We are making a transition with the officer that is to act as the interim secretary. In lieu of minutes, here's the agenda. The only addition is that Ron Climer filled in as the grammarian.
Susann Swan debuted as Toastmaster of the Day. She gave us the history of Valentine’s Day and how it is celebrated around the world. She also discussed the commercial aspect of it with examples from the Godiva Chocolate Company. In closing, she invited the attendees to consider sending a valentine to someone who may not receive one tomorrow. Music, chocolates, and blank valentine cards were a part of the meeting as well. Don Groff had the audience in laughter with his watermelon joke to set the tone of the meeting. Ron Climer delivered his speech, “Bigger Than Life,” about knowing his father, who died when Ron was two, by his family‘s colorful stories about him. Stan Coss delivered the second speech of the meeting,”The Neglected Art of Compromise”, offering examples from his personal life and Daniel Webster and Humpty Dumpty to help resolve our nation’s political stalemates. Following the two main speeches, Michael Thompson s...
The Fall 2020 Speech Contest was special. Our two FSTM contestants, Jeanne Resen in Humor and Karen Alexander in Evaluation, represented us very well. Jeanne is a humorist extraordinaire. She'd set the bar high back in the late summer with her stage shenanigans in a Pathways speech. She'd incorporated feedback and came back with an even more entertaining speech. Jeanne continued to refine and never gave a revision by rote; it always seemed fresh and aglow with new ways to engage laughter. Her main two stories were wonderfully told. Her opening, too, was inviting and funny. Her ending was easily the most dramatic and laugh-inducing of any I've ever seen (and I've seen lots of humorous contest speeches over the past seven years). One difficulty with Zoom is that there is no laugh meter for the audience. A judge cannot truly measure the speech's fullest rating in two important areas: audience response and effectiveness....
Toastmaster Karen Alexander chose cookies as the theme, in part, she said, because it was National Peanut Butter Cookie Day. It probably was also a relief and comfort from all the recent news. Joke master Stan Coss gave a journal of some jokes on the pandemic, he said, to try to get back the power. Don Groff had previously spoken in tribute to a role model in George Wingfield, and today Don spoke of the personal influence of another Reidsville legend, Leo Rentz. Don said he'd proudly worn his little league jersey with Rentz Oil and Mickey Mantle's number seven on the back. Mr. Rentz had become a wealthy man with his resourcefulness in putting out wildcat fires with dynamite. Don had first met him at a Rotary Club luncheon when Rentz had presented Don with an award for being an outstanding student athlete and citizen. In 1970 Don had accepted a job to learn the oil business for a year before he decided to...
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