December 9, 2010 - Theme: Secrets of Speaking

Hello Fellow Linguists of Listowel and Friends,

At this past Linguists of Listowel's meeting, we had lots of laughs and a very informative meeting with our theme of "Secrets of Speaking". We had 13 members in attendance. Sharon Diehl called the meeting to order with a great introduction of chair for the meeting that included a quote from Dale Carnegie. Richard Boertien was our chair for the evening and he opened the meeting by giving us all some excellent tips on improving our speaking.

The joke of the day was done by Leo Brisebois, who gave us a very funny joke involving President Obama. Keith Stoltz was our Toast and Timer, who gave a toast to Canada and our opportunities to be able to speak in public. The Grammarian role was done by Keith McCluskie and he picked the very fun word "Humdinger" to challenge everyone to use during the meeting that was used a whopping 15 times. Next, Diane Bender explained her role for Literary Corner and read a story from Albert Cuthery called "Future Tells of Christmas Eve".

When our first speaker wasn't able to make it to the meeting, Wayne Stoltz stepped up and gave a very funny off the cuff speech about his Uncle Willy's adventure of trying make a salami sandwich late one night. Next George Nichol did his first speech out of the Special Occasion Manual where he gave a great wedding toast to his son and daughter in law which included personal stories and excellent humour. George's speech was evaluated by Leo Brisebois, where he gave great feedback.

I did Table Topics with the theme of "Secrets of Speaking", I gave everyone a chance to work on their toasting. Everyone gave an instant toast to whatever they picked out of the envelope. Some were serious toasts and some not so much. Everyone did a good job with it and the winner of table topics was Leo Brisebois. Marie McCutcheon took on the role of general evaluator, where she gave us all some help on how to evaluate a meeting and a speaker. She asked for some our newer members to come to the front and help evaluate the meeting.

Hope to see you all on Thursday for our next meeting and our Christmas Potluck. Everyone is to bring something for the potluck, their plates and cutlery, a gift for the always fun gift exchange. This year we have decided to bring some food to support our local food bank. You can also bring a guest to our always enjoyable Christmas meeting.

Brent

Dates to remember:

Dec. 16th - Christmas Potluck - Christmas is a Feeling. Bring a guest, plates and cutlery, a gift for the exchange and some food for the food bank.

Jan. 7th - Sports night