Winter Break!

Just as bears and marmots hibernate through the cold winter months, so too does UT Sciences Toastmasters Club go on hiatus. As the university closes for Winter Break, our official meetings will be on hold from now until mid January.

Please join us for our next meeting on January 11, 2013 at 5:55 pm in SAC 1.106!

No meeting on November 23, 2012

Because of Thanksgiving, our club will not be meeting on November 23, 2012. We hope to see you the week after on November 30, 2012!

209th Meeting

Our prepared speaker gave a speech about time that provoked both thoughts and chuckles. Our Toastmaster made sure we knew what time it was: game time! Eight impromptu speakers tested their wits in front of a crowd by fielding questions about games of all kinds. The crowd seemed to like them all, as each speaker got at least one vote for best Table Topics speaker. Our area Table Topics champion and a guest did get a few more votes than the rest—and the glory and prize stickers that came with them.

208th Meeting

A great welcome back to all of our guests who attended the Open House to our meeting this evening!

Maryam gave a moving speech set on a cold New Year's Eve, while Kalen retold the history of Perseus and the slaying of Medusa.

Later this evening I asked the audience to describe something they know well -- such as swimming, football, and photographs -- to someone (be it aliens or Tarzan) who might be unfamiliar with these objects and actions. The theme this evening was Explanation Station.

207th Meeting

Open house!

Out halls (single lecture room) were bursting out the door (a couple of chairs left) for this once-in-a-lifetime (semester) event!

Food was aplenty this evening as our members and new guests discussed why they love to speak, or why they want to speak. Our member Alex posed many questions to the audience designed to get people focused on different methods as they spoke.

As always, guests are always invited, and we hope to see all of our Open House attendees back!

Open House This Friday!

Everyone is encouraged to attend our Fall Semester Open House. It will be held at 5:55 PM this Friday, September 21st. It is a great way to be introduced to the structure and resources of Toastmasters as a new guest.

206th Meeting

Tonight we held a club Table Topics and Tall Tales Contest in preparation for the district competition this upcoming Monday. We heard quite the tale of bravery from Kalen, a member who has traveled to Mars to fix Curiosity. Against him, our member Alex spoke about his recent experience in the Netherlands.

Our Table Topics contestants all envisioned a new degree program around any activity of their choice, varying wildly in their interpretations.

There are always many competitions a Toastmaster member can become a part of during the year for improvement. Competitions are held at a club, regional, national, and international levels.

205th Meeting

We were bursting to the limits this meeting, as a group of English teachers from Japan paid us a visit this week! Many of the UT Sciences Toastmasters group are international. We actually have quite the mix of members - undergraduates, graduates, staff, and those who just can't bear to leave! All our welcome to our meetings, as long as you want to practice speaking in a warm environment.

Appropriately, our theme of the evening was Colors. Members and guests all spoke about their favorite colors, or the colors that most represented them or their work, in our impromptu speech section.

Guests are always welcome!

204th Meeting

Tonight we had two presenters, Maryam and Kalen, who both presented humorous and yet morally infused tales for their next speech projects. Maryam told us about the Car that wouldn't Drive, and Kalen about... The Affliction -- Fantasy sports, which are the leading cause of obesity in America, if you believe his humorous tale.

As for our impromptu speech section, I led many members and guests to discuss various decisions they have made in their lives, from scary life decisions to the decor of their rooms.

As a reminder, any new guests who visit our meetings may be asked to give a 1-2 minute impromptu speech related to the topic of the meeting. They may opt out, if they so choose.

203rd meeting

It is ugly, is is beauty, it constrains us, it sets us free, it is sought by all people, it is overlooked by all people—in short, the truth is a topic that is so much as interesting as our past meeting themes, that our Table Topics master insisted that questions we fielded about it, whether we were new or old to the speaking game, provided a superlative degree of practice only. The truth also requires me to give credit to Charles Dickens for the structure of the last sentence and, I suppose, to our prepared speaker for a tightly-structured speech about how to safely commute to UT on a bicycle.

202nd Meeting

It's always interesting to discover the variety of people that an institute like UT draws in, and our meeting this evening reflected such diversity.

In a prepared speech, our member Xiang related to us the tale of an old Chinese war that was reputedly started by foxes, but was fueled by the greed and nature of humanity. In table topics, the impromptu speech sections, we discussed everything from American culture-shock to professions such as elephant poop-scoopers. You had to have been there. Unfortunately, it's too late now -- but you CAN be at our meeting this Friday, at our normal location, at 5:55 PM!

201st Meeting

Hi all!

Today's theme was silence, and it sparked lots of conversation. For example, does the tree falling in the woods make a noise if no one is listening? It turns out that a scientific explanation - i.e. that an ear is required to register noise - provides a straightforward answer; however, this question has more value in philosophy. In discussing the philosophical side, we had to consider the role of the living in the wider universe, and to question what occurs beyond our senses.

