On Friday August 5, our club had a fine mid-summer's meeting. Without notes, what I remember is --
Jim B opened, mentioning he had been at the Benton country Fair assisting Dottie, a distinguished Toastmaster from Corvallis' other two clubs. When he appointed Yue to serve as GE for the meeting, she hesitated; but Jim asked her again and she agreed.
The word of the day was
aplomb, grammarian David W explained.
Gratefully we had a speaker, Rick, on Learning Conflict Resolution
Skills! A very appropriate topic, IMO! His presentation was ably evaluated by Doug.
During table topics Ted asked the respondents to describe a personal possession which is quite old. As an example, he held up a
micrometer which had fascinated him as child.
Karen S described a
toy (Scruffy?) which had even traveled to England and endured stuffed-toy-surgery. Santiago told us about
photo negatives in his closet and old art prints; he doesn't keep a lot of stuff.
Yue segued wittily to her son's collection of
water jars. 'Her son experiments like an Alchemist,' I thought.
Jeff brews
Kombucha: I never would have guessed, but now I'll inquire again! Davd W described the
colonial house he shares and sub-lets. From childhood Kris has had a collection of
spoons which she set in varied arrangements. Fred explained how
his Body was an old possession. Rick
told us about his versatile baseball mit. Our guest Jian introduced herself and seemed to enjoy her time on air.
Evaluating the table topics was Bob, and he remembered each respondent. Bob's guest was his nephew.
Timer Jeff's report was crisp. Grammarian Dave W demurred about his report, saying it was like
a (bad grammar) fox guarding the henhouse.
GE Yue summarized the hour, and reminded us about coming to meetings with "a personal agenda".
She emphasized this by mentioning the flowerpot which has been her
external reminder-- successful-- to Speak Louder. It worked! Soon Yue will be spending a year in
Germany, VP Rick reminded us.
President Bob had a meeting with his officers after Jim closed the meeting.
Once again I left the meeting with a happy energized feeling, and resolved to put a wee bit of energy into these sentences.
Thanks again everyone for our mutually supportive and positive learning environment!
