Gregarious GUTS Gathering Greets 24 Years!

Carolyn Buttolph and Tracy Head were co-coordinators creating a party atmosphere with balloons, wrapped packages, treats on chairs, special program paper, fresh fruit and a decorated cake as GUTS Toasmasters marked its 24th year. Everything was in readiness when members and guests arrived.

Lea Nicholson, our President, opened the meeting relating how working on our Competent Communicator was like biking…sometimes we start to coast easily...but what does it take to start biking up the hill to obtain our goal “GUTS.”

Tracy Head “PartyMaster” then led us through the “Five Course Meal.”

The MENU:
A “Taste” of Humor
Main Course of speeches
“Dessert" was a short break
“Table Topics”

“Evaluations”

Taste of Humor

Jim Chamberlin’s taste of humor, “reflections from the oldest Toastmaster,” was… well enlightening to discover Charles Lindberg… among others used to attend GUTS.

The Main Course

Ayn Dietrich’s, District 27 International Speech Winner 2009, speech “Everybody Gardens” related how gardening as a child reminds her about how we garden our Life. She encouraged us to chose quality over quantity, focus and to take breaks to reflect/refresh.

Carolyn Buttolph’s manual speech from Speaking on Television brought us: “Present at the Beginning”, as she acted as talk show host and interviewed charter members Paul Aligood and Jan Hamlin. Memories…what memories, Jan and Paul brought Hugh and EJ Burgay, the experienced Toastmasters who helped start GUTS, to life with their memories. Hugh has been very active in Toastmasters and had been a District Governor in Florida and an International Director from that area. Hugh was a “no nonsense guy”, an ex-marine but he wanted toastmasters to be fun. He started the GUTS cheer.

E J Burgay joined Toastmasters in 1970s by listing her name as “EJ” because women were not llowed to belong. She became International World champion in 1977. Although she became blind at a young age, it did not stop her from going to law school. Jan remembered that EJ knew people by their voice and would stand at door… greeting people by name as she heard their voice.

Other questions answered: was there always food...yes

Other meeting places: started in the Burgay home, then Chuck and Lydia’s ( with a shooting range in the asement where gunfire could be heard just after 10a and got the meetings to “end on time”), Generous George’s, Jukebox Diner.

Romances? Yes Paul did meet his wife at GUTS Toastmasters.

Bit of Wisdom from Hugh Burgay: 9 times out of 10 a person will say yes they are going to toastmasters but then don’t go…you have to “pick them up...the first time.”

Table Topics
Scott Merritt turned Table Topics into a Picture Party Game! He presented a picture and called on people to “take us into the picture” and tell what was happening. Sungwoo thanked Scott for finding his lost picture of when he went to a park.

• Christine told of a family beach vacation with 2 daughters and 2 mothers having their picture taken. 
• Gerry told us about how her brother got separated and got his picture taken with Ronald MacDonald and then the whole family did. 
• Arthuretta mused about what she was thinking as she held a watering can.
• Hugo told us about his painting and how if he had room he would put the beautiful woman in the picture too. 
• Kathy, a guest, told how simple experiences of a craft fair bonded the older generation to the younger generation and even in this high tech world...the older generation had something offer.

Evaluations

General Evaluator Christine gave a “review” of the GUTS party... a resounding success!!

Jason Morgan received the Burgay Award, which Terry Bartholomew said was best described as going to a “broad spectrum’ Toastmaster

Guests from other clubs were Johnnie, Connie, Shu and Jan. Other Guests were Kathy and Marvin (Jason Morgan’s aunt and uncle), Jason’s wife Kelly.

Words from our guests:

• Johnnie-What does it take to last 24 years? GUTS -Grace, Utility, Talents, Sacrifice.
• Hugh-impressed how whole group is involved: well planned, well organized and went off well.
• Shu: what does it take for a night owl to get up? And come at 8 am --- GUTS
• Kelly: even non Toastmasters showed talent... speaking about Kathy’s table topic answer

Another Great GUTS gathering …don’t miss the next meeting.

--Submitted by Jarlene Buzzell

Who Won the Humorous Speech and Table Topics Contest ? Everyone!

“Seasoned” Contest Coordinator Pat Spurlock and “trainee” Contest Coordinator Jarlene Buzzell put together a great G.U.T.S. Event. Everyone who participated and attended took steps on the “Path to ToastMastery” as they perfected their speech, quickly prepared answers to Table Topics, gained new perspective on many different subjects, evaluated from their seat and/or was an official judge. Contest Hosts were Salman Khurshid and Whitney Liu. Beth was the fabulous photographer.

Presiding Officer Terry Bartholomew opened the meeting with the GUTS question; what would it take for Eeyore to meet the Hulk in a movie?...GUTS! With that fun opening the festivities began. Contest Master Jason Morgan, Chief Judge Shu Bartholomew and Contest Sgt-at-Arms Carolyn Buttolph facilitated a smooth contest. This reporter does not have a listing of the judges but would like to thank all the judges.

