Frank Moraes

Frank has worked in the tech industry since the early 1990s — as a writer, programmer, and manager. He’s an insatiable blogger and “Don Quixote” fanatic. In his spare time, Frank writes experimental plays — usually involving puppets like Grumpy Squirrel in his image.

Most commented posts

  1. Look Who’s Podcasting Now! — 2 comments
  2. Michelle Dazzles at Toastmasters Speech Contest — 1 comment
  3. May 7, 2019 Meeting Minutes — 1 comment

Author's posts

Michelle Dazzles at Toastmasters Speech Contest

Michelle Hardeman-Guptill at Toastmasters District 57 Area G25 and G31 Speech Contest

On Saturday, 7 March 2020, Areas G31 and G25 (Ours!) of District 57 of Toastmasters held its International Speech and Evaluation Contests. Our very own Noon Toastmaster Michelle Hardeman-Guptill competed in the evaluation contest and did very well. I’ll get back to that in a moment. These Area and District events are really great to …

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Look Who’s Podcasting Now!

About a year and a half ago, someone mentioned creating a podcast for Noon Toastmasters. I hated the idea — mostly because I knew everyone expected me to do all the technical stuff. (I tell people: my professional life revolves around technology, but I hate it!) It came to nothing when everyone realized that I …

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June 18, 2019 Meeting Minutes

Overview Location Brookdale Paulin Creek Timing Start Time: 12:12 pm End Time: 1:11 pm Attendees 11 Members: President MeL Konrad, VP Education Brian Buckman, VP Membership Bert Rangel, VP PR Holly Young, Sergeant at Arms Kelly Cunneen, Treasurer Mark Burchill, Secretary Frank Moraes, Dan Schell, Gabriel Cox, Harry Holland, and Steve Domkowski. 1 Guest: Matt. …

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Noon Toastmasters New Meeting Location!

Sonoma County Tourism Meeting Room Starting at our next meeting on July 2, 2019, Noon Toastmasters will be meeting in our new location at Sonoma County Tourism. When we were considering new meeting locations, we wrote down all the things we would want in our dream meeting location: 25 chairs Storage Quiet Good location Easy …

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June 04, 2019 Meeting Minutes

Overview Location Brookdale Paulin Creek Timing Start Time: 12:12 pm End Time: 1:13 pm Attendees 13 Members: President MeL Konrad, VP Education Brian Buckman, VP Membership Bert Rangel, VP PR Holly Young, Sergeant at Arms Kelly Cunneen, Treasurer Mark Burchill, Secretary Frank Moraes, Christy Helvajian, Dan Schell, Gabriel Cox, Harry Holland, Stephanie K Thatcher, and …

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May 21, 2019 Meeting Minutes

Overview Location Brookdale Paulin Creek Timing Start Time: 12:12 pm End Time: 12:50 pm Attendees 10 Members: VP Education Brian Buckman, VP Membership Bert Rangel, VP PR Holly Young, Sergeant at Arms Kelly Cunneen, Secretary Frank Moraes, Christy Helvajian, Dan Schell, Harry Holland, Stephanie K Thatcher, and Steve Domkowski. 7 Gusts: Gabriel, Gayle, Lou-Jean, Matt, …

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May 7, 2019 Meeting Minutes

Overview Location Brookdale Paulin Creek Timing Start Time: 12:12 pm End Time: 1:12 pm Attendees 10 Members: President MeL Konrad, VP Education Brian Buckman, VP Membership Bert Rangel, VP PR pro tem Holly Young, Sergeant at Arms Kelly Cunneen, Treasurer Mark Burchill, Secretary Frank Moraes, Christy Helvajian, Stephanie K Thatcher, Steve Domkowski. 3 Gusts: Bosten, …

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Ice Breakers for Public Speakers

At Toastmasters, we think of an “ice breaker” as the first speech that we give in the program. Of course, “ice breaker” has a more general meaning. Most people think of it as some kind of device used by a speaker to capture the audience’s attention. And it is in this regard that I want …

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April 18th 2019 Noon Toastmasters Meeting

Minutes Location Brookdale Paulin Creek Timing Start Time: 12:12 pm End Time: 1:12 pm Attendees 9 Members: President MeL Konrad, VP Education Brian Buckman, VP Membership Bert Rangel, Treasurer Mark Burchill, Secretary Frank Moraes, Holly Young, Orlando Kai O’Shea, Stephanie K Thatcher, Steve Domkowski. 3 Gusts: Area 25 Director Donica Hopkins, Jennifer Shannon, and Gabriel. …

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02 Oct 2018 Meeting Narrative

Kelly brought the meeting to order to stating the mission of the club. I think it has something to do with making people feel horrible about themselves, turning into shut-ins, and dying alone with two tons of unread newspapers. Or maybe the opposite. Okay, okay. It is: The mission of our Noon Toastmasters club is …

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