Sunrise Toastmasters, Greensboro, NC

Hello Sunrise Toastmasters Members and guests!

Rewind from March 4

This meeting was held at Moses Cone Memorial Hospital with 13 members present.  After a last minute room change, the group met in AHEC Conference Room 4, and started the meeting at 7:06 AM.

President Summer Murphy opened our meeting by congratulating everyone on their navigational skills in finding our alternative meeting place for the day.  After the Pledge of Allegiance, she handed it over to Dave Burr to lead the meeting as Toastmaster for the morning. Dave orchestrated a meeting that was a mash-up of thoughtful communication and raucous politics, heartstrings and hilarity. A quick round of introductions allowed returning member, Dramaine Freeman, and our newer members to get acquainted before Dave transitioned into the speaking portion of the meeting.

Today’s first speaker, Angela Marsh, completed project #6 in the Facilitators Manual, titled “Communication Preference Styles”. As usual, Angela kept us “alive, awake and enthusiastic” as she presented information on the four basic style preferences most people have when communicating with others: Decisive, Expressive, Focused and Harmonic.  According to Angela, keeping in mind your own communication preferences as well as those of the people around you, will help you be a more effective communicator.  She finished the presentation with some interactive exercises, in which members decided which communication style they preferred, and identified communication styles in some example statements. In accomplishing the speech’s objectives, Angela gave us each some tools to use in improving our own communication skills.

The second speaker, Tim Murphy, gave speech #4 from the Storytelling Manual, titled “Being a Kid Again”.  In this emotional story, Tim took us on a nostalgic journey to 1969 when he was a carefree 5-year-old zooming around on his Big Wheel.  His descriptive storytelling had us all thinking back to the fun of being a kid outside on a bright fall day.  Those pleasant thoughts were cut short as Tim described a Saturday in October when an accident left him with 3rd degree burns.  The pain and ordeal of being in the hospital for a month and a half made him feel like nothing was the same – like he wasn’t really a kid any more.  In a touching conclusion, though, Tim described coming home and being presented with a bike his parents and 8 brothers and sisters had fixed up for him.  Hearing his Dad ring the bell on his new bike made Tim realize that everything was going to be ok and he would get to be a kid again.  Tim pulled at everyone’s heartstrings and certainly accomplished the goal of this project: to tell a touching story.

Political satire was the name of the game with TableTopics today! Channeling his inner Anderson Cooper, Topicsmaster Mike Stipanov challenged members with some tongue-in-cheek debate questions! Each respondent was tasked to draw the name of a presidential candidate and answer a question crafted just for that candidate.  According to our members, Donald Trump is planning to build a wall topped with a marble Big Wheel track, and Bill Clinton will use his influence as ‘First Man’ to stock an imported wine and beer room in the White House.

Thanks to Joe Stack and Steve Stephens for evaluating the speeches, to Phil Monroe for evaluating the meeting in general, and to Walt Abele for serving as Timer/Grammarian.

**Following the meeting, Treasurer, Steve Stephens, reminded us that Toastmaster dues should be submitted to him by the end of this month.

 Fast-Forward to March 11

Please see the slated roles below:

Please contact Toastmaster Jenna Willingham if you have a speaking role. Likewise, please contact Mike Stipanov if you have an evaluation role.

Until next Friday-