Yesterday’s meeting of the Seattle Sunrise Toastmasters, hosted by Jun Lei, was on the theme “confession.” She confessed to a few things, including that she celebrates both her lunar and solar birthdays and often makes people give her gifts for both. (Genius!)
The format of our meeting was a speech-a-thon, so that means five speeches and evaluations, without a table topics session.
This week we began with two new members, Brett and Valerie, delivering their ice-breakers. Brett’s speech, “From Sydney to Seattle” detailed his life in Australia before moving to the States (where America’s resistance to the metric system has made his life more difficult) and his transition into becoming a Seattleite.
In “Valerie, Evolved,” Valerie discussed her journey from being a student who scoffed at climate change to her current position as an environmental lawyer working to help save the earth, encouraging individuals as well as businesses to do what they can to reduce consumption and conserve natural resources.
After the icebreakers, Peter delivered his speech “Proper Planning Pays Off,” from the Story Telling Manual Project #3. In the speech, he told of how a recent difficult, complicated film shoot of his was saved from disaster by the lesson regarding the value of assiduous preparation that he learned by hearing about the historic 1911 competition to reach the South Pole.
Michelle, David, Peter, Brett, and Valerie were this week’s speakers.
Next up was Michelle, who gave her speech “My Adventures in Venezuela and the Kindness of Strangers,” in which she detailed her adventurous survival of a huge flood that occurred during the end of her travels in Venezuela in 1999. By the grace and kindness of people she never met, she and her pet bunnies escaped her hotel and made it to the airport and back home.
Closing out our speeches, David S. delivered a speech “Negotiations 101” in which he gave several valuable tips he learned about negotiating (both from the consumer side and from the sales side) in anticipation of buying a new car. Armed with this knowledge, he went into the dealership only to find that the car he wanted was offered at a flat price with no negotiation possible.
Our five evaluators were David K, Aanya, Mary, me, and Aleli. Dave E was our general evaluator. Mary took home the ribbon for Best Evaluator for her feedback to Peter.
Mary won Best Evaluator for her feedback on Peter’s speech.
We closed out the meeting with the voting in and induction of our newest member, Johnny. Congratulations and welcome, Johnny!
Welcome to our newest Sunriser, Johnny.
Our grammarian this week was Marti, whose thematically appropriate word “Contrite” was used several times, and Chuck was our timer.
Our next meeting will take place on August 22, when Scott C will be Toastmaster and the theme will be “Back to School.”
Reminder! Our club Humorous Speech Contest will be held Saturday, August 29 at 7:30a.m. at Northwest Hospital cafeteria. Any member who would like to participate is encouraged to do so. We also need volunteers to fill judge, timer, and other roles. Please contact Peter if you can help out. Summer leaves us a bit shorthanded, and we need as many members as possible to step up and help make this a great event. Even if you don’t wish to speak or do a role, being there to laugh and applaud really makes a difference.
I'm a writer, editor, sit-down comedian, and keeper of many hobbies.
