3_12_02 Geospeakers Meeting Summary

Today was a GREEN meeting-the theme was "Irish" in honor of the upcoming grand old holiday of St. Patrick's Day. The meeting started with club business-President Carol Reiss began by welcoming our guest Keith Jacobsen, the Area C2 Governor. Keith mentioned the upcoming area contest (March 20) and encouraged attendance. Carol introduced our three new members to Keith. Finally she noted that club dues were due and handed out the officer packets which she had assembled with the new officer pins.

Gretchen Luepke Bynum was Toastmaster of the Day. She spoke briefly about the theme, declining, however, to attempt an Irish brogue, but none-the-less mentioning her new green blouse and her near-Irish spirit. Fran Hostettler, Master Evaluator, introduced her Evaluation Team-Tara Kneeshaw as Timer, Chris Gutmacher as Wordmaster-Grammarian, and Shane Detweiler as Ah Tabulator. We then moved on to the first of two speeches.

Neil gave speech #3 from the Technical Presentation Manual entitled "If We Only Knew What We Know: An Introduction to Knowledge Management". Using overhead transparencies, Neil defined Knowledge Management ("putting the right information in the hands of the right people at the right time"), and spoke of its enormous utility and power. In a brief question-and-answer period it was obvious how interested our club members were in this subject, and how relevant it is to our lives and work. An informative, well crafted and well presented speech.

Next Carolynn Box gave her 2nd manual speech, "I Can Do It!". Carolynn spoke of her goal of attending graduate school in Science Management, hopefully at Oregon State University, her first choice of schools. She asked the question about why science is not always incorporated in science management decisions, and mentioned her desire to help bridge the gap between those who make science policy and those who do the science. Her sincerity and enthusiasm for these goals were obvious. Just as with Neil's speech topic, this is an extremely important concept and critical to future concepts of management.

Then we moved into Table Topics, led by Cynthia Ramseyer, who expressed a strong fondness for Irishness, especially every year around March 17. In a non-Scandinavian, pretty-good-sounding brogue, she interspersed some funny Irish jokes with questions having to do with Ireland. The award for Most Humorous went to Chris, who talked about the history of "kissing the Blarney Stone," ending with the conclusion that the benefits of kissing the stone were far outweighed by the thought of putting her lips on a rock where so many other lips had already been placed. Shane won the award for Most Eloquent, talking about what contributions the Irish had made in his personal life in terms of "How the Irish Saved Civilization". Of primary noteworthiness were four Irish co-workers and Irish contemporary music performed by groups like U2. Fran was awarded Most Interesting for discussing her favorite Irish movie ("Ryan's Daughter") and her admiration for the incredible contributions that Irish authors have made to world literature, poetry, and music over the years. For a small island and population, the Irish have had a disproportionate impact, and even if the literature tends to the melancholic, there's still "Waking Ned Devine" for a good laugh. Faith 'n begorrah, it's no blarney that this meeting took the cake, didn't go beyond the pale, and kept our Irish eyes smilin'.

Created by Carol Reiss for Geospeakers.