West Austin II Toastmasters

09/24/2026

Eight members and one guest attended our September 24 meeting.

Chad was today’s Toastmaster with a theme of “What are you coming back to?”
Brantley was the Grammarian and chose “harbinger” as the Word of the Day.
Alec timed, and Rick counted votes.
Raj gave a speech titled “How to Use Pathways and the Club Website.”
Presentation Mastery — Level 4: Question-and-Answer Session (15–20 min). Members found it very enlightening, and it seems to have encouraged more of us to use Pathways.
Kirk stepped up as the first time Topics Master and asked questions related to the theme. He called on Rick, Glenn, Brantley, and our guest Sam.
Glenn was the General Evaluator and introduced David Brooks, who evaluated Raj, then called on Brantley for her Grammarian’s report.
Sam took home the “Best Table Topic.”
Next week, Alec is our Toastmaster. We have openings for Grammarian, Timer, and an Evaluator for Chad's speech.

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09/17/2026

Whoa! We had 13 members and one guest at our meeting today!

Raj was our Toastmaster, and our theme was communication styles.

Karen was our grammarian and announced the Word of the Day: “Attuned.”

Fei gave a speech about Chongqing, a city in SW China where her grandparents are from. She made effective use of the large monitor, which showed pictures of an amazing city built in mountainous terrain.

Amy gave a humorous speech about five Yiddish words that everyone should know.

Kvetch-to complain

Schlep-to travel or transport while being inconvenienced

Chutzpah-Brazeness, courage

Mensch-fine upstanding guy

Schmaltz-Over the top, sickly sweet.

Kirk gave his icebreaker, telling us about his profession as a pharmacist and his hobbies, which include board games, working out, and cycling. He’s one of five brothers, originally from Seattle, but he’s been in Austin for five years.

Chad filled in for our absent Topicsmaster, putting the “impromptu” in impromptu.

He called on Sandie, our Area Director, who told us why Toastmasters is awesome.

Luis, who told us about the best thing that happened this week and that he’s soon headed to Japan for a visit

Drea, who talked about coming back to West Austin II after being gone.

Rick was our General Evaluator and introduced:

Lorenzo, who evaluated Fei

Chad, who evaluated Amy

and Brantley, who evaluated Kirk

Best Speaker-Kirk

Best Table Topic-Sandie

Best Evaluator-Chad.

(Photo of Raj, as our Toastmaster)

09/04/2026

Ten members, including one guest were present at our September 3, 2026 meeting

Congratulations to Raj, who has completed Level 3 in the Presentation Mastery Path!

Fei was our Toastmaster with the theme "Environment and our Daily Choices. With the recent events in Nepal, what can we do to positively impact our environment?

Our guest, Kirk, filled in at the last minute as Grammarian and came up with ‘Y’all” as the Word of the Day.”

Courtney was the vote counter.

Drea was the timer.

Brantley delivered a funny and engaging speech, “Your Home Is Not A Firehouse,” about living with a husband who is an Austin firefighter.

Glenn was the Table Topics Master and called on Luis, Raj, Courtney, Kirk, Alec, and Drea.

Alec was a first-time General Evaluator and introduced Rick, who evaluated Brantley. Rick complimented her on her use of humor, vocal variety, and storytelling.

Drea received the award for Best Table Topics, talking about how Texas was less humid than Florida, but still fooled her for a year or so with cooler weather. Then the heat hit.

We'll be back at it again next Thursday morning from 7:00 to about 8:15 1304 West Avenue, Austin!

Come join us! We love guests!

08/27/2026

“Who are you rooting for?”

That was the theme of our August 26 meeting. As fall approaches, sports are ramping up at the high school, college, and professional levels. But the theme also worked for those who aren't sports fans but are cheering on other endeavors.

Nine memberrs and two guests attended our meeting today.

Brantly, our Toastmaster, opened with a discussion explaining that her high school daughter was a member of the band’s color guard, and she was rooting for her.

Alec gave his icebreaker speech titled, “One Word Can Make All The Difference.” He talked about how he added to the famous Nike slogan, “Just Do It,” by changing it to “Just Do It Badly,” when you are reluctant to do something because you believe you won’t be good at it. In his case, he wanted to train for a triathlon, but felt he wasn’t good at any of the three legs, especially swimming. He resisted joining a group of triathletes but overcame that reluctance and had a great experience making new friends when he did.

Raj followed up with a speech discussing the different Toastmasters meeting roles and ended it with a quiz, which sparked a lively discussion.

David volunteered to be Topic Master and came up with six topics on the fly. Drea, Josh (who managed to weave in nihilism after dodging the question directed at him), Amy, Fei, Courtney, and our guest all participated.

Brantley filled in as General Evaluator and introduced Amy, who evaluated Alec’s icebreaker. She then facilitated a round-table evaluation of Raj’s speech. Everyone enjoyed the quiz (which fortunately did not involve essays or blue books).

Glenn gave the grammarian’s report and pointed out several effective uses of colorful phrases. He complimented Alec on not having more than a couple of fillers, thereby keeping Glenn’s icebreaker record of 46 ums and ahs from 2004 intact.

