For the ninth meeting of the fiscal year 2021-22, Toastmaster and User Experience Designer Isabella chose the topic of Birthday.

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

Count your age by friends, not years. Count your life by smiles, not tears.

Toastmaster of the day continued with the theme of the meeting, starting with the surprising reason why she chose the theme: her birthday is this month!

Word of the day, presented by the Grammarian Moises:

elicit, meaning to call forth or draw out something, such as information or a response.
Example: her remarks elicited cheers.

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

Our two speakers for the day were:

Steven presenting: “Mega Date Day 2021”, a speech about the events that took place in Steven and his wife’s all day Mega Date, starting at 5:38am on a Saturday 9/4 with a stop at Tacoma’s Le Donuts for the best egg roles. This was the 4th Mega Date© , it made some members jelous of his wife 🙂. Steven is happy to have his itinerary inspire your very own Mega Date!

Bill presenting a Storytelling project: “Learn to look at and see color in new ways“, a very personal point of view about racial responsibility, that talked about color, going from photography, to a pool and contrasting feet ending well crafted closing remarks. A speech with a fantabulous use of backgrounds taking advantage of Zoom’s advanced settings to have the speaker share the stage with the presentation.

Impromptu Table topics master of the day Steven 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.

– Judy received a hunting knife
– Jovica received a dog that doesn’t get along with other dogs
– Tamsen reiceved galvanized nails
– Cris received a can of Rainier
– Moises received a used notebook
– Saurabh received half a box of bullets

Evaluators Ahmad and Jovica gave feedbacks as presents to our speakers following the sandwich approach: what you did well, areas of improvement, what you did well.

We had two guests in the meeting, Tamsen and Cris who are becoming new members of our club! Come join us and listen to their icebreaker speeches here at Seattle Sunrise Toastmasters!

Our next meeting is September 25th.

Twenty years ago on this day, a pair of hijacked airplanes destroyed the World Trade Center Towers, a third and fourth plane crashed in the Pentagon and in a Pennsylvania field respectively.

For the eight meeting of the fiscal year 2021-22, experienced Toastmaster Steven chose the topic of Never Forget.

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

Forget the mistake, remember the lesson.

Toastmaster of the day continued with theme of the meeting, starting with a minute of silence in honor of the victims, then narrating the events that happened 20 years ago on 9/11.

Word of the day, presented by the Grammarian Bill:

amnesia, meaning a gap in one’s memory.

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

Our three speakers for the day were:

Saurabh presenting his Presentation Mastery, Lvl 1, Evaluation & Feedback project: “Effective Speaking”, a speech describing the blocks that make public speaking effective: What you say – your word selection is different based on your audience, shorter sentences are easily understandable and more powerful. How do you say it: the tonality of your voice. This speech included a very interesting quote supporting the value of tone: 10% of the conflict in the world is because of difference in opinion and 90% is because of tone of the voice.

Jovica presenting his Presentation Mastery, Lvl 2, Understanding Your Communication Style project: ”Tennis GOAT“, a high energy memorable speech, describing the career of serbian Tennis GOAT Novak Djokovic, with a call to action to witness a historical game on 9/12th: the final of US OPEN, N. Djokovic vs D. Medvedev.

Judy presenting her Introduction to Toastmasters Mentoring project: “A Letter of Gratitude“, a speech describing learnings from mentors, thank you for demystifying the design principles, sincerely your Microsoft mentee, Judy. With a call to action to think about those who made an impact in our lives, to either write a quick thank you note or pay it forward.

Table topics master of the day Weihu used job interview questions to elicit impromptu speeches, followed by a role play of job interviewer/interviewee :

First part – questions by Table topics master
Tell me about some constructive feedback that you have received from your manager or peer.
Tell me about who is the most challenging person you have worked with.
Tell me about a recent time in work when you had a lot of fun.

