Minutes from Friday, June 6, 2025
Sunrise Toastmasters
This week’s meeting started with a warm welcome from our President, Toastmaster Kerstin Haase. She mentioned multiple events including the attempted dismissal and refusal to be dismissed by the director of the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., increased penalties for participating in BLM protests, and the current process of removal of the Black Lives Matter Plaza mural as examples of the ongoing struggle for racial equality which led us into our moment of silence in recognition of the Black Lives Matter movement. 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 Stiles Burr. Stiles welcomed our guests Lucrecia Abasto and Erika Glenn, celebrated our new members, and led us on a round of introductions. He then introduced the word of the day, “resilience” defined as the capacity to withstand, or to recover quickly from difficulties.
Toastmaster Tim Murphy introduced our guest speaker, Erika Glenn who is in the process of preparing for her second TEDx talk in Swansea, Wales and presented a 14-16 minute presentation entitled “The Lost Art of Connection”. She started by asking for a show of hands as to how many of us had ever felt invisible (several) and went on to provide an example of how a particular teacher in her youth had made her feel marginalized and insignificant. Despite the extreme let down of this event in her life, it sparked in her a mission to succeed. She ultimately took this forward through her life and into her first job where she was able to connect with a superior and mentor despite her entry level position, in great part due to her desire to make significant contributions. This drive carried her through life to ultimately becoming Vice President of a successful company.
Erika reflected on lessons she has learned through this personal transition and cited social isolation and loneliness as significant triggers of anxiety, noting that studies have shown these can have health effects that are comparable to smoking a pack of cigarettes daily. As well there is the concept of “technipherence,” our being held captive by screen time which contributes to losing the ability to connect with others. Erika discussed micro-moves we can utilize as tools of connection: look up, listen big, and lift up. These actions can show that a person is interested and focused on the speaker, allow you to hear a point of view and learn something from the “small talk”, and ultimately check your own ego at the door which allows you to proceed without judgement.
Table Topics was led by Toastmaster Matthew Choate who focused on our word of the day. Toastmaster Anu Parvatheni described a time she had brought herself back from failure, having barely scraped through 10th grade, changing schools and going on to graduate first in her class. Toastmaster Kim Robinson recognized that being too rigid and stuck in your ways can cost friendships and how she applied this painful lesson later in life in order to save a friendship. Toastmaster Dave Burr attributed the greatest demonstration of resilience in his life to be the birth mother of his children from an open adoption. Toastmaster Chang Yu described a time he had evaded a difficult situation instead of facing it, and feeling in hindsight that had he taken a different road it may have led to another outcome. Toastmaster Norris Bass shared the importance of enduring the challenge of waiting as a tool to listening and learning about a person.
We then moved onto the Breakfast of Champions, speech and meeting evaluations. Toastmaster Bettina Ross served as our General Evaluator, turning it over to Toastmaster Tim Murphy to complete our speaker’s evaluation. Toastmaster Kendra Hiatt and Toastmaster Savannah Murphy filled the roles of Timer and Grammarian.
Food for thought:
We really need to build connections.
Take advantage of opportunities to learn and grow.
I want to know who YOU are.
The smallest effort can help some one.
Roles for Friday, June 13, 2025 are as follows:
Toastmaster: Matthew
Speaker 1: Dave
Speaker 2: Savannah
Table Topics: Tina Joe
Gen Evaluator: Kendra
Evaluator 1: Anu
Evaluator 2: Stiles
Timer: < open >
Grammarian: Kim
*Speaker role may change due to need to complete elections for coming year’s officers.
