Century Toastmasters Meeting Minutes 6-29-05

Theme: San Diego Politics

WOW: Catbird Seat – a situation that gives somebody power and an edge over others,

            especially competitors or opponents

Sergeant in Arms Jude Awiylika began the meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance after a brief room shuffle and food break, and introduced President Dick Larkin to the 18 members and one guest in attendance. Dick spoke of the club's great flexibility, and then reintroduced Jude as the Toastmaster for the day. It was Jude's first go as Toastmaster and he was as cool as a cucumber and did a fantastic job. Jude led the group with self-introductions and asked each person to share a view on local San Diego politics. He then kindly introduced the one and only planned speaker of the day Tania Fragomeno.

Tania presented her CTM 1, the Icebreaker. She grew up in Pasadena and fondly remembers spending a lot of time with her family at their restaurant. After attending an all girls Catholic preparatory high school, she moved to San Diego to be a student at UCSD. Her studies at UCSD led her to a study abroad program for her entire senior year in Italy. While living in Italy she had the great opportunity to travel all over Europe and looks back on the experience as an empowering one that has given her the confidence to accomplish anything she wants. Tania is back in San Diego working and is thankful to now have her family living in the same area. She spoke eloquently and confidently and we all look forward to her future speeches.

Frida Vissuet led Table Topics and called on Cher Vargas, Jose de la Torre and Gabriel Chong to respond to questions involving traveling. Frida herself will be making a trip to Egypt and Israel soon to help celebrate her wedding anniversary. Cher said she would love to go back to Costa Rica, Jose wants to make a trip to Europe again with his mother, and Gabriel has the desire to go to Hawaii and the Czech Republic.

Dick led the induction of the new officers and thanked the outgoing. We appreciate your leadership Dick and are also excited to see what the new officers will accomplish.

Matt Greenbergs served as General Evaluator, Darcy Konold evaluated Tania, Gabriel was the grammarian/ah counter and Arnold Ahyuen timed. Cher won best Table Topics, Darcy Best Evaluator, and Tania Best Speaker. We also heard some wonderful news at the meeting. Christina Baker is no longer a Baker and is married, Jose and his wife had a new baby girl, and Frida is having a big celebration in a couple weeks for her wedding anniversary!