I have been to Joplin maybe 3 or 4 times over the years including once ten years or so ago to assist with a club officers training session. This time I was in town to visit the Toastmasters club there and hopefully get some volunteers for the club officer training sessions I am coordinating in the district this winter. Three of them volunteered. And, I was impressed with their club meeting. It is always fun to see what a club does differently that I had not seen before, or rarely seen before.

Also, I wanted to visit the campus of Missouri Southern State University. I photograph visit campuses of universities and photograph their main sign.

I only had a short time to look around the city. I later learned that it was the south part of town that was heavily damaged by the national news-made tornado that devastated so much of the town a few years ago. I heard from the locals that the businesses have mostly rebuilt but many homes remain as empty lots.