President elect Kelsey Long opened the February 26 meeting on time and with an always important moment of silence recognizing the struggles of oppression and in recognition of the Black Lives Matter movement. She then turned the meeting over to Marlit Hayslett, toastmaster for the morning. Members went through a brief round of introductions as we were joined by returning guess Mahronda. Our meeting moved forward with the word of the day persevere and with Marlit sharing a beautiful poem titled “Sill I rise” by the late, great Maya Angelou. As we transitioned into the speakers portion of the meeting, we unmuted our microphones and gave a loud, warm round of applause for the first speaker of the day, Dustin Johnson, as he persevered and delivered his tenth speech in Toastmasters titled, “Remeber Why You Started”. He challenged his audience to give oneself grace, to make space to always improve, and to never stop expressing ones own voice. Our club could not be happier for Dustins accomplishment. The next speaker for the day was Savannah Murphy, with a speech titled, “Role to Disbelieve” about understanding your leadership style. Savannah related her speech to the table game Dungeons and Dragons, sharing that being a great leader is truly about being able to see individuals as they are in life. We must remove our armor, shield, and weaponry in order to be effective leaders. The meeting moved forward into Table Topics hosted by Summer Murphy. Summer centered this section around the recent Perseverance rover landing on Mars and asked questions relating moments of the monumental landing to ones own moments experiencing self-protection and perseverance. The evaluation team was hosted by General Evaluator, Kelsey Long, evaluators Amelya Black and Bettina Ross, Angela Marsh as timer, and grammarian Karen Rhodes. The meeting closed with announcements including an upcoming Toastmaster training session and the district town hall meeting. Guests are always welcomed at Sunrise Toastmasters. We look forward to seeing every one at the next meeting on March 5, 2021.
