March 8, 2007 Meeting Summary

Our Toastmaster, Kathy J, chose “Visiting the Dentist” as the theme for the day. Duty holders shared their experiences of visiting the dentist throughout the meeting.

Wordmaster/Grammarian, Rob W, chose “hygiene” as the word of the day. He didn’t like going to the dentist as a kid, but had a good experience at the skyway dentist.

Dan B, the timer, enjoys the dentist by the has good teeth and a relationship with the dentist that allows him to verbally abuse him!

Speaker #1, Lori G, told the story of a special date—March 14, 1990. Lori began her story by explaining that her brother is 18 months older, married, and had three children; her sister is 3 years younger, has a son named Jason, and got married after Lori. Lori and her husband dated for 3 ½ years before they were engaged, and were engaged for 1 ½ years before they tied the knot. Since they’d been together for so long, they decided to have kids right away.

Unfortunately, a doctor visit determined that Lori has polysystic ovarian syndrome. She was put on clomed, an infertility drug, and they waited. Each month, when Lori called the doctor’s office, they told her that her test was negative. The dose of clomed was doubled, but the test was still negative. After several months, Lori’s brother called and announced that they were expecting their fourth child. On the way home, Lori cried and had a conversation with God…still, her test result was negative. Then, Lori’s sister called and announced that she was expecting, too! With that, Lori bawled and had another conversation with God…still her test was negative. The next month, it was positive! In February, Lori’s sister-in-law was due. In March, her sister was due. In April, Lori was due. In February, Lori’s brother called announcing the birth of Alicia. Twelve days later, Rachel was born to Lori’s sister. Two days later, Lori’s water broke! Four weeks premature, Lori went to the hospital only to find that her baby was breech and couldn’t be turned. An emergency c-section was performed and neonatal specialists worked to get Lori’s baby to breate—they rubbed her, turned her over, and wacked her feet. Lori prayed to God, “Please don’t take away my baby.” Finally, she breathed and cried! That baby turned 17 years old on March 14, 2007. (Time: 6 minutes, 27 seconds)

Bob N, a guest of the club, volunteered to be Speaker #2. He works as an account executive at Brown & Bigelow. Throughout his career, his longest employment was four years, because they gave him something different to do after two years. He worked in telecommunications when “Baby Bell was a rumor”, from 1981 – 2003. Now, he sells calendars and promotional material, business gifts. He told us that he practices good hygiene and people like him. He plans to give future speeches on job changes and laughed that the theme of the day is “Visiting the Dentist” because he had two appointments today—a meeting and a dentist appointment! He likes Good Sense hot and spicy soy nuts, is married, and has two grown daughters, one of which is married. He also works part-time at the Mall of America putting kids on rides on the weekends. (Time: 4 minutes, 15 seconds)

Table Topics Master, Mark H, put his dentist’s kids through college and then made retirement possible with all of the money he paid him. His dentist was from the Flintstones—Dr. Marble. Today, Mark sees the dentist that bought Dr. Marble’s business!

v Betsy told us about her most painful experience. She has brittle bones and cracked her kneecap in two when a bat flew into her bedroom through the air conditioner. She waited until she thought the bat was on the other side of the room and ran to the light-switch, only to find the bat near it. She dropped to the floor and began screaming. Fortunately, her roommate came to her rescue, her Mom took her to the hospital, and someone came for the bat! Later, Betsy told people that she broke her kneecap being quarterback for the Vikings! (Time: 1 minute, 37 seconds)

v Jeff told us why he looks forward to or dreads his semi-annual cleaning, and why. The question was timely because Jeff just decided on Monday that he should go to the dentist. As a kid, his mom always made his appointments, so he went every six months. On April 3rd he’ll start again. Since it’s been a while, he’s dreading the appointment—not because of the pain, but because he’s embarrassed that it’s been so long. (Time: 1 minute, 22 seconds)

v Keri told us about a special birthday that she had and what made it special. She remembers there being a special birthday in her 20s. She and her now husband went out and partied at Disney World in Florida, where she received the red carpet treatment for her birthday, including a cake at the restaurant and a lot of opportunities to consume alcohol at Epcot. In particular, she recalled “The 911” in Germany, which consists of Rumplemintz, Goldschlager, and Jagermeister. (Time: 1 minute, 20 seconds)

Evaluator #1, Mike C, recalled his dentist office’s choice of décor being a bit odd—pictures portrayed dental practices in the 1800s…they weren’t exactly calming! Then, he found a dentist who placed a picture of his race car in Mike’s lap while he explained that Mike’s wisdom teeth needed to be pulled. Mike found a new dentist and still has his wisdom teeth today! Mike was so enthralled in Lori’s speech that he admitted worrying more about Lori’s child living than taking notes for his evaluation, but he did give Lori compliments on her gestures, purposeful movement, and plot development. He loved her vocal variety and the way that her use of pauses, pace, and monotone responses made our urgency grow. He also liked her visual descriptions. For future speeches (see Lori’s contest speech above), Mike suggested fewer dates and details, since it was tough to know what was important during that part of the speech, and thought that she could describe her and her husband’s urge to have kids even more. (Time: 3 minutes, 40 seconds)

Evaluator #2, Laura B, complimented Bob on being very gutsy to stand in front of all of us with only a couple of minutes to prepare. She also commended Bob on his voice, enunciation, vocal variety, projection of his voice, gestures, and humor. With more time to prepare, she thought Bob could have added more structure and organization to his speech and some more purposeful movement in the front of the room. (Time: 2 minutes, 38 seconds)

Inspiration/Humor – Bob told a joke.

Reports
v Wordmaster/Grammarian - Bob & Jeff used the word of the day. Rob also liked “…good time guy…” and “…in front of the Christmas tree with their bellies…”
v Timer – See times in parenthesis following speaking roles.

General Evaluator, Roxie N, commended Keri on her delay to gather her thoughts in table topics response. She thought Mike and Laura B. did a great job with their responses and enjoyed Bob’s humor.

Spirit Award: Lori Galloway

Business Items
v Mutual Voices Spring Contest – Thursday, March 15, 12pm, Partnership Room
v Area 14 Spring Contest – Tuesday, March 20, 12pm – First Trust Building
v Volunteers for Speechcraft are needed
v Dues will be collected in April