Thursday, March 4, 2010
Smyrna Business Association Lunch Meeting Review
By SixCities

I arrived around 11:30 to see people standing around and waiting for the person that normally would manage the  greeting sign-in table. I was soon greeted by 2 members asking what profession I was in. After a short discussion we made our way to the dining room to sit down and continue networking. Within 5 minutes someone was letting us know that lunch was ready and we could make our way to the buffet line. Lunch was catered by Mother’s Finest who did an excellent job. We had pot roast, green beans, mashed potatoes, salad (w/ choice of individual packaged dressings), and either peach cobbler or cherry pie for dessert – I chose the peach cobbler.

I took my food back to my seat and shortly the meeting began with an Invocation.  The next thing the President, Russ Luterbie, did was welcome the new members by asking them to stand up if they were present and then asked all first time guests only to stand up and introduce themselves.  Russ then recognized the City officials and spoke briefly about the guest speaker. At this point, I was expecting the guest speaker to come out but instead someone jumped up and gave a single testimonial which I do not think was part of the format for the meeting. Before the formal introduction of the speaker, Russ explained that Buddy Pervine was now the Smyrna area counsel’s lead liaison for the association.

At this time the guest speaker, J. Sharp Gillespy with All Around Media, LLC, was formally introduced and he took the podium for approximately 15 minutes.  He gave an excellent motivational speech that I believe all businesses should hear and I felt that it was very enlightening during these rough economic times. He spoke in terms of setting and obtaining goals with a focus of success. His point was that success does not happen by accident.

After the speaker finished, Russ returned to the podium to hand out door prizes. (I happened to receive a t-shirt from Good Measure Meals.) Thank you!

We all stood up as Russ led The Pledge of Allegiance. The meeting was adjourned and allowed for additional networking opportunities. Overall a good meeting to attend.