From Pole Dancing, to German punctuality, to recharging one’s introverted self, our evening’s speeches ran the gamut. It was a fun and knowledge filled evening from the moment Keith Schroder gaveled it to order. Keith shared one more helpful organization hint; use your cell phone camera to capture information on a white board when you don’t have time to hand copy it all. Then you can even e-mail it to your computer at home or enlarge and read it on your phone screen.
President Bill Kovach welcomed our guests and asked each of them to introduce themselves. Counting Oscar Hofer and Mike Himmelstein, eleven guests were present. Eleven club members were also in attendance. Bill introduced our Toast Master for the evening, Cindy Cannon, who crisply and smoothly guided us with the theme, Mission Statements.
Dr. Cara Iovina was first up for the evening with her speech, “Pole Dance ~ Not Just for Strippers.” She immediately had our undivided attention. Cara has started her own pole dancing studio call “Hot Moves,” in conjunction with her wellness center. Pole dancing helps a woman achieve fitness, develop self confidence and empowerment, have fun, and find her own sexiness. In her speech, Cara answered questions posed by friend regarding pole dancing and her responses to him which pretty much answered the questions that were popping into our minds as we listened. There is even competitive pole dancing and an International Champion. Though soft-spoken and not preachy, there is a sincerity and directness in Cara’s delivery that allows her to convey her intense belief in wellness and overall fitness which includes “Hot Moves ~ Pole Dancing!
Cindy next introduced Iris Grimm via her mission statement, “Leading a life well lived.” The title of Iris’s speech was “Purpose of Waiting.” She immediately introduced us to the German stereotype of punctuality. Germans do not arrive early or late, but at the exact appointed time. Their second goal is to waste the least amount of time waiting. Her self-talk traveling to the airport, waiting at a red light, panicking, her rush, rush, rush and wait, wait, wait, had us all thinking, been there, done that. However, Iris found herself in the Chicago Airport with over an hour to spare. That left her disgruntled. Even more disgruntled when a shoe fell out of a stroller a woman was pushing and though Iris picked it up and returned it to the mother, the woman never acknowledged or thanked her. Later, she had an opportunity to observe this family with a sick child in a stroller, burning with fever and fed through a stomach tube. There’s a moral to this rush-rush story that has to do with finding a new purpose in waiting. Iris did a soulful job of telling us not to rush, that it is okay wait and reflect, that it’s okay to be late.
Our five minute break ran 4 ½ minutes late. The food consisted of grapes, mixed nuts, and wrapped chocolates. Toastmaster Cindy nudged everyone into place and introduced our third speaker, Bob Goodyear. Bob has visited our club the required number of times and was invited to give his ice-breaker speech this evening. Bob is a quiet, sort of fade-into-the-wallpaper type person, so his speech, “Introducing a Geek Who Speaks” came as a wild and welcome surprise! First came his characterization of Mrs. Kirby his ancient 7th grade Social Studies teacher. Her assignment was to write 2 ½ pages on what kind of job he wanted when he got out of school. Bob took us to the library on a whirl wind tour through 40 books seeking career opportunities for an introvert. We felt his joy when he discovered computer programmer, though he had no idea what a computer was! He did warn us though, that when we see him sitting quietly in the back of the room, he is simply recharging! Bob blew away my definition of an introvert!
General Evaluator Rui Li called for reports from her team. All three speakers had been recorded by Keith Schroder. Bill Kovach reported that the speakers stayed within their requested times. Only one evaluation exceeded the allotted six minutes. Kelly Vandever totally approved of this evening’s use of the English language. Rui Li, in summary, liked the wide variety of subjects covered by the speeches. She commented on the great strength of the club evaluations. Cindy closed the program with a final mission statement. Bill thanked Cindy for a well conducted evening.
Our visitors liked the great feedback speakers get through the evaluations, the high energy in the club, and the great diversity. From Hot Moves, to waiting, to recharging, our speakers richly filled our evening.