Club Meeting Review April 14, 2010

April 14, 2010 Written by: Chun Qiao

Do you get homesick often? If you do, what do you miss most about home? What reminds you of a specific person in the family that you have infinite love for?

The theme of our meeting tonight, Getting Organized, made me feel very homesick and made me miss my super-neat mother tremendously. Mom is a very organized and a very strong-willed lady. She believes that everything ours, from our physical appearance to the arrangement of furniture; from the interior décor of our home to the fish swimming in the fish tank, is a physical representation and a visual manifestation of the soul of our family. Having this kind of mindset; therefore, is quite natural for her to be a nitpicking kind of lady organization and hygiene wise. Although I used to consider her way of living to be somewhat superficial when I was a bit younger, however, as time goes by, I realize the imbedded lesson in her way of doing things, which is getting organized will keep the chi moving. Chi is the circulating life force. The free flow of life force energy in a confined space provides a sense of freedom and lightness that allow a person to better self-reflect; as a result, to have a clear view of what aspect of the overall picture still has room for improvement, and what aspect is fine just as the way it is.

Getting organized can’t be only comprehended material wise, but also it’s applied to the efficiency of our consciousness. Are you aware of the frequency of having the same kind of thoughts everyday? How many of those thoughts are self-destructive, such as “I’m so messy!” “I’m so grumpy!” or “Man, I wish I could have what he/she has, then I’ll be content!”? To some extent, getting organized also means building a strong and clear mindset, which will allow us to understand, identify our habitual way of thinking, and self-evaluating method that work for us; consequently getting rid of nagging voice of the naysayers in our heads.

Our meeting went off to a great start. As the Chair of the night, Mr. Don Mckellar, as usual, commended everyone’s attention as he announced the commencement of meeting. Ms. Sadaf Arshad gave us a fully entertaining humorous anecdote, which helped lighten up the whole atmosphere of the room; it even somewhat toned down the nervousness of all the attendants as we were waiting anxiously for the kick off of the table topic session.

As being still a relatively new member to the club, I have tremendous admiration for Ms. Lindsay Satterthwaite and Mr. David Junop. As I’ve had expressed to Lindsay numerous times in person that her posture and her way of dealing with various people in and out of our club are some great skills that I feel aspired to work on personally. Despite the fact that Lindsay has 25 years of professional figure skating experience under her belt, in my opinion, her way of conducting herself is a combination of yearly hard work, perseverance and a daily dose of self-practice. As for Mr. David Junop, he took the role of Grammarian to another level by inserting his own personality and personal experience into the whole experience. Not only had he perfected the image of a competent grammarian, but also he raised the bar for the upcoming grammarians to follow.

What can I say about Mr. Michael Anderson? His continued effort of self-improvement and commitment to our club were well represented in his invention of a new and an interesting format of Q&A in the round of table topic, which made me greatly appreciated of having him as a member of this club. His innovation not only showed us the creative mind he possessed, but also proved to us the enthusiasm, sincerity and a will for the public good that he had for our club.

There were three prepared speeches scheduled for the night. Each one of them was given in the order of Ms. Semirath Fagbemi, Ms. Fatimah Moradi and Mr. Kristian Reimer. Being introduced by Mr. Richard Albert, coincidentally, all three speeches fit quite nicely all together. Not only did we get to know each of the presenters individually, but also by reveling each of the speech title prior to the actual presentation, a sense of anticipation was built up. From “Rebirth” to “My history” and from “My history” to “A winning personality”, all three speeches chronicled three important stages of a human’s development. Surprisingly at times, it almost felt like this series of speeches was specifically tailored to new Canadians, of whom made up a large number of our club’s population. Becoming a Canadian is synonymous with Rebirth; personal history and cultural connection are My history; and A winning personality can be a tool with which new Canadians use to assimilate. As for the speech evaluators, Mr. Andrew Valinskas, a new member to the club, moved us with his trying spirit; Mr. Stan MacDonald blew us away with his sincerity; and Mr. Scott Wood charmed us with his humor and his critical thinking capability.

Being one of the veterans in the club, Mr. David Girmay did a fine job of evaluating the overall performance of the meeting tonight. As someone who’s about to take on the role of General Evaluator in the near future, Mr. Girmay’s demonstration had given me a clear vision of how the whole process should proceed correctly. Ms. Megha Kumar, a knowledgeable young lady, who shares with me the same passion of the French language, was certainly a right match for the role of Quizmaster. Her contribution helped sharpen our listening skill a great deal. Last but certainly not least, Mr. Nick Hooge’s interest in being a timer was, no doubt, the premise of his successful completion of the task. Sitting next to him, his seriousness about the assigned task, which later translated into a sense of professionalism, was an inspiring scene to witness.