Meeting recap greetings from 5775 Glenridge Drive!  Monday, September 28^th found Speakers Roundtable settling in to our new meeting location, courtesy of GMAC and the wonderful online directions from our one-and-only Paul Johnson.  In spite of the recent heavy rains and flooding, twelve members and nine guests were present.  Four of the guests were repeaters!  Our new meeting room is large, set up classroom style, and has many hi-tech electronic enhancements which can only add to the quality of club speeches.  President Bill Kovach welcomed everyone and later in the evening introduced Rich Hart who also welcomed us and explained the many meeting room amenities we now have available.

Toast Master Iris Grimm kicked off the program with a wonderful Keith Harrell quote which added inspiration and depth to the entire meeting.  Our first speaker of the evening was our immediate past president, Claudia Brogan.  Her speech was aptly titled, “The Wonder of Words.”  She inspired us to reconsider our word choices and uses (not usage) through the inclusion of puns, six word memoirs and being word alert.  Claudia included fun samples of each.  The oral evaluations gave evidence that her message had definitely been well received.

Jon Schwartz presented “Vinny Vents.  Episode 11: The Martini.”  With cocktail glass, shaker and imaginary liquor, Vinny discussed, as only Vinny could, the lost art of making a perfect martini.  Aside from entertaining us in his comedic style, he educated us on the history of the martini, what a dirty martini is, how to prevent dilution via melting ice, and stirring versus bruising.  One oral evaluator suggested that he show more anger, wear more gold bling, and display some chest hair.  Let’s watch Vinny Vents Episodes on You Tube to see if he incorporates these visual suggestions.

Following nine minutes of snacking and visiting, we returned to our seats for the last speaker, Rui Li.  Rui is competing in the District Evaluation Speech Contest representing Division I.  She had not heard the oral evaluations for Claudia, but proceeded to capture both the positive strong points of the speech and then elaborated on the areas needing additional polishing or shortening.  The District 14 Fall Conference 2009 will be held October 16 and 17 in Duluth, GA.  The deadline for Discounted District Conference Registration is October 9.  If you can be there, do be there!  Rock on Rui!

General Evaluator, Paul Johnson, called for a timer’s report from Donna Satchell.  Kelly Vandever recorded both Jon’s speech and Rui Li’s evaluation speech.  Merrilee Morris reported that five folks had used the word of the day, fortuitous.  Our speakers and evaluators had a fairly flawless evening, which is as it should be in an advanced club.  Paul’s overview was brief, ending with well deserved accolades for our Toast Master, Iris.

President Bill called on our guests to give brief comments on what they thought of the meeting.  The quality of the evaluations and the speeches; the camaraderie; and the caliber of fun learning were all mentioned.  The guests were encouraged to return.  Next week’s program is as follows:  Remember,

We meet next week!

October 5, 2009

5775 Glenridge Drive (See Paul’s videos on our web site)

Toastmaster:  Merrilee Morris

Speakers, Paul Johnson, Rui Li, and Keith Shroder

GE:  Steve Cohn  GR:  Claudia Brogan   TR:  Bill Kovach  CP:  Paul Poodt

Monday, September 14th and this is our last meeting at the Cathedral Towers. This has been a huge and lovely room to meet in.    We are deeply indebted to Vicki Willard and her contacts at the Towers who allowed us to use their facility all these months at no charge.   President Bill Kovach will be sending out all the information on our new meeting location.   I am in hopes that our very own Paul Johnson will stand somewhere on Glenridge and video record precise and witty directions to our new home!

Our meeting tonight was stellar with Rui Li at the helm, three great speakers, and Vicki Willard overseeing the evaluation team. We also welcomed three great visitors; Dahlys Hamilton, Barbara Gaines and John Lynch.   Rui kept the evening upbeat with quotes and ideas from The Power of Positive Thinking, by Norman Vincent Peale.

Steve Cohn took us on an interesting and philosophical tour in his speech titled Write on them what you want remembered. While attending a Shiva for a friend’s dead parent he recalled what a Rabbi had said at a previous Shiva. “Days are like scrolls; write on them what you want to be remembered.” Scrolls, such as the Torah, are handwritten on parchment and are sacred. Therefore, our days are sacred. From there it was a wonderful trip from non-journaling through journaling, thoughts on food recording and non-dieting, what to write, what to edit, hopes, dreams, disappointments, and back to non-journaling.    Master that Steve is, he pulled everything into a neat, meaningful gift and handed it to us.

Rui introduced Kelly Vandever who was all garbed in black slacks with an over dress of black and gold.  With a lilting Irish brogue, she told the folk tale of The Sisters Kate.   This was a mesmerizing story of stepsisters who love one another and a stepmother who hated her Bonnie Kate stepdaughter because of her good looks.   We had spells by a Hen Wife, a sick prince and a well one, a mountain side that opened for fairies to cavort and the good sister Kate managing to pick up acorns and steal wands and birds to undo spells.   Truly a fun tale that Kelly kept all clear in our heads while maintaining her brogue!   Visitor John Lynch confessed that he thought that was her normal way of speaking!

It was then time to spend five minutes at the food table which contained a couple of cakes, dip, crackers, grapes, wafer cookies and almonds, to name a few food items.

We returned to our seats and welcomed Paul Johnson, our third speaker, up to the lectern.   Paul was “Speaking under Fire”, from the Public Relations Advanced Manual Project #4.   His title, The Rationale behind Government Handouts found us listening to the wonderfulness of uncontrolled government spending.   After mentioning the 700 billion dollar TARP bill and the 787 billion dollar stimulus bill together totaling 1.6 trillion dollars, he then informed us that wasting tax payer dollars was the government’s job.  Waste is prevalent throughout nature he informed us; from the over production of dandelion seeds and acorns, to blue tuna eggs. Over-spending on various NASA items has actually netted benefits for many in the nation.  Then it was time for hostile questions.  With the exception of Rui and Vicki, we pretty much sat there in a TM stupor. The most revealing question came from Vicki,  “Are you for real?”    Was this talk a parody, a farce, or totally serious?  Good job, Paul, I think.

GE Vicki sailed through our meeting wrap-up portion. Gesticulate had been used seven times during the meeting and malfeasance once. Acting President Vicki Willard thanked Rock-on Rui for a well run program and then asked our guests for their opinion of our meeting. Comments were exceptionally positive, especially regarding the strength of our oral evaluations following each prepared speech.   Now, be on the look out major news from Bill Kovach.
Next meeting: Sept 28, 2009
Toastmaster: Iris Grimm
Speakers, Claudia Brogan, Jon Schwartz, and Vicki Willard
GE: Paul Johnson GR: Merrilee Morris TR: Rui Li CP: Kelly Vandever