Our clever Immediate Past President and VP Membership, Tim Murphy, opened this week’s meeting by noting that, after Alvin mentioned the Double V Campaign at last week’s meeting, Tim felt compelled to research it further. Tim shared that the Campaign was a slogan coined by a black newspaper during WWII calling for victory over our foreign enemies, as well as victory over the limitations faced by black workers in the US. The Campaign was considered pivotal in starting the desegregation of the military and the repeal of Jim Crow laws. Tim then led us into our usual minute of silence in acknowledgment and support of the Black Lives Matter movement, before passing the meeting over to our Toastmaster of the day, Savannah Murphy.
Savannah chose sanctuary as her word of the day, referring to a place of refuge. We had 18 people in attendance, including fifteen members and three guests. After going over the meeting roles Savannah led the introductions, where attendees mentioned home, outdoor spaces, Sunrise Toastmasters, and anywhere with loved ones as places they consider sanctuaries. After introductions, Savannah turned the meeting over to the speaker of the day, Sunrise Toastmasters club president, Kelsey Long.
Kelsey gave a presentation titled “Let’s Walk the Talk” to introduce a new procedure for flagging bias in our speech during club meetings. Prior to her talk, Kelsey e-mailed the link to a TED Talk about flagging bias to get everyone familiar with the concepts. In her talk, Kelsey reminded us that everyone has unconscious bias and that everyone’s biases and recognition of biases are different. She explained why it is important that we bring awareness to those biases so our message is not overshadowed by using words or phrases that show bias. Kelsey then described the succinct and unconfrontational way the Executive Committee has established to bring awareness to those biases without shaming the speaker or putting the bias flagger on the spot. After her talk, Kelsey opened the floor for a Q&A session with other members and guests. Kelsey added that although this new addition to our meetings will likely evolve as we begin to implement it, having a way to comfortably flag bias will make us all better speakers and bolster our club as a safe space for our members to share and grow. Kelsey’s evaluator, Karen Rhodes, noted that Kelsey started her speech with a cheerful opening and statements about our club that put everyone in a positive frame of mind. Karen complimented Kelsey on mapping out the talking points in a way that was easy to follow, and making the topic seem very comfortable and approachable for her audience. She also shared that Kelsey’s use of personal examples of encountering bias in her workplace made her talk relatable and easier to understand.
Norris Bass served as Table Topics Master, and focused his topic questions on instances of bias in our lives. Members and guests answered questions about being victims of stereotyping, not speaking up when we feel we should have, and what we want people to see when they look at us.
Kerstin Haase served as the General Evaluator, and provided a review of the meeting. Angela Marsh was the Timer this week, and reported on times for the prepared speeches, Table Topics responses and speech evaluations. Nereida Sutton served as Grammarian, and noted our grammar faux pas and the word of the day usage.
Toastmaster Savannah wrapped up the meeting by reminding us that, while appreciating our own sanctuaries, we should try and reach out and help as best we can those, like the people from war-torn Ukraine, who do not currently have safe spaces.
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A warm welcome to Tanuja Reddy and Renuka Korlipara who recently joined Sunrise Toastmasters!
Congratulations to Sunrise Toastmaster Amelya Black, who won the Area 53 International Speech Contest last weekend! Amelya will represent Sunrise Toastmasters at the Division F Speech Contest on April 9. The contest will be from 9AM until Noon on Zoom. We are proud to have Amelya representing our club and welcome everyone to log in to the contest and show our support!
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The next Sunrise Toastmasters meeting will be at 7 am, March 11 EST on Zoom.
The roles for that meeting are as follows:
Toastmaster: Greg
Speaker 1: John
Speaker 2: Norris
Table Topics: Nereida
Gen. Evaluator: Anu
Speaker 1 Eval: Kelsey
Speaker 2 Eval: Summer
Timer: Kerstin
Grammarian: Tanuja
Join us at Sunrise Toastmasters where we provide a sanctuary for our members to improve their communication skills and become more effective leaders.
