Swine Flu Kills A Couple Hundred… Just How Bad Is It?

Most of the time when listening to news broadcasts, one will get an out of balance perspective of what is being spoken… Last night, Bill Hanger brought this phenomenon to our attention at the Gem City Forum Toastmasters meeting in Franklin, NC.  Mr. Hanger explained to us in his gentle and direct manner, that although there is a great sadness for victims of epidemics such as the Swine Flu who’s victims number in the low hundreds, that there are other epidemics currently ravishing the masses in America and around the world which are responsible for thousands of AVOIDABLE deaths daily.

Specifically, Mr. Hanger spoke about the numerous types of cancer which have and are claiming the lives of thousands of people on a daily basis. All of this which he said could be avoided easily by a change in diet. “The body is an amazing SELF-HEALING organism” said Bill. “All it needs is the proper fuel and it will do the “self maintenance & healing” job it was created to do”. But the fuel mixture must be correct, or this Human Machine will not function properly and as experience has taught us, we will contract sickness & disease.  “The right food is the correct fuel” said Mr. Hanger.  The best food choices for optimum health are ones that are rich in nutrients, or better called, “Nutrient Density Food” such as Raw Vegetables, Cooked Greens, Fresh Fruits and Non-Green Vegetables (mushrooms, eggplant, tomatoes and such). Bill Hanger quoted Dr. Joel Fuhrman as saying “Nutrient density is the key to good health”.  Mr. Hanger proceeded to explain how cancer and other killer health epidemics could be avoided by the proper care and feeding of the body with nutrient dense, high volume, high antioxidant capacity foods.  At the end of his presentation, Bill gave the Gem City Forum attendees a comprehensive handout sheet that contained a listing of many of the healing foods recommended for thwarting a health “terror” attack on the body. It surely was an excellent speech with rich content given by a man who knows what he is talking about. Bill Hanger is a cancer survivor who avoided the ebb & flow surgery route by eating and feeding himself the proper fuel for optimum health.

I wish I could say I was more mature! Seriously, Martha Holbrook made me very hungry speaking about the intricacies of biscuit making.. Not just any biscuits, but SOUTHERN NATIVE STYLE biscuits. If you ever attend a meeting such as we had last night and you had the least tinge of hunger going in, I promise, after listening to Mrs. Holbrook describe these southern delicacies you would be on your knees begging biscuits! And drooling at the same time! Martha has a passion for this food which has been passed down from 3 generations of her family. She told us about her grandmother making these fat free (yeah sure) love biscuits and how she used lard in the mix! Oh, she said, “why you can make biscuits and gravy, ham & egg biscuits, cheese biscuits and a multitude of other kinds of biscuits with your favorite toppings!” Martha told us the deep and shrouded family secret of a great biscuit.. and it all had to do with the “cutting” technique. She explained that unlike a cookie cutter, where one presses the cutter down into the dough and turns it in a circular motion, that the secret to a great biscuit is to push the cutter down into the dough and bring it STRAIGHT UP without turning it.  She went on to tell us that with biscuit dough, if you turn the cutter, you seal the sides and therefore, the biscuit will not “rise” .  Mrs. Holbrook gave a great speech complete with a contagious smile and biscuit PHOTOS, and don’t let me forget to mention that she gave all the attendees a sheet with her favorite biscuit receipe! (do you really think she’d give us her family secret biscuit recipe?) Yes, this lady is an angel and I’m sure the recipe is authentic! Hmmm, what’s that strange sound.. it seems eerily familiar to the rumble I heard in my tummy last night at Toastmasters!  Martha!! ?? Where are you?

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September started off with a Bang at gem City Forum Toastmaster’s Club. First Phil Drake educated us on memory and how easy it is to make it work for us. He also used the Library’s overhead to project a powerpoint to emphasize his points and make it easier for all of us to visualize what he was talking about.

Then Jim Alvord taught us about RC airplanes and how they work. Jim brought several of his planes for show-and-Tell and explained their specialties and demonstrated how the radio moves the control surfaces to make the planes perform their unique specialties.

All of the planes were of the newer electric flying variety and included a Fokker DVII from WWI, a Millenium aerobat that is a super lightweight fully aerobatic stick plane, a Miss 2 trainer with a polyheidral wing for stability, a LARGE Electro Kaydet that’s one of his favorites for all round control and functions like a work-horse as well as an aerobat, and a foamie “Combat” plane used in aerial combat streamer cutting matches. It was very informative and entertaining.

