February 23, 2012, Theme: Up and Down

Theme: Up and Down

Jill stepped up to the plate and called the meeting to order at 7:15 p.m. on the nose.  She introduced Chairperson Marie McCutcheon who welcomed everyone and spoke of the meeting’s theme.  Marie noted the importance of climbing back up when you’ve been knocked down, and the value of family and friends.

The Joke of the Day was given by George Nichold. The joke was about a trained talking parrot that was given as a gift and it ended up being roasted and eaten.  Audrey was Toast and Timer for the evening.  In her toast to Canada, she spoke of some of the trials or “downs” that Canada has had but noted that Canada has had many more “ups”.  

Vern was our Grammarian and provided the Word of the Night “tantalize” which means to tease or bait someone with something good and then take it away. 

Leo presented his third speech from an advanced manual on Interpersonal Communication.  The first part of his speech presentation was an educational module about handling criticism and then he had Keith help with some role-playing.  Keith portrayed a very unhappy client and Leo had the impossible task of trying to make customer Keith happy again.

Diane presented Speech # 9 from her second Competent Communicator’s Manual.  The objective of the speech was “Persuading with Power” and the title of the speech was “Komodo Dragons”.  Many of the Toastmasters had never heard of Komodo Dragons before and it was a very educational speech.  Diane persuaded the Toastmasters to do what they can to protect the continued existence of Komodo Dragons.

Val took on the Table Topics portion of the meeting for the first time and tied it in with the meeting’s theme of “up and down”.  Val gave each Toastmaster a topic to speak about that was related to something that goes up, or down, or both.  She also challenged members to use the word “tantalize” when speaking.  All of the Toastmasters did exceptionally well, with Keith McCluskie winning the coveted trophy for talking about tax pain. Lorna is also to be commended for her ability to speak about eyelids for an entire minute.

Lorna was General Evaluator for the evening. Brent evaluated Leo’s speech and Diane received a Roundtable Evaluation for her speech.  The roles for the March 1^st meeting were filled although some roles still need to be filled.

The meeting adjourned at 9:05 p.m.

Submitted by

Val Hummel

Secretary