This week’s meeting kicked off with a warm welcome from our President, Abdulrahman, followed by the One World, Many Voices segment led by Toastmaster Kerstin. She shared insights on how the act of gerrymandering can be a threat to democracy that quietly changes the answer to the question of who gets to decide.
Following those insights, Abdulrahman briefly introduced the Bias Flag and explained its purpose, noting that we had two guests in attendance. The Bias Flag is a tool our club uses to promote inclusive and mindful language throughout our meetings. He then welcomed our newest Sunrise Toastmaster Member, Danielle, asking the group to unmute and give a warm welcome.
The meeting was then turned over to our Toastmaster of the Day, Tim, who provided an overview of the meeting agenda with a brief explanation of the typical meeting flow. Tim introduced the Word of the Day, Anticipation, and provided the definition: a prior action that takes into account or forestalls a later action. He then ran through a round of introductions focused on the word of the day by having members and guests speak about something they are anticipating in 5 words or less. With that, he guided us through a great meeting.
We had two speakers this week. Toastmaster Yuko delivered a speech titled “The Chameleon’s Journey,” describing her journey with discovering her leadership style and what it means to be a chameleon leader. She shared lessons learned from leading a team and what it truly means to act like a leader.
Our second speaker, Toastmaster Gulnara, presented a speech titled “Good Job!” Key takeaways from her talk included: Kindness can feel uncomfortable, knowing the steps is not the same as knowing the people, people grow faster through encouragement than criticism, joy and losing can coexist, and progress matters more than perfection.
Table Topics were led by Toastmaster Syed, who offered several thought-provoking questions. Questions included: What does success mean to you? What is the best place you’ve visited and would visit over and over again? If you were given a chance to relive your life, would you do it differently? Responses ranged from: success is measured by the impact made; the theater (especially when traveling) because they are always different than your local theater; and I would do it exactly the same because I’m very grateful for the life I have.
Next, we moved into our Breakfast of Champions segment (or Lunch/Dinner of Champions depending on your location) for evaluations and feedback. Toastmaster Lisa led the team, noting the great mix of veteran and new members and reminding everyone to send evaluator introductions ahead of time. Toastmasters Norris and Savvy delivered the speaker evaluations, praising the use of vocal variety and gestures to keep the audience engaged. Norris shared the insight that “it’s hard to push a rope,” while Savvy challenged Gulnara to set goals that push past her comfort zone. Toastmasters Robert and Summer wrapped things up by tracking our timing and filler words.
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 1, 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: Savvy Murphy
One World, Many Voices: Abigayle Burnett
Speaker 1: Abdulrahman Albazie
Speaker 2: Tim Murphy
Table Topics: Sophie Wu
General Evaluator: Yuko Honda
Evaluator 1: Gulnara Askerova
Evaluator 2: Tina Joe
Timer: Melissa Dutmers
Grammarian: Syed Shah
