Minutes from Friday, June 27
Sunrise Toastmasters
This week’s meeting started with a warm welcome from our President, Toastmaster Kerstin Haase. She had experienced a busy week with work and relayed visiting a health care facility in Greenville, SC which included a tour of the simulation lab. She was shocked at the use of the term “black face” instead of “skin tone” descriptor used by the person leading the tour and made the wise decision to speak with the Program Director afterward as a means of taking personal action. This led us into our moment of silence in recognition of the Black Lives Matter movement and the ongoing struggle for racial equality. The introduction was concluded with reminders such as use of the bias flag as a tool toward becoming more conscientious speakers before turning the meeting over to our Toastmaster of the Day, Toastmaster Bettina Ross. Tina Joe introduced our word of the day, “tenacious” which is defined as holding fast, not easily letting go, and being resolute in life when we want to see results, change, or are faced with challenges. She noted that Kerstin had exhibited tenacity in approaching the Program Director, and continuing to face up to social injustices.
Toastmaster Tim Murphy introduced our first speaker, Toastmaster Abdulrahman Albazie whose 5-7 min presentation was titled “Embracing leadership and growth.” He asked for a show of hands of listeners who had experienced a life changing moment and shared that Toastmasters had been such an event for himself. Abdulrahman recognized our outgoing President, Kerstin, and her gift of active listening and examples of taking action when needed, as well as the lasting connections he had developed during her tenure. He had personally been on a transformative journey during his time as a member of Sunrise Toastmasters and feels he has endless opportunity in front of him, as a result of the skills he has developed during this time. It is more than a weekly meeting, but had carried over into school, his professional life, and beyond. Abdulrahman is excited to be stepping into the role of President as we start the next Toastmasters calendar year.
Toastmaster Summer Murphy introduced our second speaker, Kerstin, who spoke on “A Memorable Year.” Kerstin commended her eldest son for recommending Toastmasters to her after she had the unfortunate experience of a loss of words, or train of thought, while giving a talk at work. She cited the Pathways program as helping her find the tools to improve her public speaking skill and the benefits of the structured approach it provided. As President, her personal goal had been to incorporate her values and lead with kindness. It had been a growth year and a difficult year because life does happen, and she had learned some important lessons. Stay curious. Have coffee with someone. Keep a notebook and jot down those important thoughts or overheard phrases. Generously give back.
Table Topics was led by Toastmaster Anu Parvatheni and focused on our word of the day. Toastmaster Kendra Hiatt reflected on tenacity as a means to achieve goals, and the benefits she has already felt at work as she completes her first year as a member, as well as the continued goal of improving in more ad-lib, less scripted situations. Toastmaster Lucrecia Abasto shared the importance of recognizing that success does not mean a lack of failure, but often exhibiting tenacity by continuing through those moments and learning from them. Toastmaster Kehinde Eniola thought back to the tenaciousness she exhibited through painful and emotionally exhausting IVF experiences and the thankful blessing of being the mother of 2 wonderful children. Toastmaster Tim Murphy shared his tenacity through the experience of building and completing a patio that was a significant challenge, while at the same time recognizing that while this was a big project for him others may have much harder things to face.
We then moved onto the Breakfast of Champions, speech and meeting evaluations. Toastmaster Dave Burr served as our General Evaluator, turning it over to Tim to complete Speaker 1 evaluation and then to Toastmaster Summer Murphy to complete Speaker 2 evaluation. Toastmaster Kim Robinson and Kehinde filled the Timer and Grammarian roles.
Food for thought:
Use a soft voice but be mighty in your actions.
Folks, you are in the presence of a keynote speaker!
Gifts are not in their value, but in their meaning.
No meeting next week, July 4.
Roles for Friday, July 11 are as follows:
Toastmaster: Anu
Speaker 1: Summer
Speaker 2: Kim
Table Topics: Kendra
Gen Evaluator: Stiles
Evaluator 1: Norris
Evaluator 2: Abdulrahman
Timer: Kerstin
Grammarian: Tim
