Today’s Sunrise Toastmasters meeting was, indeed, the breakfast of champions, with nine members in attendance, plus one guest, Greg Greeson. Our esteemed president, Kelsey Long, opened the meeting with our usual minute of silence, to allow us to consider how we can continue to support the Black Lives Matter movement as individuals, with equity for all being our constant goal.
Savannah Murphy was our master of ceremony as Toastmaster, and she chose “paradigm” as the word of the day. Savannah started us off with a round of introductions in which each person shared with the group something that they have witnessed as a paradigm shift in their lifetime. Several people noted various technologies that have had huge advancements over their lifetimes, but there were also mentions of other things such as perceptions of the LGBTQ community, and even the length of basketball shorts.
John Doggett, our newest Sunrise member, gave his icebreaker speech today. John is running for a town council position in Summerfield, and his speech today was the same one he plans to use to introduce himself to his Summerfield constituents at the next council meeting. The skills he learned from his family, to be able to “disagree without being disagreeable,” should serve him well in Toastmasters as well as the town council position. Summer Murphy served as John’s evaluator, noting that his introductory talk was very personable and did a great job of reflecting his love for family and community. Congratulations to John for tackling his icebreaker and starting his journey in the Toastmasters Pathways program!
Our second speaker was Tim Murphy, who presented the “Understanding Your Leadership Style” project in the Strategic Relationships pathway. Tim explained why he felt like the “innovative” leadership style is the one he would most like to enhance. He supported his points with examples of innovative approaches that have worked well for him to help maximize success for various groups from basketball leagues to the Sunrise Toastmasters club. Dustin Johnson evaluated his speech, and provided positive feedback on his preparation and comfortable, natural style of delivery, noting that the speech was engaging because it felt like Tim was speaking directly to him.
Table Topics Master Anu Parvathaneni employed images through a shared screen to prompt her Table Topics questions. Each participant was shown two images, one fictional or cartoon character, and one real person, and were asked to respond by relating the two together. Our guest, Greg Greeson, bravely volunteered to answer and was rewarded with an image of Popeye the Sailor Man and former president Donald Trump. Congratulations to Greg on his clever and tactful response, and thanks to Anu for an intriguing set of Table Topics questions.
Dave Burr 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 he observed during the meeting as a whole. Kelsey Long stepped in as timer, reporting on the times for each speech, Table Topics response and evaluation. Karen Rhodes, in the role of Grammarian, pointed out a few filler and linking words, some notable phrases, and the usage of “paradigm” by speakers.
As always, the meeting wrapped up right at 8 am, with members and guests alike happy to have been part of another captivating Sunrise Toastmasters meeting. Our industrious VPE, Savannah, has posted the upcoming meeting roles for the next month, so check those out and put them on your calendar!
Next week’s meeting will be at 7 am, August 6 EST on Zoom. The roles for that meeting are as follows:
Toastmaster: Angela
Speakers: (1) Dustin, (2) Dave
Table Topics: John
Gen. Evaluator: Summer
Evaluators: (1) Nereida, (2) Tim
Timer: Anu
Grammarian: Savannah
Join us at the next Sunrise Toastmasters meeting for a chance to shift the paradigm on which your speaking and leadership skills are based in a positive and productive direction!
