XLTM Meeting Minutes for December 17, 2006 (by Will Hsiung)

16 club members attended this meeting: Bing, Brick, Cunlin, Elena, Eric, Irene, Jin, Joby, Len, Lillian, Liqun, Mei, Minghui, Robin, Stan and Will.

There are 4 guests:

Guang Yang, visit as son has class next door, left early

Sudhin Justin, who recently moved to Chicago

Ivory Gwin, Area Governor

Connie Liu, returning guest who arrived late

Cunlin Qian was the Toastmaster of the meeting. He started the meeting on time at 12:45, introduced guests and announced changes to the agenda.

Robin Wang gave a “Thought of the Day” about credit cards. After having dinner, she and her husband tried to use their credit cards but did not work. The restaurant informed them that they put a stop to both their cards as there were unauthorized charges made. Her advice to us is to be careful using credit cards and other personal information, check our accounts often and avoid giving telephone number if asked during a transaction as it can increase chances of identity theft.

Joby George presented the word "embark" by giving two definitions. The 1^st definition is an intransitive verb meaning “to make a start” (He embarked in a new career). The 2^nd definition is a transitive verb meaning “to make an investment in an enterprise” (He embarked his fortune in trades).

Irene Fang delivered the Funny Bone about a man in a hardware store. He forgot that a repair man was coming to his home soon to fix his refrigerator, so he called home. His young son answered, the man asked to speak with the mother. The son replied that his mom is with Uncle Frank in the bedroom. The man told his son to tell his mom he’s coming home immediately. After telling his mom, the son told the man that his mom got scared, jumped off the window, fell on the driveway and died instantly. The man asked about Uncle Frank, the son replied that Uncle Frank jumped off the other way, into their swimming pool which was drained and also died instantly. The man then asked “Swimming pool? Is this 555-1234?"

Elena Karzhitsky was the first speaker with a speech titled "Public Speaking", speech #2 from the Competent Communicator manual (Organize Your Speech). Her speech started with how public speaking is treated in the Soviet Union during Communism, which those involved only talk about facts. After leaving Russia , Elena watched a lot of British television, seeing a lot of the Royal Family and noticed that the Queen uses a lot of emotion when speaking. She then mentioned Eleanor Roosevelt, who went from being shy to being the greatest spokesperson for the United Nations, as well as John F. Kennedy, who those who watched his debate with Richard Nixon think he won the debate.

Minghui Liu presented “Revolution of Karaoke”, speech #7 of the Competent Communicator manual (Research Your Topic). While China went through the Cultural Revolution, Japan went through a different revolution thanks to Inoye Daisuke, who invented karaoke meaning “empty orchestra”. It became the craze in Japan for the next 20 years, then spread to other countries. In Japan it ended the dominance of small group of talented singers and allowed the general public to show their singing talents. While the inventor never patented karaoke, losing his opportunity to get rich, he was honored as the top 20 people who influenced Asia in the 20^th Century by Time Magazine. Minghui ended his speech by comparing participating in karaoke to Toastmasters, both allowing us to express our views.

Mei Li stepped in the last minute with a speech titled “Youth Leadership Program Enhancements”, speech #9 of the Competent Communicator manual (Persuade With Power). Youth Leadership is a program from Toastmasters that the XL club set up the last three years. After giving an overview of the program, Mei credited Len Casper for working on the program each of these years. She noted the positive comments from the students who participated and members who coordinate the program. Mei gave three suggestions for the club to improve the program:

1) Use Better Speaker Series and Successful Club Series presentations.

2) Learn from the best, viewing DVDs of the World Champion of Public Speaking

3) Have projects students can work on for their school or local community.

Break at 1:27 pm, then the meeting resumed at 1:40 pm.

Lillian Huang was the Table Topics Master, focusing most questions on Baby Boomers as the oldest of them turned 60 this year:

Len - What do baby boomers do regarding Social Security?

Doesn't think there is money for him when retire, expects to work till death.

Irene - Assume your kids are in college or away, if you retire now what will you do?

Go where kids are and open art studio

Robin - For women, what advice would you give to baby boomer who face challenges such as growing children and elderly parents?

Have to deal the same thing with elderly parents, have a helpful husband so advice is to find a good husband! Also keep track of finances.

Connie (guest) - Recommend some of this year's hottest Christmas gifts.

Gifts are not important, love is. Show appreciation and love to each other.

Sudhin (guest) - How do you plan to spend this year's Christmas?

Here - 1st time with snow with wife.

Eric - What challenges do you face most with Chinese business?

Sales is different there, here is price, in China deal with connections. Also payment, here is 30-day, there private companies can be quick while others can take a while.

Liqun - If you can choose freely, where can you spend your retirement days and why?

Like to travel around the world, enjoy time with family.

Brick Yang hosted the general evaluation session.

Jin Liu evaluated Elena – Well-organized, reminding about China , work on conclusion while filtering down material.

Len Casper evaluated Minghui – Difficult to evaluate as he is one of the best speakers, great speech all-around, can make it even better if made it more personal (what made karaoke more exciting for him), even give a demo!

Bing Wang evaluated Mei – Great speech, difficult to find improvements, should give speech to YL students plus describe actual results such as their kids.

Brick commended Cunlin for handling meeting with some latecomers. Robin's thought was good timing - he had credit card issues recently. Commend evaluators as good listeners.

Stan Wu was Grammarian - noted some AHs from speakers and Table Topics Master, pointed out Mei saying "Fellow Toastmaster" instead of "Fellow Toastmasters"

Liqun Guo was timer - Elena was over 8 minutes, other speakers are within time.

Best speaker went to Mei.

Liqun Guo led the club business session as Club President Josh Yuan was not present. He commended all members for a great 2006.

Next meeting will be on January 7. With the school changing their starting time to 1pm, members suggested that we start 15 minutes later, so meetings will start at 1:15pm starting on the 7^th.

The meeting ended just before 2:25 pm. After the meeting, Ivory and Irene got photos taken of the entire club as well as Youth Leadership students as their current session ends today.