February 8, 2007 Meeting Summary

Jeff was our Toastmaster for the meeting and chose "Pets" as the theme. Jeff is a pet lover and grew up with dogs in the home. His wife however isscarred of animals. Jeff would like a dog but he needs to convince hiswife that it would be a good idea. They went to a Superbowl party and thehome owners had a little Yorkie that actually would sit on his wife's lap. Jeff is hoping this is the beginning of something good.

Betsy was our Word Master Grammarian. She chose Pedigree as the word of the day. Pedigree is a noun that means: 1) a register recording a line ofancestors, 2) an ancestral line : Lineage and 3) a distinguished ancestry

Mike was the Timer. Mike is not a pet person. He stated you can never potty train a dog. He says that kids move out, but pets just die and needto be buried.

Mark was our first speaker. His speech was titled "Membership Building 101". Mark announced a contest for our club that runs from 2/15/07 to4/15/07. You will get 5 points for every guest you bring to a meeting, 5 points if that guest joins our club, 2 points if the new member gives a speech, 1 point for each meeting your guest returns and 1 point if the newmember holds a duty other then speaker. The awards are: 1st place $25. gift card, 2nd place $15. gift card and 3rd-5th place $5. gift card.(17:50)

Marian was our second speaker. Her speech was about the behind the scenes of the All Company Meeting. They expect 2,000 plus people to attend theall company meeting each year. Marian told us of three reasons we have anannual all company meeting. 1) Purpose - to hear the psp percentage number. This includes educating, motivating, giving information on the past years experiences, insight into the coming up year and the culture ofSecurian/Minnesota Life. 2) Process - planning of the meeting begins inSeptember. Information is obtained from department heads. The meeting needs to be different each year. 3) Results - after the meeting associates are surveyed. They have obtained a 98% message received success rate.(7:30)

Roxie was our Table Topic Master. Roxie is a pet lover and in fact has three dogs: Rascal Gordon, Sadie May and Riley Jr. All these dogs were rescues from the animal shelter. Roxie's first question went to Laura B."Have you worked for an animal shelter?" Yes Laura has spent countless hours volunteering for the animal shelter. She has worked there for six years and has never adopted a pet yet because she has her beloved Buddy athome.(1:23)

Roxie's second question went to Lori. "You are your dog' Saydee', what do you do all day long while home alone?" Lori as Saydee would sleep all day long curled up on the couch. She knows when her kids get home from school each day so she wakes up shortly before they get home and waits to greet them at the door. (1:20)

Laura G evaluated Marks speech. She congratulated Mark on a great job. Mark is an accomplished speaker and has good structure, vocal variety and gestures. Laura suggested Mark provide the Toastmaster with a better introduction of his background, use more movement and turn down the frontlights when using power point. (3:11)

Betsy evaluated Marian's speech. She felt Marian seemed very calm, organized and picked a good topic which was very relevant for this time of year. Betsy said Marian had a good introduction, good eye contact and body language. Betsy suggested Marian might want to push back the table for more room to move around in. (1:48)

Betsy reported the word of the day was used by Roxie, Mike and Laura G. She enjoyed the phrases "Fleeing as quickly as they can, never to return","Looming", "Sanity Break" and Marian saying she may be the food. Laura B was our General Evaluator. She commented that Jeff is very natural as the Toastmaster. Betsy chose a good Word of the Day, Mike had great humor, Lori had good structure to her table topic response and overall themeeting was great. The Spirit Award went to: Marian.