This week’s meeting began with a warm welcome from our VP of Education, Gulnara. The meeting then moved into the One World, Many Voices segment, led by Toastmaster Kenny, who shared a thoughtful message about immigration, the courage it takes to make that journey, and how behind every immigrant there is a story. Following this, Gulnara introduced the Bias Flag and explained its purpose as a tool our club uses to encourage inclusive and mindful language throughout our meetings.
The meeting was then handed over to our Toastmaster of the Day, Kerstin, who kicked off her segment with great energy. She noted that all roles were filled and introduced the word of the day, superb, defined as “marked to the highest degree by grandeur, excellence, brilliance, or competence.” Kerstin wove the word in throughout the session after formally introducing it, guiding us through an engaging and well-organized meeting.
We had two speakers this week. Toastmaster Savvy delivered a speech titled “A Woman Named Homer,” giving us historical background on how Toastmasters finally welcomed women into the organization. Savvy highlighted the first female president of Toastmasters International and noted that once the rule barring women was lifted, they showed up strong. A key takeaway from their speech was that at some point, you will be asked to enforce a rule you don’t agree with.
Our second speaker, Toastmaster Tim, delivered a speech titled “The Last Lecture: Takeaways Almost Two Decades Later.” He spoke about the lasting impact Randy Pausch’s lecture has had on his life, specifically around four key points: no matter what you do, you have to have fun, tell the truth all the time, apologies come in three parts, and you don’t always know how to correct someone.
Table Topics were led by Toastmaster Syed, who asked several thought-provoking questions throughout the session. Questions included: What would you do if you won 10 million dollars? Do you think social media is bringing people together or driving them apart? How do you handle criticism? And do you think honesty is always the best policy?
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. This portion of the meeting focuses on evaluations and feedback. Toastmaster Summer led the evaluation team, highlighting Gulnara’s great job opening the meeting and Syed’s thoughtful table topics questions.
Speech evaluations were delivered by Toastmasters Diana and Lisa, who praised the speakers for their clear purpose, audience engagement, great structure, conversational tone, and use of vocal variety. Toastmasters Adnan and Norris contributed to the meeting’s success by serving as Timer and Grammarian, respectively. Together, they kept the meeting on track by monitoring speech timing and tracking filler words throughout the session.
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 August 14, 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
One World, Many Voices: Matthew
Speaker 1: Robert
Speaker 2: Norris
Table Topics: Open
General Evaluator: Chang
Evaluator 1: Savvy
Evaluator 2: Kerstin
Timer: Tina Joe
Grammarian: Abigayle
