A Smedley Medley

It's the last Saturday of April, the sun is shining in a bucolic part of the world - where else would you find members of NPS Toastmasters but at our monthly Smedley Saturday. And today was no exception! We celebrated a veritable medley of speeches, ranging from North Korea to Boston, from monthly phone calls to parents in China to a Monterey organization that promotes international peace, from the practical decisions about growth in our own community to the inner depths of the spirit experienced through yoga. Even more impressive was the fact that two die-hard Red Sox fans (Peter and Carl) chose to forgo watching the game to attend - now that's dedication!

Continuing the tradition of exciting, fun-filled meetings, we were ably led by Angi and Brian ("Team Anderson") with Brian performing the role of TMoD. The first "inning" consisted of Scott presenting an objective case for North Korea's involvement in international drug trade, followed by Shahid informing us of Global Majority, an international organization promoting world peace that started here in Monterey. Batting "cleanup" in this inning was our guest, Ying Shiroma from Bayview Toastmasters, who gave an entertaining speech about her monthly call to her parents in China. The evaluators were, respectively, Carl for Scott, Angi for Shahid, and Arnie for Ying. Maybe it was the fact that it was Saturday, but none of the speakers or the evaluators managed to come in within their time limits.

We did better time-wise after the "seventh inning stretch." Cathy led off by a humorous account of her encounter with Yoga, Pete continued with a hilarious speech about the tribulations, and occasional joys, of a Red Sox fan. Glenn Woodson finished with a persuasive #9 speech urging us all to become informed voters in the upcoming election over the Monterey General Plan. The evaluators were Arnie for Cathy, Scott for Peter, and Glenn Tolle for Glenn Woodson. Peter won best speaker and Arnie best evaluator.

Thanks to our timer for the meeting, Karen Woodson - and thanks also to Glenn Woodson for setting up the video taping on his sturdy tripod!

So it was indeed a Smedley medley, in the great evolving tradition of Smedley Saturday!

Below are some pictures and a video from the meeting.

Scott presents a briefing on North Korea



Carl evaluates Scott Ceremuga



Arnie Evaluates Ying



Pete extols the Boston Red Sox in "Bostonian"





Cathy Lee confronts Yoga