Minutes from Friday, October 24, 2025
Sunrise Toastmasters
This week’s meeting started with a warm welcome from Toastmaster Norris Bass, starting the meeting with our weekly One World Many Voices opener. Norris commented on the continued racial discrimination in segments of society and ongoing U.S. Supreme Court Civil Rights cases. This led us into our moment of silence in recognition of the Black Lives Matter movement and the ongoing struggle for racial equality. The introduction was concluded with reminders such as use of the bias flag as a tool toward becoming more conscientious speakers.
The meeting was then turned over to our Toastmaster of the Day, Toastmaster Bettina Ross, who led us through a round of introductions for our guests Martin Pitt and Riyn, and we celebrated our new Sunrise Toastmaster Lisa Farofola. Ever creative, Tina Joe introduced the word of the day “propitious,” meaning to have a good chance of success, with a jingle she had written! The words reminded us to be hopeful, dream, believe in the impossible, and use these as tools to achieve propitious outcomes.
Toastmaster Savvy Murphy introduced our first speaker, Toastmaster Syed Imran A Shah who was presenting his ice breaker speech, “How I was introduced to Toastmasters.” Syed first learned of Toastmasters in the early 2000s while he was working in Saudi Arabia, from a colleague. Now, with the benefit of hindsight, Syed recognized that his colleague recognized his goal to become a better speaker and was trying to help in a polite and indirect way. At the time this would have been a difficult commitment in terms of allotting time consistently. Now retired after 40 years as a medical doctor and having worked in several countries around the world, Syed was able to find Sunrise Toastmasters as an online organization that works with his life. Bravo on completing your ice breaker; we’re happy you found us!
Toastmaster Kendra Hiatt introduced our second speaker, Toastmaster Stiles Burr who spoke on the topic, “The Cost of a Lie.” The impending nuptials have led to reflections and excitement for the coming changes in their lives, including thoughts of children and the values he hopes to instill in them: integrity, responsibility, and honesty. Stiles shared the early days of his relationship which began through online dating. He met Katherine first, at a cafe and had a great time. He also had a dinner planned with a second person that week, at The Blind Lemon. While at dinner, he received a text from Katherine who must have spotted him, asking if she had seen him there. This seemed like a potential hot potato, but Stiles wisely chose to stay true to himself and be honest with Katherine as opposed to denying it. He now has a great story to tell their future children about the importance of being honest and how a different decision could have caused everything to go off the rails!
Table Topics was led by Toastmaster Melissa Dutmers and centered around the word of the day. Questions ranged from guidance that could be given to a new member to enable a propitious Toastmaster experience, how did you fine Sunrise Toastmasters, and what is the value of Table Topics to what is something special about the place you live, what is one of your strengths, who is one of your favorite people. We were able to hear from Toastmasters Dave Burr, Yuko Honda, Anu Parvatheni, Tom Asimos, Abigayle, and Sophie and from our guests Martin and Rinh.
We then moved onto the Breakfast of Champions, speech and meeting evaluations. Toastmaster Kehinde Eniola served as our General Evaluator, turning it over to Savvy to complete Speaker 1 evaluation and then to Kendra to complete Speaker 2 evaluation. Toastmaster Matthew Choate and Toastmaster MC Adnan filled the Timer and Grammarian roles.
Food for thought:
Incremental changes.
I am one of my favorite people.
Be calm, honest, and authentic.
Roles for Friday, October 31 are as follows:
Opening: Kendra
Toastmaster: Savvy
Speaker 1: Syed
Speaker 2: Gulnara
Table Topics: Tim
Gen Evaluator: Stiles
Evaluator 1: Norris
Evaluator 2: Abdulrahman
Timer: Yuko
Grammarian: Summer