Second part – interviewer/interviewee role play
What quality do you bring to the team ? – Collaborative team player
I know you love tennis, if we hire you today how would you go about teaching our team to play tennis.
What personal challenges do you bring to the table, that you’d be happy to work on?

Evaluators Paula, Ahmad and Petar helped our speakers become more effective communicators by sharing valuable feedback about their projects.

We had three guests in the meeting, one joining from Pennsylvania, and two from Seattle. Aren’t online meetings a great opportunity to connect Toastmasters and guests living in distant cities?

Come join us for prepared speeches, impromptu speeches, word and quote of the day and more Toastmasters fun here at Seattle Sunrise Toastmasters!

Our next meeting is September 18th.

How can we make our teams better?….“Team-Building Events.”  That was our theme today, introduced by Toastmaster Jovica. He used a sumo-suit wrestling story to illustrate that team-building events aren’t about winning the individual competition, they’re about enjoying shared experiences and building connection between team members. Like a magical wand, Jovica used his leaf-blower to remove all team anxiety at the beginning of our meeting.

President Moises provided this quote, “If you can laugh together, you can work together.” Moises doubled up on roles to be our Timer and an Evaluator, as the majority of our members were out enjoying this last weekend of summer. Grammarian Traci gathered everyone around for the word of the day, “Huddle.” She led a grammarian team-building event asking each attendee to fill in the blank and make this statement, “I’m ______, and I’m in!”

Once again, the meeting theme worked as a through-line weaving within all three speeches.

“Why are we here at 7:30 on a Saturday morning?” asked Ahmad, starting his speech titled “How to Build a Strong Team.” The answer of course: To build leadership and communication skills.  We need these skills to build strong teams. Ahmad provided stats on the staggering rate of business startup failures. A major reason they fail: a weak team. Here are five qualities, and their highlights, to build a strong team:

1. Defined purpose – clear vision, ground rules, and set expectations
2. Strong connection – shared experiences, mutual connections
3. Emotional intelligence – know what motivates your team member, and apply it
4. Communication- understand communication preferences, in person, email, phone, etc.
5. Diversity-each member brings a different skillset, value various contributions

Teams are everywhere. Ahmad invited us to reflect on our own teams to identify areas of strength and weakness.  We are empowered to activate these five qualities to build strong teams.

Ketan rocked his speech titled “Is remote working the future?” We huddled up to watch his funny clip of a Texan court session, working remotely. Somebody standing before the judge had a cat filter on his screen. You could only see a cat talking like a person. The catman didn’t know how to remove the filter. He assured the judge, in all seriousness, by saying, “I’m here live, I’m not a cat.” The levity from this clip brought connection to all attendees in today’s meeting. It demonstrated some benefits, limitations, and progress of working remotely. After Ketan declared the case “catastrophic” he shared an interesting study that projects 70% of the workforce will be working remotely by 2025.  Benefits of remote working include an increase in productivity, less time commuting, and less investment in real estate. Consequences of working remotely include a rise in burnout, lack of team collaboration, and decrease in Social Capital, knowing your team. Before Ketan closed he observed that there is conflict in the perception versus the reality of working remotely. This speech is relevant, timely, and helpful as we navigate how to remain safe and choose what to carry into the future.

It was a delight to have guest speaker Judy Young, DTM, and to glean from her speech titled, “What can be learned from the Toastmaster International Speech Contest.” Hot off the press, she was up early-early this morning to watch the final 8 competitors in the 2021 Toastmasters International Speech Contest.  These great eight ascended the climb starting from the bottom with 30,000 other contestants. They rose, each possessing these 9 winning qualities:

1. Vocal variety
2. Body language
3. Eye contact
4. Humor
5. Language – descriptive-evocative
6. Pacing
7. Enunciation
8. Repetition of key points
9. Enthusiasm

Judy called us to action to watch these 8 lighthouses on YouTube and to use these 9 qualities to build teams for leadership and communication.