Our one prepared speech was given by Thomas today, concerning the different methods of crafting one's words to convey information. When should we use the socratic method or the reflective method, as opposed to saying immediately saying what we mean?

200th Meeting

"When ideas run out" was our theme. Given the imagination our members displayed in asking and answering questions about this theme, it doesn't look like we'll be running out of ideas anytime soon. Our prepared speaker also told us an imaginative story set in the context of the SETI project. Although I dismissed, as a far-fetched story, the remark of one speaker that aliens may be the ultimate source of our ideas, ideas about aliens seems to make for many entertaining stories.

198th Meeting

It's 2012. You're not worried about the plague. But do you trust everyone in the world who occupies a position of power over you, and doesn't corruption have a way of spreading like a disease? Thus the title of our theme for this meeting: "Corruption: the plague of modern society." Our impromptu speakers addressed a wide range of questions on this topic, including whether corruption should be a capital offense and what to do after you've been caught in acts of corruption (assuming the law does not say it is a capital offense).

In our prepared speeches session, our first speaker delivered a modern rendition of "Little Red Riding Hood." Our second speaker gave us practical advice on how to deal with the talkative, the argumentative, the uncommunicative, and the otherwise troublesome members of a group when you are leading a discussion.

196th Meeting

Math, clocks, years, alarms, schedules--you name it, and numbers are involved. Today we took a look at what each members considers a "Magical Number" from the golden proportion to the perfect time to arrive at work. 

As a break from all the numbers, our members Xiang and Kalen gave prepared speeches on how to care for your lithium battery and a poignant anecdote describing why squirrels who know that acorns do not fall in piles will not be eaten. 

Special thanks to Jag, our Toastmaster, and Jordi, our Table Topics master. Enjoy your week!

195th meeting

Our theme for this meeting was self-improvement. We proved that it is, in fact, possible to do some things by talking about them.

194th Meeting

Our theme for this meeting was the complex interfaces of "Social Media, Marketing, and Privacy." In the Table Topics session, we heard how some of us use social media to help find jobs. And we heard one of us confess to spying on Facebook friends! As usual, we covered a lot of interesting ground. We also heard two particularly animated prepared speakers. One was just beginning his Competent Communicator manual, the other was completing it. The word of the day was paranoid, and no names appear in this post because many of us seem paranoid (enough?) about privacy on the web.

192nd Meeting

How do you feel about insects? In today's meeting we covered every sort of creepy-crawly from minute ants to giant insectoid aliens from space invading California. Jordi, as part of his advanced communicator manual, led us in a brainstorming session concerning how to repel such an alien invasion. We also had the privilege to welcome three new guests, two men from Korea and Heidi from Germany, who enlivened our discussion. Alex was quick to fill the extra time we were left with at the end of the meeting with a few impromptu questions for audience concerning the smaller creatures in this ecosystem of Earth. Thank you all for a great week.

191st meeting

"I, me, and myself" was our theme for this meeting, not the trite "me, myself, and I." Just as our theme gave a familiar phrase a fresh new sound, Alex led a Table Topics session in which we all refreshed our views of fellow members,  guests, and maybe even ourselves. In our prepared speeches segment, Kalen held our attention captive with his smooth telling of "The Fountain of Fair Fortune." Mick Normington also had our attention with his informative talk "What You Study Matters: Trends in Pay for Workers with Graduate Degrees in Texas." Throughout the meeting, our experienced Toastmaster Jordi made the executive decisions and said the good words that keep meetings running smoothly.

190th meeting

Our Toastmaster Marcel set the right tone for this meeting's potentially delicate but broadly interesting theme of "National Stereotypes." Many speakers later fielded Table Topicsmaster Jag's questions with candor, tact, and humor. Everyone present seemed to enjoy the meeting with the exception the excitable Mrs. Bennet, who was vividly portrayed by Maryam in her reading of the first two chapters of Pride and Prejudice. Alex, our other prepared speaker, presented his research-your-topic project with a talk entitled "Copyright in the  Information Age."  Many members of the evaluation team complimented him on his articulate presentation of several relevant and verifiable facts.

189th Meeting

You didn't need to be a numerologist to expect something special to happen on May 18 at our eighteenth meeting of this year. And you would have been right in about eight ways! Our Toastmaster Xiang led us through an adventurous meeting. We had our Table Topics segment first, in which Kalen challenged many of us to demonstrate our rhetorical wizardry by answering questions more or less related to wizards. (Our theme was Harry Potter versus The Lord of the Rings.) In place of one prepared speech, Maryam and Jag delved further into the relative merits of Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings series in a panel discussion moderated by Jordi.  That discussion came after a brief trip back to reality, in which Area Governor Mick Normington delivered a speech on the difficult job market for those with advanced degrees outside of STEM. A few other guests were present and also enriched the meeting with their words and ears. In sum, this meeting was another fine addition to the UT Sciences Toastmasters genre←(Word of the Day).

