January 26, 2012 Theme: Laughter is the Best Medicine

Thursday night’s meeting theme "Laughter is the Best Medicine" was just enough to get the butterflies to fly in formation. We had over 55 laughs. Jane called the meeting to order, getting us into the spirit when she introduced the chairperson by imitating a golf stance and how he got his hole in one.

The night was exciting. We had the speechcrafters workshop going into its 3 week, everyone but one made it despite road conditions. Everyone had their speeches ready and introduced each other’s speeches.

We had the visit from our Area Governor Gregory C.N. Smith who introduced himself to the club and speechcrafters. It is always a pleasure to have him present at our club. We had the speechcrafters introduce themselves and some toastmasters also.

We had an educational corner by Sharon D’Arcey on Organizing your Speech. It was broken up in 3 parts.

Introduction

Tell them what you are going to tell them

Body

Tell them

Conclusion

Tell them again what you told them

Keith McCluskie gave the sample speech about his bike run and how he broke his personal record. Joke of the Day, by Brent Jemmett, about how to get someone to give you a push. Table Topics, by Lorna VanderPloeg, stepped in for Val Hummel. Her and Val had the material ready in advance for Lorna to use and it worked out well.

Vern Noseworthy, the Grammarian, with his word of the week LAMPROPHONY was used over 6 times. Lamprophony means "verbally effective and loud". Good job Vern.

George Nichol was the Toast and Timer. George, always looking relaxed and poised, has something positive to say every time. Lucy D’Arcey, General Evaluator, did a great job introducing the Evaluators and giving us a good grow point, One Minute Evaluations, to explain the purpose of the One Minute Written Evaluation between speakers in order for our guest to be informed.

Good job again to our evaluators and advisors for getting the speechcrafters ready for each of their roles. Good job as well to Jane Stoltz and Sharon D’Arcey for getting the agenda out on time with all the changes and for everyone stepping in to fill a role when needed. All in all giving me the help required in order to make this a successful meeting and workshop.

We had a good meeting with lots of laughs. The room was full of energy with 18 people present at the meeting. We are hoping to increase this number for the next meeting.

Have a good week and see you at our next meeting.

Leo Brisebois

Club President