Romance!

Cathy Lee got August off to a rousing start with a meeting on the theme of "Romance" which coincides with the fact that August is "National Romance Month" (did you know that??). Rosetta Ishag presented a delightfully sung "Opening Remarks":

President Fred Sadler inducted three new members: Max Akhterov, Wilfredo Crane Jr, and David Perez. Welcome to the club! With these three, the meeting was attended by 17 members and 4 guests. New member David Perez wasted no time in jumping into a role, by serving as vote counter.

Before introducing TMoD Cathy Lee, Fred recognized Angi Anderson, Immediate Past President, for helping to lead the club to President's Distinguished status in the 2007-8 year. She pinned the blue ribbon on the gold TI banner along side all the other ribbons that our club has won over the years.

Brian Anderson ably led an extended Table Topics with challenging questions about memories of romantic dates, calling on all three new members along with Tito DeJesus, who was voted best Table Topics Speaker. Tito's winning response:


Prepared speakers included longtime member Joe Tacker returning to a speaking role after a long absence. Already an ATM-Bronze, Joe decided to retool his considerable Toastmasters skills by going through the CC manual a second time. Today he gave his Icebreaker speech It's Never Too late to Have a Happy Childhood, and was voted Most Improved Speaker:


Alex Bein presented his #5 speech My Vacation to Virginia. Eschewing the lectern for the first time, Alex entertained us with tales of his travels and moving his family across country, for which he received Best Speaker:


Art Testani received Best Evaluator from Carl Thormeyer for is thoughtful review of Joe's speech and Leena Oh also "broke through the fourth wall" in ably evaluating Alex.


Emily Staryak, VPE encouraged club members to sign up for the club evaluation and humerous speaker contests to be held August 22. President Sadler recognized Tito DeJesus, VPPR for his first and colorful club newsletter - also available on the club web page.