Last week's meeting started at 6:34 pm. John Sessions called the meeting to order. Danni stepped in for Sherry with an impromptu invocation and pledge. The business session saw Eric's motion being dusted off the table and finally put to vote, but not before Mac had let it be known that he wasn't in favor. Cliff entered just as the vote was recorded and made gestures indicating he wanted to have new business but Danni saved the day for Jagadeesh by calling for the orders of the day. Jagadeesh promptly complied and we basked in the glory of having finally passed a motion on something of consequence. By the way, the motion was to have the Timer/Vote Counter announce the times of each prepared speech to assist the one who gave the speech.

In other business John requested an amendment to last week's minutes to add the words "no really" to his speech title previously reported as "In praise of lawyers". John also announced the current nominees for various officer positions. Treasurer nominees were not announced as background checks were being performed on prospective candidates followed by fingerprinting analysis (Just Joking).

Veteran Toastmaster Takashi picked the evening's theme "Moving" and used the occasion to make the announcement that he and Nobuko were moving to a new town in upstate NY so he could start a new job at Clarkson University. We wish Takashi, Nobuko and Rika the very best. As it turns out Takashi has his work cut out for him. The town he is moving has no Toastmaster club. Nobuko motivated us with words of wisdom on what success really means and it was clear that success is not all about money.

It was Jeff Markus' debut as table topics master and he did it with panache. You could tell Jeff had it all rehearsed and prepared by the clear and precise way he announced his role and proceeded to begin. Members will recall Jeff as the Ah! Counter a few weeks ago and will note that Jeff is building a reputation (a good one at that) for detail.

After the break, prepared speeches were given by Deanna Frazier - "The biggest fear", Paul Carter on "Poothtaste" and Danni Babik on "From Kennel to King". Deanna taught to us to say "I reject rejection!" Paul amazed us with things about toothpaste and oral hygiene we didn't know and Danni's story about a dog named King definitely struck a chord with the audience.

The master evaluator was Ben Vincent and Individual evaluators were Cliff, Katherine and John Sessions. The awards were won by Angelo for table topics, Danni for best speaker, Katherine for best evaluator and Deanna for toastmaster of the meeting.

Debbie Allen, our area governor was in attendance. We had 2 guests - Brian Daigle's mom Maggie and George Ross from Sunrise Toastmasters. George surprised us by challenging Big D to see which club would amass the most DCP education points before June 30th. We would like to remind George that it is the quality of the education not the quantity that should matters. That being said, I am sure our members will rise to the occasion.

There was no unfinished business and the meeting ended at 8:32 pm.