May 17, 2012 Theme: Positive Thinking

The meeting was called to order by Keith Stoltz at 7:15 pm for a group of 12 people in attendance. Keith introduced Tony Galvao as the chairman of the meeting. This was Tony's first time taking on the role of chairman. Tony gave his opening remarks on the theme of positive thinking, reviewed the agenda and welcomed our newest member Marg VanDonkersgoed and her husband Hank as a guest.
Brent Jemmett provided the Joke of the Day and filled the role of Laugh Counter. Keith McCluskie provided the loyal toast to Canada as part of the role of Toast and Timer.
John Van Meeteren filled the role of Literary Corner and read a poem about positive thinking. Vern Noseworthy was the Grammarian and Ah Counter. Vern provided the group with a new word of the day "Collusion" which means a secret agreement between 2 or more parties to commit illegal dealings or stealing.
Heidi Menzi was the Table Topics master and tested our speaking ability with the theme of sales of products (the products to sell were given to each member by Heidi).
Jane Stoltz introduced a new agenda item to the meeting named "3 Minutes" which is a form of Table Topics. Two teams of 3 people each were formed and the first, second and third speaker had to be selected. Each team had to speak constantly for 3 full minutes. The opposing team was to look for faults such as "um's", "ah's", pauses that were too long, repetitive phrases and/or change the topic completely. If this occurred, the opposing team would challenge that speaker and that speaker couldn't speak again during that 3 minute segment. Once a team was challenged, the speaking role was passed over to the other team to speak for a 3 minute segment. The team with the most speakers remaining won or the team that was successful in speaking for the full 3 minute segment was the winner.
Keith McCluskie provided reports from the timer. Vern stated that the word "collusion" was used 4 times during the meeting. Brent Jemmett reported that there were 33 laughs during the general meeting and 25 laughs during the "3 Minute" agenda segment. Heidi Menzi reported that Marg VanDonkersgoed won Table Topics with her 1 minutes sales speech. Marg was presented with a gift of an umbrella that was donated by Val Hummel.
George Nichol was the General Evaluator. George liked how everyone introduced themselves to our newest member Marg. George also liked the new agenda item "3 minutes" and felt that we should add this to the agenda again.
Closing remarks were given by Tony Galvao who did a great job being the chairperson of the meeting. The meeting was adjourned at 9:00 pm.