XLTM Meeting Minutes for January 28, 2007 (by Liqun Guo)

The following members attended the meeting: Len, Liqun, Jin, Irene, Lilian, Jenny, Stan, Cindy, Bing, Mei, Elena, Cunlin, Josh, Minghui, Will, Sherry, Connie and Sudhin. We had another full house with couple of guests – Cao Guang (Sherry’s husband – Sorry if I misspelled the name), Jonathan Beger and Li Chen. Welcome, Guests!

Mei was the Toastmaster of the day. Mei made a light start of the meeting with the comparison of her new “professional” hair-style with her old hair-style done by her husband – Bing. She also welcomed the guests to the meeting and especially the whole club welcomed our 2 new members – Connie and Sudhin. Welcome to the club!

Cunlin gave his thought of the day. He talked about the Chicago Bears and the Super Bowl XLI. He said the Bears team in the Super Bowl was not only the emotional satisfactory of the Chicago fans, but also would benefit the business, like the home price in Chicago area.. Go Bears !!! We are looking forward to the dreams coming true!

Elena taught us a new word “Indemnity”. It is a noun. It means “a : security against hurt, loss, or damage b : exemption from incurred penalties or liabilities”. The verb is “indemnify”. Indemnity is the legal philosophy upon which the concept of most insurance policies rests. Strictly speaking, indemnity is protection from loss and damage claims filed by another person. Let’s remember this word if you see it in your insurance policy!

Irene told us a short funny story that everyone could understand: A small business owner filed a tax return and was audited by an agent. He put down earning $525,000 in a year and told the agent that he was working the whole year like a dog to get that. However, the agent told him that he did not question him about the amount of money he earned, but the 6 trips he input for the tax deduction. The business owner smiled and told the agent that those were their business expense – because he was the owner of a delivery business! How smart is that - can we learn anything from here?

Lilian delivered her first speech in 2007. This was her #4 speech in the CC manual (How to Say It). The speech title was – Global Dimming. Global dimming is the gradual reduction in the amount of global direct irradiance at the Earth's surface, observed since the beginning of systematic measurements in 1950s. The effect varies by location, but worldwide it is of the order of a 4% reduction over the three decades from 1960–1990. This trend may have reversed during the past decade. Global dimming creates a cooling effect that may have partially masked the effect of greenhouse gases on global warming. Lilian explained in details about how the global dimming happened, what caused the problem and what we can do to prevent global dimming. She also compared another familiar term – Global Warming! Thanks Lilian for educating us on one of the most important environmental issues!

Jin gave us an inspirational speech. This was his #10 speech in the CC manual (Inspire Your Audience). The speech title was – Investment Everyday. Jin started with his new year resolution and introduced a serious issue about the relationship about “wealthy” and “healthy”. When the stock market went up and down, you might be happy or lose your sleep, which definitely affected your health. Health was one of the important assets in your life. How to make a better investment in your health was very important for everyone to think about. We should not bankrupt our health account, even with lots of money, you would be ending in paying thousands of medical bills! Thanks Jin for bringing up our attention on everyone’s health account – don’t forget health investment!

Sherry was the 3^rd speaker. This was her #7 speech in the CC manual (The Research of Your Topics). The speech title was – The Don – A Nobel Prize Winning Novel.

Don River is one of the great rivers of the European portion of Russia. It has been a vital artery in Russian history since the days of Peter I the Great, who initiated a hydrographic survey of its course. Throughout the world the river is associated with images of the turbulent and colourful Don Cossacks—romanticized in a famous series of novels by the 20th-century Russian writer Mikhail Sholokhov who won the Nobel prize for literature in 1965 for his realistic portrayals of Cossack life in the Don River region. The Chinese name of this novel is “Jing Jing De Dun He” – “And Quiet Flows the Don”. Sherry did a wonderful job in a short 10 minutes period to bring us to a brief view of the War and Romance happening along the Don River and I liked the ending of her speech pointing out – “No victors, only victims” and “Not taking any ordinary day for granted!” – Thanks Sherry!

Minghui was leading a discussion about how our XL Toastmaster Club participating in the coming school Chinese new year party. Thanks Minghui and those who provided many great ideas!

Stan was the table topic master. He covered lots of current topics in our daily life:

- Who will win the Super Bowl XLI – answered by Will (Of course – Chicago Bears – However this is my personal prediction – why Will didn’t predict a clear winnerJ)

- Who is your favorite Bears Player – answered by Cunlin (However Cunlin switched the topic a little bit, for me – of course Rex Grossman – if he is great, Bears is great, if he sucks, Bears sucks J)

- Do you want to spend a million dollars to do the commercial advertisement in the Super Bowl? – Answered by Elena

- What do you think of Chicago applying for 2016 Olympic Games? – answered by Connie

- Do you think Chicago can win the bid to host 2016 Olympic Games? – answered by Bing

- What do you think of the direction of the stock market? – answered by Sudhin

Liqun was the general evaluator. This was his first time to be in this position! Hope he did not miss anything J Len, Bing and Will evaluated the speeches of Lilian, Jin and Sherry. The best speaker(s) of this meeting actually was a tie- Jin and Sherry! However, all the 3 speeches were great and all the speakers did the excellent job in preparation. Thanks!

Jenny served as the grammarian and Cindy gave another accurate time report.

Josh led the Club Business session and evaluated the current status of the club goals accomplishment. A club officers meeting is scheduled on 2/4 12:30 p.m. CST in RM 122.

Mei concluded the meeting at 2:50 pm.