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 Danielle, who shared a positive update on the return of the humpback whale population. She noted that during the right season, she can see four to seven whales at a time. Witnessing them frolic brings her great joy and serves as a reminder that while it is easy to feel helpless in the face of environmental challenges, our actions can make a difference. We can create change, and we can have a positive impact.
Afterward, 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, Robert. Noting that this was his first time serving in the role, he reviewed the agenda and confirmed that all role holders were present. Robert later introduced the Word of the Day, tenacious, defined as “persistent, determined, and unwilling to give up despite difficulties.” With that, he guided us through a well-run meeting and did a fantastic job as Toastmaster of the Day.
We had two speakers this week. Toastmaster Kerstin delivered a speech titled “Three Reasons I’m Searching for a New Monday”, in which she discussed how exploring new paths led to a clarifying moment and helped answer what she wants her new Monday to look like. Two key takeaways from her speech were that it is not selfish to want a life that fits, it is healthy, and that sometimes we must walk through the next door with our eyes wide open to build the life we want to live.
Our second speaker, Toastmaster Diana, presented a speech titled “Good Advice Can Come from Anywhere.” During her presentation, she shared that while she never truly had a mentor, she learned from an early age to take things apart and solve problems piece by piece. She applied that same approach more recently through the development of a mentoring platform, explaining why it was created, who it serves, and the first steps individuals can take to get involved.
Table Topics were led by Toastmaster Lisa, who centered her questions around the changing seasons and designed them to help spark conversation in icebreaker situations. Questions included:
• Pumpkin spice or apple cider. Which would you choose and why?
• If you could choose one season to live in year-round, which would you choose and why?
• You planned the perfect weekend getaway, but suddenly everything is canceled. What do you do instead?
• If you could magically change one thing about your morning routine, what would it be?
• What is something you used to think was important that you do not care nearly as much about now?
• What is one unexpected change that ended up making your life more interesting?
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 Tina Joe led the evaluation team, commenting on the recent Toasthost update and mentioning that notifications for district training will be sent out soon. She also highlighted the excellent One World, Many Voices segment and noted that while the Toastmaster of the Day did not introduce the Word of the Day until later in the meeting, it worked out well because she was able to identify it from Kerstin’s speech, where it was used frequently.
Speaker evaluations were delivered by Toastmasters Sophie and Matthew, who praised the speakers for their thoughtful organization, excellent use of vocal variety, and effective pacing. Toastmasters Adnan and Gulnara helped keep the meeting on track by serving as Timer and Grammarian, respectively, monitoring speech timing and tracking filler words throughout the meeting.
The meeting adjourned right at 7:59 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 October 2, 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: Norris
One World, Many Voices: Kenny
Speaker 1: Lisa
Speaker 2: Diana
Table Topics: Sophie
General Evaluator: Chang
Evaluator 1: Tina Joe
Evaluator 2: Yuko
Timer: Syed
Grammarian: Danielle
