Halloween Gala Meeting Minutes


CRASH! KAPOW! ZING! DUCK!

These were adjectives of the excitement and atmosphere of last night's meeting.

The Theme Super Heroes! This Gala took us to a new level of camaraderie. We had Bond, James Bond, Super Woman Diana, The Nameless Ninja, the 2nd cousin of 3rd nephew of the gardener for Zorro, Marisa and Pauolo of the Dreaded Foot Clan.

We welcomed a few guests, Peggy, Gerald and Steva. Steva and Gerard joined into the festivities by becoming super heroes and undercover secret agents.

Toastmaster Paulo was of course, vibrant, dashing, and second only to the Shredder in a "peel." Paulo told us about his arch nemesis the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and how Raphael, or was it Michaelangelo who stole the heart of his betrothed Marissa. It was a beautiful and touching love story with the audience sobbing in tears of hysteria. For Marissa also made an appearance and confessed her love for Michaelangelo and Raphael and not for Paulo. She was in a quandary about the Foot Clan which did not approve of her secretive meetings and romance with a turtle. That she was becoming only a "shell" of her former self. Her talents of Two timing, lying, cheating and other admirable qualities were becoming stagnant from misuse with the Turtles. She was a trapped in a cragmire of whether she was going to get a "Foothold" into the Turtles, or become part of a Turtle "Soup" opera.

No Name Ninja rendered a plausible yet undeniably intriguing scenario of the Millennium wars. The tools of his trade, the skills and crafts that were woven into the battles that he had fought for years. He even "Impressed" us with his hammer punch that would bring down buildings. Or was that a theft of "Thor's Hammer". Whatever, he managed to steal enough of the other Norse Gods' tools to have an impressive amount of weapons to defend himself. Now if we can only think of who he was???????

Not to let the Ninjas take over the Gala, the 2nd cousin of the 3rd Nephew of the gardener for Zorro leaped to the stage and made his "point". With the agility of a sloth, the movements of a one armed paperhanger, we were entertained about the Zorro want-a-be. There is hope, however, while he cannot capture or mark his opponents with the legendary Z of his idol, you can tell who are his adversaries; they are the "dead" ringers lying on the ground. He has finally "cut" his way into the superhero category. He has managed to create a new and viable character, The Naked Guy. He disarms his opponents by stripping in front of them during the fray, they suddenly become disoriented, he overpowers them with the help of the No Name Ninja Millennium Staff and then stands proud and tall when the police came to round up the evil perpetrators. He has only been arrested for indecent exposure twice so far, but it seems the charges are not "sticking" to him.

Steva, the evil temptress of the night, brought forth from her secret purse, the dreaded Insurance Agent card. The audience was shocked, we became overwhelmed by her sultry, soothing, yet cannibalistic voice and spiel about Insurance. We were mesmerized, I even saw hands going up to offer her the food that keeps her alive, not only their souls, but their life savings all for a policy. She was a formidable foe, but was placed back into her seat, by the ongoing vigilance of the one and only savior of mankind, Bond, James Bond along with his sidekick, WonderWoman. He managed to use one of his amazing secret weapons on Insurance Agent. The always formidable, rubber tipped dart gun. Wonder Woman stepped in to help finish off the battle with a "light" flashing weapon that drained the power of Insurance Agent. Together they saved not only the other Super Heroes but the Gala as well. We are indebted to the EERIE alliance of these two.

Gerald being the undercover agent for Marvel Comics was forthright in his description of the trials and tribulations that he had to undergo. I never imagined that he could fit into stilettos and a G string. But he did to find Sultry Stephanie, queen of the strip clubs. Along his journey, were many painful "stippings" of the duct tape that hit his chest hairs. He is a man among men to enter into the dens of strippers on so many different occasions and still remain Macho that he is. I did notice a little sway however on his exit. A battle scar I am sure.

The rest of the evening was delightful, food and drinks for all, posters and backdrops along with both the east and west side of New York the home of the Legion of Doom, the Super Hero Legionnaires and my favorite Pizza pub.

Be sure to get with Christine and Paul for the upcoming Gala in December. There is also a Board Meeting this Sunday at Barnes and Nobles - 1 pm.

