

Congratulations to all the contestants and to the winners who will, most definitely, do a great job in the division contest!

When all was said and done in the contest, Franni, the Toastmaster, called the contestants back up to the front and interviewed each one and presented each with certificates of recognition for their efforts. They returned to their seats and more numbers were called for the last remaining items on the raffle table. Announcements then made for the next contests and trophies were handed out to the winners of both the Speech and Evaluation contests.

Franni wrapped up her Toastmaster duties before returning the lectern back to the contest coordinator, Liz Northrup for final comments. The area 41 speech contest ended at approximately 9:40 p.m. Some folks went across the street to Azteca Restaurant for a small after contest social. All and all, it was a fun night and we all look forward to the division "D" contest in a couple of weeks.

Mary E. Videen, Secretary Soundwaves Toastmasters Club #5777

The 10 Mistake meeting that almost wasn't

2008-03-06T22:53:00.000-08:00

This meeting was not like our club contest meeting of February 21 that had a record number of people who participated in the Toastmasters experience. On the March 6th meeting, 10 people entered the meeting room at Wesley Homes Administrative Center to enjoy three great speeches, exciting Table Topics, and heart felt and thoughtful evaluations. Although the crowd was small in size, we sure had a great meeting and are already making plans to attend the upcoming area 41 contest that will be held on Friday March 14, (Net Friday), at the ERAC Building in Burien.

The meeting was called to order at 7:02 by President Lorylee Lejon. The evening's Toastmaster was the one and only Theresa Frasch who's theme was, "10 Mistakes that Changed the World." We had a lot of people pulling double or triple duties because many members were missing from he meeting. Thought of the Day that was to be done by Darlene Burrill was done by Lorylee in Darleen's unexplained absence. Lorylee also took the job of being our ballet counter in the absence of our newest member, Trudymarie Devilla. Timing our meeting in place of Jason Steel who was also absent was Mary Videen. General Evaluator for the meeting was Carl Johnson and the Grammarian position was also done by the multi-tasking, Lorylee Lejon. Finally, rounding out our players for this evening's meeting was the Table Topics person and that job was given to Elora Smith who also collected the dues from members who were present.

As always, we had three dynamic speakers. They were; Gary Towe, our newest member Jim Boland who give his Icebreaker speech and last but not least, Theresa Frasch who redid her speech and gave it again to be critiqued by the participants of tonight's meeting. She will be entering the speech in the upcoming area 41 contest next week. After a few adjustments to the schedule to accommodate absent members and some tidbits from a book that she used to fill us in about the 10 mistakes that changed the world, the theme, Theresa Frasch, Toastmaster introduced Gary Towe to the lectern to do his speech which was supposed to be from a manual but he forgot the manual so, it was a non-manual speech. Gary entitled the speech, "Numbers Game."

The speech was centered around how numbers play vital roles in the lives of everyone, including Gary. He explained that there are numbers in everything from 7 step solutions; 12 step programs; numbers are, virtually everywhere we go! He was evaluated by Carl Johnson. When Gary's speech was finished, he returned control of the lectern back to Theresa who, again, dished out more on the 10 mistakes that actually made life somewhat better in the long run for all of us. Then it was time to introduce one of our newest speakers, Jim Boland who was going to do his very first speech for our club-the Ice beaker Speech!

Jim Boland walked to the lectern and shook Theresa's hand with a warmness that only a true professional speaker would do to his new club member. For a first time speaker in our club, Jim brought to the lectern a new confidence that will surely add to his tenure as a Toastmaster! He began his speech telling the audience his background of growing up and living in downtown Seattle with its challenges, trials and tribulations in an apartment he could no longer afford. During the middle of his speech, Jim took us through his move to Federal Way and his accepting a job with a social service agency that helps the poor and persons in the disability community.

Jim ended his speech by letting us know of his goals and dreams before handing the lectern back to Theresa, our Toastmaster, for the next part of the meeting. Welcome, Jim, to our club and congratulations on completing your Iicebreaker speech. As the professional speaker you have shown us with your first speech, there will surly be more memorable speeches yet to come from you and our club can hardly wait to hear your next speech! Jim's evaluator was Lorylee Lejon who, as noted above, was also multi-tasking for the meeting.

They say that practice makes perfect and, in order for a speech to be perfect, the speaker needs to practice it. Theresa Frasch, the evening's last speaker, is entering her speech she did for our contest meeting entitled, "The Lesson of the Bicycle." Over the past couple of weeks, Theresa had polished the speech by trimming down some of the items that were mentioned and making it more presentable for the contest. She seemed to have more vocal variety this time and far more gestures were exhibited when she performed the speech. Theresa received favorable feedback from an evaluation that was given by John Dolbeck that lasted 3:50 minuts that was in turn followed by a round robin evaluation from the audience who suggested that maybe she could bring an actual bike to the ERAC next week to use as a prop. Everyone liked the way Theresa wove practicing Toastmasters speeches with learning to ride a bike in her speech. It goes without saying that practice makes perfect and Theresa's speech was nearly perfect and will, certainly, do well in the contest!

When the speech was finished, Theresa handed the lectern back to John Dolbeck who acted as a makeshift contest coordinator to coduct the proper way of introucing Theresa's speech to the audience. John then gave back control of the lectern to Theresa who gave some more tid bits from the book she was using about the 10 mistakes that changed the world. She then introduced the Table Topics leader of the evening and that job was done by Elora Smith.

