08-18-05 Meeting Summary

Thanks to those who attended and participated in the August 18 Mutual
Voices Meeting. It was a lot of fun.
Toastmaster, Eddie Kaiser, chose the theme of first jobs, to which everyone
could relate. For the majority, it seemed to have been in fast food
restaurants. As Wordmaster/Grammarian, Betsy Schaller selected the word
remuneration because of its relationship to that first job.
Speaker # 1 was Stacia Smith, who gave an Ice Breaker speech based on her
interest in travel. Speaking without notes and appearing quite relaxed,
Stacia opened by describing her earliest travel memories with her
grandmother in her RV and moved on to her first overseas trip to Sweden at
the age of 12. But the highlight of Stacia’s travel experiences was
studying abroad in Barcelona, Spain while a student at Hamline. Stacia
provided a vivid picture of her experience by describing a typical day,
noting many of the differences between her life there and life here,
including energy use and transportation.
Overall, Eddie provided excellent transitions between speeches particularly
in moving from Stacia's Ice Breaker into Mary Ellen Griffith’s speech,
"Perennial Gardening."
As a dedicated gardener, I was particularly interested in Mary Ellen’s
speech. With references to a selection of perennial plants and her easel
notes, Mary Ellen was well organized and prepared. We learned important
information about perennial gardening, including details about light and
soil conditions, design, texture, line, form and bloom time. I took her
advice and went shopping for marked down perennials last weekend!
Laura Griffiths’s open-ended Table Topics questions elicited some
interesting stories. The first question went to Kathy Johnson. She
answered the question "What advice would you give your children when
looking for a first job?" by saying that she would encourage her twins to
look for a job that was clean and that also gave a discount.
The second question, "What was your most memorable working event?" was
answered by Betsy Schaller. She said that breaking her foot separating the
twins she was babysitting stood out in her mind.
Dan Bennek answered the third question "What were the worst and best parts
of your first job?" His first job was at McDonald’s, where he worked
alongside three family members. As the most junior, it fell to him to
unplug a blocked drain under the grill – yuck!
Kathy Johnson provided the day’s Inspiration/Humor. A very punny piece
about different jobs. If you want a copy you can find it at
http://www.humormatters.com/workplace.htm
Speech # 1 Evaluator was Dan Bennek and Evaluator # 2 was Lori Galloway.
General Evaluator was Laura Carmody.
The Spirit Award was presented to Stacia Smith.