See you next week and be careful out there.

Be sure to check out the web link for the club to keep up to date on all the notes, and events that we have.

https://naturallyspeakingfl.tripod.com/


Paul

Meeting Summary Wednesday October 8th
WOWEE ---------------------------

We had a quaint meeting with an intimate crowd and Genesis moved us to the YOGA room. I know Joel - That was a STRETCH - for us to sit in those wonderfully comfortable cushioned chairs for the nite.

The topic for the nite was Life Experiences, which was led by the Table Topic Master for the evening Ned. Christine being her ever bubbly self, wanted to know all the intimate and tantalizing details. She even had to describe the perfect person.

Paul was brilliant along with the Thesaurus Rex when they both got into the Political Atmosphere on the Life Experiences. Ned however, being the brash and jovial, yet wise Buddha that he is, kept us all in stitches with some of his wonderful renditions of Life experiences.

You could say he not only kept us is STITCHES, but was a CUT above the STOCK. There Joel, feel better?

[Webmasters Note: I am apPAULed at all the puns :) Joel ]

As we adjourned for the evening with holding our sides, we have prepared the following agenda for next week.

Be sure and be prepared for your duties.

Toastmaster - Christine

Table Topics - Phil

Speeches - Colin
Paul
Brian

Evaluators - Chrystel
Ned
Joel

GE- Joel

Timer, Word of the Day, Grammarian - Chrystel

It was a glorious nite and we look forward to the upcoming gala at the end of the month.


Paul

September 24th Meeting Summary
Wow another meeting with the all the sweets and Joel handing out the icing.

Yep, that's right, Today's is Joel's B'day and we had a bash at the meeting to celebrate the PunMeisters good luck.

He managed to show up for the meeting, along with his puns and terrorize the rest of the group.

Ned as his ever indomitable self, managed to bump off Christine as the Table Topics champion. Our own April was there as the "tool lady" and supervised the Table topics.

Speeches by Joel, Christine and a wonderful award ceremony led by Appy highlighted the otherwise dismal meeting. With the award ceremony, the party took off, we were hooting and hollering and throwing down the towels to see who would get the pleasure of the first piece of the scrumptious, marble cake with the sinfully chocolate layered filling.

The top speaker for the nite turned out to be none other than " Ta Da" Christine -

We then moved our way into the final stretch with the evaluators extraordinary. Paul, Joel - back for more abuse, and April vied for the coveted best evaluator. After all the name calling and shoving, Paul rose to the top of the pile, to collect the newest title of King Evaluator. Lo, poor Thesaurus Rex has another meeting where he has been replaced.

But Phil came through at the last second when the coveted Word of the Day celebrity could not attend. The pressure was on, but he managed to be prepared with a word and the definition. It really told everyone what our mood was that day.

ATTITUDE. The only word to describe us perfectly last nite.

We are ready to kick butt, take names, and charge out into the nite, with our Halloween party getting ready to go into high gear, be sure to contact Christine to be a part of the production.

See ya next week.

Sunday October 5th Exec Committee Meeting Notes
Board meeting on 10/5/2003- called to order by Christine Collins at 1:15 pm.

In attendance was the officers of Ned Moren, Paul W Rauch, Christine Collins, Joel Verlin. Absent was VP Membership Phil.

First order of business by President Christine was to retire the gavel of the club in memory of Appy. The board passed the motion to obtain a plague for the gavel and a photo holder of Appy that will be permanently mounted at our meetings. Ned is to check with Paradise about having the plague mounted in the main office/restaurant area where Appy had a lot of friends.

It was suggested that we make a visual History of our Club and our accomplishments. A "Wall of Honor" was suggested that would entail a folding partition that we can hang the photos of our previous winners along with future events and galas. It would serve not only as a reminder to the club, but become a part of any event at Paradise that may bring us in new members. It can double as a show board. Christine is to obtain the pricing for such a unit and report back to the board members for approval before any purchase to be made.

Our treasury after paying all dues and the gala event is currently at $1139.00. $50 was set aside for the purchase of the plague for Appy.

Ned has agreed to write a Eulogy for the Paradise Newsletter on Appy to get published in the e-newspaper.

