Greetings, Seattle Sunrise Toastmasters and curious readers!
Andy here. As the new club Secretary, I will be taking over the meeting summaries from Mark, who so capably chronicled the doings of the club for the past year [cue applause]. Andrea and Dan have graciously agreed to be enlisted as backups for when I cannot make it to a meeting.
Saturday morning, I had the honor of being Toastmaster for the first meeting of the Toastmaster year. Aanya stepped in as acting President, and then I made a few remarks about the meeting theme, which I chose because the recent SCOTUS ruling on marriage equality and the country’s 239th birthday were so recent.
It proved a rich theme, with Kiki delivering her speech “Accidental Pursuit,” in which she reflected on some lessons learned from her grandmother about history and equality and shared thoughts about social justice and poverty.
Aleli next gave her speech, “Self Defense,” in which she talked about the importance of alertness, preparedness, and training for successful self-defense. 
She then demonstrated the moves she would use to disable an attacker. On me. Even in slow motion with the punches pulled, it was a little scary. I have no doubt whatsoever she could kick my butt.
Our third scheduled speaker was Dave E, but he fell ill (hope you’re doing better, Dave!). His absence left a hole in the schedule, which was boldly filled by Titus, who spoke extemporaneously for several minutes about the six principles of performance living. Additionally, it should be noted that this was Titus’s first speech in front of our club! S
pecial kudos for the bravery and willingness to dive in head-first!
Michelle then delivered her tenth and final CC manual speech, an inspirational discourse encouraging us to all make the effort to do our part to conserve the environment. Congratulations, Michelle on your accomplishment!
Table Topics Master Marti brought out a copy of the Preamble of the Constitution to serve as inspiration for Table Topics. She had six speakers Nicole C., Valerie, Mary, and Brett, and our two guests, Amy and Sarah, riff on several of the founders’ famous phrases about liberty and justice, etc. Sarah walked away with the Best Table Topics ribbon.
Our evaluators were Aanya, Nancy, Kyle, and Nicole C., and Scott served as General Evaluator, winning the Best Evaluator ribbon for the day.
Valerie was our Grammarian and Ah-Counter, providing her word “Jocular” which got several uses during the meeting. Titus kept track of our time.
We will be meeting again at our usual location at Northwest Hospital cafeteria next week, July 18. Next week’s meeting will be a Speech-a-thon, hosted by Toastmaster Nancy.
I'm a writer, editor, sit-down comedian, and keeper of many hobbies.
