Our President, Toastmaster Abdulrahman Albazie, opened the meeting at precisely 7 AM and introduced our speaker for One World Many Voices, Toastmaster Abigail Burnett. Abigail shared with the club her impressions of participants making personal sacrifices at a recent 5K Walk/Run which raised almost $500K for Ronald McDonald House which provides free or low-cost housing, home-cooked meals, and support services to families with children receiving hospital treatment.
After reviewing the use of the club’s bias flag, President Abdulrahman introduced the Toastmaster of the meeting, Toastmaster Savvy Murphy. Savvy reviewed the Word of the Day, “epic” and then led a round of introductions in which everyone shared an epic story that had impacted them or their lives.
Speaker 1, Toastmaster Abdulrhaman Albazie, presented a speech with advice on steps each of us can take to have our value be recognized. Abdulrahman utilized previous feedback to improve this speech and covered such topics as having presence and showing up with intention, speaking up, and asking for opportunities.
Speaker 2, Toastmaster Tim Murphy, then presented his talk about the history in the US of conservative movements to dismantle equal educational opportunities for all while providing elitist education for certain groups of the population. His talk about “The Era of Big Stupid” was very educational and informative.
With the unexpected absence of the scheduled Table Topics Master, Toastmaster Savvy improvised by taking on the role and using quotes related to the Word of the Day, “epic.” Toastmasters shared their epic thoughts, including guest Joe Hampton who talked about how weathering troubled times is an opportunity for perseverance and growth, and long-time Toastmaster Dave Burr who described his first time public speaking, and how his fear and embarrassment led him to learn how to get those butterflies in his stomach to “fly in formation.”
General Evaluator, Toastmaster Yuko Honda led the evaluation portion of the meeting, introducing the members of the evaluation team and giving an in-depth review of the meeting as a whole.
Evaluator 1, Toastmaster Gulnara Askerova, gave feedback to Abdulrahman about his speech, noting that he excelled in vocal variety, and expressing how she was impacted by his thought that “when we leave our story blank, people will fill it out for us.”
Evaluator 2, Toastmaster Tina Joe, provided feedback to Tim about his talk noting that his use of facts and history, kept what could have been divisive speech in well aligned to create curiosity in his audience. She concluded by encouraging Tim to convert the talk into the start of an informative podcast!
The Timer, Toastmaster Melissa Dutmers, and the Grammarian, Toastmaster Syed Shaw, presented their reports before General Evaluator Yuko Honda turned the meeting back over to the Toastmaster. After a few closing words, Toastmaster Savvy returned control of the meeting to President Abdulrahman.
Our club is very proud of Sunrise Toastmaster Tina Joe who took second place on May 2 at the District 37 International Speech Competition!!
The meeting adjourned right at 8:00 AM EST, and we’re already looking forward to next week’s meeting.
The next Sunrise Toastmasters meeting will be at 7 a.m. on May 8 EST. If you would like to join our meeting as a guest, contact us for the meeting link.
The roles for the next meeting are as follows:
Toastmaster: Summer Murphy
One World, Many Voices: (OPEN)
Speaker 1: Kerstin Haase
Speaker 2: Tina Joe
Table Topics: Norris Bass
General Evaluator: Tim Murphy
Evaluator 1: Sophie Wu
Evaluator 2: Yuko Honda
Timer: Lisa Garofola
Grammarian: Chang Yu