This past week Michele Hubbs introduced us to a speech about America’s only Emperor, Norton !. Yes there really was an Emperor in San Francisco in the mid-eighteen hundreds. Google it if you don’t believe it, like I didn’t.

He was quite a character and Michele had us all following Norton through the streets of San Francisco as he Knighted good deed doers, attended the Theatre with his two dogs, and paid for his purchases with his own Imperial Promissory money.

At the end of her speech she actually presented everyone with a copy of Norton’s 10 dollar notes. Michele used pictures of the Emperor and his bicycle, and in his official regalia uniform to make believers out of us all. And she even stayed within the time limit!!  Congratulations Michele on a very enlightening and entertaining presentation.

If you’re not coming to the Gem City Forum Meetings, you’re missing out on a great time as well as some very good speeches and lessons in how presentations should be done.

Hope to see you at the next meeting, Tuesday September 16th at the new Macon County Library at 5:30PM.

Where else can you learn how to be an effective public speaker with a group of friendly and supportive fellow club members, and know that you’ll get help and pointers to make your presentation better - for your own good without getting heckled or laughed at when you’re first starting out.

Besides - it’s a lot of FUN and we always have a GREAT time.

Til next time - the floor is yours!!

Jimbo

The summer is just flying by and I just noticed I haven’t posted since June - my Bad. The summer always brings a bevy of activity with vacations, bar-b-ques, picnics, etc., it’s hard to keep up with it all. I hope your summer is filled with FUN activities as well.

The Gem City Forum Toastmasters Club is still meeting every Tuesday and offering a safe learning environment for our members and guests to practice public speaking and leadership skills. If you’re in the area of Franklin, NC please stop in and join in the activities.

Our usual meeting spot is the New Macon County Library off Siler Rd. on Tuesdays at 5:30PM. But - for the next two weeks we will have to meet at the Prudential Bldg. downtown next to the Gazebo Parking Lot due to scheduling conflicts at the Library.

This past week we were treated to two wonderful speeches from our scheduled members. The first speech was from our veteran, John Becker. John is one of our favorite speakers because of his interesting subjects and expressive delivery. Also known as “Baldhead the Realtor”, John is a real character in the community adn also an active drummer with his band. As always John delivered an insightful speech based on “Vocal Variety” and he knocked it dead.

Our second speaker for the evening was a new member, “Winnie May” who gave her “Ice Breaker” speech. Winnie blew us all away with her talk about raising her 12 children and some of the obstacles and rewards of a large family. When she was done we all came to the realization that her topic “Cheaper by the Dozen” truely was a myth. Winnie delivered a very professional speech for her first time at Gem City Forum, and we are all looking forward to hearing her future speeches as she grows and developes along with the rest of us.

That’s it for now - I’m heading out to the flying field for a few hours with my friends as we fly our R/C planes. I hope to see you at our next meeting at the Prudential Building, Tuesday night at 5:30PM.

Jimbo

Last night we had a wonderful meeting with two GREAT speechs at the Gem City Forum Toastmasters Club meeting in the Prudential Building downtown. The meeting started on time at 5:30 and our Toastmaster, Phil Drake did his usual outstanding job of leading and keeping everyone on track. He also used a very clever segway from the theme for the evening into a useful short story example of a Toastmaster’s role that he recently was witness to. His story provided us with lessons we can all use in our own growth as toastmasters. Phil was so slick in the transition that we all followed along without even thinking about it.

Our Table Topics Master, Kathy Clifton brought three members to the front to talk impromptu about some of their interesting and thought provoking experiences and passions. Kathy always makes us think when she’s the Topics Master.

Teresa was our Joke Master for the evening and she entertained us with two jokes for the price of only one. Let’s just say they were so good, that I had to tell my wife when I got home.

John Sapp headed up the speechs part of the meeting with some enlightenment in the fine art of motorcycle buying and family preparation psychology. John is a seasoned presenter and his obvious passion for his recent Honda acquisition was clearly delivered with enthusiasm which infected the entire audience. John’s use of humor and good sound logical advise intertwined to make a convincing arguement for buying a motorcycle, especially with the recent gas price hikes we’ve all been subjected to.

Then it was Nancy Porter’s turn and Nancy delivered the type of speech that scares me the most, the “serious” speech. “You Is or You Isn’t” Nancy took us back to a lesson she learned from her Mama as a youngster, there is no gray area in being honest! Nancy incororated 4 examples from her own past job experiences to demonstrate her point clearly and effectively. Through the effective delivery of facts about each example and the alternative ‘Correct Way’ that she presented as a correction fix, Nancy showed us her expertise in the field of Money Management and the dark side of mis-management. It was made very clear to us all and very professionally delivered that when it comes to money honesty (and all other things in life), when other people put there trust in you to handle their money, you need to be 100% honest and trustworthy. There is no other option - “You Either Is - or You Isn’t!”

