Meeting Minutes for November 12, 2007

Fellow Toastmasters,

Club President Anna D. called the meeting of November 12, 2007 to order at
8:00 P.M. with Elena presiding as Toastmaster, and Linda as Word Master.
Branko volunteered to be Timer. Linda selected the word "integrity" as the
Word for the Day, and provided us with the definition and usage examples.
After a summary of Toastmaster procedures and the rules, Elena turned the
meeting over to Anna D., who, as part of her work in the Leadership Series
Advanced Project #7 (Developing Facilitation Skills), took on dual roles as
Table Topics Master and General Evaluator. After a few remarks about the
Toastmasters Conference she attended this past weekend, Anna opened the
Table Topics session with a question about miracles that Linda responded to.
Sue spoke next about shopping as an adventure, Anna (a guest) spoke
eloquently about love, forgiveness, and noted that compassion involves much
more than love. Rena commented on a recent challenge (The New York City
Marathon she completed in 3hrs 57min) and a new challenge; Diana spoke about
a letter from a teacher; Melissa commented about work as a therapist, and
Elena talked about the book business and a recent challenge.

Three scheduled speakers were on the agenda with Joanna speaking first. She
completed her Icebreaker ("Second Generation"), a speech rich with metaphors
and presented with such passion and quality that she won Best Speaker
honors. Melissa did her evaluation. Branko completed Speech Project #9
(Persuade With Power), an interesting speech with contemporary relevance
titled: "Is It Possible To Change The Environmentalists Litany?" Rena was
his evaluator. I presented my first speech in the Advanced Communication
Series, Storytelling Project #1 (The Folk Tale)."Stone Soup" was the title.
It is a centuries-old folk tale that exists in many versions, but I selected
a version related to me through an article written by the award-winning
author, Barbara Kingsolver. Folk singer, Pete Seeger, based his album "Some
Friends To Feed: Story of Stone Soup" on the same tale. Sue was my
evaluator. After an officers report, the meeting was adjourned for a bit of
after-the-meeting socializing and refreshments.
The next regular meeting is scheduled for November 26, 2007 8:00 P.M.
Westview Community Room.