The theme for our June 6th meeting was forgettable flights. We’ve all had the experiences we would like to not remember–the rude passengers, the overbooked flights, the lost luggage, the 24-hour delays. Once when flying from San Francisco to Dallas for a business trip, my suitcase never arrived in Dallas. Several phone calls later, I discovered that my luggage was still in San Francisco. My presentation was the next morning at 11 am and there was no guarantee that my suitcase would arrive in time. Lucky for me, I found a Neiman Marcus near the Convention Center and I had time to go shopping before my speech. I submitted the bill for my new outfit to United Airlines for reimbursement. When my suitcase finally arrived, it was a mess of wrinkled clothes from being drenched in fog in San Francisco and then baked in the hot sun in Dallas.
Tym Myers was our speaker at the meeting. His speech, “Drip, Drip, Drip,” was about the great Canadian Maple syrup heist in 2011-2012. Seventy precent of the world’s production of Maple syrup is from Canada. The country has a Maple syrup storage complex with a combined capacity of 133 million pounds (216,000 barrels) in three warehouses that can hold the equivalent of 53 Olympic-sized swimming pools of Maple syrup. At full capacity, it would represent a value of $400 Million. From this Canadian storage facility for Maple syrup in Quebec thieves stole nearly 3,000 tonnes of Maple syrup, valued at C$18.7 million over several months in 2011 and 2012. First they transported each barrel to an off-site location, drained the Maple syrup, replaced the syrup with water, and then return the barrel to the storage facility. Later, to speed up the process, they just drained the barrels on-site and did not refill them with water. The empty barrels were discovered during a routine inspection and then the missing syrup was discovered. The theft was featured in the Netflix documentary series Dirty Money in season 1, episode 5, “The Maple Syrup Heist.” Tym used vocal variety and body language in his speech to engage the audience.
Our Destination Master was Samantha. She provided these clues for a country:
- Second-most biodiverse country in the world.
- Mandatory for radio and public television to play the national anthem at 6 am and 6 pm everyday.
- The world’s leading source of emeralds.
- The third largest exporter of coffee in the world
- National throwing sport is Tejo. Heavy metal disks are thrown into clay pits covered in gunpowder and landmines. 9 points to the player that scores a hit and a bulls-eye in the same throw.
If you guessed Columbia, you are correct!
The theme of our June 13th meeting is “Find Joy in the Journey.” Join the Travel Talkers group for a fun evening sharing the stories of your journeys. This event is for all travel enthusiasts. Engage with fellow members as they share their stories about finding joy while traveling. Focus on your public speaking skills and get valuable feedback in a supportive Toastmasters-style environment. The meeting is on Thursday, June 13th from 6:30 pm to 7:30 pm Pacific time. We want to hear about your travel and adventure plans.
Guests are always welcome to attend our meetings. If you would like to join the club, contact Helen Josephine for an application form.
Register for the meeting: https://tinyurl.com/TravelTalkersZoomLink
RSVP on MeetUp to let us know you are coming to the meeting.
We look forward to hearing your travel stories! Join us to be inspired to take your next trip.
Helen Josephine,
Travel Talkers Toastmasters
Travel Talkers Toastmasters 
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