Meeting 662 Nov 12 2008
Summertime
Daylight saving changes the feeling at the start of meetings now. We don’t need lights for the whole hour and a half from 6-7.30 pm. It gives a bright start to the meeting which carried through.
Claire was Toastmaster.
Claire Lacy
Claire handled the role with great vigour. She is an expert in our standard format for introducing speakers, and at times she could have been introducing the President-Elect of the United States. But her energy was always appropriately tailored to the person and the role she was deferring to.
Glenis gave the Inspiration.
She told us about Lang Lang, the Chinese pianist who was featured in the opening to the Beijing Olympics. His parents suffered a great deal of deprivation during the Cultural Revolution in China, and they were determined to give their one child the best opportunity they could. He was given a piano for his 2nd birthday – that’s right, 2 years old – and started working with a teacher at 4. His parents drove him – you’ve been born with a great gift, but you have to work at it. And work at it he did, practising for 8 or more hours every day.
Colin Simons
Colin presented Table Topics
We are very happy to have Colin back with us. Family commitments with a daughter in Sydney have kept him away for most of this year. He told us the theme for Table Topics would be trees. He was inspired by Alan’s speech last week.
Tony’s question was What kind of a tree are you? It’s a weeping willow, with Tony, as he battles with Database Management at work.
Craig What kind of trees should we have in our gardens? Craig believes our gardens should match what we feel. So everything should fit a theme.
Glenis What advantage is there in having native trees rather than imported species? Glenis wants to preserve our native vegetation for its own sake, and particularly because they need less water and less pruning.
Frank Can we live with logging? Frank couldn’t reach a final conclusion. What we do is meet consumer demand. We want the paper, so we get rid of our native trees, and install plantations. Is that good? Probably not, but it’s what people want.
Gail How do we sustain the growth of our forests? Well, by stopping logging of course, by recycling timber instead of throwing it out, and by growing plantations.
Peta What do you think of airlines charging a voluntary fee for carbon offsets? Peta felt she didn’t know anything about this, so Mark spoke passionately – it’s just a big scam to fatten their own profits.
Gail presented the Tonic about monster fish in the Swan. The sceptics among us were silenced when she presented a newspaper cutting of a sturgeon caught in the Swan and released again. It was 11 foot long and had a 6 foot girth. It was a big fish!
Alan presented the Table Topics Evaluation.
Heljo Cameron
Heljo is back from her world trip, and resuming her quest for her Advanced Communicator Award. She was selling a product with the title Successful Accessories. It was a bag, a Peruvian product with amazing qualities. It can be used for shopping. It’s ideal for personal defence in dangerous situations. It’s an ideal umbrella. And to top it all, it’s an upmarket fashion statement. At less than $40, full price, it’s a bargain, but she offered it, this night only, for $20.
Peta evaluated Heljo.
Colin Hughes
Colin’s Humorously Speaking 3 speech was titled Rocking City Blues.
Colin narrated his experiences in Phoenix with his friend, Manfred. There was a lot of waiting around, and many disappointments. But the plane left on time!
Craig evaluated Colin.
David Nicholas
David’s CC 6 speech was titled Where do you come from?.
David began by clarifying what the question wasn’t about. It wasn’t a young child asking a parent about the facts of life. It couldn’t be answered with a run down of places you have lived in and come from. It asks about your personality. What kind of a person are you? and how did you get to be like that? From the many traits of personality he chose 3. Are we optimists or pessimists? Are we spenders or savers? And how do we handle anger from a close friend or associate? We were asked to look deep into ourselves. What are we like? How did we get to be like that?
Gail evaluated David.
Frank’s Highlights tested our listening skills. He dealt with sturgeons, Lang Lang, the Chinese Cultural Revolution, scepticism about carbon offsets, and the colour of the bargain bag. Alas! there more highlights than time to detail them.
Mark evaluated the evaluators.
Tony, the depressed weeping willow, gave the Timing Report.
Alan Smith
Alan evaluated the meeting.
President Gail closed the meeting. She welcomed Marina back and looked forward to her resuming membership.
She drew attention to the forward Agendas on the back page, and noted that David and Mark would be attending the District 73 Council Meeting in Melbourne this weekend.
Gail prepared the supper.