Fresh Start

Hello and Happy New Year to all - "Fresh Start" was the theme chosen by Chair Brendan Dineen for our first meeting of 2009.  It is always a pleasure to have guests and at this meeting we were pleased to welcome Viola Gabriel and Trish McLean.   Vfnce Capicotto, who had visited us as a guest, is now a full fledged member of Bolton Banter.  Welcome Vince.  We look forward to hearing your icebreaker. 

Keeping with the theme of a fresh start for the new year, Table Topics Master Lorraine Van Wagner gave everyone the task of giving notables ranging from Barack Obama to Tiger Woods a resolution for the upcoming year.  We would like Bill Gates to resolve to sharing his software fees, George Bush to become a comedian and hire an agent and Oprah to stop obsessing about her weight.  Sheelagh Rennie and Val Koncan shared the ribbon for the resolutions they bestowed upon Conrad Black and Tiger Woods respectively. 

For club officers and also for those members who are considering a spot on the club's executive committee, there will be officer training available at the Talk of Allison club on Wednesday, January 21st.  The training is an excellent opportunity to learn more about your role and other roles as well.  Participation counts as we receive points toward the Distinguished Club Program for attending training. 

For those looking for a good party, the Towns of York Toastmasters Club is celebrating its 40th anniversary on Saturday, January 21st with a dinner dance at the Glenway Country Club in Newmarket.  Contact Carol Dowell for more details and tickets. 

We started the year with two very different but highly entertaining speeches.  We all know we don't fully appreciate our mothers and Sheelagh Rennie reminded us of this fact in her speech "The Cleverness of Mothers". The speech referenced three very famous mothers, namely, Mother Goose, Mother Theresa and Mother Nature. Sheelagh also managed a reference to Alice Cooper and Hershel Rosenberg.  You had to be there to hear it!

In "People Paradox", Eric Solowka spoke about our uniqueness as individuals.  However, we expect people to be just like us.  Understanding and respecting differences would surely help us all get along much better. 

Our next meeting, January 29, will feature an evaluation workshop with target speakers.  This is your opportunity to learn more about the fine art of giving helpful and constructive feedback to speakers.  Come out and learn. 

Any meeting that features such expressions as "never try to teach a pig to sing" and "Tasmanian devil of a child" is fun and this meeting was a great way to kick off what we hope will be a very successful year for Bolton Banter. 

Cheers - Lorraine Van Wagner, Webmaster