I have received the "official" results of our Thursday night meeting from Angelo Pereira. As he sent me this week's notes, he also mentioned that he was going to be absent for the next four weeks due to a trip to India. That's a long trip!

It was the first meeting of the year which means it also had the first business session, too. Jagadeesh Krishnan presided, and wouldn't you know, Cliff Hutchinson tried to throw a monkey wrench into things by wanting to have our club assist Coach Stoopes who had been rendered speechless. John Sessions and Danni Babik got involved, as did Mac Smith, but "orders of the day" were invoked and this silliness came to a halt ... much to Jagadeesh's relief.

Ben Vincent was the Toastmaster and the theme was "New Year Foods and Traditions." Ryan led with the invocation and pledge. Keith Moore motivated the group with the stirring story of a stranger jumping onto the subway tracks in New York to save the life of someone he didn't know. Doc Brucks was the Table Topics Master.

After the break, prepared speeches were given by;

   Jim Wolff — "Just the Fax" (Evaluated by Tony Brucks)
   Eric Dyson — "Beef! It's what's For Dinner" (evaluated by John Sessions)
   Mac Smith — "Inspiration" (evaluated by Danni Babik)

Sherry Meyers kept tabs on grammar, Lucas monitored the AH counter, and Adam kept the time and counted votes. Cliff was the parliamentarian and the Word of the Day was "ancestral." Trace was the General Evaluator.

Awards for the evening went to John Sessions for Table Topics, Jim Wolff for Best Speaker, Danni Babik for Best Evaluator and Eric for Toastmaster of the evening.

Katherine Gean was once again our guest and she did a splendid job when called upon by the Table Topics Master to speak. (At Big D, guests are NOT expected to participate in Table Topics).

A special thank you to Jim Wolff for sending his notes along. All the gaps got filled.

That about wraps it up. Keep your eyes here on the Blog in these coming days as I will have some "Hot Off the Press" information for you concerning an upcoming contest. Hmmmm ... wonder what that could be about?