Members present: Joyce Feustel, Allen Fujimoto, Andrew Heltzel, Nik Nikkel, Jon Morrissey, Gordon Savage, Ron Wachenheim, and Troy Wilkens.

Guests: Liliana Lomas, Rachel Saphire, and a couple named Matt and Megan (but I didn't get their last name - Troy should have that).

Sgt. At Arms Allen Fujimoto called the meeting to order and introduced VP of Membership Troy Wilkens as the presiding officer. He welcomed the guests and members and introduced Gordon Savage who served as the toastmaster. Ron Wachenheim presented "diversity" as the word of the day. Andrew Heltzel provided the inspiration by elaborating on the concept of innovation which he summed by calling it "a successful introduction of something new and useful."

Gordon commented that we are having some innovations in our club, such as the new evaluation forms that were designed by Nik and Andrew.

The first speaker was Joyce Feustel doing the "Setting the Stage for Success: Meeting Roles and Responsibilities," which is one of the prepared modules from Toastmasters International's Successful Club Series. She briefly reviewed all the roles in a typical meeting and also what roles the officers play in making the meeting successful and the club itself successful.

The second speaker was Nik Nikkel doing the vocal variety project from the Competent Communication Manual. In his talk "Confrontations - Don't Blow Them Up or Blow Them Off," he related that a common pattern when a problem happens is that we tell a story about what we perceived happened and then experience emotions related to that story. We typically run away or rush into confrontation. Neither are good alternatives. He also talked about attribution error in which people attribute someone's actions to the personality of the other person as opposed to attributing the actions to situations. He advised that we try framing the problem as a mental exercise, at least to get the blood moving back into our brain. He then described that mental exercise.

Ron Wachenheim served as the topics master. Speakers and their responses were:

• Allen Fujimoto talked about the importance of innovation.
• Gordon Savage said that if he could invent something new to the world it would be some kind of practical cold fusion power generating process.
• Our guest Matt said that if he could create a new company, he would call it "Innovative Ideas," and his product would be innovative ideas from the best and the brightest.
• Our guest Rachel said that to help leaders be more innovative, she would require them to learn to speak well and spend at least some time as a teacher of children.
• Our guest Liliana would plan an innovative birthday party for a friend by having it at an art exhibit in Venice, with all the guests wearing a costume and then reveal who they were, as it would be a surprise birthday party.

Troy Wilkens served as chief evaluator and also evaluated Joyce's speech. First, he was impressed with how she started out her comments by using the word "fortuitous." He liked the analogy she drew between a concert and a Toastmasters club meeting. Also, she kept people interested as she made different comments about the members in the club and the roles they plan in meetings and as officers. He found it interesting that she compared the activities of the VP of Membership to that of a salesperson. Her pace was good at the beginning, but she became more rushed as she continued. It would have helped to have a pause between each role and each officer position. She seems to be better at story telling than at informative speeches. Also she has a tendency to scratch her head.

Gordon Savage then evaluated Nik's speech. He noted that he always learns something when Nik speaks. In this speech he heard Nik make a powerful plea for maintaining equilibrium when things don't go the way we had hoped. The speech lent itself very well to vocal variety, and his conversational style worked very well. However, his pace was very steady throughout. He might try speeding up in some sections and slowing down in others. Also, he could add more emotion and vocal power.

Troy said that he enjoyed the theme of the meeting. He noted that the meeting started on time and had two terrific speeches. He just wished that Andrew and Jon could have been able to answer a table topics questions. The evaluations were good. Jon Morrissey as timer reported that everyone was within time. Ron Wachenheim as grammarian noted that several people used the word of the day. He liked the phrases "act like a rhesus monkey," "tortured silence" and "he's floored!" As ah counter he listed all the verbal fillers people had. Andrew then told a joke about computers and cars. Gordon turned control of the meeting back to Troy. Jon reported that Rachel was voted the best table topics speaker and Troy the best evaluator. We did not vote for best speaker, since Joyce's talk was a "canned speech," so Nik was the best speaker.

Troy asked the guests for their reaction to the meeting. Rachel found it to be less intimidating the 2nd time as a guest, and she noted that she loves to speak in front of others and wants to be better at it. Matt said the meeting was pretty much what he expected to be. As the newly appointed head football coach, he wants to be better at speaking in front of youth and their parents. Megan wasn't sure what to expect. She is a coach for cheerleaders and "poms." Liliana is going back into the workforce and needs help with her interviewing skills

Ron reminded everyone to pay their dues on time. Gordon said that a nominating committee will form and seek officer candidates. As the immediate past president of the club, he will head up that committee. Meeting adjourned by Sgt. at Arms Allen Fujimoto at 8:30 p.m.