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!