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Meeting Location: Mark's Condo
August 23rd, 2006

Members Present: Mark, Daria, Eric, Nathalie, Lorin, John V., Nina, Jason, Jill

Meeting Times - Start: 7:00 pm - End: 9.00 pm

1. Official Welcome
   
   The group welcomed its newest member, John V, to the Fun Bunch



2. Old Business
   
   Inactive Member rule was mentioned and the provisions rementioned to all present members. The key provisions in this rule include, if a member fails to show up for either a meeting or an activity, for a period of 6 months, then that member will then be declared “inactive” or that members name will then be removed from the Fun Bunch Address Book. If any member fails to show up for a meeting or an activity for a year, then that member will then have to reapply for membership in the Fun Bunch. After all provisions of the rule were mentioned, it was put to a vote and all members attending tonight’s meeting were all in favor of the new rule.



3. September Birthday Celebration
   
   The group discussed what to do for the September birthday celebration. The group decided that they wanted to a relaxed game night/pizza party on Saturday September 23rd at 8:00 P.M. The location of the party is still not determined. When the location becomes finalized, everybody will be notified.



4. May/June Birthday Makeup Celebration
   
   The celebration has been officially set to take place on Friday August 25th at 8:00 P.M. at the E-citi café and bar. The address of E-citi café and bar is 1524 Spring Hill Road, McLean, Virginia 22102. The phone number for E-Citi café is (703) 760-9000. Lorin has made a reservation for between 10-15 people.



5. FUN BUNCH’S 7th ANNIVERSARY ACTIVITY
   
   It was mentioned that the two possibilities to commemorate the group’s 7th anniversary were either a picnic at Black Hills park in Germantown, Maryland OR to go see a Washington Nationals baseball game on September 17th. The game on the 17th is an afternoon game which starts at 1:05 P.M. A vote was taken amongst the members present at the meeting, and the winning choice was to attend a Washington National’s baseball game on September 17th. Mark said that he would look into seeing what ticket availability there is, and to see how much the tickets would cost. Mark also pointed out that money is needed up front to pay for the game tickets. The group then decided that they would be willing to pay $20 per ticket. When Mark finds out the information, Mark will then pass along the information.



6. FUTURE SOCIAL ACTIVITY
   
   Due to Dr. Jessie arriving, the group did not get to this part of the agenda. Daria had wanted to find out from the group which activities the group had wanted to do for the fall season and also for the winter season. For the winter season, Daria had mentioned on the agenda, “Who wants to go to “A Broadway x-mas carol” at roundhouse theatre? PLEASE respond to both Daria and to Mark with your answers to these questions!!!



7. FUN BUNCH ADDRESS BOOK
   
   Daria mentioned that it is now time to update the Fun Bunch address book and at tonight’s meeting Daria handed out new address information sheets to be filled out by everybody. This sheet should be returned to either Daria or to Mark.



8. Dr. Jessie
   
   Just before Dr. Jessie’s arrival, Daria and Mark pointed out that Dr. Jessie would not be at the next meeting since she will be getting married followed by a two-week honeymoon. Upon Dr. Jessie’s arrival the group decided upon a topic. Since, the agreed upon topic of the July meeting was to be TIME MANAGEMENT IN RELATION TO BOTH HOME AND THE WORKPLACE and Dr. Jessie came down with an illness just prior to the July meeting, the topic switched to tonight’s meeting. However, since this was John W.’s topic and John W. was not present at the meeting, the topic choice was opened up. The group decided to talk about a combination of how to deal with stress and how to handle stress from the workplace.
   
   The first situation that we discussed was dealing with traffic on the way to work and meeting deadlines. It was mentioned to make sure to leave ample time, usually double the time that it usually takes to get to work. Lorin mentioned one tool that he uses to get to work, or at least to double check on how traffic is moving. He points out a website, www.trafficland.com shows every road. This is very helpful to Lorin and he highly recommends it to everybody!
   
   The second situation that we discussed was how to deal with three or more friends where it is very hard to get all the people together at the same time. It was noted that this task can be very time consuming and hard to get people together if done the old fashioned way of phoning the friends. One suggestion was to use www.evite.com this way you are able to tell exactly when each of your friends views the online invitation, and you can see comments from each friend.
   
   The third situation that we discussed is organization skills with a desk; but wanting to watch T.V. rather than organize. Some suggestions were to work for a certain amount of time, and then reward yourself whether that means watching T.V. for a few minutes, or having a brief snack, and then returning to organizing your desk. Another suggestion was to temporarily place all not so important papers inside your desk drawers, and to leave all of your very important papers on top of your desk.
   
   The final situation that we discussed in the work environment is not wanting to look stupid in front of customers. Some suggestions were that if you are a new employee then you have every right to state that fact to the customer and then get another employee who does know the answer to the customer’s question. Yet, another suggestion is that you can take the initiative and ask questions to employees who have been working for a long time, prior to customers asking questions. This will enable you to appear confident and also smart to the customers.
   
   Prior to leaving, Dr Jessie wanted to know which topic people wanted to talk about at the next meeting and that she will be at a Fun Bunch meeting, on After some discussion everybody present at tonight’s meeting agreed on the topic of: DEALING WITH HOLIDAY STRESS AND DEALING WITH BEING ALONE, DATELESS, DURING THE HOLIDAY SEASON.



9. FUTURE MEETING SCHEDULE
   
   The next two meetings are currently scheduled for Wednesday September 13th, 2006 AND again on Wednesday October 11th, 2006.