Since our President, Kelsey Long, was serving as Toastmaster this week, Sunrise Toastmasters’ esteemed President-Elect, Amelya Black, opened this week’s meeting. Amelya started us off by sharing that books that include critical race theory are being pulled from some school libraries and some teachers are being disciplined for discussing race and racism in America. She asked us all to “hold in the light” everyone who is trying to have these important conversations, especially with children, as she led us into our usual minute of silence in acknowledgment and support of the Black Lives Matter movement. Amelya then turned the meeting over to the Toastmaster, Kelsey Long.
In honor of World Mental Health Day (Oct. 10) Kelsey chose “holistic” as the word of the day. We had eleven members in attendance, and Kelsey asked all attendees to introduce themselves and tell the group their go-to ways to de-stress. Exercise and quiet time alone were the most frequent answers, although music and video games were honorable mentions.
The first prepared speech of the day was presented by Norris Bass, who did a talk titled, “The Enneagram and Who I Am.” In his speech Norris talked about the Enneagram personality typing system and shared how the personality traits identified by the system have helped him to reevaluate his responses to various situations. His evaluator, Summer Murphy, remarked that using personal stories helped the group relate to Norris‘ talk and complimented his use of visual aids to help his audience understand the Enneagram system.
Our second speaker, Dave Burr, presented a speech titled “The Shiny Penny.” In this talk Dave explained how it is human nature to pay attention to novel people and things and to ignore the steady reliable people and things in our lives. Dave closed by reminding us all of the importance of praising those dependable people in our circles of influence: family members as well as servers and other workers with whom we interact. Tim Murphy served as his evaluator, and mentioned how Dave is the club’s “lucky penny” and is always steady and reliable in his service to the club. The other members joined in praising the organization and delivery of Dave’s talk, as well as Tim’s sentiments about what an asset Dave is to Sunrise Toastmasters.
Savannah Murphy served as Table Topics Master, and used quotes from Fred Rogers (of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood) as the basis for her topics questions. Mr. Rogers would have been proud of the kind and thoughtful responses offered by our members. We heard one story about a stranger who saved a member from drowning, but most people shared stories about well-loved family members who had touched their lives in various ways.
Karen Rhodes served as the General Evaluator, and gave a thorough review of the meeting, especially praising Amelya’s inspiring opening and Kelsey’s choice for the word of the day. John Dogget was the Timer this week, and reported on times for the prepared speeches, Table Topics responses and speech evaluations. Nereida Sutton, serving as Grammarian, observed that a few members did have filler words, and many members used the word of the day.
Kelsey wrapped up the meeting by noting that a holistic approach to our health should include creative outlets and social ties, both of which are provided by our weekly Toastmasters meetings.
The next Sunrise Toastmasters meeting will be at 7 am, October 15 EST on Zoom.
The roles for that meeting are as follows:
Toastmaster: Dave
Speakers: (1) Summer, (2) Nereida
Table Topics: Kerstin
Gen. Evaluator: Kelsey
Evaluators: (1) John, (2) Tim
Timer: Norris
Grammarian: Amelya
Join us at the next Sunrise Toastmasters meeting where we take a holistic approach to improving communication skills and developing better leaders through diversity, encouragement, and feedback.
