North Shore Tabletopics Contest
Participants (from left - Kate Elliott, Stuart Manning, Dave
Stewart, Wendy Trusler, Jim Sinclair and Li-Ying Kao. Kate won
at the club level, then went on, recently, to take 3rd place in
the Area Contest" Click on picture to enlarge
What a night! In our Education Vice President’s wisdom, he chose
that word as our Theme. It was described by members as “a great
topic!” and was definitely one of the Highlights. People
especially appreciated the many different ideas of ‘wisdom’ that
we heard throughout the meeting.
We even had two three-way ties! The first top-tied-Highlights
were: Dave Stewart’s presentation, the Table Topic speakers, and
our newest members:
Dave was going to title his speech “Glaciation for Dummies”, but
ended up elevating it to “Frozen in Time”. The object of the
project was for him to give an interesting technical talk to a
non-technical audience. “Dave Stewart gave the ideal power point
presentation: He used this visual aid as a tool only, and didn’t
once fall into the common error of relying on it as a crutch. It
did what it was supposed to do – it enhanced his speech.” “The
Highlight was the speech by Dave Stewart about an unusual but
captivating and informative subject. It made us think hard and
re-evaluate some of our assumptions about the earth’s past.
Dave’s speech was very informative – a dry topic with a lot of
interesting facts which made this an effective speech.” “Lots of
new knowledge regarding earthquakes, and Vancouver’s geological
history.” “Dave’s interesting, humorous, visually-impressive
presentation has inspired me to work harder at learning to make
my own power point presentation.” “He made a technical
presentation interesting.”
Jill McCormick’s Table Topic session on Words of Wisdom was also
an overwhelming hit: “Outstanding performances by all the Table
Topic participants – a very articulate group. The three-way-tie
was very appropriate.” Here is where this second 3-way-tie came
in: There was a 3-way-tie for the winning Table Topic ribbon:
Karen Arnold, Kate Elliott, and Christine Farris (who is a
soon-to-be-inducted-member )
Individual Table Topic Speakers were Highlighted: “Don’s Table
Topic had good suggestions for both new members and senior
members as well.” “Karen Arnold’s horrifying and disgusting
advice, from the macrobiotic diet, to ‘chew each mouthful 50
times’.” “Elena’s personal story.” “Elena’s story about chewing
on a ‘found’ potato, which gives new meaning to the
5-second-rule”. Christine’s thoughtful Table Topic re wisdom
through quietude.” And the Table Topic Master, herself, found “A
Highlight for me, personally, was that even after the difficulty
I had finding good topics on wisdom for our English as a second
language members, absolutely everyone did such a superb job ”
The Third category Highlighted in this three-way-tie was to give
kudos to our newest members: “The quality of the Table Topic
speakers – especially our newer members – should be
Highlighted.” “The quality of the new members and guest is
amazing.” Dave Farris, Elena Zevakhina, Kate Elliott, and
Christine are really coming into the club at a reasonably high
skill level and have a lot to offer.” “Most of us were nervous
and especially with Table Topics, when we first joined this
club. It is an unusual Highlight to have such ‘seemingly’
confident new members. ‘Seemingly’ because sometimes we appear
to be confident but inside our nerves are dancing out of
control!”
Other High Points in the meeting were:
“Wendy’s Inspiration about entrepreneurs, using the success of
Robies as her example. I found Wendy’s Inspiration a different
approach – Local Talent.” “Wendy’s Inspiration about Robies was
an excellent tie-in with the theme and very inspirational.”
“Don’s sense of humour, ie. when Elena was being Inducted she
playfully, solemnly put one hand on the lectern and raised the
other hand when pledging to do her best to help the club. Don,
not batting an eye, quipped ‘Where’s the ring??? … Oops….Wrong
ceremony!!!’ “
“Great, insightful evaluations.” “Jim’s Table Topic evaluation
was direct, useful, and positive.”
“Pam’s Toast honouring the unsung / unrecognized wisdom of so
many new Canadians.”
“The Word of the Evening, ‘Probity’, was a good one,
unfortunately underused.”
“Kate told an excellent Joke – great timing.” It was the joke
about the wise and sneaky mother who got her point across with a
gravy ladle. “Not everyone finds a good joke that actually fits
in with the theme!”
To end as this began … What a Night!
REMEMBER the next meeting on October 30th is a DINNER MEETING at
Cheers Restaurant 125 East 2nd St (near Lonsdale and 2nd) in
North Van. Everyone is welcome to come, and even to bring
spouses, partners, and friends. Come and socialize from 6:30 for
a 7 pm meeting start. Costumes are always fun, but optional (or
bring a silly hat to wear).
Once again, many many thanks to everyone who contributed their
Highlights for this newsletter – they are appreciated more than
you can imagine.
Club 1085
)
Individual Table Topic Speakers were Highlighted: “Don’s Table
Topic had good suggestions for both new members and senior
members as well.” “Karen Arnold’s horrifying and disgusting
advice, from the macrobiotic diet, to ‘chew each mouthful 50
times’.” “Elena’s personal story.” “Elena’s story about chewing
on a ‘found’ potato, which gives new meaning to the
5-second-rule”. Christine’s thoughtful Table Topic re wisdom
through quietude.” And the Table Topic Master, herself, found “A
Highlight for me, personally, was that even after the difficulty
I had finding good topics on wisdom for our English as a second
language members, absolutely everyone did such a superb job 
