This week’s meeting kicked off with a warm welcome from our President, Abdulrahman. This was followed by the One World Many Voices segment led by Toastmaster Kenny, who spoke about a crisis in Africa that is leading to harassment, assault, and the looting of businesses due to the perception that foreigners are responsible for unemployment. She went on to explain that some vigilante groups have taken matters into their own hands. She concluded with a call to action, urging leaders across Africa to come together to address the issue.
Afterward, Abdulrahman briefly introduced the Bias Flag and explained its purpose. The Bias Flag is a tool our club uses to promote inclusive and mindful language throughout our meetings.
The meeting was then turned over to our Toastmaster of the Day, Matthew, who quickly ensured all roles were filled following a delay in getting the agenda out. Matthew introduced the Word of the Day, Fortitude, defined as “the strength of mind that enables a person to encounter danger or bear pain or adversity with courage,” along with the example: “It was only with the greatest fortitude that the Pilgrims were able to survive their first winter in Plymouth.” With that, he guided us through an engaging meeting.
We had no scheduled speakers this week. Instead, the time allotted for prepared speeches and evaluations was filled with an extended Table Topics session led by Toastmaster Lisa. She centered her questions around the Word of the Day, fortitude. Some of the questions included: What is something in life that requires an unreasonable amount of fortitude? Describe a cooking, travel, or technology disaster that you survived. Tell us about a time you recovered from an embarrassing moment. What is something you failed at before eventually succeeding? Additional questions included: Tell us about a difficult conversation that taught you something. Describe a time when you had to lead before you felt ready. What is something you continue to do even when you don’t feel like it?
Notable takeaways from the Table Topics session included: perseverance can lead to meaningful outcomes; turning embarrassing or awkward moments into opportunities for growth; fail quickly; if men have rights over their bodies, so should women; lead by example; to overcome nervousness when speaking, focus on delivering something valuable to the audience; and learn to be comfortable with vulnerability.
Next, we moved into our Breakfast of Champions segment for those on the East Coast of the United States, also known as Lunch or Dinner of Champions depending on your location, which is the evaluation and feedback portion of the meeting. Toastmaster Tim led this segment, making an on-the-fly adjustment to our usual format by giving each member the opportunity to provide feedback on the Table Topics response that stood out to them most, in one minute or less. Some of the key feedback included: when you make mistakes, be ready to bounce back; stepping into leadership is often challenging when you do not feel ready; and growth comes from being comfortable with being uncomfortable. Toastmaster Norris kept us on track by timing each speaker.
The meeting adjourned right at 8:00 AM EST, and we are already looking forward to next week’s meeting.
The next Sunrise Toastmasters meeting will be at 7 a.m. on June 5, 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: Tim Murphy
One World, Many Voices: Norris Bass
Speaker 1: Tina Joe
Speaker 2: Yuko Honda
Table Topics: Gulnara Askerova
General Evaluator: Summer Murphy
Evaluator 1: Syed Shah
Evaluator 2: Abdulrahman Albazie
Timer: Lisa Garofola
Grammarian: OPEN
