Last week, Bert took the lectern as Toastmaster and walked us through historic moments that occurred on January 14.  They include the opening of “Blues Brothers” in 1980, the Simpsons premiere in 1990, and Albert Cantara’s reading of Thomas Friedman’s ”Flat, Hot and Crowded” in 2009.  Very impressive, Albert.  No wonder you are the emperor. 

Speaking of historic moments, we should note that we had eight guests at this meeting, four of whom decided to join our club.  Welcome to Lee, Russell, Kirk and Zahra.  We’re thrilled to have you as part of our club and look forward to hearing your icebreakers.

We mixed things up at this meeting and kicked off with speeches.  Brendan was up first and delivered his realistic and hysterical list of resolutions couched in defeat.  If you missed it, ask him to deliver the speech again at a happy hour or over lunch.  You won’t regret it.  Then Wendy delivered an inspirational speech about the last days of her friend, Daniel, and the spirit of life he taught her.  It’s a story that warrants retelling.  Ask her about it.  Finally, we listened to our guest speaker, Joyce, teach us on the five love languages as taught by Gary Chapman: words of affirmation, quality time, receiving gifts, physical touch and acts of service.  She encouraged each of us to consider the language others speak and to try to communicate with others, not in our own language, but in theirs.  Many thanks to Joyce for visiting us and making us laugh with, among other things, her demonstration of squatting in the woods.

Then while the evaluators prepared their evaluations, Maureen walked us through historically minded table topics.  Stephen spoke about the upcoming inauguration.  Russell, our guest turned member, told us about a personal historic moment – his first table topic, which happened long before he joined our club.  Finally, Susana told us that she’s looking forward to the day of flying cars. 

Then came evaluations.  Amy begged Brendan to dress up for the ladies after she complimented the structure of his speech and how comfortable he seemed.  Keith praised Wendy’s dramatic and entertaining speech about Daniel and had no real criticism other than to caution Wendy about her hand clasping.   Louis complimented Joyce’s warmth and friendliness and encouraged her to lift her volume a bit. 

We awarded the following ribbons:

  • Best Table Topic:  Susana
  • Best Speaker:  Wendy
  • Best Evaluation:  Louis
  • Most Enthusiasm:  Bert
  • Best Humor:  Brendan

Thanks to Maria, Albert and Rey, who also assisted with this meeting.  Many many thanks to our visitors and our visitors-turned-members for being there and bringing so much energy to this meeting.

Don’t forget!  It’s time to get ready for the International Speech Contest.  Our club contest will be on March 11, 2009.  If you’re interested in competing or if you’re available to help, let Rey know. 

2009 is off to one heck of a good start.   See you on January 21 for another great meeting.

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