Minutes from Friday, February 28, 2025
Sunrise Toastmasters
This week’s meeting started with a warm welcome from our President, Toastmaster Kerstin Haase. She mentioned recent events related to diversity, equity, and inclusion and a conversation she had at work and thankfulness that her company would be maintaining its standards. This led us into our moment of silence in recognition of the Black Lives Matter movement and the ongoing struggle for racial equality. Kerstin concluded with reminders such as use of the bias flag as a tool to help us become better speakers before turning it over to our Toastmaster of the Day, Toastmaster Tim Murphy. Upon completion of a round of introductions for our guest from very early morning in Arizona, Amanda Norris, Tim introduced the word of the day, “good grief,” with a focus on the word “good” and explaining his choice of this term for the day.
Toastmaster Norris Bass introduced our first speaker, Toastmaster Kendra Hiatt. Kendra spoke on the topic “I’m not a planner, but I sure like to have a plan.” She discussed the personal tool she uses and calls the “three A’s.” She illustrated the importance of Acknowledging an issue as the first step toward Addressing it, and ultimately using both to develop an Action plan while relating it to an example from her own life as a tool for helping herself and helping aging parents.
Toastmaster Bettina Ross introduced our second speaker, Toastmaster Savannah Murphy who skillfully stepped in with a pocket speech to help fill a gap in this week’s schedule. She discussed how Chichen Itza is recognized as an official Wonder of the World while emphasizing the true wonder of the Yucatán lies in the Mayan people. Recognizing indigenous peoples involves acknowledging their unique cultures, histories, and contributions to society and includes honoring their rights to land, self-determination, and cultural heritage.
Table Topics was led by Toastmaster Dave Burr who asked participants to describe someone in their life that was special to them as well as what animal may share similar characteristics. We were entertained by teachers represented by mythical fierce dragons (not friendly Puff!), courageous friends who stood by like a lion, and protective mothers like a bear. Once again a very enjoyable table topics session!
We then moved onto the Breakfast of Champions, speech and meeting evaluations. Toastmaster Summer Murphy filled the role of General Evaluator, leading us into Speaker 1 evaluation by Norris and Speaker 2 evaluation by Tina Joe. Toastmaster Abdulrahman Ablazie filled the role of Grammarian and Kerstin kept us honest by serving as Timer.
Roles for Friday, March 7, 2025 are as follows:
Toastmaster- Anu
Speaker 1- Dave
Speaker 2- Savannah
Table Topics- Tina Joe
General Evaluator- Kerstin
Evaluator 1- Abdulrahman
Evaluator 2- Kendra
Timer- Tim
Grammarian- Norris
