November 17, 2009 Meeting Minutes

Josie here covering for Nik. We had a well-paced and engaging meeting last Tuesday. Thanks all for joining in. We enjoyed strong coffee and homemade baked treats from Giselle and Josie.  A cup of steaming brew was perfectly complemented by traditional jam-filled scones, melt-in-your-mouth Madelines, and decadent shortbread topped with a thick layer of chocolate and a tinge of orange. Talk about having a lot on your plate! The flavors married well with the convivial atmosphere of coming-to-wakefulness and high spirits. Did someone say "happy holidays"? Ah, Toastmasters.

Meeting brought to order at 6:35 AM by Josie.

Attending: Giselle, Joe, Kathleen, Kelly, Theo, Connie, Eileen, Mark, Stephanie, Phillip (making a second guest appearance and taking a membership application with him!), and Josie.

Toastmaster of the Day: Giselle

Theme for the day: Food, a theme you can sink your teeth into (and boy did we ever!)

The "First Course" on the menu or the Prepared Speeches at this meeting:
1) Joe, "Personalized Medicine", Competent Communicator manual, project #8, time 5-7 minutes.  Evaluated by Kelly

2) Mark, "Jury Duty," Competent Communicator manual, project #9, time 5-7 minutes. Evaluated by Connie

3) Theo, "Helmets Required," Competent Communicator project #9, time 5-7 minutes. Evaluated by Josie.

Note: All speeches and evaluations were delivered within the specified times.

Other Roles at this meeting:

Inspiration: Josie, "Three Stone Cutters story" at the opening of the meeting
WordMaster: Josie and the featured word was cornucopia (got lots of use with this food theme! Thanks, Giselle for suggesting it.)
Timer: Kathleen (nice job!)
Ah Counter: Eileen (who listened for patterns of Ah-usage, especially at the beginning of a speech when the speaker is "getting going")
Grammarian: Eileen

Table Topics Master: Stephanie who deftly facilitated the group's  varied observations about food including, "the defense of chocolate as a vegetarian option, chili peppers that make you sweat on sight, the best snack alternatives to an after-work beer, food memories of a tantalizing Swedish Smorgasbord with piled-high dishes of meats and sweets, the unappetizing aspects of taking a cooked chicken apart with bare hands, feeling virtuous about plant-based food choices and finally,  challenging your food preparing skills by cooking only the exotic vegetables delivered to your home via a delivery service."

General Evaluator: Kelly (thanks for filling in for Tryphine who couldn't join us)
Joke of the Day: Joe (No Swimming? No! Swimmng!!)

"Dessert" portion of the meeting: Awards
Best Table Topics: Kelly (hot peppers and lots of MEAT on pizza, anyone?)
Best Evaluation: Josie 
Best Speech: Mark (congratulations!)


Club Business: Officers meeting on 11/20 (already occurred as of this writing). Kelly is Toastmaster this Tuesday. 

Meeting adjourned at: 8:00 AM