The Forney Chamber of Commerce held its monthly business meeting Thursday, October 2, at the McLain Family Life Center at First United Methodist Church.

The meeting took place the day before the Chamber’s 2008 golf tournament. Tournament chair Craig Woodring was on the agenda under old business to summarize preparations for the tournament that had been made to date and to finalize volunteer assignments. He said volunteers were still needed to serve refreshments.

Under new business, Keith Bell gave an overview of what has and is being done to try to get Forney Independent School District annexed into the Trinity Valley Community College District. He described a drive to get sufficient names on a petition to be presented to the TVCC board of directors asking them to call an election among FISD voters regarding annexation. At the present time, Forney ISD is the only public school district in Kaufman County that is not a part of the TVCC district.

Guest speaker for the October meeting was Harold Magnum, representing The Memory Technologies Institute, Inc. Mr. Magnum gave a brief demonstration of how his firm helps clients sharpen memory skills in order to develop instant recall.

Mr. Magnum began by stating that the mind rarely “locks in” names during introductions. He added that stress can adversely affect memory skills. He said the key to sharpening memory is carefully-structured memory training.

During the presentation, Mr. Magnum asked Chamber members to list 15 common single words on a form he handed out. After allowing everyone a short time to try to memorize the words in order, he asked certain members of the audience to give back their results. Only one was able to recall all of the words in order. Then Mr. Magnum revealed the secret to his own memory skills: he thinks of his mind as a filing cabinet, with a file folder for each bit of information that comes into the cabinet.

Chamber members are reminded that there will be a Business After Hours mixer at My Spa, 108 E. Highway 80, suite 100, Thursday, October 16, from 5:00 p. m. to 7:00 p. m.