Tip of the Week: The Pledge of Allegiance

This past week, Brooks’ Thought of the Day was a very interesting speech that focused on the history of the Pledge of Allegiance. The pledge dates back to 1892. The words “under God” were not included until 1954 by a Joint Resolution of Congress signed into law by President Eisenhower. There have been multiple court challenges to the addition of those two words, but the law has been upheld.  It seems that if you don’t want to say “under God,” then you have the right to not say it. Very interesting thought of the day, Brooks!

If you are in the role of “Thought of the Day,” you also lead the club in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.  A few of our members are not American citizens and aren’t as familiar with the words.  If you fall into this category, it still is easy to start the pledge!  Just face the flag and say “I pledge allegiance,” and the rest of us will take it from there.  By the way, in Electric Toasters no one is required to recite the pledge – it is optional.

By VP of Education, Jason Kent

Tip of the Week: Calling on people for Table Topics

We’ve been blessed with a lot of new members in the past few weeks!  What that means is that recently there have been meetings with one or more members that do not have a speaking role.  Those are the people that should be called on for Table Topics.  This way, everyone who attends the meeting will get a chance to speak.  

When you are Table Topics Master, make a list of the meeting attendees that do not have a speaking role, and call on them during Table Topics.  It is better to assign table topics by calling on people than by asking for volunteers to field a question.  Also, if we have guests at the meeting, the Table Topics Master should ask them before the meeting if they would like to field a question – that way they’re not put on the spot during the meeting.

By Jason Kent, VP of Education

Club Elections on June 1st

We have another special meeting on June 1 – our club officer elections!  Officers serve Electric Toasters July through June, and meet roughly once a month to chart the path of the club for the year.  Any member can run for any role, so please consider running for one of these offices, and talk to club president Jeff Brooks if you are interested.  Links to the role descriptions can be found on the Toastmasters International website:http://www.toastmasters.org/Members/OfficerResources/ClubOfficerResources/ClubOfficerRoles.aspx

·         President
·         Vice-President of Education
·         Vice-President of Membership
·         Vice-President of Public Relations
·         Treasurer
·         Sergeant-at-Arms

A “Who….Me?” About our New Member, Chris Trappe

Hi, my name is Christine Trappe (Trap-pee), but I use Chris most often. I joined Toastmasters over 7 years ago - as one of the founding members of a brand new club formed in Beaverton.  Starting a club up is an incredible experience, and we all were passionately driven to do really well that first year!! Since then I have achieved my CTM, and fully credit TM with a renewed self-confidence during such activities like job interviews.

Much of my life has been in technical positions that required concise speech, and communication skills, and TM has also strongly helped with that. Finally last year, I was able to fulfill a lifelong dream of doing a stand-up comedy routine - and although I doubt I'll ever do that again, simply having the wherewithal to get up in front of a crowd and perform was one of the highlights of my life. Interestingly, I have also had the opportunity to MC a large fund raising event with a local car club - and hope to be able to do so soon again. From someone who was afraid to talk assertively, to someone doing stand-up comedy, makes me amazed at the progress I've achieved and will hope to continue to achieve with the aid of Toastmasters.

Personally, I'm a woman of many many interests, including writing, painting, sculpture, philosophy, geology, baking, candy making, jewelry making, movies, auto racing... yes I said auto racing! But that's JUST one topic of content for many many future speeches!!! :)

By Chris Trappe

Lunch Social Event Tomorrow, May 5th!

Another Electric Toasters lunch will be happening tomorrow.  See below for details.  I'm looking forward to seeing you at lunch tomorrow and feel free to invite friends!

Habibi Restaurant

1012 Southwest Morrison Street, Portland

Noon - 1pm

By Laurel Vallarta, VP of Membership

Tip of the Week: Starting on Time!

A few months ago we moved back our official meeting time to 12 noon.  We’ve seen that this earlier starting time is helping us finish by 1:00 and get everyone back to work on time.  Be sure to try to leave the office a few minutes early so you can arrive at SkyBridge C at or before noon!

By Jason Kent, VP of Education

March & April Speeches

March started with the International Speech Contest (3/2) and the Evaluation Competition (3/9). On 3/16 Amy VanCamp delivered her Ice Breaker, sharing with us the different places she lived and how she came to run her own coffee business in Texas, moved to Portland and started her own PR firm. Craig Jones told a story of "borrowing" someone's boat for a  mission impossible that ended up with hauling down to the police station.

Jackie Scherer shared a „crazy story” of persistence during the 3/23 meeting. From getting up early and hitting the peak slopes in Oregon, California and Utah, to teaching her kids to never say “I can’t”. Time after time, injury after injury, she’s always gotten back up on her skies. Bachir Salpagarov took us on a trip to Karachay. We climbed the snowy peak of Mt. Elbrus, visited his home city, learned about the Karachay language, customs and traditions and a rich diversity that was sheltered from the rest of the world by the Iron Curtain and news of war and terrorism in the surrounding regions. One of the seven republics of the Northern Caucasia suddenly became very close to us.

The last meeting in March brought Sarah Skinner's meaningful story of learning from mistakes. Did you know failure is just succeeding at the wrong thing? Carrie Henderson, a seasoned speaker of Electric Toasters, proved that we toast, too, and we toast well! Carrie was mastering her toast for a dear friend, Carol.

April brought some interesting speeches as well. On 4/6 Jason Kent presented El Salvador from a perspective of  a Habitat for Humanity volunteer. Jason went to South America to build houses for a community of Salvadorians without real homes.

April was rich in great speeches as well. During the 4/1 meeting Laurel Vallarta talked about the extreme sleeping techniques (demonstration included!) and Jeff Brooks introduced his new best friend, who happens to swallow a lot of objects but seem to be now back on track with focusing on nice bones to chew instead.

On 4/20 Mike Fajen spoke about diet and how three things are suspects in people’s health problems: gluten, sugar and dairy products. Guest Shane Kennedy practiced for the division speech contest with the Socratic Warrior theme and a speech about his experience at Marine officer candidate school.

Open House on 4/27 had Ania Osińska-Bulloff delivered a speech on a desire to travel the world from the comfort of one's own home, the invention of the Airstream, and where the vehicle has taken people in the world and in their lives.

Published by Ania Osińska-Bulloff, VP of Public Relations