Our members packed the Hollywood room of the Marriott Hotel on January 13th to share personal stories, anecdotes, and bad jokes, as Veteran Toastmaster Dennis Rowe, ATM led four speakers in one of the finest meetings of the year.

In fact, it was the only meeting of the year thus far, but we still think it'll be hard to beat. While our beloved President Vicki Vaughn was under the weather and unable to attend, nearly all our key members and officers made this a picture perfect, if somewhat crowded (35+) meeting. Eleven new members were indicted — er, inducted — into the club, seven cool guests were introduced (including now new members David Wurth and Maureen Farrell — a robust welcome!), and Topicmaster Soraya Deen helped us to find the true meaning of the goals we are striving for in our New Year's resolutions. 

Among a number of captivating entries, long time member Wes Johnson, CTM swept the field with a very funny topic about how the indulgences of the holidays lead quite naturally to the chastening discipline of New Year’s resolutions.

As for prepared speakers, Rebecca Shakib led off with her Icebreaker (her first full-length speech before the club), sharing the compelling and hard-driving story of her multi-cultural and religious background.    

Real Estate rep Dave DeFore, CTM gave one of his best speeches ever when he talked about the worldly value of empathy with a lemon squeeze of elegant, humorous style. Don West excelled in his number two speech which described how and why there is Life after Divorce. And Joe Austin powered his way to fatherhood with his number 2 speech about family life and babies.

General Evaluator Dan Marzec, CTM was, surprisingly, not in the room when his cue was called, but Dennis valiantly launched the Evaluation segment instead, then author/writer Marzec carried on doing a super cogent job of analyzing what went on in the meeting, and capped it with some witty quotes.  

Among the special visitors was Soraya Deen’s mom, who had made it out of Sri Lanka by plane just a couple of hours before the cataclysmic waves hit that island nation on December 26.  

It was a thought-provoking launch for Warner Toastmasters for 2005. Don’t miss the action when we rev it up again for our next meeting on January 27, led most optimistically by Supreme Sovereign of Toast Rose Lane, DTM, and topics to be helmed by President Emeritus Marsha Hunt, ATM-B!