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 Matthew, who shared a message around nostalgia, asking members if they have ever tried to revisit a moment from childhood only to find that nothing was quite the same as in their memory. He went on to state there is a time and place for nostalgia, but it should be kept in check. It should be kept in a box on a shelf, so that you can pull it out and appreciate it for a time, then place it back on the shelf for safe keeping.
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, Gulnara, who reviewed the agenda and quickly filled the open timer slot. Gulnara then introduced the Word of the Day, recant, defined as “to take back or withdraw something you previously said or believed.” She encouraged everyone to use the word of the day throughout the meeting. With that, Gulnara guided us through a well-run meeting.
We had two speakers this week. Toastmaster Yuko delivered a speech titled “Holistic Mind.” In her speech, she described a situation that led to discovering resilience when life gets difficult. Yuko decided to apply a holistic mind and talked about not being able to change what happened; however, gratitude changes our mind. She concluded by encouraging members to try a holistic mind.
Our second speaker, Toastmaster Kenny, presented a speech titled “From Protégé to Future Mentor: The Power of Mentorship.” In this speech, she shared previous experiences from being a protégé, and now as a mentor. She described how having a mentor changed her professional journey, and that effective mentorship requires humility and a willingness to listen to different perspectives.
Table Topics were led by Toastmaster Kerstin, who centered the session around the word of the day. Participants responded to thought-provoking questions such as:
- Is there anything that someone recanted to you based on your advice or experience that you shared with them?
- Gaining back our power and having a holistic mind with gratitude, what would you recant based on something you learned now that time has passed or you are a little older?
- There may have been a time you heard someone say something that impacted you; do you wish that person would be the bigger person and recant their words?
- What is the risk when we delay recanting something to our team at work?
Next, 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 Syed led the evaluation team and commented that Tina Joe stepping in as timer at the last minute was very helpful. He highlighted the excellent Table Topics session, noting that the questions were thoughtful and challenging for members.
Speaker evaluations were delivered by Toastmasters Sophie and Abdulrahman, who praised the speakers for having an excellent message behind their story, using body language effectively, and delivering well-organized presentations. Tina Joe and Adnan 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 gathering.
The meeting adjourned right 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 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: Adnan
One World, Many Voices: Chang Yu
Speaker 1: Tim
Speaker 2: Diana
Table Topics: Kenny
General Evaluator: Matthew
Evaluator 1: Yuko
Evaluator 2: Summer
Timer: Sophie
Grammarian: OPEN
