Goodbyes August 17 Minutes by TM Sheila Mapanao

The meeting was called to order by ATM-S Michelle Lim. Invocation and Toastmasters’ Promise was led by ourSgt. at Arms, TM Rael Ortiz. Word of the day was assigned to yours truly (again at the last minute, may I add! Hey, but I’m not complaining… grumble, grumble…;->). Word of the day was “RELINQUISH” in line withour theme for the night, which was “Goodbyes”. Why such a sad theme? It was a theme suggested by ourPresident Michelle Lim since this will be the last meeting she’ll be able to attend since she’s flying off the US and will be in absentia for a good three(3) months. Well, during the meeting it was proven more than once that goodbyes are not necessarily a sad event. But in this case, we’ll miss Michelle. Sob sob…:(TM of the PM was our VP for Education Ed Ebreo who asked all the members and guests to relate the theme goodbye into their introduction. As expected, the introductions were like mini-table topic sessions with most (if not all) introducing themselves quite lengthily. But hey, what can I say? In this club, EVERYBODY likes to talk, and that includes first-time guests! :DTable Topics Master was TM Erik Gonzales, and he gave such thought-provoking topics as Saddest Goodbye,Weirdest Goodbye, and the like… One time, we’d be on the verge of tears, then suddenly be giggling! We had as participants to the Table Topics Session, MichelleLim, Gege Sugue, and if memory serves me right, Area Governor Benjie Los Baños. (Which got me thinking,hasn’t Benjie gone over the 4 meetings limit and should now sign up as a member of ButternToast?! Somebody give him an application form! Hehehe… Still one member short of the Smedley Award is making us desperate! :D ) Seriously, SIR Benjie is ALWAYS welcome as a guest to our meetings since we’ve proven it more than once that he’s open to being an evaluator as well, no matter if it’s such short notice. :)

Attendees for the meeting were the following:
1. Michelle Lim
2. Ed Ebreo
3. Gege Sugue
4. Erik Gonzales
5. Alvin Tan
6. Sheila dela Cruz
7. Mars Sy
8. Bryan Acosta
9. Rael Ortiz
10. Jennie Tio
11. Lory Grace Sacol
12. Khai Lim

Guests:
1. Richard Behag – invited by Jennie Tio
2. Carl Posadas – invited by Jennie Tio
3. Gilbert Espiritu - invited by Sheila dela Cruz Returning

Guests (and new members):
1. Emma Desano - invited by Ed Ebreo
2. Lyka Ambrosio - invited by Ed Ebreo

We had 4 prepared speeches for the night and they were the following:TM Mars Sy doing his Speech #2, entitled “Acceptance”,and was evaluated by ahem… me. I have since Mar sprogress from the very first meetings of the then-uncharted BnT, and Mars has really come a longway. I certainly am looking forward to hearing more ofMars’ speeches and seeing him get his CTM. TM Khai Lim did her speech #2 and was evaluated byATM-G Jennie Tio. Khai has shown such presence and confidence on stage! Surely another possible contestant to represent ButternToast! And our 2 other speakers for the night are also showing great possibility as contenders to representButternToast in future TM contests! TM Gege Sugue doing her 2nd speech titled “Who you gonna call” andTM Alvin Tan doing his 4th speech, entitled “Wake Up!”Like most everyone in the audience, I was awed by the talents we have in our club! All the speakers for the night were awesome and I’m not kidding! Way to go,Mars, Khai, Gege and Alvin! And WOW! Am I glad I joined ButternToast! I’d sure HATE to be against any of these people in future TM area or division contests! Truly-ly! Oops, forgot to mention earlier, Gege was evaluated by an equally great speaker (and trainor), the smart and talented Edwin Ebreo. Ayan ha! Friend ko yan! And no,he didn’t have to bribe me for that one. Hehehe.. ;-> And Alvin was evaluated by our Club President no less,and of course, international speaker and over-all great lady, Michelle Lim. Woohoohoo!!! Big rounds of applause everyone! Our GE for the night was ATM-G Jennifer Tio, while Table Topics evaluator was Michelle Lim. Clearly,Jennie is really the best bet to represent the club in the upcoming Quartethlon and we’ll all be cheering for her! Now, I hope you’ll all forgive me for not mentioning who was part of the evaluation team because for the life of me, my copy of the programme is without names of the evaluators. But what do I remember about that meeting was Michelle’s goodbye. Michelle came up with this, which she shared with the group as her “bilins”(Pat and Gege, if you think of the appropriate word to replace “bilins”, do let me know… ;-> ):

G – Going out of our comfort zones
O – Opening closed doors
O – Offering new options
D – Doing things differently
B – Being Resourceful
Y – Yielding to the Inevitable
E – Embracing Change

To those who were unfortunately absent during said meeting, I’m sure Michelle would be more than happy toexpound more on this either thru email or in personwhen she comes back late November. Meeting adjourned, see you in November, Michelle!