It was a time to celebrate a year of incredible growth and great accomplishments for the Seattle Sunrise Toastmasters members. With the theme of “Celebration” in mind, outgoing President Johan Tong called her last meeting to order and introduced outgoing VP of Education Scott Champion as the Toastmaster of the Day.
Twenty members and three guests were inspired by Johan’s account of her development as a Toastmaster. Her speech, “Toastmaster, Look! What Have you Done to Me,” recounted how Toastmasters has contributed “subtle but precious changes” in her life as a public speaker and leader.
Longtime Sunrise member Dave Eberhardt brought the group’s history to life in his speech, “Seattle Sunrise: Five Years and Growing Strong.” His personal history of the Seattle Sunrise chapter recalled the early days when the group would meet Saturday mornings in a Northgate Maria Callender’s bar.
Junlei closed off the speaking portion of the meeting with a hilarious roast of several officers and members. Thankfully she only had seven minutes for the roast, as there is no doubt that if time would have permitted, she would have spared no one even remotely affiliated with the group. But it was all in great fun and the perfect way to end a year of Sunrise speeches.
Mark (yours truly) led the Table Topics, which led to Mary’s receipt of the Best Table Topics award.
The meeting did not include speech evaluations as it normally does. Instead, special guest Richard Ripley led a PowerPoint presentation on his approach to giving great evaluations.
Scott turned the meeting back over to Johan who offered some closing remarks and invited members to share personal Toastmaster moments. Katey shared how Toastmasters had helped her grow into a new sales position with her company, and I described my family’s reunion and how I benefited greatly from Toastmaster’s tips on how to offer personal toasts.
All in all, it was an ideal end to a great Seattle Sunrise year. Out with the old and in with the new, as they say. And once again, congratulation to all the outgoing officers for a job well done. Thanks to your hard work, we continue to grow in numbers, and more importantly, we each continue to benefit from the examples you provided as leaders.
It was a great end of the year event to mark the theme as a celebration. I learned a great deal from everyone and the guest presenter was a treat because I always get stuck on my evals.. Thanks everyone for your hard work this year. Looking forward to next year. Cheers.