BY: Melissa Wilkinson
Editor-in-Chief
Wednesday, March 28, professors Amy Monson and Mark Tulley set out to answer the age-old conundrum: how to eat French onion soup
without looking like an idiot.
The Accounting and Business Club’s annual Etiquette Luncheon invited students to learn how to behave during business meetings. Participating students were treated to a multi-course meal and an interactive presentation with topics including everything from what to order in a restaurant to how to eat it, including difficult foods such as ribs and soup.
But dining skills weren’t the only lessons. In their presentation, Monson and Tulley also discussed the importance of eye contact, clothing choices and conversation topics.
“You can’t control people’s impressions of you but you can influence them,” said Tulley. “Those impressions cover everything from how you dress to how you conduct yourself at a meal function to verbal and nonverbal cues. The presentation is about all of those things.”
Meramec has hosted an Etiquette Luncheon for 15 years. Tulley has participated for the past 11 years, with Monson joining him more recently. Though the two have been hosting them together for five years, 2018 marks the first time they did not hire a speaker from Etiquette St. Louis, an organization dedicated to dining etiquette.
“This year was the first year we decided to do the presentation ourselves and do a more updated approach, more business than table manners,” said Monson. “We had a lot of good feedback. A lot of people commented that…it was a little more updated. It was exactly what our students needed to hear.”
Participating students included the Accounting and Business Club, interns of the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program and select accounting and business students who were invited by their professors.
While students must be invited to attend the Etiquette Luncheon, there are ways that interested non-business students can learn how to conduct themselves. One example is the Soft Skills Workshop on business etiquette, hosted by Phi Theta Kappa, where Tulley and Monson will once again share their tips and tricks for proper business interactions. The event is free and open to the public and will occur at 1 p. m. in room SC200.
Though events such at the Etiquette Luncheon primarily cater to business students, according to Tulley, the lessons are universal.
“Business is all pervasive. If you’re going into nursing, you’re going into a business. If you’re going into writing, you’re going into a business. You’re going to work for somebody. You work with people,” said Tulley. “The impression you leave on those people is critical to your being employed, to your success, to your future.”
