For the thirteenth meeting of the Toastmasters year 2021-22,

Our theme from Toastmaster Jamie:

 “Lights, Camera, Action!”  Let’s explore movie magic! How storytelling thrills, entertains, and inspires us.

And that we did! Jamie sprinkled familiar movies and quotes throughout all of the role transitions, keeping us entertained and connected to our movie magic theme.

President Moises stepped in as Sergeant at Arms and provided this quote of the day:

“Nobody is gonna hit as hard as life, but it ain’t how hard you can hit. It’s how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. It’s how much you can take, and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done.” Rocky Balboa

Word of the day, presented by Grammarian Tamsen: Cryosphere

Jovica was in charge of time and used props and special effects of a green apple, yellow lemon and red light screen to prompt us in our allocated time range. 

“LIFE IS IN THEIR HANDS-DEATH IS ON THEIR MINDS!” Ketan began his speech titled, “My favorite movie,” with its tagline. His favorite movie is 12 Angry Men (1957) with Henry Fonda. He reminded us that a movie doesn’t need to have today’s technology to create a powerful message. Ketan crafted his speech by walking us through the plot and highlighting the main idea, to slow down and honor the process of Jury deliberation. I’m inspired to watch this timeless masterpiece to study the courageous leadership of the protagonist and to collect ideas before I serve on jury duty!

Moises began his speech with a spooky introduction narrated by our Toastmaster Jamie, setting the stage for more to come in his speech titled, “After this speech you’ll be an expert in the Day of the Dead, aka Dia de Muertos, movies”.  Moises used pictures and special effects to take us on a tour of several Day of the Dead movies. He provided interesting facts about the sets and props used in the movies and the impact they’ve had on communities and anchors for marketers to use in consumer products. During his call to action, he provided a souvenir of the tour – a list of Day of the Dead movies that we can see:  Macario, Salma’s Big Wish, Coco, The Book of Life and Spectre. Watch before it’s too late!

Our last speaker Cris, gave her Icebreaker speech, titled “Not Quite Around the World in Five Decades.” In this speech she revealed that her travel adventures began at a young age. As a young girl her parents, who had a love for travel and a love for different cultures, took Cris on a tour of the Iron Curtain! What?… She loved the adventure, even though it was scary at times, like when she saw guards from East Germany.  In addition to several countries in Europe, she’s been to Australia, Japan, and Guatemala. Cris’ family legacy for love of cultures continues as her daughter now shares the same courageous sense of adventure for travel and cultural appreciation. 

Weihu was our Table Topics Master and asked movie related questions. What is the worst movie you’ve seen? Who is your favorite actor or actress? If someone made a movie about your life what would it be? If you can play any character in a movie, what would it be? And more.

Our movies critics, aka Evaluators, for the day, were General Evaluator Steven, and Evaluators Affan, Traci and Isabella.

Finding Nemo’s Dori would agree with the quote of the day, “When life gets you down, you know what you gotta do? Just keep swimming.”

Keep sharpening your sword with Toastmasters!

That’s a wrap.

Our next meeting is on October 30^th.

How would you like to take something ordinary and turn it into something extraordinary? Toastmaster Lara shared how we can do that through today’s theme, Artistry. The key to creativity is imagination.

The quote of the day, provided by President Moises, “You don’t think yourself into a new way of acting, you act yourself into a new way of thinking.” Jorgen vig Knudstorp

Steven was our Grammarian and Traci was our Timer.

Our vivid imaginations can get too creative at times if we don’t keep them in check. Our first speaker Ahmad told us of his “home-alone” adventure when he was a kid, in his speech titled “The Art of Imagination.” At the time his favorite movie was Home Alone. He used this entertaining film as an inspirational warning guide to protect himself from kidnappers. He created a plan of what to do when the opportunity knocked for him to be kidnapped. After watching and waiting for this opportunity to avoid the inevitable, the day to put his plan into action arrived. He had been observing a suspicious character for a while, he knew the time had come for his kidnapping to unfold. He saw the character, ran, screamed, and then frantically told his neighbor. The neighbor surprised Ahmad by confronting the kidnapper. As it turns out, the kidnapper wasn’t a kidnapper after all. He was simply another neighbor.  A child’s imagination can easily change perspective from ordinary to extraordinary.

Vivi was our next speaker. James Clear says if you really want to master something, teach it. Vivi used this speech opportunity to help her on an upcoming test and the audience benefited from her study work. The title of her speech was “Medicine in 5 minutes: Stomach Physiology.” We learned about chemical, not mechanical, digestion. She used colorful slides displaying the stomach and the chemical reactions taking place. She then displayed a few different Kirkland Brand medicines to counter the uncomfortable chemical reactions happening inside the stomach. You mastered this subject Vivi and deserve an A+!

“What makes Christiano Ronaldo the best soccer player?” Our last speaker, Weihu, will tell you -dedication to the game of soccer. Weihu used a fun story from Ronaldo’s former teammate Patrice Evra to illustrate Ronaldo’s dedication to soccer. Ronaldo invited Evra over for lunch. Evra expected a social event with an impressive satisfying lunch. To Evra’s disappointment, Ronaldo provided a light healthy lunch and the opportunity to train, train, train. Ronaldo transforms his talent for soccer from ordinary to extraordinary with his hard work ethic, unmatched confidence, and strong desire.

