Seattle Sunrise Toastmasters December 10 summary, “Signs & Signposts”
This morning’s Toastmaster was Nicole S. who lead a great meeting with the theme of “Signs & Signposts.” Other roles for today’s meeting included Julie S. as Grammarian, Snjiv K. as Timer, and Paula L. hosting Table Topics.
Today’s first speaker was Aleli M. who gave her second speech titled, “Mr. Dirty” from the Storytelling Manual. Several years ago Aleli worked for an insurance company that would assess damage to client’s property. Aleli told us a story about a fire cleanup job she had to go to. This call confirmed to her that not only did she not like her job, but also she did not like fire cleanup jobs either! This particular job was extremely bad because the gentleman’s house that was damaged was stuffed with knick knacks and other items. Aleli and her team were tasked with going through and accessing and cataloging the damage and value of each and every item which took several days. Her advice was to stay organized in case your house has to be cataloged due to a disaster. Fantastic job, Aleli!
Our second speaker was Kathy M. who gave her second speech titled, “Impressions of Old Fez, Morocco” from the CC manual. Kathy took a trip to Morocco and shared her experience with us. While in Morocco there were three things that really stuck out to her. The first was the city of Meknes. This was an old walled city with fabulous shops, stalls, and restaurants. Second, were the Souq’s Kathy experienced. A souq is an open-air outside market selling a variety of goods. Kathy mentioned when she and her husband were in a souq her husband was feeling a high-pressure sales technique for a leather jacket. Fortunately, Kathy was there to rescue him before he was strong armed into buying it. Good save, Kathy! The third memory that stuck out to Kathy was the food. She had fantastic food with incredible flavors (like saffron) that were cooked in tajine’s. A tajine is a circular pot made of clay with a cone shaped top. Kathy’s closing thought was that she had such a wonderful time in Fez that she wants to travel more to experience those times again. Kathy convinced me to want to travel to Morocco and experience the sights, sounds, and food! Wonderful job Kathy!
Finally, our third speaker was Tina H. giving her first speech titled, “How to Encurage Your Audience with Effective Body Language” from the Using Body Language Better Speaker Series. Tina gave an informative speech on how to use body language in speeches to keep your audience captive and engaged. For this speech, Tina used a PowerPoint deck to show examples and images of the techniques she covered. Some of the tips she gave us was to have an open body, good use of eye contact and using the entire stage to move and make your points. I came away with a lot of takeaways that I’ll be using in my speeches! Great job, Tina!
