VP of Education and Toastmaster Abdulrahman Rahman welcomed members and guests on the call and started the meeting with an invitation to take an approach of empathy and kindness to each other and listening to understand. Acknowledging the diverse group of members present on the call from all walks of life, Abdul reminded us of the opportunity we have, as members of Sunrise Toastmasters, to model civility and a spirit of mutual understanding, and continue to support each other to be competent and confident speakers.
Abdul acknowledged the unconscious bias we all experience and perceive the world around us and therefore, to raise a peace sign when we hear a speaker say something from an unconscious bias and address it when appropriate.
Toastmaster of the day, Savannah Murphy, introduced the “Word of the Day” (WOD), “Duende,” meaning (a) artistic inspiration drawn from dark experiences, (b) a mischievous spirit inhabiting a dwelling, like a gnome or leprechaun.
Toastmaster Summer Murphy introduced the speaker for the day, President Kerstin Haase, to deliver her speech in line with Toastmaster theme for this year, Prepare the Way with Storytelling. In her keynote style extended speech, Kerstin captivated us with an informative talk titled “Writing the Story of Amy’s Life, our journey through dementia,” in honor of her dear mother, Amy Greenia. Kerstin took us on her and Greenia family’s journey together writing their mom’s life story, her diagnoses with dementia, the stories shared and collected from her family members, and the fostering of deeper connections in the family tree in the process.
In addition to sharing strong statistics about people worldwide living with dementia, Kerstin’s emphasis on the benefits of storytelling to help people with dementia stimulate their memory and cognitive functions gave us all a new hope to help others in similar situations. Storytelling experience with her mother provided a sense of purpose and emotional support for her mother and for her family. What started as a sharing of stories of their experiences with their mother morphed into an impressive collection of thirty eight memorable chapters of powerful stories and eventually into an incredible book to cherish for life.
StoryWorth, a subscription service designed to help individuals and families preserve personal stories and memories, helped the Greenia family gather the responses from family members, compile them into mini chapters of stories and into a hardcover book, and create a treasured keepsake. Kerstin’s personal narrative reminded us of what we need to be grateful for every day, the importance of sharing stories, and preserving those stories for the generations to come (Anyone interested in viewing Amy’s StoryWorth, please send Kerstin an email).
Summer congratulated Kerstin on her exceptional attempt to keep us engaged for the duration of the speech, for embracing Toastmasters’ storytelling theme and for creating a beautiful memory from a challenging experience. Quoting a few memorable phrases from the speech, Summer commended Kerstin on her natural storytelling qualities balanced with appropriate vocal and verbal skills. Summer urged Kerstin to challenge herself to be vulnerable and express emotions to add more authenticity to her storytelling.
Toastmaster Tim Murphy then led the table topics session using the theme things that make us think about something, or expands our world a bit more, in line with the word of the day. The responses showed participants’ varied experiences ranging from a memorable moment or experience, to the first day of school, a new job, etc., as the essence of their short presentations and vivid imaginations.
Toastmaster Norris Bass served as the General Evaluator, providing members with insightful evaluations on their performances. Toastmaster John Doggett shared the timer report for each participant based on their allocated speaking time. Toastmaster Tina Joe Ross commended members on using proper grammar and also, reminded us to avoid repeating and stuttering words that add no value to presentations.
Toastmaster Norris transitioned from evaluations onto Toastmaster Abdul. Abdul offered a thoughtful summary of the session’s activities, and officially adjourned the session with a memorable quote he referenced when opening the meeting today, “listen to understand and not to respond.”
The next Sunrise Toastmasters meeting will be at 7 a.m. on July 26, 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: Kerstin
Speaker 1: Anu
Speaker 2: Hema
General Evaluator: Tim
Table Topics: Styles
Evaluator 1: Summer
Evaluator 2: Norris
Timer: Saraswathi
Grammarian: Abdul
