A good time was had by all tonight at the “Pru” building…  President Emily Markham kicked off the evening with a tremendous theme, “Dreams, the seedlings of Reality”. She related a story about Leslie Newton, the daughter of one of her friends who had a dream to become a personal fitness trainer. Leslie was told by her peers that she didn’t have what it would take to become a good trainer… Too tall, too skinny, you know the “dream killers”… But Leslie affirmed that she in fact had enough “heart & desire” to overcome any odds and she did. It was a great story, and Emily told it well.

Danny Clifton was our “Grammarian” tonight… It’s always with great anticipation that we hear him bring forth the grammarian word of the evening.  One can always count on Danny to put a good deal of thought into bringing an interesting ”word” that will enrich our vocabulary, and he usually brings a cool application of the word in the form of a short story… Awesome Danny… Tonight he told us that the amount of vocabulary words a person posseses can have a direct effect on their positions in life. For example, CEOs have roughly a “vocabulary score” of 250, Managers, 190, and Workers 90.  So let’s keep growing our vocabularies! On a personal note, I think that the vocabulary correlation here is tranlated into the ability to express ones self more efficiently which in turn also helps one to be able to understand more of what one hears… and thus the World becomes, not a playground, but a “Learning Ground”. Thanks again Danny…

Whew… it’s late.. I will continue this tomorrow sometime…   But I will tell you that Michelle Hubbs “ROCKED” the place tonight… A near flawless speech… She took us on a journey through the space age beginning in the late 50′s with Sputnik.. the first man made satellite.. I can’t do the speech justice because Im falling asleep at the wheel here.. Will somebody else please take over!!  Good night…  ONE MORE THING… WELCOME BACK JIM A. 

Folks, this was a very good meeting… great fun.. and a happy atmosphere…. The meeting opened with Danny Clifton acting as the “S of A” followed by Phil Drake, the evening’s Toastmaster. Phil expounded on the meetings theme “Somethings happening here” by bring the audience up to date on some current events that are taking place in Franklin and Macon County. Phil told us that according to his retail business figures that revenues were the largest they’ve been in 3 years. He also noted many of the new business enterprises that have sprung up in the county along with an expansion in the building sector. Franklin is on the MOVE!

Michelle Hubbs was our grammarian and brought the word “Expunge” to our attention. I knew immedately what that word meant, because at one time in my adolescense I heard a judge tell the magistrate to “expunge” my record of all charges! Ha, and you think I’m a criminal? No!  It was a simple episode of “egg throwing”!   Expunge means to ERASE all record of any statement or charge.

Danny Clifton was the “Ah-UM” counter this evening. I believe we put him “out of business” for the most part.  All of this evenings speakers seemed almost flawless in regards to… ah… um… duh… ahem….etc…. We are all improving !

Phil Drake was our Joke  Master… Phil never ceases to amaze us… I don’t know where he gets his material, but it is always entertaining and interesting. This particular evening, he told us that he was a “math major” and then proceeded to daze us with stats that only the “Three Stooges” would really utilize or understand!  Phil deferred his real role to Duane, who told us a hilarious story about his son attempting to change the oil of his girlfriend’s car… ah.. and with the assistant of the girl friend… Needless to say it was a very funny disaster!  Nice story Duane!

Bald Head/ John Becker (ME) was the Table Topics Master…  I told the audience that their pet(s) would have an exclusive view of their behavior at home that no one else would be privy to and to tell us from their Pets perspective….. just what the Pet actually thought of them…. The responses were … well… you can just imagine now can’t you?  John Sapp told us about his Collie observing him trying to install an underground electronic dog fence… John, being a good sport revealed some things that were just crazy wrong….and told us that his Collie just cocked his head, drooped an ear.. as if to say… “John… you are one of the dumbest humans I’ve ever seen”!

Theresa, one of our new members told us a quick story about her dog and how she would alert the dog with a vocal command “KITTY” , “KITTY”! The dog would run to the window to see the cat, but when Theresa would say “GET EM”, that her dog would run BACK TO HER and away from the Kitty!

Our main speaker of the evening was the infamous and redoubtable, Kathy Clifton! Kathy executed a fine oratory this evening. NOT ONE “ah-um”!  Her speech was technically excellent. Great facial expressions, hand movement, audience eye contact, and good canvasing of the lecturn area.  Kathy’s speech was about “Passion” and her passion for her business, Exit Smokey Mountain Realty. She outlined the beginnings of her enterprise with a number of interesting facts about the Exit International Corp.  She proceeded to explain to us how her business has grown exponentially over the last 6 years and how this night was the company’s anniversary! We all enjoyed her speech and certainly felt the passion in which she spoke about this evening. Good job Kathy!

I would like to comment that on this particular evening the room seemed to be full of “joy”… Everyone was smiling, we all had such a good time and a lot of laughs!  Don’t forget to invite someone to come with you next week.  We will be meeting at the Prudential Markham Bankston Realty building at 5:30… BE THERE!!

You have only had to hear Kathy speak once, and you will never want to miss another opportunity to enjoy her speaking. Heads up my friends! Kathy will be gracing us with her new speech this Tuesday night… Don’t miss it and bring a friend!

We’ve all been fairly busy as of late and haven’t posted much. Sorry about that. The Drake people have been working double time helping folks get their taxes in order. It is understood that they will be seeing daylight soon, and things will be back to normal. We are all looking forward to seeing them back and participating in the Gem City Forum Toastmasters meetings on Tuesday evenings!