February 17 meeting

President Eva Stimson began the meeting at 1:03 p.m. Perry Chang led the invocation by saying a prayer. After the invocation, Eva led the Pledge of Allegiance, introduced Kay Chambers as a new member, and welcomed guests to the meeting. During the business portion of the meeting, the minutes from the previous meeting were approved as written. Eva noted that there will be a district Toastmaster’s conference in May in Lafayette, Indiana. Eva reminded the executive committee members of their meeting on Tuesday, February 23 at 1 p.m. Vice President Membership Becki Moody spoke of an upcoming volunteer opportunity to judge a regional high school speech and debate contest.

After the business meeting, Eva introduced Kim Kaberle as Toastmaster. Kim asked the members of the evaluation team to explain their responsibilities: Speech Evaluator—Vince Patton; Table Topics Master—Eva Stimson; Timer—Betsy Blocker; Ah Counter/Grammarian—Bethany Furkin; Vote Counter—Ada Middleton.

Bethany Furkin announced couch as the word of the day:

Couch (kouch) vt. To put in words; phrase; express.

Kim introduced Debbie Belt, who gave her Competent Communication Project #1 (Icebreaker) speech entitled, “Midlife Critique.” Debbie spoke on evaluating the present state of her life and setting new goals for the future.

Eva Stimson led Table Topics using prompts associated with various disciplines, loosely related to the beginning of Lent.

Kim then called for reports from the evaluation team.

In his speech evaluation, Vince Patton commented on Debbie’s smile, eye contact, and nice incorporation of quotations.

Timer Betsy Blocker reported the following times:

Debbie Belt’s speech 5:15
Vince Patton’s speech evaluation 1:48

Table Topics:
- Ada Middleton 1:14
- Eric Darnell 1:03
- Kay Chambers 1:58
- Bethany Furkin 1:11
- Faith Aeilts 1:40
- Jessica Holman 1:13

Ah Counter/Grammarian Bethany Furkin counted 27 space fillers, 2 sentence shifts, and 2 uses of the word of the day (the total came to 3 uses of the word of the day by meeting’s end).

Vote Counter Ada Middleton announced that Kay Chambers won Table Topics.

Kim Kaberle made her final remarks as Toastmaster, and Eva Stimson closed the meeting at 1:43 p.m.

-- Joelle Anderson