Minutes from Friday, Sept 19, 2025
Sunrise Toastmasters
This week’s meeting started with a warm welcome from our Vice President of Public Relations, Toastmaster Summer Murphy. She welcomed our guest and newest members Toastmaster Syed Imran A. Shah and Toastmaster Sophie Wu. Summer spoke about a young black American author with an auditory disorder and speech impediment who turned these obstacles into her super power. She graduated cum laude from Harvard University and became the youngest Poet Laureate to speak at a presidential inauguration. 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 before turning the meeting over to our Toastmaster of the Day, Toastmaster Dave Burr who introduced our word of the day “substitute” defined as a person or thing acting or serving in place of another.
Toastmaster Stiles Burr introduced our first speaker, Toastmaster Kehinde Eniola. Kenny who spoke on her first tite traveling to the United Kingdom in 2023. She was able to do so through a fellowship opportunity and was eager to learn and explore. Kenny enjoyed visiting many historic cities, connecting with colleagues, and experiencing the culture first hand. It was an eye-opening experience for her and an inspiring journey.
Toastmaster Bettina Ross introduced our second speaker, Toastmaster Tim Murphy. Tim spoke on the topic “Getting Started with Sunrise Toastmasters” and shared that we have added 9 new members from around the world in the last 4 months! Tim, as the Vice President of Membership, is one of the first people our guests and new members meet. He shared a how to find the valuable resources available to all to become a successful Toastmaster.
Table Topics was led by Toastmaster Savannah Murphy and focused on our word of the day. The questions ranged from substitutes for things from bread to hammers to social media.
We then moved onto the Breakfast of Champions, speech and meeting evaluations. Toastmaster Anu Parvatheni served as our General Evaluator, turning it over to Stiles to complete Speaker 1 evaluation and then to Tina Joe to complete Speaker 2 evaluation. Toastmaster and Toastmaster Chang Yu filled the Timer and Grammarian roles.