Update your maps!

UT Sciences Toastmasters is moving to a new location!

Starting on June 1, 2012, we will meet in the Student Activities Center (SAC room 1.106) at 5:55 pm every Friday.

This lovely room on the first floor of the SAC will be our new home all Summer and Fall. Come join us on the first Friday of June.

Click here for a map and pictures.

As always, parking is free on Dean Keeton Road after 5 pm, and paid visitor parking is available at the University garages.

186th Meeting

Arrr! An onomatopeia for the pirate's native language. That word was uttered many times at our meeting today, led by Toastmaster Kalen, because our theme was piracy. What do you think of when you think of piracy? Economical downloading? Swords and cannons? Young boys with guns? The wide blue sea? Cruise ships? All were discussed today during our table topics session, led by Maryam Ali.

In addition, we had two guests, Sultan and Thomas, who added a brand new perspective to our crew. Marcel also gave his second speech, "Say Yes, and Invest," which I personally found very useful as I still have money sitting around, collecting dust.

See you next week!

185th meeting

Today Maryam was our Toastmaster of the Day, and Alex was the Table Topics Master. Alex turned our theme of "Diplomacy and Tact" into a respond-and-react type of experience, in which members were thrown into delicate situations and had to talk (or more often lie) their way out. In a mysterious way the chicken dance was involved--but you had to be there.

Our prepared speaker today was Jordi, giving us several practical tips on how to choose a speech topic. Good job everyone!

184th Meeting

This week Xiang was Toastmaster for the first time and led the meeting with style and warmth!  Our speakers were Maryam, giving us an uplifting speech concerning how to live life to a fuller extent, and Marcel, giving his first speech, the Icebreaker, which everyone enjoyed very much!

The theme was "You have the right to remain silent" and I as topic master held an informal court in which Jordi was pronounced not guilty (though everyone really thinks he stole the pig).

Finally, I hope everyone endeavors to keep using the word of the day: defenestrate! "Tonight at Wendys, he defenestrated his boot. It was hilarious."

Open House: 182nd Meeting

Thanks to everyone for a great Open House!

For our spring semester Open House, we had 12 guests including our area governor, Mick Normington. We had excellent speeches given by Jag and Jordi on their fears, fitting our theme of the evening: Snakes, Clowns, and Public Speaking.

Kalen served as both meeting coordinator and Toastmaster, while the Table Topics master was Justin who peppered us with excellent and hilarious questions concerning all of our fears.

Victor and Maryam made the decorations and food a hit:

Thank you to all the guests for being open minded in participation and attendance, and we hope to see you all again!

Spring Break

Dear Toastmasters and guests,

Because of Spring Break at the University of Texas, we will not be meeting on March 16, 2012.

If you are in town during March 9-18, you may wish to attend the South-by-Southwest festival which features a vast number of public speakers sharing their ideas. A list of free events is listed here.

Be sure to join us back on campus on March 23!

179th Meeting

Hello one and all! During our 8th Meeting of 2012 we discussed "Fast Food." There were lots of contentious arguments and even a couple of impromptu cooking shows. We were led by Jag, the Toastmaster of the evening, and Victor provided us with a fun Table Topics session as Table Topics Master.

The speeches today were given by Maryam, who presented a thrilling and well-conducted impromptu speech on the Occupy movement. Eamon gave speech #4 from the CC manual called "A dice game you can always win." Their evaluators were Alex (for Maryam) and Justin (for Eamon).

Our General Evaluator was Kalen, and he managed the supporting roles of Grammarian (Marcell), Ah Counter and Vote Counter (Kathy), and Time Keeper (Alex).

Thanks all for a great week at 5:55pm in PHR 2.110!

178th Meeting

It is TV Sweeps Season, and today we talked all about the peculiarities of the TV industry. Alex was our Toastmaster and Maryam was our Table Topics Master. They both did a masterful job.

Our prepared speakers were Xiang, giving his Icebreaker, and Jordi, whose speech we will never mention again. They both did a good job and had a lot of preparation.

Their evaluators were Natasha (Xiang) and Mick (Jordi). The general evaluator was Kathy.

The supporting roles were Kathy (grammarian), Eamon (Ah Counter), Maryam (Time Keeper), and Natasha (Vote Counter). The word of today was chicanery, which was no joke!

Thanks everyone for another great week!

177th Meeting

Today's meeting was full of laughs! Our Toastmaster, Maryam, led us off with the topic of "St. Valentine's Day". The Table Topics Master, Jordi Calveras, gave us many chances to work on creating the typical romance story as well as some new creative ones. The word of the day was "revere."

