This week’s meeting kicked off with a warm welcome from our President, Tina Joe. This was followed by the One World, Many Voices segment led by Toastmaster Kerstin, who shared a message around recent events, stating that everyone has their own voice, and that she would love to see more people speak out. Next, Tina Joe briefly introduced Area Director Ruth Friddle who was visiting the club.
Following this, Tina Joe briefly introduced the Bias Flag and explained its purpose. The Bias Flag is 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, Adnan, who led a quick round of introductions. Adnan then introduced the Word of the Day, agency, defined as “our ability to make independent choices and take action to influence our circumstances.” He encouraged everyone to use the word of the day throughout the meeting, then noted that we were missing our first speaker and evaluator due to technical difficulties and made a quick pivot to extending the Table Topics session. With that, he guided us through a well-run meeting, successfully completing his first time serving as Toastmaster of the Day.
We had one speaker this week. Toastmaster Diana delivered a speech titled “The Power of Asking.” In her speech, she discussed how networking can open doors, but there is a delayed reward in networking due to not knowing where the connection will lead. She provided three different examples of networking events, stating that asking for help from your network is when it becomes truly valuable, and that the network you build can open doors for you, but you must knock on that door for it to open.
An extended Table Topics session was led by Toastmaster Kenny, who centered the session around the word of the day. Participants responded to thought-provoking questions such as:
- What does it mean to have autonomy over your own life?
- Tell us about a time when you decided to take control of a situation, instead of waiting for someone else to step in?
- How much of your success is determined by the choices you make instead of circumstances out of your control?
- Who has helped you recognize your own entitlement to autonomy, and how did that influence your life?
- Can you describe a time when you felt powerless, but eventually found a way to take charge?
- What role does autonomy or freedom to make your own decision play in making you an effective leader?
- If you could change one thing in your workplace and not need anyone’s permission, what would it be?
- How does fear of making mistakes limit our ability to exercise agency?
Next, Ruth explained the purpose behind an area director and opened the floor for comments. Then, we moved into our Breakfast of Champions segment for those on the East Coast of the United States, also known as Lunch or Dinner of Champions depending on your location. This portion of the meeting marks our evaluation and feedback session.
Toastmaster Matthew led the evaluation team and commented that Kerstin stepping in as One World, Many Voices last minute was timely, and that the topic choice was incredibly relevant. He highlighted the excellent Table Topics session and noted that the questions were challenging and thought-provoking.
Speaker evaluation was delivered by Toastmaster Yuko, who praised Diana for a deeply personal and comprehensive speech that used real experiences. Yuko highlighted that the speech was very relatable and persuasive, proving that asking for help is a sign of strength. Toastmaster Sophie and Gulnara helped keep the meeting running smoothly by serving as Timer and Grammarian, respectively, monitoring speech timing and tracking filler words throughout the meeting. Their efforts, along with those of all meeting participants, contributed to another engaging and successful Toastmasters meeting.
The meeting adjourned right at 7:58 AM EST, and we are already looking forward to next week’s meeting.
The next Sunrise Toastmasters meeting will be at 13 a.m. on November 6th, 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: Lisa
One World, Many Voices: Abdulrahman
Speaker 1: Tina Joe
Speaker 2: Tina Joe
Table Topics: Summer
General Evaluator: Norris
Evaluator 1: Tim
Evaluator 2: Tim
Timer: Kerstin
Grammarian: Syed
