Frustration!

Another great meeting.... 17 members and 8 guests became 19 members and 6 guests as we voted Amy Treadwell and Alex Bein into membership. Welcome, Amy and Alex! That brings our paid membership up to 40, so once again we are a "President's 40" club.

TMoD Fred Sadler became frustrated over his computer problems earlier in the week, but he got past that with a little help from his friends (especially Arnie) and that spawned the theme of "Frustration". Fred vented his as he started the program by singing a song of frustration.

Ryan Squires led us in Table Topics, where Scott Wilbur and Alex Bein tied for "Best Table Topics".

Karen Woodson won "Most Improved" for her #3 speech entitled "Have a little faith in yourself" (see below).

Angi Anderson followed with her #8 speech titled "Bag of Tricks", winning "Best Speaker" with her three piles of props representing her past, present and future (see below).

Andrew Kennedy then reported on his High Performance Leadership project, which was performed when he was an Area Governor (see below). Once the paperwork is accomplished, this completes Andrew's final requirement for Advanced Leader Silver.

Chance Litton won "Best Evaluator" for his first-time evaluation, beating out the club's graybeards Arnie Buss and Carl Thormeyer. Here is Chance's award-winning evaluation:

Coming up August 10th: Club Humorous Speech and Evaluation Contests. Sign up with Angi to participate!

We're Back to Normal!

"Friday the 13th" didn't even merit a mention, as first-time TMoD Eric Timmerman led us through another great meeting with 17 members and four guests present. Eric's theme, "Hollywood and its Impact on your Life", was woven into the meeting throughout, as we all learned of each other's favorite movies.

To add icing on the cake, our visiting dignitary Division A Governor Tim Childers installed the new officers that were present. (Division A consists of 20+ clubs in Monterey, Santa Cruz and San Benito counties.)

Scott Wilbur led Table Topics, with Shenequa Mitchell capturing the "Best Table Topics" award with her dissertation on who she would like to play in a movie if she were a movie actress. New member Steve Scaggs (congratulations!) also participated; we specifically voted him into membership at the beginning of the meeting so he would be eligible for Table Topics!

We had three good speakers once again - Ned Powley gave his #6 speech about the different types of speech detractions (ahs, ums, like, you know, fade-aways, etc.). Chance Litton won "Best Speaker" for his strong defense of nuclear power while debunking the various nuclear power myths (his #2 speech). Arnie Buss won "Most Improved" for his third #2 speech (working on his 3rd CC) on "Servant Leadership".

"Best Evaluator went to Fred Sadler for setting the example with his excellent animated suggestions regarding Ned Powley's speech. General Evaluator was Carl Thormeyer.

Robin Walker as Wordmaster started what may become a new tradition in our club - if everyone uses the word, then the Wordmaster gets fined five cents as the word must have been too easy! (He didn't have to worry...)

Upcoming:
20 July: Chance Litton volunteered to be TMoD. Please help him and volunteer for a job!
28 July: Smedley Saturday. Sign up to speak with Angi.
10 Aug: Club Evaluation and Humorous Speech contest.

Surprise!

At our July 6th meeting, we had 11 members and four guests present (one of whom signed up after the meeting)! Alec Metz, with his smooth and flowing mastery of the English language, led us as TMoD in another terrific meeting with his theme of "surprises"!

The biggest surprise was that there was no assigned Table Topics Master! Instead, pieces of paper were attached to the bottom of each chair in the room, and the three lucky individuals with a black dot on their piece of paper got to each be a Table Topics Master and call on one person each! This went unexpectedly smoothly, with Scott Wilbur emerging as the "Best Table Topics" winner for his "Ugly American" diatribe about his menu expectations in a foreign country where he didn't speak the language! We even voted for a "Best Table Topics Master" among the three who drew the assignment - that award went to Leena Oh.

Oh, yes... we had speeches, too! Eric Timmerman was "Most Improved" for his #4 speech about camping in Big Sur. Scott Wilbur then won "Best Speaker" for his #3 speech on bone marrow, and how to be a donor. "Best Evaluator" was a tie between Glenn Woodson and Brian Anderson.

Another very pleasant surprise was the return of Michael Barksdale, who we promptly voted into membership!

We hope to see the rest of the active members back again soon now that the NPS term break is over. We can get a little lethargic when there are a lot of empty seats!

Upcoming events:
Mon July 16: Executive Board meeting, 6PM, La Mesa Community Center
Sat July 28: Smedley Saturday, 1PM(?), La Mesa Coomunity Center
(Sign up now with Angi to get one of the ten speaking slots)
Fri Aug 10: Club Humorous Speech and Evaluation Contest