Today we all came together to enjoy a well-crafted Sunrise Toastmasters meeting, with ten members in attendance, plus returning guest, Nereida Sutton. Our illustrious president, Kelsey Long, started our meeting with a quote from Frederick Douglass reminding us that “power concedes nothing without a demand.” We then took a minute of silence, as is our custom, to reflect on the part we can play in the struggle for equality so that we are not professing to favor freedom without recognizing the agitation that is necessary to attain it.
Karen Rhodes led our meeting as Toastmaster and started with a round of introductions in which each person shared with the group something that they do as a “craft,” which was the word of the day. Karen also noted the many other definitions of craft and touched on them throughout the meeting.
Our first speaker, Anu Parvathaneni, presented a Level 1 project from the Motivational Strategies pathway. In a persuasive talk, Anu laid out the reasons why Americans should still be wearing masks in public to prevent the spread of COVID-19. John Doggett gave his first speech evaluation, noting that Anu used data and numbers to support each of her points, and then drove home her message with the repeated use of the phrase, “Mask up, America!” Congratulations to John on a great first evaluation, and thanks to Anu for a timely reminder about how we can still be doing our part to help our fellow Americans during this crisis.
With the second scheduled speaker not in attendance, Summer Murphy stepped in to give a pocket speech. Summer gave a heartwarming talk about love and commitment by telling us the story of her maternal grandparents who were married for over 60 years. Tim Murphy evaluated her speech, and noted it was a great “Love Story” and an especially personal speech for him as Summer’s husband. He also noted it was a positive reminder of the power of investing in loving relationships.
Using the word of the day as the basis for her questions, Table Topics Master Kelsey Long got people talking about their hidden (and not so hidden) talents and aspirations. Each participant spent well over a minute crafting their answers, which is the sign of a truly engaging Table Topics session.
Savannah Murphy led the evaluation portion of the meeting, calling first for the speech evaluators to give their talks before noting the strengths and areas of improvement she observed during the meeting as a whole. Nereida Sutton gave a very precise report on the times for each speech, Table Topics response and evaluation. This was her debut as Timer and she nailed it. Dustin Johnson, in the role of Grammarian, pointed out a few ums and ahs and congratulated everyone for using the word of the day.
As always, the meeting wrapped up right at 8 am, with everyone present feeling like they already had a jump start on a great Friday.
Next week’s meeting will be at 7 am, July 30 EST on Zoom. The roles for that meeting are as follows:
Toastmaster: Savannah
Speakers: (1) John, (2) Tim
Table Topics: Anu
Gen. Evaluator: Dave
Evaluators: (1) Summer, (2) Dustin
Timer: Angela
Grammarian: Karen
Join us at the next Sunrise Toastmasters meeting for a chance to enhance your craft as a speaker and to grow together as leaders and communicators!
