Saturday, September 22, 2018

Sep 22, 2018 Open House Meeting - Ice Breaker PM1

It was a well attended Open House Meeting for the BF Community Toastmasters Club. The venue, Cassalu Coffee & Kitchen at Las Piñas City was new to us.

Although we ordinarily meet at 3-5 pm, this time the meeting was set to 2-5 pm to accommodate the registration and overview for the non-toastmaster guests.

(photo credits: BF Community TMC)

Starting the program was Toastmaster of the Day, Duchess, (below-left) who is also VP-Membership. Manning the registration table were Marilyn (partially hidden) and Treasurer Marlon (below-right).

     


Unusual and Irregular Layout

The layout of Cassalu is a bit strange for these types of functions because it is a "new-wave" coffee shop. The seats and tables are irregular. There were a couple of "swing" seats. One side of the room ended up being empty because of the indian sitting (cross-legged) arrangement.

The audience ended up positioned in an L-layout. Maybe next time the "stage" can be re-oriented so the speaker may address the audience more effectively with that layout

Shown below is Krissy as she took over as the meeting's Table Topics Master. She picked up random questions based on the replies of the guests on the registration cards.

(photo credits: BF Community TMC)


Second Path in Pathways

In the program, I was one of the prepared speakers of the day. I realized that the last speech I delivered, Write a Compelling Blog, was way back in July at the Strategic Planning Meeting at Firenze.

The speech I delivered today was the Ice Breaker Speech Level 1 of Presentation Mastery. My speech delivery on the Innovative Planning Path has slowed down a bit because of the project-related speeches. So to fast track my speeches a bit, I enrolled (for $20) on a second path, Presentation Mastery.

(photo credits: BF Community TMC)


Open House Meeting Going Overtime

The open house meeting ended much longer than I expected. I suppose with the role-takers' earnest desire to engage the guests, they ended up going overtime.

There were only 2 prepared speakers, Ed and myself. Loise didn't make it in today's meeting.

I wasn't too happy when I delivered the speech though because I felt fatigued. I did make the time though, finishing the speech with the yellow light still on. Much of the original material in my speech was removed to stay within the time limit which is 4-6 minutes for an Ice Breaker.


The Open House meeting finished at almost 6 pm - wow, almost four hours!

Here's a scanned copy of today's Open House Meeting program.


And that's... a wrap!