Saturday, May 9, 2015

May 5th, 2015 Theme: Cinco de Mayo


“Cinco de Mayo makes me long for a world in which all holidays are conveniently named after the dates on which they fall.”. ~~ Author Unknown



Welcome to the first meeting in May blog. Today, we had 2 guests and an infant with us. 

Dave A. was our toastmaster and offered information about the origin of the Cinco de Mayo Mexican holiday. It is a celebration of the Mexican Army's victory over France during  the Franco-Mexican War on May 5, 1862.  The battle was fought at Puebla and is considered a minor holiday inside Mexico.  In the U.S. however, Cinco de Mayo not only celebrates the victory at the Battle of Puebla, but is a celebration of the culture and heritage of the Mexican people (along with an abundance of drinking).
The GAT(e) team was: Sue as Grammarian (Convivial), Grace as the Ah Counter, and Diana as the Timer. 
Naser was our first speaker today. He completed his 1st speech (A Folk Tale) from the advanced Storytelling Manual, Project 1. The speech was entitled “A Folk Tale” and was completed in 6:20 minutes.



Naser interpreted a story about a Donkey who wanted respect from the members of the village he lived in. He didn’t get any, so he got fed up and left the village and went into the forest. He finds a dead lion and decides to wear the lion skin to frighten the village people. In the end, the people realized that the donkey was behind the lion skin and they laughed. The moral of the story was: Be yourself; if you want to be someone else, keep your mouth shut.



Naser was voted best speaker.



Jean was his evaluator. Jean liked the extent of audience participation in the opening of the speech as well as the traveling segments (involving rhythmic clapping). She said that stories are the best way to let an audience learn something new. She was pleased that Naser used all the features of the Competent Communicator’s manual in this speech. She appreciated the suggested moral action of the story to get respect while being ourselves.

 

Our second speaker was a guest speaker, Nate S.  His speech was called: “About Me”  and was completed in 7:15 minutes.



Nate S. talked about his upcoming birthday on May 12, how he got a scar on each of his forearms, his difficult family life and a lament of the lack of leaders in the world today.




 
Jim was his evaluator. Jim complimented Nate S. on his courage in speaking impromptu and taking a personal risk to do so.  He also noticed his self-effacing attitude and some confidence in expressing his spoken messages. He suggested that as he speaks more in the future, do so with increased confidence so it builds and brings out that there is something important to say.



Jim was voted best evaluator.



Pauline was the Table Topics Master for today's meeting. She offered famous quotes for speakers to expand upon.




Jim spoke about the Stephen Hawking quote offered to his children. Jim admired the surmounting of his ALS chronic illness and his extraordinary longevity to persevere and contribute to mankind’s knowledge of the Universe.



Sue talked about Margaret Mead’s quote: “You’re unique, just like everyone else”. She admitted to playing an unnamed musical instrument, appending a smiley face on her resume, which resulted in an interview and consequent job, and suggested that she follows the rules, but not always.



Linda discussed the Yin and Yang in her life. Yin represents the night, down, darkness and calm; Yang represents the day, the sun, happiness and excitement. She thought that BioRhythms  (now a calculator app) is a good way to show the balance in your life among the Intellectual, Physical and Emotional spheres of our lives.
Linda was voted best Table Topics Speaker.




Nate S. was given the Winston Churchill quote: “You have enemies? Good! That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.”  He agreed with the sentiment and noted that the world around us has evil or challenges to be overcome.


Some Announcements:


• Naser announced that he will be distributing the next meeting’s party announcement electronically to members and guests.  

• Barb announced that there is now Wifi (password protected) in the Seattle Times Meeting Room that is available to us. 

• She also announced that we have won a ribbon (for the club banner) for getting 6 new members in February and March 2015. 

• Finally, she mentioned that we have been recognized as a distinguished club as of April 29, 2015, and there will be a Dinner at Renton Technical College on May 29, 2015 to celebrate.



Attendees were: 
Linda, Jean, Jim, Robert, Barb, Lynne, Naser,  Sue,  Pauline,  Grace, Chizuko, David A., Diana
as well as 2 guests: Nate S. and Jing L. + her infant as shown above. Our membership total remains at 27.

~~~~~ Respectfully Submitted by Robert, the Secretary [Let your fingers do the typing and comment] ~~~~~
 









 









 






2 comments:

  1. I love reading your blog/minutes, Robert, because you always share some things I missed. You're very thorough. I like the fact that you include so many pictures of our members and guests.

    Jean

    ReplyDelete
  2. Brilliant job! We are very fortunate to have such an accomplished blogger.

    ReplyDelete