March 18 meeting

President Glenn Lewis opened the meeting at 1:05 p.m., and introduced the invocation leader, Valerie Mansfield. She read a selection from the Daily Word on forgiveness, followed by Matthew 18:21–22.

Glenn led the Pledge of Allegiance. He welcomed members and guests, and invited first-time visitor Kim Kaberle to introduce herself.

Glenn then opened the business part of the meeting. Valerie Mansfield made a motion that the minutes for the March 4, 2009 meeting be approved as written. The motion was seconded and approved.

Treasurer Ada Middleton announced that all but a few people have paid their membership dues. Two new members joined and paid dues at the March 18 meeting. Dues must be sent to Toastmasters International by April 1.

Glenn announced several changes in the meeting program due to last-minute absences. He said he would replace Perry Chang as Table Topics master and Deborah Hoff would replace Betsy Blocker as timer.

Glenn introduced Toastmaster Eva Stimson to begin the educational program. Eva invited members of the Evaluation Team to explain their responsibilities: Timer—Deborah Hoff; Ah Counter/Grammarian—Ada Middleton; Vote Counter—Gary Warren.

Ada introduced the word of the day, immoderate (adjective): Exceeding just, usual, or suitable bounds; going beyond a normal limit (immoderate spending, immoderate eating). Example: The buffet at Golden Corral attracted customers with immoderate appetites but limited cash in their pockets.

Eva introduced Glenn Lewis, who led a special expanded Table Topics competition on the theme of March Madness/Sports. For Round #1 he invited seven people to speak on topics related to various types of sports or sporting events. He then asked those present to vote for the best speech on the slips of paper provided. Vote counter Gary Warren declared that the winner of Round #1 was Eva Stimson, whose topic was running.

For Round #2 Glenn invited five people to speak on topics related to famous people in sports. In a vote following the speeches listeners chose Eric Darnell, who spoke about Rick Pitino (pictured above) as the winner of Round #2.

Glenn explained that Round #3 would be a run-off between the winners of Rounds #1 and #2. He invited Eva and Eric each to draw the name of a city that hosted March Madness games and speak about it. After a vote, Gary Warren declared Eric the overall winner of Table Topics, and Eva the runner up. Eric spoke about Portland, Ore., and Eva spoke about Philadelphia, Pa. They each received a prize and a trophy to keep until the next meeting.

Eva then called for reports from the evaluation team. Timer Deborah Hoff reported the following times for the Table Topics speeches:

Round #1:
Valerie Mansfield 1:09
Eric Darnell 1:14
Joelle Anderson 1:28
Ada Middleton 1:21
Gary Warren 45 seconds
Eva Stimson 2:07
Deborah Hoff 1:21

Round #2:
Valerie Mansfield 48 seconds
Joelle Anderson 39 seconds
Eric Darnell 1:30
Gary Warren 48 seconds
Deborah Hoff 18 seconds

Round #3:
Eric Darnell 1:08
Eva Stimson 1:40

Ah Counter/Grammarian Ada Middleton reported that the word of the day was used 1 time, by Gary Warren. (Eva Stimson used the word 1 time following Ada’s report.) Ada also counted 19 space fillers and 2 sentence fragments.

After closing remarks, Toastmaster Eva Stimson turned the meeting back over to President Glenn Lewis. He announced that the Peace Speakers Toastmasters officers would meet Tuesday, March 24, at 1 p.m. in room 1050 at the Presbyterian Center, and the next Peace Speakers Toastmasters meeting would be at 1 p.m. April 1 in Conference Room B.

Glenn also announced that Valerie Mansfield would be using her speaking skills to teach a class at Unity of Louisville April 13–17. He adjourned the meeting at 1:58 p.m.

-- Perry