Meeting Minutes for 11-27-2006

Fellow Toastmasters,

The meeting of November 27 was called to order at 8:00 PM by Club President Arlene Stock with Woody Deas (me) presiding as Toastmaster and Don Guan as Table Topics Master. Sue Brown served as General Evaluator. Melissa Buerbaumer was Word Master for the evening, and she challenged us to use the word - sesquipedalian - in our presentations. She offered a definition and usage examples, and Merriam-Webster defines it as meaning having many syllables, or in usage one who is given to or characterized by the use of long words - a sesquipedalian television commentator is the example they use. It was an unfamiliar word to me and probably a few others present, but I thought it was an excellent word choice, and quite a few presenters used it effectively. Anna, Simi, Jill, Bart, and others participated in the Table Topics session, and Damon La Scot treated us with an energetic and interesting Speech #1, his IceBreaker titled - The Rewards of Risk. He was followed by Anna Falth, who presented Speech #2 - Commemoration of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. Her speech was informative, well-organized, and well-presented, and I for one was made more aware of the global nature of the issue of domestic and political violence against women.

Rena Salayeva also presented Speech #2 (Organize Your Speech) titled - Freedom of Expression. Again, there was a political and a human rights aspect to the content of her speech, and she did a fine job of it. Arlene evaluated Damon, Al Short evaluated Anna F, and Simi evaluated Rena. Sue evaluated the evaluators and offered comments on her observations of the meeting in general. She was helpful in her suggestions and kind to me in her comments. Anna D was Timer, and as the Ah counter, Jill caught several speakers using an excessive number of ahs and similar utterings. An Executive Committee Meeting had preceded the regular meeting, and after a brief business and announcements period, Arlene adjourned the meeting at 9:30 PM. Hats off to Bart for doing Setup and other chores in the absence of Malcolm. Hardware and Software issues on my end has delayed this meeting minutes post. My apologies.

Submitted Respectfully,

Woody Deas,

Secretary

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