Inclosing, I’d like to thank all of our participants and extend an open invitation to our three guests Kerri, Christine and Martha to come back and spend another evening with us whenever you can. Hopefully you’ll become infected with the enthusiasm and passion that our members and speakers shared last night and decide to join us as members for our weekly Gem City Forum Toastmasters Club meetings. Don’t forget - next meeting is our Officer Elections so please be at the Macon County Public Library on the 17th of June at 5:30PM to vote for your new leaders.

See you there!
Jim

Our regular Tuesday night meeting of the Gem City Forum Toastmasters Club was started on-time and our first time Toastmaster, John Sapp introduced the theme “Isn’t it Wonderful?” with some very thought provoking questions for the audience to ponder.

The normal meeting participants fulfilled their duties flawlessly, even though we had to perform like a first meeting club without our timer’s watch and warning light and other meeting niceties we’ve gotten used to. It was fun to rough it, so-to-speak, and it didn’t slow anyone down even a little bit.

As our General Evaluator, Emily Markham pointed out the Table Topics Master, John Becker showed us a side of some of our membership that (tongue-in-cheek) pointed to Pyro tendencies in our youth. But there is now and always has been a fascination with youth and matches/ fire that transcends logic and surfaces in an almost primordial nature. At least we out-grew it.

Our two speakers for the evening, Phil Drake & Michele Hubbs entertained us in their normal Exemplary fashion. Phil taught us a short but highly fact filled 100 yr. history of western North Carolina and the Cherokee Indians, that left all of us wanting to know more. Michele used humor, very well delivered, to teach us not to Procrastinate. Her excuses / reasons as to why procrastination isn’t a good thing or a bad thing either, left everyone in stitches. In closing she handed out a step-by-step anti-procrastination guide only to assure us that she intended to start following it in a couple of weeks, “when she got around to it.”

A great evening of entertainment and sharing was ended with a beautiful rainbow as we left the Macon County Library at meeting end.

Plan on attending the June 17th meeting to vote for your new officers. Elections will be held at that meeting, so think about moving up to the next level and becoming an officer for the next year and serving your fellow members.

It’s a good way to gain valuable leadership skills and helps in completing your Competent Leader requirements for advancement in Toastmasters.

See you at the Library on June 3rd at 5:30PM for the next installment in becoming a Competent Communicator.

Our May 20th meeting at the Prudential Building was a lot of fun and even somewhat educational. Our Toastmaster for the evening, Danny Clifton, opened the meeting and kept us all on track so the evening flowed smoothly along.

The Grammarian, Bill Hanger, enlightened us on the difference between ‘use’ and ‘utilize’ which are grossly mis-used in our everyday verbal interchange. The main ephasis is that we ‘use’ the word “utilize” way too often and most of the time incorrectly in our regular communications. We should be using the word ‘use’ far more often, as to utilize implies that we are using something in an unusual or different way than normal. Think about that when you want to ‘use’ something in the future.

Our jokemaster, Phil Drake, had us all in stitches as usual with his “fish story” and I guarantee it’s not at all what’s going through your mind right now. Strong minds Rule! That’s all I’m going to say about it.

Our guest, Winnie Mae was brought in on Table Topics and did an excellent job for her first time in front of the group. Winnie is a ringer with some experience at talking in front of people and her short speech proved it. Likewise, our Dwayne Phillips and Kathy Clifton filled out the topics with descriptions of alternate useses for glasses (of the soda drinking variety) and a #2 pencil. It was a fun time for all attending.

Finally our speaker for the evening, Jim Alvord, gave us an insight into what it was like taking flying lessons out of San Jose Municipal Airport in California in the 80’s. Jim was doing speech # 5 “Your Body Speaks” from the Competent Communicator” series and used the ups. downs, and other obscure angles experienced from the cockpit of a small airplane to give the audience a sense of what happens during stall practice and takeoff & landing sequences during flight lessons.

During the business portion of the meeting our acting President, Jim also reminded everyone to start thinking about who might want to run for office as the June Elections are close at hand. The meeting was over way too soon again as seems to be the case every week. If you’re in the Franklin, NC area on Tuesday night - stop in and experience what a Toastmaster’s Meeting can be like with a very Dynamic group of individuals like we have in the “Gem City Forum Toastmasters Club.”
Until next time!