Alec received the Best Speaker Award.

Amy received the Best Table Topic Award.

We finished up around 8:05 am.

We'll be back at it again next Thursday. Come join us!

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08/26/2026

Nine Members and one guest joined us for our August 20th meeting.
Raj presided over the meeting, with Karen serving as Toastmaster and General Evaluator.
Amy served as Table Topics Master, and David as Grammarian. Karen delivered an
excellent opening focused on career.
Word of the Day: Fatuous
Speeches:
Fei drew on her childhood experiences to create a connection that resonates with her. She described the water irrigation systems in China, explaining how people utilized the power
of nature rather than fighting against it. We learned about geography, topography, and
irrigation systems and thoroughly enjoyed her speech.

Lorenzo gave an entertaining speech, as always. We learned about his internship experiences in Michigan. He worked as a quality controller for concrete road sections, worked in the energy industry, and served as a sewerage inspector. He shared three
lessons from these experiences: difficult experiences are often okay in the end; always tell the truth, no matter how bad the experience may be; and if you don't like a job, change it and move on.

Drea talked about “Bucket and Trigger.” She explained how analogies can make confusing terms easier to understand. She described how she breaks down concepts and then uses familiar vocabulary and analogies, such as “bucket,” to explain them. She clearly explained the terms estate, probation, and will. We learned a lot and enjoyed her speech.

We'll be meeting again on Thursday, August 27th, at 7:00 AM. The meeting address can be found on our website, listed below.

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08/18/2026

West Austin II had an energetic meeting with 10 members and 2 guests on August 13!

Fei served as our Toastmaster with the theme of Reflect, Reset, and Restart.

Rick gave a speech titled “Your Story”.

Raj’s speech was a mock interview, where he simulated an interview for a job.

Lorenzo served as Table Topics Master and presented questions related to the theme. The four lucky Table Topics Speakers were: Alec, Courtney, Luis, and Kirk.

Kirk fearlessly stepped into the role of General Evaluator – his second meeting.

David evaluated Rick, and Drea evaluated Raj.

Best Speaker: Rick

Best Table Topics: Luis

Best Evaluator: Drea

We'll meet again on Thursday, August 20, from 7:00-8:00 AM. We love having guests, so feel free to join us. All we ask of guests is that they take two sentences to introduce themselves at the beginning of the meeting and tell us how they found us. We will invite them to participate in impromptu speaking (Table Topics), but that is entirely up to the guest. Finally, we'll ask for a couple of sentences at the end of the meeting about the guest's impression of the meeting.
We meet at the Law Offices of Legacy and Trust, 1304 West Avenue in Austin. If you need more information, you can visit our website using the link below. Feel free to reach out and ask questions.

08/04/2026

Last Thursday, eight West Austin II members and a returning guest attended our weekly meeting.

What an educational, engaging, and inspiring meeting! Longtime member and 1990 World Champion of Public Speaking, David Brooks, presented a mini-workshop on “Stories.” He had a list of story topics, each a word or two, and asked us to pick one. He then told his story associated with that topic. It was incredible as he shared these very brief stories and asked for our feedback on how we might use that story to make a point. We followed that up with a question-and-answer period.

Some of the takeaways include:

(1) Collect stories that are relatable from everyday life. They do not have to be impressive or awe-inspiring – just events that happen to you or that you observe. Observe these events and situations, personalize them, and share them. Keep a file of stories and use them as appropriate in your speeches. The audience will remember your stories.

(2) In your speeches, make a point, tell a story, make a point.

And if that was not enough, we each had the opportunity to tell a story (this was our Table Topics portion of the meeting. Thus, we were able to immediately put into practice what we had just learned.

Thank you, David!

We're meeting again this Thursday, 7:00-815. Join us at the Law Office of Legacy Estates and Trust, 1304 West Avenue, Austin, 78701. (Street Parking available.)

We love guests! Come visit us!

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07/24/2026

We had a very playful meeting yesterday! We also welcomed Courtney, a guest, and our newest member, Alec.

Karen was our Toastmaster, and her theme was “Play!” How do you do it? What do you do? And what did you use to do?

Attending the meeting were Rick, our fearless President; VPE Raj, former Immediate Past President; Scott, Sergeant-at-Arms; Drea; VP-Public Relations Lorenzo; and Grammarian David and Topics Master Glenn.

Raj gave a speech, “Celebrate Often-Celebrate More,” discussing how he learned to celebrate successes, both personal and work-related. Among his points were that celebrating builds motivation and improves team relationships. Small celebrations can be as important as large ones.

We then segued into Table Topics led by Glenn. Six members and our guest, Courtney, participated. He asked a series of questions using the theme of play. Lorenzo was awarded Best Table Topics either despite or because of choosing to answer an earlier question.

Scott evaluated Raj and gave him useful feedback, touching on what he did well and what he might consider doing differently next time.

We'll meet again at 7:00-800ish AM next Thursday. Join us at the Law Office of Legacy Estates and Trust, 1304 West Avenue, Austin, 78701.

(Street Parking available.)

We love guests! Come visit us!

Send a message to learn more