May 31, 2012 Theme: Acronyms

George called the meeting to order at 7:16 p.m. and introduced Leo as Chairperson.  Leo spoke on the proliferation of acronyms in our lives and also explained what word truncations are.  They are shortened words such as Tues. and Wed.  Tony provided Joke of the Day and it was a story about the acronym T.G.I.F. (Thank Goodness It's Friday!).  Brent carried out the role of Toast and Timer, noting the many acronyms used in the world of baseball.  Audrey was Grammarian for the evening and used T.G.I.F. as the acronym of the evening. 

Speeches were next.  John gave a speech called “It Could Have Been Worse” which was about his experience hitting his father’s horse with his car.  Luckily, both horse and driver survived.  The car was not so lucky, and the horse wouldn’t come near John for months.  It was Project #4 for him.  Then Jill gave Speech 2 titled “Dog Gone” and told us a stirring story about the family dog that went missing for 4 days and how Jill searched for it.  Faint barking was finally heard and the dramatic discovery of the dog at the bottom of a 6 foot catch basin was the happy ending.  Val gave her ninth speech called “Pumped About Pompeii” and described Pompeii, Italy as the titillating highlight of a recent Mediterranean Cruise.  Leo provided an interesting educational module that involved a review the roles that members fill at each meeting and also of each position on the executive.

Vern managed the meeting as Table Topics Master and had everyone present use their last names as acronyms and assign a word to each letter of the name.  It was harder than expected but everyone rose to the challenge!

Next were evaluations which provide the speech givers with immediate feedback.  Keith McCluskie evaluated John, Sharon evaluated Jill and Keith Stoltz evaluated Val.  Everyone did a great job according to the evaluators.  Brent gave the Timer’s Report and Audrey gave the Grammarian’s report noting that T.G.I.F. was used several times during the meeting.  John even incorporated it into his speech twice!  Audrey said there were very few ums and ahs during the meeting.  Tony gave the Laugh Counter’s report and stated it was a busy night for him:  he counted 91 chuckles, laughs and giggles during the meeting.  There were no guffaws.  Vern declared Audrey as the winner of Table Topics and presented her with a bright and shiny trophy.

Jane was Quiz Master and quizzed members’ listening skills by sharing interesting quotes from members.  Heidi was General Evaluator and noted that there was a full house at this meeting.  She encouraged everyone to learn the role of Timer and she also thanked everyone for helping to make a successful meeting by coming out and filling all of the roles.  Chairperson Leo concluded the meeting and adjourned at 9:15 p.m. 

Submitted by Val Hummel, Club Secretary