March 29, 20112, Theme: Celebrations

John Van Meeteren called the meeting to order at 7:18 p.m. and introduced Chairperson Brent Jemmett.  Brent welcomed everyone and spoke about the reasons why people hold celebrations and said that Spring is also a celebration.  He welcomed guest Apryl Browning.

Vern Noseworthy provided the Joke of the Day.  His joke was about an old prospector named Ralph who dealt creatively with a gunslinger.

Lorna VanderPloeg was Toast and Timer for the evening and she led members in a toast to Canada and her friend of 25 years, Dave Billings, who passed away.

Jane Stoltz was the evening’s Grammarian and Ah Counter.  Jane presented “hullabaloo” as the word of the evening.  It means racket, din or uproar.

The speakers of the night were Keith Stoltz and Leo Brisebois.  Keith presented a speech entitled “Driving in New Zealand”.  He spoke of the challenges of driving a car on the opposite side of the road and dealing with some of the different traffic rules that exist in New Zealand.  His key message was “Stay left, stay left, stay left!”  Leo presented an educational model on coaching and gave tips on coaching employees.  Audrey assisted with a demonstration of a supervisor coaching an employee on how to deal with a problem. 

Tony Galvao handled Point of View.  He said human beings should be genetically engineered to produce chlorophyll so they can produce their own food.  People would be green but there would be no more famine.  He noted there were 7 Billion people on Earth in 2011 and that number is expected to rise to 13 Billion by 2067.  He said 1.5 Million children die annually of famine, so genetically altering people to produce chlorophyll from the sun would solve many problems because people could sunbathe and produce food at the same time.  Marie McCutcheon provided her Counter Point of View.  She said if you give a man a fish, he eats for a day but if you teach a man how to fish, he eats for a lifetime.  She said people should stop taking advantage of their luxuries and should work to teach people in the poorer countries how to help themselves.

Diane Bender handled Table Topics.  She had each member pull a picture out of an envelope and describe how it was related to a celebration. 

Keith McCluskie was General Evaluator.  He had Sharon D’Arcey evaluate Keith Stoltz and George Nichol evaluated Leo. 

Chairperson, Brent Jemmett asked Val Hummel to provide the inspirational thought of the day about how our thoughts become actions.  He called for the reports.  Jane provided the Grammarian’s report and noted that “hullabaloo” was used 23 times!   Audrey Orth was announced the winner of Table Topics for telling us about an incident involving a cake left on a car roof and having to chase her husband after he drove away.   

Keith’s comments as General Evaluator included encouragement for evaluators to provide at least one grow point when evaluating a speaker.  He asked speakers to ensure they hand control of the meeting back to the Chair.  He noted the coffee maker is noisy.  He reminded members to wear their name tags, and he also reminded members to turn their cell phones off at the start of a meeting.

Guest, Apryl Browning thanked the people who competed at the March 24^th speech contest in Mount Forest, and also thanked those people who helped with running it. 

George reminded members that dues need to be paid by March 31^st.

Leo reviewed the Distinguished Club Program Chart and pointed out that the Linguists of Listowel have two more categories to complete before June 20, 2012.  The categories are in number of members who finish the Competent Communicator manual, and new members.

Brent adjourned the meeting early at approximately 8:50 p.m.