Minutes from Friday, Dec 5, 2025
Sunrise Toastmasters
This week’s meeting started with a warm welcome from our President, Toastmaster Abdulrahman Albazie. Toastmaster Kehinde Eniola continued the meeting with our weekly One World Many Voices opener and discussed the importance of having the ability to disagree yet still love each other, and the sense that this is something we are losing in society. Abdulrahman then concluded the meeting introduction 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 Gulnera Askerova. Gulnera introduced the word of the day, “momentum,” defined as the strength or force gained by motion or by a series of actions which can help keep things moving forward or seem easier to continue.
Abdulrahman introduced our first speaker, Toastmaster Sophie Wu who was presenting her ice breaker speech entitled “Gratitude across Cultures.” Sophie reflected on Thanksgiving and the feelings of warmth, happiness, and gratitude that are elements of this holiday and drew comparisons to a similar time in the Chinese culture, the Mid-Autumn Festival. This is celebrated by families gathering together with good food, and share moments of gratitude and memories from the previous year. She also related this to the fact that people across cultures may speak different languages but are often in some way working toward the same or similar goals. Recognizing that we are not so different from each other and that gratitude crosses all borders. Bravo Sophie!
Toastmaster Tim Murphy introduced our second speaker, Toastmaster Dave Burr who presented his speech on “Major Life Changes in the Last 30 Days, All Good.” Dave has been a private recruiter for many years and had become miserable with the perpetual cycle of it, and had begun the process of applying for new roles. He had experienced many rejections and commented on the difficulty of our now AI influenced application processes which can limit an applicants chance of success. Dave described the interview process he experienced with ASPEN Dental, stating he conjured his inner Toastmaster as he went through 3 levels of interviews, stressed the importance of posture and eye contact in a Zoom interview situation, and treating each question he received as Table Topics. Congratulations on your new position!
Table Topics was led by Toastmaster Kendra Hiatt and focused on our word of the day. Questions ranged from describing a time when momentum led to a sense of loss of control and how an impulsive decision affected an outcome, to the relationship of momentum and superstition in sports. We also considered the affect on momentum by the contributions of a team of people on a project; small steps over time toward achieving a goal; and stagnation as an antonym to momentum. We were able to hear from Toastmasters Tom Asimos, Norris Bass, Tim, Lisa Garofola, Yuko Honda, and Melissa Dutmers.
We then moved onto the Breakfast of Champions, speech and meeting evaluations. Toastmaster Matthew Choate served as our General Evaluator, turning it over to Abdulrahman to complete Speaker 1 evaluation and then to Tim to complete Speaker 2 evaluation. Toastmaster Abigayle Burnett and Lisa filled the Timer and Grammarian roles.
Food for thought:
We need people like you, with life experiences.
If you believe it, then you can pass it forward.
Everyone should have experience in retail, food service, and/or patient facing jobs.
Roles for Friday, Dec 12 are as follows:
One World Many Voices: Savvy
Toastmaster: Yuko
Speaker 1: Melissa
Speaker 2: Syed
Table Topics: Summer
Gen Evaluator: Tina Joe
Evaluator 1: Chang
Evaluator 2: < open >
Timer: Robert
Grammarian: Stiles