April 29th we all learned a little more about Nikola Tesla and all that he did for our current lifestyle. Nikola was truely a ‘GENIUS’ and our modern day electricity generation, distribution and utilization are a testament to Mr Electricity himself. Jim left us all wanting to know more about this great unsung hero and his other accomplishment. There was a promise made to share more in a future speech on the subject and to share a lot more details about the man and his life.

On May 6th our own John Becker entertained us in his usual gallant style. John is a master at using vocal tone, inflection, and facial expressions to get his message across. Using colorful word pictures he can draw the picture directly in your mind’s eye so you see exactly what he does. It’s a very unique talent and we’re all that much richer in our own ability to give speeches because we’ve shared in John’s.

Coming up this week May 13th we will be entertained and enlightened by our VP of Membership, Ms Kathy Clifton. Kathy always has great stories to tell and I for one am really looking forward to it.

I’d also like to extend a hearty Welcome to our guest last week, Marc Cutrone of Mountain Resort Properties, LLC. We look forward to future visits and if the spirit so moves you Marc, we’d love to have join our group.

That’s it for this update - hope to see you at the Macon County Library this Tuesday at 5:45PM for our next sintilating get-together. Yes - that’s 15 minutes later than usual do to a schedule conflict at the Library. See ya There!!

Jimbo

Tuesday April 22 was a magical night for Gem City Forum members at the Prudential Building in Franklin. NC. The meeting started with Danny Clifton as acting Sargeant At Arms calling the meeting to order and introducing the Toastmaster for the evening, Phil Drake.

Michele Hubbs started us off with the words ‘Fewer’ & ‘Less’ as the grammarian and the meeting was off and running never to look back.

Emily Markham gave us a couple good laughs as the jokemaster for the evening.

Kathy Clifton did a masterful job of dishing out Table Topics, and Bill Hanger not only talked about a Bear looking for food after waking from Hybernation, but he looked very much the part as he lumbered around the lectern looking for his virtual feast.

But the show stopper for the evening was when Nancy Porter gave her speech about how she and Jim dealt with their blossoming teenage daughter going out for a date. Using a bell prop and facial expressions that conveyed emotions that all parents could understand easily at the gutt level, Nancy took us all back to our first experiences of teenage dating and “Lovers Lookout.”

Nancy told us about the agreement made prior to going out and the understandings that somehow got innocently derailed and accidently discovered and the ensuing chase that had us all in stitches as we thought back to some of the experiences we’d all gone through in the past.

It was absolutely one of the best speechs that we’ve ever heard at a Gem City Forum Toastmaster’s Meeting. Nancy congratulations on a job Very Well done!

Hope to see you all at the April 29th meeting back at the Macon County Library.

What an exciting meeting we had. Other than the jokes from Jokemaster, Danny Clifton the meeting was April Fool Proof.

John Sapp, the VP of Marketing & Advertising for Drake Enterprises gave his “Ice Breaker” speech and had us all paying close attention as he told of his journey with a youth group and their subsequesnt Hijacking at machete point. It was easy to see that John has had some experience in front of a crowd and we’re grateful that he’s joined our group and look forward to many more enlightening and entertaining speeches in the future.

Our Immediate Past District 37 Governor, Mike Kesselring was on hand to stretch thinking as well as entertain on a whole different level of speech giving as he used his body and props to deliver a multi-level speech which was very educational. Mike was down on his knees for part of the speech and up on a chair which was a fence gate that he climbed in his early childhood to get away from a playful dog.

We all gained a new dimension of thinking in speech presentation from Mike for which we will all benefit as we advance through the Toastmasters’ sequence on our way to becoming better speakers.

Our own Phil Drake did a masterful job as the Topic’s Master. Phil also added a new twist with his everyday ‘Spy Kit’ (open to interpretation) and his two other pertinent questions that were thought provoking and even reflective for the group.

Our other special guest, Jean Robor, from the Burlington Toastmasters Club took Phil’s topic of  ’Our Current Economic State’ and showed us she’s been there and done that as she moved us to believe that we’re currently in a pretty good place even if things sometimes look a little rough.  It was easy to tell Jean has had some experience at the lectern as well. We thank her for sharing her skills and entertaining us as well.

All of our members performed their duties masterfully as always. The level of support and overall feeling of peaceful and joyous caring shared at these meetings is just unbelievable. We truely have one of the most amazing groups of caring individuals looking out for and encouraging each other to greater heights of personal achievement that I have ever experienced. It’s great to be back among you all.

Till next time - “May all your Wishes come true!”

Jim