Table Topics Contest: How would you answer?…. “Puto, Dwarf Planet”

Terry Bartholomew implored us to “write our congressman and that it was our duty to assist Pluto in reclaiming glory.”

John Battaglia wanted us to “rise up and take to the streets in protest because Pluto had been unfairly singled out.”

Beth Casteel related the idea of Dwarf planet to size, being “smaller than usual” and how affected people’s perceptions of her children.

Bernie Cohen smoothed his way into a story about a “sales call that was unattainable” and related it to Pluto’s unattainable planet status.

Whitney Liu answered with a story about her observations of plants and how they helped the atmosphere around her.

Barbara Marshall told us it “was not Pluto’s fault that he had gone from Super hero to Snow White’s friend” and related that to “Some things are not fair in life.”

Scott Merrit spoke about Pluto being originally found by a farmer looking up in his telescope and that you do not have to be a genius to make a contribution.

The findings of the judges were; 3rd place Bernie Cohen, 2nd place Terry Bartholomew and 1st place Barbara Marshall

On to the Humorous Speech Competition:

Jarlene Buzzell’s speech “Dog Walking” spoke about being an inexperienced dog walker and the importance of learning proper attire, proper leash use and proper voice when walking 2 dogs.

Marty Engle’s speech “Insights Into the Nature of Intelligence” was a GUTSy presentation after just joining Toastmasters the previous week. Exceeded any expectations…marvelous job.

Salman Khurshid’s speech, “Working with Different People” related good natured incidents at his work arising from English language difficulties.

Whitney Liu’s speech “My Embarrassing Moments” spoke about the misunderstanding of some English words and the humorous misunderstandings it caused.

Tracey Head’s speech “Letting Go” spoke about her broken relationship with “PC” and what had caused it.

The findings of the judges were; 3rd place Salman Khurshid, 2nd place Terry Head and 1st place Jarlene Buzzell.

--Submitted by Jarlene Buzzell

Volume 1 - Issue 1 GUTS Gazette

“So much fun I want to get out of bed on Saturday morning to come” said Marty, who joined at the end of the meeting. “Thanks for the welcome and valuable evaluations” and “like all the Dramatics” were comments by our visitors. We had 27 people and the energy was felt from the GUTS cheer led by our President Lea Nicholson til the awards were handed out.

Toastmaster of the Day Beth Casteel masterfully wove the theme “Idioms” throughout the meeting. She used idioms from other cultures, familiar idioms, and enlightened us on how idioms may mean different things in a different culture. For example, we all know what “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” means in America. In Japan, to “scratch someone’s back” means to outsmart them. Many of Beth's idioms came from the new book I'm Not Hanging Noodles on Your Ears by Jag Bhalla.

Speeches were given by Jennifer, Jim and Carolyn.

Jennifer Robinson gave her speech from the CC Manual, Project #9 (#10 and completion of her CC is just around the corner!) titled “My Challenge of Learning Chinese in Taiwan.” Jennifer gave us a vivid and honest picture of her struggle and perseverance to become fluent in Chinese. She convinced me that as difficult as it would be, immersion into a language is a great way to learn even if it included watching Chinese horror and vampire pictures.

Jim Chamberlin’s speech of “Caught Between Two Worlds” entertained and gave us a glimpse into another Toastmaster Club.

Even though the PowerPoint presentation of her speech was unavailable, Carolyn Buttolph persevered and gave a detailed talk, from the Leadership Excellence Series, titled “Motivating People.” She shared how motivating people was a complex issue because no one is the same. The challenge is to “structure the environment” so that “people motivated themselves.”

No one could say “Don’t Get Caught with Your Pants Down” with Theresa Del Grippo facilitating Table Topics, as they gave their opinion on “My crazy one”(from Dominican Republic), “Chip on my Shoulder”, ”One’s belly boils over(from Japan), and “ One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.”

Chris Harrop was not “… banging on the tea kettle” (long winded-Yiddish) pointing out our Dramatic moments. Chris succinctly told of our moments of outstanding speech craft.

Bernie Cohen “left no stone unturned” in telling us about our use of the word of the day “vernacular” or tallying our Ums and Ahs. He reminded us that when we feel the need to use an “Um or Ah” think period (.) and pause… in silence.

Anil Savkar did not “split any hairs” enlightening us to grammatical errors.
Alice Sasscer did not leave us “hanging by a thread" for long as she announced the award winners.

Best Table Topics went Paul White who did not answer the question asked but “smoothed his way into” a great story. Best Evaluator was Diane Tuluceanu who managed to come up with a few pointers for our seasoned Toastmaster Jim.

Carolyn Buttolph took best speaker award.

We “called it a Day” when Cindy Lai Robinson gave her remarks as General Evaluator. Cindy commented that a good evaluation follows the same outline as a speech with opening, body and conclusion where thoughts are restated in summary form.

All idioms used above were furnished by TMOD Beth Casteel in her program.
Another great, GUTS, gathering with food, fun and “food for thought.”

Submitted by Jarlene Buzzell