Hello everyone, we’ve accomplished yet another Seattle Sunrise Toastmaster meeting on a beautiful sunny August Saturday Morning. Andy, Vice President of Education, opened the meeting today while our President, Tom, was on vacation. Andy customarily accomplished the reaffirmation of the club’s mission which includes providing a forum for publicly speak and receive friendly, informative feedback in order to improved or maintain great speaking skills. After that, we introduced guests. A long time member, Paul, returned with guests, Kristen and Lexie. More about them in during the Table Topic review.
Our Toastmaster of the Day was Mark. Mark introduced the theme of the day, Summer Reading. Mark creatively incorporated hiking and outdoor adventure into the theme, use hiking guides as his summer reading to talk to the beautiful landscape Seattle and the surrounding Puget Sound beckoning outdoor enthusiasts to explore it before the great weather fades back to the south. Perhaps some in the area feel that as the sun goes, so does their happiness and things fall apart, if only and hopefully briefly.
Dean, our first speaker, spoke about this very thing. She accomplished her Icebreaker, Project #01 in the Competent Communicator (CC) Manual. And was it an Icebreaker; Dean is a very confident speaker. She spoke about her summer read, When Things Fall Apart by Pema Chödrön, and how applicable it was for her in 2013. She is an Environmental Urban Planner and during the recent downturn, many did not think or could not afford to staff these professionals. She took a layoff. She just closed on a home during the same time and she discovered that her neighbors were just horrible. They were drunks and one morning collided a large SUV into her small pickup truck which collided into her even smaller commuter. Life was stacking up against her. As mentioned in the book, one could give up and fall apart or one can persevere. Dean is a tough one and decided to soldier on. Silver linings appear when one stoically progresses through tough times. Her employer who issued the layoff decided to fund a job search for her! Very cool employer and very fortunate, especially during that last recession. Her neighbor decided to fund a solution to the accident with a partial payment plan. I guess that’s better than nothing. This speech incorporated strong emotions of hate and love, as does the book, and she did a great job delivering those emotions in her Icebreaker. Once again, new members are astounding with their abilities. We’re happy that this forum exists so new and future members can let out those capabilities that are simply in need of the right forum. Good job, Dean.
Following Dean, Andrew took an aspect of when things fall apart when one lies. Andrew’s speech, asking “Is Honesty the Best Policy,” was his CC Manual project #03. Andrew mention three points that incorporated many attributes from CC Manual lessons. Body language, preparation, and being convincing to yourself and the audience of your message are great things to consider and practice when speaking in public. The idea was to use lying as a vehicle to discuss these points. The twist in his speech was answering his question about the policy of honesty, which the answer is yes. Things fall apart either immediately, as Andrew describe in his speech during his childhood follies, or eventually as the truth tends to prevail. This was an innovative speech, with a great twist, and great conclusion.
Talking about lying, or at the very least creating a façade, Michelle convince the audience with a well prepared mock-up of a 40th anniversary speech for a local cycling group. Michelle incorporated her speech with Mark’s adaptation to the theme, a cycling group and its love for outdoor sports. She accomplished Project #05 from the Toastmaster Entertainment Manual; her speech “What to Pack for Your Next Adventure.” She matched cyclists to spirit animals, discussed the experiences of advance outdoor enthusiast with fantastic accuracy, and even threw in a cycling adventure in Japan with lots of summer reading opportunities. The speech had quips and jokes which thoroughly entertained the crowd. Michelle mentioned a notable quote, with regards to packing “everything” for a trip, one can “pack your anxieties.” Another great speech from one of our advance speaker.
Next up was Marti. She did a great bit from the Humorous Speech contest on August 13th. I encourage all to see last meeting’s post and read about her performance. She wanted to hone her bit and receive excellent feedback regarding certain quips and jokes in her bit. Marti is a great entertainer and speaker and her entry of this bit in a divisional Toastmaster group contest will represent Sunrise well.
Next on the agenda was Table Topics. Yanyan led the activity this time. She wanted participants to discuss their best reads. She incorporated a twist to each participant’s challenge. Brett started the first. He was asked to describe a favorite book during his teenage years. He discussed the Secret Dairy of Adrian Mole, by Sue Townsend. He mentioned how the character in the book was inviting escape and simply a fun read. Andy was asked which was better, books or blogs. Andy described the tangible aspects of books: like the smell, the feel of a book, and how it’s fun seeing your friend move those heavy books from one apartment to another. Our guest, Kristen, was asked about her most recent read. She discussed a classic book for those in marketing, Dale Carnegie’s “How to Win Friends and Influence People.” She felt that read helped transform her interactions with others not only at work but in everyday life. Paul was asked about the value of fiction. Paul discussed how fiction can enhance the imagination of young readers, helping them to conceptualize factual, historical events more easily. Lexie, another one of our guests, was asked her most inspiring read. She discussed the Power of Intention by Wayne Dyer. She, too, in marketing found this book to provide her with an ethos of positive thinking and a strong sense of intention in her daily actions. Yanyan did a wonderful job leading this round of Table Topics.
Finally, we had our Evaluations. Some excellent points were mentions during the evaluations. Something different was discovered during this round of evaluations. It was the value of the “breakout” moment or the twist in a story. It’s pulls the attention back into the speech from audience foregone conclusions. Employing such a verbal device into everyday speeches and extemporaneous speaking can really get people thinking. Other notes from the evaluations is preparation. We are all short on time these days, yet the value of preparation is the difference between sounding great and accomplished versus needing improvement. Get it done the first time around, prepare and prevail. It will help with a final note worth mentioning, reaching that comfort point in a speech mention. This is where the speech starts to flow. This moment occurs for many speakers, it’s a matter of combining my traits mention in the CC Manual. We hope that all who speak in front of audience reach that comfortable point sooner than later.
That’s all for now. Our next meeting is on 27 August, the final meeting for this month. The theme will be Childhood Favorites. We look forward to seeing members and guests, alike. What’s your take on the meeting? Please feel free to comment of the post on our website.
