Thanks to Kathy M. for taking notes this week!
Bill S.opened the meeting and welcomed everyone to Toastmasters and the 3rd day of spring –no joke!
The Theme of the meeting was “Laughter is the Best Medicine” and Paula L. stepped in as Toastmaster with a definition of laughter, and some funny jokes. She kept the meeting moving and helped with transitions with her poise and genuine connection to the audience.
The word of the day was Kerfuffle”, presented by Rachel H.
Our timer and kazoo novice was Lidia S.
Speaker #1, Steven W. presented “Be a Big!”, a speech about what a Big Brother/Big Sister are and the positive impacts of ” Bigs “on kids at risk; from difficult teens to productive young adults. He shared how he bonded with his Little, and watched him mature and turn bad choices into smart decisions. He shared one funny anecdote being invited to play basketball by his taller Little. Generously, his Little passed him the basketball, and he promptly threw it over the hoop into the neighbor’s yard. Generously, his Little promptly went over and rescued the ball. Steve shared how he has been with his Little for the past 4 years and how proud he is to say that although there were challenges, his Little is engaged in many great activities and is on track to graduate from high school. He reminded the audience that we can all make a difference and urged everyone to consider being a Big.”
Speaker #2 presented project #8. In her speech titled “Learn to see the light”, Lara G.told us the story of her journey to learning to see the light. As a professional photographer who didn’t understand what that meant, Lara felt like a cheat or a fraud, and was sure someone would catch her and show the world her weakness. So she set out to learn to see the light, accumulating a nice stack of lighting manuals in the process. However, despite her best efforts, three years later, there was no light to be seen … at the end of the tunnel or otherwise. This is when Lara joined a professional photography group. There she found a supportive community finally took a photographer certification class. By showing up and connecting to her professional group, she passed the exam and finally learned how to” see the light. Lara gave a masterful yet easy to follow demonstration of how anyone can do this by having an awareness of the location and direction of light and shadows on a person’s face. She ended her speech by encouraging us to try it and saying now we can all use light to take better pictures.
Aswini H, Table Topic Master, led the whole audience in a lively and extended round of table topics. Aswini presented us with a word game called “Story Time” that was very creative and allowed all our members to participate by building a story from words that had been randomly distributed.
Justin set a record in our club, as far as we know, by his winning a ribbon for the Table Topics and Best Evaluator. Way to go Justin!
Evaluation was then opened up to the audience for Steven, as he will be representing us today in the International Speech area contest. Brett will represent our club in the Evaluation contest. Best of luck Steven and Brett!
Our next meeting is March 31st.
What do Mauritius Island, fashion design, Vaclav Havel, Poutine and the Emerald City have in common? Me! All these ways have led me to ( drum roll...) the Seattle Sunrise Toastmasters where friends and great speakers are made! I look forward to sharing my stories with you!