Elora approached the lectern and used a book full of questions that were asked to each of the participants. Most of the 10 meeting attendees participated in the Table Topics session and when the votes were tallied, both Carl Johnson and John Dolbeck came out as winners of the Table Topics. By the way, the our vote counter for the evening was the one and only Lorylee Lejon who seemed to be wearing more hats than usual for a single Toastmaster meeting. When Elora's Table Topics session ended, she gave the lectern back to Theresa to call upon the General Evaluator of the night. The person handling the General Evaluation portion of the meeting was Carl Johnson.

Carl approached the lectern and wasted little time in calling upon the first evaluator for the first speech of the evening. The speaker was Gary Towe and his evaluator was also Carl Johnson. Carl immediately gave Gary an avaluation worthy of a true professional. He was able to point out some of the weaknesses in Gary's talk but, overall, Carl's evaluation of Gary Towe's "Numbers Game "was very good. When he concluded Gary's evaluation, he called upon our next evaluator of our newest member, Jim Boland, and that was; you guessed it, the one and only multi-tasker that is not only the President of our club; she gave the thought of the day and counted the ballets for the meeting and now she was going to come back up to the lectern and give Jim an evaluation of his Icebreaker.

Lorylee put her things asside and approached the lectern with a confidence that only a professional Toastmaster could display. With a gentleness to her demeanor, Lorylee gave Jim a pretty favorable evaluation of an Icebreaker that was well done. She ended her piece with the feeling that we all have for Jim...we can't wait for his next speech! Lorylee then handed the lectern back to Carl so he could call upon the last speaker of the night which was Theresa.

Therea's speech evaluation was a little different from other speech evaluations. Since she was doing a contest speech, she had her acting speech contest coordinator(John Dolbeck) give an evaluation. John came up to the lectern while Theresa returned to her seat and gave his thoughts on Theresa's speech. About three minutes later, John opened up a round robin session that lasted a good ten minutes. Everyone in the room was able to give his or her two cents worth regarding the speech. Most of the feelings were favorable and, as mentioned earlier, it was suggested that Theresa round up an actual bike to bring to the contest next week. There was some discussion on the bike issue before John wrapped up his evaluation. He then handed control back the General Evaluator, Carl, for his wrapup of the entire meeting. It was a pretty good meeting and once Carl's work was completed, he handed control of the lectern back to Theresa for her final words of the evening. She told us more facts from the book she was using all through the evening and then gave the meeting to Lorylee.

With the speeches, evaluations and Table Topics out of the way, Lorylee steered the club through the business meeting that lasted a little longer than usual. There was discussion about the pending 'Garage Sale' to benefit the club and raise money. This Garage sale is to take place in mid or late Spring and is tenitively planed to be held at Elora Smith's house. More will come either next month or in one of our May meeting.

There was discussion concerning the upcoming contest. Some of us will bring some door prizes for the contest and there was some discussion on what kinds of beverages to bring. The business meeting ended around 8:45 and Lorylee ajurned the Soundwaves meeting for March 6 at 8:46 P.M. Only four of us went to Red Robin afterwards for the tradiditional bi-weekly, after meeting social. They were; Theresa Frasch, John Dolbeck, Carl Johnson and Mary Videen. We had a very good time at Red Robin and our bi-weekly social meeting ended at approximately 10:20.

The reason I entitled this piece, "10 Mistakes Meeting That Almost Wasn't," was due to the fact we had so many members who were 'Missing in Action.' Lots of reasons could be given for not showing up and doing a part to contribute to making the meeting a success but if one Toastmaster chooses not to attend for a reason, it makes it hard for the others to feel good about coming to the meeting. Other attendees, like Lorylee Lejon, needed to do some serious multi-tasking in order to make the meeting go smoothly. A good Toastmaster can get worn out by being asked to do two or three jobs at a meeting and may choose not to attend that club again for fear that they could be called upon to take on too many tasks at once! A good Toastmasters club should have enough people who are ready, willing and able to do a job for which he or she has signed up for or has been assigned to do and there should be meetings where the participant shows up to a meeting and can just enjoy it without being asked to perform tasks every time.

The bottom line of this piece is that we, as Soundwaves Toastmasters, should make every effort to recruit new members and help these new members to achieve their good communication and leadersip skills and, hopefully, they will be willing to come to each and every meeting and help out whenever they can.

If you are reading this blog and want to know more about our club, I invite you to come to the Wesley Gardens Retirement Homes, here in Des Moines, on the first and third Thursday of each and every month! Our meetings begin at 7:00 and usually last until 8:45. Everyone is more than welcome to come and check our meetings out. As mentioned above, we have a bi-weekly social meeting that is open to even you, the newcomer! If you find that our club is just right for you and you choose to join us as an active member, we will even pay for your first meal or drink! We are harmless and we won't even ask you to speak if you should come for the first time to our meetings. So, please feel free to come ride the wave to your new communications success--Soundwaves Toastmasters Club!

Remember old members and newcomers make for great meetings!

Mary Elizabeth Videen, Secretary

Soundwaves Toastmasters Club #5777