The Annual Holiday Gift Exchange Meeting!

Fellow Toastmasters,

An ongoing tradition at NPS Toastmasters is the “Holiday Gift Exchange” meeting on the last scheduled meeting of the year. This year we had 15 members and one perennial guest (Karen Woodson; Glenn’s wife) vie for a wide assortment of gifts using their impromptu speaking skills! Though many tried, no-one succeeded in “stealing” a gift previously opened by someone else! Perhaps the most popular gifts that others tried to “steal” were the batteries, the hi-tech lunch bag, and the gifts from London brought back by returning members Elie and Rosetta Ishag. (Click the following link for the video of Glenn Tolle’s raucous but unsuccessful attempt to win some batteries!) (Watch this space for the link to Mary’s video.)

We said farewell today to Alec Metz, who will be returning to Mongolia via Beijing. We will miss you, Alec! (Why not start a club in Mongolia? There are already six Toastmasters clubs in Beijing!)

And congratulations to NPS students Brendan Epps, Wil Wooten, Joel Tiu, Dave Mazur and Andy Hamann who all graduated on December 15th. Further congratulations to MIIS students Lars Olberg and Alec Metz who have finished their studies here in Monterey. Additional congratulations are due to Brendan Epps, who with a Herculean effort finished up his Advanced Communicator Bronze qualifications just before he graduated! (Ed. Note: That gives our club six goals so far this Toastmaster year, and we’ll have seven once we get two more of the new officers trained. That’ll make us at least “Select Distinguished” for 2006-07, with “President’s Distinguished” in our sights.)

Speaking of which…. Until recently, NPS Toastmasters led all 203 clubs in District 4 with 20 new members since July 1st. Now, two clubs in the Bay Area have caught up with us and also have 20 new members. So, let’s all get out there and replace those several fine members who just left, and reclaim our spot at the top!

Meetings will resume on Friday January 5th, when the newly elected officers will be installed. The January schedule will be posted soon on our Web site, www.npstoastmasters.org. In the meantime, we wish you all a happy and joyous holiday season!

For better listening, thinking and speaking,

- Carl