Since we are all hardwired to connect, Table Topics Master Jinendra gave us 7 principles to bring connection to our teams. They include communication, commitment, respect, delegation, accountability, support, and results. He then gave contestants the opportunity to speak about given quotes related to these principles.  The three quotes that we had time for highlighted accountability, respect, and commitment.   

We have teams all around us. Our Toastmasters team equips us with strategies and skills to build our teams and make them better. Don’t just collect these insights, put them into action!

Keep sharpening your sword with Toastmasters!

Our next meeting is September 11^th.

Today our meeting started with Paula, our Immediate Past President, performing newly-elected officer inductions. The new officers include:

• President: Moises
• VP of Education: Sarah
• VP of Membership: Ahmad
• VP of Public Relations: Jamie
• Secretary: Traci
• Treasurer: Steven
• Sergeant at Arms: Bill

Our meeting theme, introduced by Toastmaster Bill, was “Mindfulness.” Bill explained benefits of mindfulness. He then led us through a relaxing breathing exercise. Grammarian, Sarah contributed to the theme and brought “Intentionality” for the word of the day.

All three speeches were rich in mindfulness.

Traci gave the first speech, titled “Clarity using the StoryBrand Framework, from Donald Miller’s book, Building Your Story Brand.”  Clarity is essential to land that powerful force of an idea into the mind of our audience. The StoryBrand Framework is a mindful system to hold the attention of our audience so that we can intentionally deliver a clear message. Traci used the movie, Finding Nemo, to identify the 7 parts of the StoryBrand Framework, then applied this structure to a marketing pitch for Toastmasters. Learn more about this system for clarity by getting Miller’s book, or better yet listen to it on Audible. 

Next, Jamie gave an inspirational speech, “Fight Like a Girl.” There is so much outside pressure to perform, especially if you’re Simone Biles, the most decorated U.S. woman’s gymnast ever with World/Olympic medals.  While the world anxiously awaited her performance last month at the Tokyo Olympics, it was bewildering to watch the unfolding withdrawal from her event for mental health. What?!? What seemed like a weak decision, in which she would regret the rest of her life, has propelled her into an overnight superstar for mental health and personal wellbeing. She knew her mental state put her in danger. She was wise to understand her limitations and brave to stand up for her wellbeing. Jamie demonstrated that what can bend can also be irreparably broken by telling the story of a Russian gymnast, Elena Mukhina. Elena was very aware of her limitations and risk but succumbed to the pressure of her coach to perform a dangerous move. As a result, she broke her neck and eventually died from quadriplegic complications. Jamie motivated us to prioritize prudence over prestige, prioritize healing over hurting the land, and prioritize graceful self-care over glory and gold. The world needs a hero to fight like a girl!!!!

Our final speaker, Jong, asked the $75,000 question of how much money does it take to make us happy, during his speech titled, “The Pursuit of Happiness.”  Humans are in pursuit of happiness. Happy people benefit from this characteristic as they are less likely than their unhappy counterparts, to get sick. Their happiness benefits the world around them, it’s contagious and has a ripple effect on others. How do we get it? It’s not genetic, it’s learned through our experience.  We can mindfully design our environment and train our brains for happiness. Jong discussed three destructive obstacles in the pursuit of happiness that can be avoided. They include materialism, perfectionism, and social comparison.  He told us about an interesting study that people are happier when they act in kindness toward others, rather than pampering themselves. Jong’s engaging speech inspired the audience to design their environment and train their brain in the pursuit of happiness.

Table Topics Master Paula provided inspirational quotes to give contestants the opportunity to reflect on mindfulness. Topics discussed were: items that stir happiness, anticipated actions that draw a beneficial experience, and elements found in nature that inspire a welcoming mindset.

President Moises closed with this quote: “Where you go, there you are.”

The meeting summary – summary in the intention of mindfulness:  Be mindful. Be mindful about making your ideas clear for your audience, be mindful in the priority of your needs, and be mindful to choose happiness with your environment and in your actions to help others.

Keep sharpening your sword with Toastmasters!

Our next meeting is August 28^st.