This morning, Toastmaster Nicole C. brought a seasonal theme to Seattle Sunrise Toastmasters’ last meeting for July 2015 with “Summer is Calling.” Summer has not only been calling this year, it’s been reaching through the phone and strangling the region with record-breaking heat and humidity. This morning, thankfully, was cool and rainy. Fun fact: climate records are the least fun records to break.
Our four speakers today were Amy, Paula, Chuck, and Peter. Amy started us off with “Oak Harbor Lights,” her CC Project 2 speech, which was a humorous recounting of a period of time during her 20s when she lived on Lopez Island and worked as a waitress in a bar serving the locals and the occasional biker gang. Her stories included a song “Oak Harbor Lights,” which she sang for us.
Amy delivers her speech “Oak Harbor Lights.”
Paula then gave her Ice-Breaker speech, “Names to Break the Ice.” In it, she gave a brief summary of her ancestry and life, from her family’s origins on the island of Mauritius, all the way through to her decision to join Toastmasters. The structure of her speech was based on the first letters of her full given name, which is six words long!
Paula explains her name in her Ice-Breaker speech.
Chuck gave his CC Project 2 speech in which he detailed many benefits of learning a second language, a challenge which has recently become urgent for him since he married into a family where his parents-in-law don’t speak English. He included some anecdotes about his own experience communicating in foreign languages and how his experiences have taught him about culture and people.
Chuck talks about the benefits of learning a second language.
Peter gave his Project 7 research speech, “Stories!” as the last of his Competent Communications manual speeches. He gave the first installment of a TED-talk-type presentation he’s working on, focusing on the history, structure, and elements of stories, as well as the science behind their power over cultures and our minds. Congratulations on the completion of your CC, Peter!
Peter speaks about the power of stories.
As Table Topics Master, Nicole S. played off the meeting theme by donning a new nametag and becoming “Summer.” She used her phone to call Nancy, Preston, Clint, and Jun Lei, each of whom had to describe an item they had for sale on Craigslist and try to convince Summer to buy it. Clint won Best Table Topics by selling Summer on a cordless phone and a pager for $50, a significant upgrade to Summer’s technology. (Apparently the seasons shop for tech at Radio Shack in the year 1983.)
“Summer” calling.
The evaluations were next, with Nancy, me, Dave, and Scott giving our feedback to the speakers. Junlei then gave the general evaluation. Scott took home the Best Evaluator ribbon for his critique of Peter’s speech.
Our grammarian was Aleli, with her word Gung-Ho, which was used five times, and Katey was our timer.
We finished a bit early and after our guests Robin, Clint, Johnny, and Jackie shared their feedback, Katey shared a Toastmasters moment about how her training in Toastmasters had helped with a recent experience at work. Additionally, there are a couple of announcements:
As VP of Public Relations, Marti is volunteering her time to have ten-minute Q&A sessions about Toastmasters. Marti is an excellent resource and new members in particular are encouraged to meet with her as part of getting situated with the details of being a club member.
Also: Our club has a Facebook group and members are encouraged to join and post Toastmastery goodness to it at your whim. Please contribute to the conversation. See an interesting article or video on public speaking or leadership that our group might like? Post it on our Facebook group page! Want to announce a speaking engagement? Post it on our Facebook group page! See an inspiring documentary about public speaker or leader? . . . I think you see where I’m going with this. Enough said. But I’ll probably say it again.
Our club doesn’t meet the first week of the month, so we’ll be back at Northwest Hospital cafeteria on August 8 at 7:30a.m. Looking forward to seeing you all then, when our Toastmaster will be Michelle D. and our theme will be Superstition.
Until then, it is currently 65 degrees. That’s my kind of summer! Going outside now.
I'm a writer, editor, sit-down comedian, and keeper of many hobbies.
