This week’s meeting opened with a warm welcome from our President, Abdulrahman. This was followed by the One World, Many Voices segment led by Toastmaster Yuko, who started by sharing a picture of Japan’s favorite potato chip, which had recently changed its packaging color due to supply chain issues. She went on to explain that globalization dictates the very colors of the food on our grocery shelves, concluding with an invitation for everyone to remember the power of their own voice and the impact it has on others. Abdulrahman then briefly introduced the Bias Flag and explained its purpose as a tool our club uses to encourage inclusive and mindful language throughout our meetings.
The meeting was then turned over to our Toastmaster of the Day, Syed, who reviewed the agenda and noted that we were missing our Grammarian, a role Abdulrahman quickly stepped in to fill. He also noted that we had no guests present today. Syed introduced the Word of the Day, serendipity, defined as “the fact of finding interesting or valuable things by chance.” He shared the adjective form, serendipitous, offering the example: “Reading should be an adventure, a personal experience full of serendipitous surprises.” With that, he guided us through a well-run meeting.
We had two speakers this week. Toastmaster Danielle delivered an Icebreaker speech titled “My First Love,” in which she spoke about her passion for Shakespeare, which she discovered at the early age of six. Danielle went on to vividly describe the theater experience to the point where the audience could perfectly picture it. A notable quote from her speech was, “If music be the food of love, play on,” from Shakespeare’s play Twelfth Night.
Our second speaker, Toastmaster Matthew, delivered a speech titled “The Analytical Voice and the Direct Approach.” He spoke about his takeaways from a recent Pathways activity, including the results of a communication style quiz and the two stories that came to mind as a result. One key takeaway from his speech is that while direct communication can be a valuable asset, it can also become a burden when you have to spend extra time crafting emails to ensure they do not come across as rude.
Table Topics were led by Toastmaster Diana, who themed the questions around the Word of the Day, serendipity. A few examples of her questions included: If you found a mysterious key on the street, what would you hope to unlock with it? If serendipity were a person, what advice would they give you? and What is the best thing that has happened to you by accident?
Next, we moved into our Breakfast of Champions segment, also known as the Lunch or Dinner of Champions depending on your location, which focuses on evaluation and feedback. Toastmaster Gulnara led the evaluation team, highlighting how well the meeting was run, noting that Syed did an excellent job making sure all roles were filled, and praising the Table Topics session for doing a great job incorporating the Word of the Day.
Individual speaker evaluations were delivered by Toastmasters Kenny and Sophie. Kenny complimented Danielle’s overall speech quality and noted that her pace allowed the audience to absorb the message. Sophie emphasized Matthew’s good use of vocal variety and eye contact. Both evaluators provided constructive feedback to help the speakers improve their next speeches, including tips like the importance of a strong conclusion statement, and trying to stay more relaxed while adding additional gestures to capture the audience.
Toastmasters Lisa and Abdulrahman supported the meeting by serving as Timer and Grammarian, helping to keep the meeting on track and monitoring filler words.
Abdulrahman concluded the meeting by announcing that his term as President would be ending, marking this as the last meeting with him serving in that capacity. He went on to announce all confirmed roles for the next term, allowing the present members to vote.
The meeting adjourned promptly at 8:00 AM EST, and we are already looking forward to next week’s meeting.
The next Sunrise Toastmasters meeting will be at 7 a.m. on July 3, 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: Sophie Wu
One World, Many Voices: Abdulrahman Albazie
Speaker 1: Extended Table Topics
Speaker 2: Extended Table Topics
Table Topics: Savvy Murphy
General Evaluator: Tina Joe
Evaluator 1: Extended Table Topics
Evaluator 2: Extended Table Topics
Timer: Robert Shephard
Grammarian: Matthew Choate
