08_24_04 Geospeakers Meeting Summary

Our president, Ann Gunderson, was back from her vacation with her granddaughter, so she rocked the meeting to order. Carol Reiss galvanized us with a (group) reading of the official Olympic Anthem. In its spirit of “giv(ing) life and animation to those noble games!”, we found ourselves giving a lot of life and animation to our meeting:

Ann announced the upcoming Fall Area C2 Humorous Speech and Evaluation Contests. (It has now been officially set for September 30, 2004.) We have a new venue, in honor of our newest club to join our Area C2: R*Toasters. (Map and directions to follow.) All club members are encouraged to compete in the humorous speech or evaluation contests, to participate as judges, ballot counters, or simply to come, enjoy and encourage our contestants. Ann is co-organizer for the event, along with Chat Vaewsorn of SRI Organon.

Chris Gutmacher announced that our website has been updated with minutes of meetings and photos of our 10th anniversary meeting (held last January 27th, 2004). Carol Reiss was the coach for this “event”. There was a round of applause for their valiant efforts on behalf of our club. Gold medals for them!

Ann then introduced Chris Gutmacher, who, in her FIRST role of the meeting, was our Toastmaster. Chris introduced our theme: The Olympics. Chris was also one of our Prepared Speechgivers (SECOND role). Her speech was #5 from the Specialty Speeches Advanced Manual—“Introduce the Speaker”. She first introduced Ann Gunderson as the Master Evaluator, noting her participation in Geospeakers for the last two years, and her interest in athletics in general, wondering if she might have any other “sports” to talk about. The evaluation team introduction began with Mitch Smith, as Timer. Mitch gave a succinct report on what the parameters are for speeches, evaluations, and Table Topics. Fran Hostettler reminded us of how we notice and are annoyed at verbal glitches in other people's speech, and that she would be watching US for such annoyances. Chris Gutmacher, in her THIRD event, as Wordmaster/Grammarian, promised to count the number of times each of us said the world “Olympics”. Ann promised to sum up the meeting at its completion.

Chris then continued her “marathon” (to quote from Neil Shapiro, her evaluator) of introductions by introducing Shane Detweiler, our other speaker, also noting his participation in Geospeakers for over two years, and his contributions, especially, to the humor of our meetings. Shane gave his seventh speech, Speech #5 from the Communication & Leadership Manual on Vocal Variety. His speech title was “My Three Girlfriends”, who we quickly learned were the various aspects of his current love—yes, Shane, LOVE!—and we all quickly noticed what a delightful couple they must be. Shane spent a lot of time on “Girlfriend 2”, “Rosario”, who gets somewhat confused at times. Shane had many opportunities to use some vocal variety (guess which end of the vocal range?) as he described their interactions. But we all fell in love with “Girlfriend 3”, “Honey”, who has charmed his heart.

Carol Reiss was the subject of Chris's last introduction, as she was our Table Topics master. Carol's five years in Geospeakers were outlined, as well as her solid interest in the ice hockey, skating, and horses. Carol then ran us through various “events”. Should we share the gold medals, perhaps have no winners? This was Lauri's question, and he eloquently voiced his respect for having fun with no winners. Fran expressed the thought that the bad part of the Olympics is the political competition that sometimes accompanies them, and the good part is seeing athletes strive to be their best. Ann revealed her hopes of being a pole vaulter; Mitch suggested introducing dodge ball as a new game, so that the Olympics could better represent real life: the quiet “dodgers” and the aggressive bullies; Gary didn't claim to have Olympic fever, but saw his daughter's “fever” in learning to swim the butterfly stroke (she asked her coach, “When do I get to breathe?”) Chris thought 4th and 5th place were a great idea, especially for swimming and gymnastics, and noted how very close (handkerchief close) some of the races are, and that it is wonderful to see how happy everyone is to be at the games. Shane admitted he wouldn't want to carry the torch, but might drive it to its destination.

Ann took the “Most Eloquent” award, the “Most Humorous” went to Shane, and “Most Interesting” was captured by Mitch.

Mitch evaluated Shane's speech, noting that he had set it up well with many possibilities for vocal variety with the different personalities of his girlfriend. Shane got kudos for great variety in vocal tone, volume and speed, the main objectives of his speech. Mitch suggested providing a little more balance by describing just the two personalities, as personality one was not expanded upon; and trying a different speaking position around the slide images of “Rosario/Honey”. Gold Gedal for Shane! Gold Medal for Mitch!

Neil Shapiro then presented his evaluation of Chris's speech, noting, as I mentioned before, the “marathon” nature of her speech, the introductions that interspersed the entire meeting, which she accomplished, also, at the Gold Medal level. He mentioned the nice histories Chris gave of each person's participation in the club, and only suggested a few points where Chris might have spoken with a little more volume. Gold Medal for Neil!

Ann Gunderson spoke, as Master Evaluator, about how everyone worked the Olympic theme into their roles, and that the meeting ran very well.

Carol Reiss ended our meeting with a phrase from the translation of Palamas's Greek poem, the original inspiration for the Olympic Anthem.

Ann rocked the meeting to a close early; Gold-Medal-covered candy was enjoyed by all.

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