Our first prepared speaker was Kalen, giving his first speech from the "Humorously Speaking" manual. Kathy gave the second speech--her first one (icebreaker)!

We had a few guests who tried their luck at our Table Topics -- one, Aakash, even won this week! Great work guys.

The supporting roles were served by Eamon (Grammarian), Xiang (Ah Counter, Vote Counter), and Alex Loh (Time Keeper). Guys, please try to sign up for roles sooner >.<. But no big.

The general evaluator was Alex, and the evaluators were Eamon (Kalen's speech) and Victor (Kathy's speech).

After the meeting was our monthly dinner social, where the rain kept us in to keep us socializing for even longer! It was a lot of fun (yum... 30 inch pizza).

Join us next week for the next action-packed episode of Lost! er, I mean, Toastmasters.

176th Meeting

Today's Toastmaster was Eamon, with the Topics Master of Victor Yu handling the theme "Buying and Selling."

Our speaker was Maryam, on The Toastmasters Educational Program (The Successful Club Series 10-15 min).

The General Evaluator was Jordi and Kalen was evaluated Maryam's speech.

Our supporting roles were served by Natasha (grammarian, Vote Counter) and Jordi (Time Keeper)

Thanks for the great week!

175th Meeting

We had a great meeting this week. Our Toastmaster of the Day was Justin, and the topic was "Why am I so AWESOME?" The word of the day was egomaniacal.

We had some guests--Megan, Marcel, Mick and Joshua--some of whom got to get their feet wet by speaking on the spot during our Table Topics session. Our Table Topics master was Alex and our general evaluator was Kalen.

Our speakers today were Jordi and Mick, our guest and area governor. Jordi's speech was a little unusual, a monodrama from the perspective of Isaac Newton in an advanced communicator manual. Jordi's evaluator was Maryam and Mick's was Alex.

The supporting roles were filled by Victor (Grammarian and Ah Counter), Maryam (Time Keeper), and Alex (Vote Counter).

All guests are welcome to join us next week!

174th meeting

Today was the 4th meeting of the year. Our theme today was "Animals with Party Hats," and the word of the day was "sartorial." The Toastmaster was Kathy Spradlin.

Tatiana gave her 4th speech in the Competent Communicator manual entitled "What is the time?" Alex Loh gave his fifth speech in this manual concerning the new mentorship program for new members!

Jag Swaminathan was the entertaining TableTopics Master.

Maryam Ali was General Evaluator. Andrew Engel evaluated Tatiana's speech and Jordi evaluated Alex's speech.  Supporting roles were filled by Eamon (Grammarian), Ahmed (Vote Counter and Ah Counter) and Xiang Hu (Time Keeper).

Today's meeting was also graced by several visitors. We were delighted to have such an enthusiastic group of people join us and participate in our meeting!

Join us next time for our meeting with the theme "Why am I so AWESOME?"

173rd Meeting

Today was our 3rd meeting of 2012. The Toastmaster of the Day was Kathy, on the topic "Festivals from Around the Globe."

Our speakers were Maryam on the Distinguished Club Program and Jordi who is on his second speech of the Interpretive Reading manual.

Our general evaluator was Alex Loh. Maryam was evaluated by Justin and Jordi by Victor. The supporting roles were filled by Natasha (Grammarian), Xiang (Ah Counter), Andrew (Time Keeper), Jag (Vote Counter).

Thanks for the great week everyone!

172nd Meeting

Today was the 2nd meeting of the year. We continued the theme of Holiday Madness with "reprieve" as the word of the day. Alex Loh was the Toastmaster of the Day.

Jordi Calveras is now on his 4th advanced manual! He gave an Interpretive Reading of the fairy tale "A Little Mermaid".

Maryam Ali was the TableTopics Master.

Tatiana Makhinova was General Evaluator and Jag Swaminathan evaluated Jordi's speech. Supporting roles were filled by Jag (Grammarian and Ah Counter) and Xiang Hu (Time Keeper and Vote Counter).

Today's meeting was also graced by several visitors: a group of Korean teachers of English are attending the Texas Intensive English Program (TIEP) and came to our Toastmasters meeting. We were delighted to have such an enthusiastic group of people join us and participate in our meeting!

Join us next time to talk about Festivals from Around the Globe!

171st Meeting

Our first meeting of the year was unusual in format. With the university out of session and many members still away for their holidays, we had an attendance of 3 members plus our visiting Area Governor. Surprisingly, this led to a very productive meeting in which each person had a chance to speak and receive feedback from every other person.

Alex Loh was Toastmaster of the Day. Area Governor Mick Normington gave us a speech on "The Three Big Things You Get in Toastmasters". Maryam Ali was the TableTopics Master, asking questions on Holiday Madness. Natasha Scherbakova filled in as Evaluator.

The meeting was followed by a fascinating discussion on Toastmasters and the job market.