Cris, our Table Topics Master hosted an art auction for today’s impromptu fun. She had lovely art objects for the auctioneers. Tamsen auctioned a planer dog, Moises auctioned a stuffed animal donkey trophy head, Steven auctioned a precious mineral (a rock), Jovica auctioned crown jewels and Lonnie auctioned a wedding favor.

Our General Evaluator was Isabella. The Evaluators were Bill, Jovica and Jong.

Carpe diem. Seize the day to make your life extraordinary!

Keep sharpening your sword with Toastmasters!

Our next meeting is on  October 23^rd.

For the eleventh meeting of the Toastmaster year 2021-22, Toastmaster Sarah chose the topic of All American.

Sergeant at Arms Bill Scott shared with us zoom etiquette rules. Quote of the day was:

A teacher affects eternity; she can never tell where her influence stops.

Toastmaster of the day, our resident high school U.S. History teacher, talked about everything American. From liberty sandwiches to American football, a celebration of those unique things that make US America!

Word of the day, presented by the last minute Grammarian Paula:

gumption, common sense, horse sense.
Example:  It took a lot of gumption to speak up for yourself like that .

Jinendra was in charge of timing speakers, impromptu speeches and evaluators.

Our two speakers for the day were:

Affan presenting his icebreaker titled precisely: “Icebreaker”, the first speech of Affan in our club, he talked about the three bucket theory: Bucket 1 – things you control, Bucket 2 things you influence, Bucket 3 – things you neither influence nor control. A great speech to get to know Affan.

Isabella presenting a Presentation Mastery project: “Introduce the basic knowledge of Chinese traditional normal dress”, a speech with great pictures of Isabella and her family wearing traditional Chinese outfits.

Impromptu Table topics master of the day Steven asked members to give a speech about why they were passionate about some strange laws.

– Moises – you passed the law to make it illegal for people to drive blindfolded in Alabama, why were you so passionate about this law?
– Bill – in Arkansas it was illegal to honk your horn near a sandwich shop after 9pm, why were you so passionate about this law?
– Cris – in Connecticut it was illegal to sell pickles unless they were able to bounce, why were you so passionate about this law?
– Affan – in Delaware it was illegal to sell doghair, why were you so passionate about this law?
– Lara – in Indiana it was illegal to ride a horse above 10 miles per hour.
– Jovica – in Kentucky it was illegal to remarry the same man 4 times, what is the story there?
– Sarah – in Massachusetts it was illegal to tell fortunes without certification, what did that certification process look like?
– Ahmad – in New Mexico it was illegal for idiots to vote. How did you set the standard ?

Evaluators Petar and Ahmad evaluated our speakers following the sandwich approach: what you did well, areas of improvement, what you did well.

Come join us and meet interesting Sunrisers in Seattle here at Seattle Sunrise Toastmasters!

Our next meeting is October 16th.

For the tenth meeting of the fiscal year 2021-22, Toastmaster Traci chose the topic of Indiana Jones.

Sergeant at Arms Bill Scott shared with us zoom etiquette rules. Quote of the day was:

Traveling – it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller.

Toastmaster of the day continued with the theme of the meeting, inspired by having watched the Indiana Jones’ Raiders of the Lost Ark movie few months before. Traci noticed that there weren’t a lot of dialogs in the film, which might be the reason why there’s not a lot of quotable lines we can take from it, some of the scenes can last up to 10 minutes without dialogs.

Word of the day, presented by the Grammarian Bill:

intrepid, meaning characterized by resolute fearlessness, fortitude, and endurance.
Example: an intrepid explorer.

Steven was in charge of timing speakers, impromptu speeches and evaluators.

Our three speakers for the day were:

Saurabh presenting: “Effective Speaking”, a speech describing elements that make our message, well, as the title suggests, effective. Like understanding the audience, e.g. a child at home vs a work colleague; using short sentences because they are more powerful and using simple words because, if you can keep your message simple the chances of your message being understood and acted upon are much higher.

Moises presenting a Storytelling project: “I bought a horse, its name is Hip Replacement“, a story with a surprising arc that goes very well with the title, it described Moises original plan to buy a horse that ended on a 10h trip to Guadalajara to meet the so called Hip Replacement horse.

Sarah presenting a Researching & Presenting project: “The Progressive Era”, a speech about US history between 1900 and 1920, a time in which the US saw a lot of immigration from Europe, specially to cities like New York.

Impromptu Table topics master of the day Jovica told members what gift they had received from a relative that is frequently off base, then impromptu speakers had to come up with a speech about how grateful they were to receive that gift and how they are going to use it.

– Jamie –  how would you name the 5th and latest movie of Indiana Jones to be released in 2022?
– Jinendra – what is Indiana Jones’ most effective weapon and why?
– Tamsen – who would be the perfect actor to play Indiana Jones in the next movie? Leonardo DiCaprio, Antonio Banderas or Milos Bikovic?
– Paula – what exotic food or drink would you bring to a reunion at Traci’s house?

Evaluators Petar, Ketan and Jinendra evaluated our speakers following the sandwich approach: what you did well, areas of improvement, what you did well.

Like the two guests in our meeting, Joseph and Mohammed, come join us and listen to inspiring speeches here at Seattle Sunrise Toastmasters!

Our next meeting is October 9th.