02_24_04 Geospeakers Meeting Summary

Meeting notes from Feb. 24, 2004

Meeting was rocked to order by our illustrious President Mitch Smith; 'on time' by Mitch's watch. Two galvanizing quotes provided by Ann warmed up our voices and prepared us for the mellifluous meeting to follow. Club business: We now have 5 officers trained, and have therefore fulfilled yet another of the Distinguished Club Goals (4 officers trained semi-annually). FOUR guests graced our meeting this day: Bob Bynum (Gretchen's husband), Peggy Lew, Le Kieu, and Claudia McGuire. Peggy saw us on the web, and Le and Claudia work at the USGS (maybe our posters are paying off).

Our Toastmaster of the Day, Fran introduced the theme today: Making Music. Carol, as Master Evaluator (and transcriber of the meeting notes) introduced the evaluation team, starting with Chris as Wordmaster/grammarian, who mellifluously defined our word of the day, as well as gave us a humorous example. Cynthia explained the reasons for timing speeches, evaluations and table topics, and Neil explained his role as 'ah' counter.

Today BOTH speeches were icebreakers (first speech by a new member), and BOTH were awesome. Cecilia's speech title: Oh, This Blessed Day, begins at 5:30 a.m., and captivatingly leads us through a typical yet enchanted day in her life. Gary's icebreaker was titled Bombs Away; no not a war story, but the front page headline of him cannonballing off a cliff as a kid (his dad asked if he was jumping off the cliff just before he showed him the headline news). He then skillfully navigated us through his life and even included his aspirations as a Geospeaker.

Next Joanna took us on a literary journey of Table Topics through music. She gave an excellent 'on the fly' explanation of the rules and reasons for the Table Topics portion of the meetings, and posed some interesting topics for each of us to respond to. Sorry, my notes are nearly illegible here, but Mitch won most Humorous for something about a job soundtrack (I just remember laughing), Cynthia most Eloquent for NOT singing in the shower (her musical talent is to be the audience), and Carol took most Interesting for her group (that means we ALL won!) improvisation of STOMP.

Mitch did a wonderful job evaluating Cecilia's speech, as did Cynthia for Gary. Both noted highlights of each speaker, with amazing insight into the nuances of each speech. Fascinating to hear their analyses of the wonderful composition of each speech; Cecilia for her wonderful concatenation of her life into a day, and Gary for the 'flow' of his speech, from 'cliff jumping' to his career at the USGS as an hydrologist.

Everyone was pretty much within time, used the WOD, and only a few had to contribute to our chocolate fund. This was yet another fine, fun filled meeting, that ended 'spot' on time with a last word from Ann, and a double rock from Fran and Mitch.

Many thanks to Shane for setting up the room ahead of time, knowing he couldn't make the meeting. I was pleasantly surprised to find the room ready at 11:15, and added a few Mardi Gras beads for fun. Gretchen helped put up signs/directions to our room, and lucky we did, because I think we might have set a record for new visitors today! Shane then appeared at the conclusion of the meeting to help pack up and put away.

Way to go Sergeant-at-arms!!!! A BIG thank you from everyone.

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