In debate was the future of holding the meetings in Paradise or looking for a new venue.

The Pros for staying were:
Free rent and no minimum purchase of beverages or food.
We are getting more of a buy-in from Paradise as was evidenced in the Gala
We are listed in the E-newspaper from Paradise to the current Membership
The front office is becoming very responsive to our need to interact with them.
We are a nudist club - the only one in Florida - we have a niche that no one else has
No matter where we meet, we will only have problems with attendance and membership

Cons-
We are now down to 11 paid members
The Paradise members amount to only 4 of our membership
We are having difficulty in reaching the Paradise membership with mailings
There is a natural "restriction" to the membership that we can bring in because of the location inside of a Nudist Resort
Our meeting area is either comfortable with the air, but too small for a large audience or to meet the large audience, we have to deal with no air and the humidity
It is very hard to try and relocate on Paradise to any other meeting areas without conflict from both the Resort and our membership in making a mutually acceptable meeting time.

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It was decided by the Board to continue to try and stay at Paradise. We should embrace the Niche that we have. We need to promote that we are the Only Nudist TM club in Florida.

We will review our position after the first of the year after expending considerable effort to engage Paradise front office and new membership from the Resort.

To help accomplish this goal we have arranged for the following:

Ned - is to contact the Front office and make a sales pitch to them as to the benefits that TM can offer not only their own employees but to the general public that come to the resort.

He will also contact Caliente and Lake Cuomo for their input into becoming an alternative site for our club. What can they offer to us for having at TM club at their site or if they can allow us to interface with their membership for our club.

We will be contacting the FANR and the ANNRA to see if we can get a some support in their publications, whether through an advertisement or even better articles endorsing the benefits of TM for Nudists.

The rest of the board members will be coordinating with Ned to accomplish the above by the first of the year.

We are looking for input from the club members as to how we can accomplish the goal and any information or contacts that will place us on the track to becoming a strong 20 member club again.

April will be distributing flyers at the bar during her shifts.

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The Gala has 4 visitors to our club, we even had some old members return for the gala and it was felt to be a positive for the membership.
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The next order of business was to declare that we are moving the Bare as you Dare to the 3rd Wednesday of the Month and renaming the meeting to "Appicello Nites" as he was the foremost nudist at our meetings. He also came disrobed except for his flannel shirt on the cold nites, but always kept the flavor of our basic club core membership at the forefront.

***
Ned will be filling in for the remainder of Appy's term as Sgt at Arms.

*

We are going to turn the "Toastmaster Hints" at the beginning of each meeting into a weekly ongoing review of our TM Promise. Each week we will address a different subject matter from the "Moments of Truth" module that will help us identify, review and focus on areas that we need to improve in our club. It will also help keep our new guests informed as to how a TM meeting is presided over.

*

Our next Gala is set for Wednesday October 29th. Theme - SuperHeroes.

Paul and Joel are the Decoration committee, they will be looking for volunteers to help put everything together on Sunday the 26th for decorations.

Please let them know what help you can provide. We are looking for people to paint, color, cut out cardboard backgrounds or glue paper onto posters to hang. We are also looking for "large" cardboard boxes that can be cut up into poster size areas and also for background such as a city landscape.

Our budget for decorations and food is $150.00 any donations will be appreciated.

Since this will be for Halloween, we are looking for the agenda to be on games that we played when children. Please send your favorite childhood memories to Paul for review and maybe implementation if we can arrange it.

There will be Bobbing Apples,
Making of Caramel Popcorn and Apples.
Pumpkin decorations. = ? may be on poster board cutouts.

We are to check with the management to donate a "carved Pumpkin" with the Paradise Logo cut out and a placard with our name and meeting place attached. This will be given to the front office for display at the restaurant on the 26th.

If you are handy with carving pumpkins please let me know, so that I can make the proper arrangements with you.

*

It was noted that we will try and have a GALA event every other month to accommodate our membership- make new members and HAVE FUN!

*our next board meeting is set for November 2nd- 1 pm at the Barnes and Nobles on North Dale Mabry .

Meeting adjourned at 2:07 pm




Paul W. Rauch, Secretary/Treasurer