Delicious and original first meeting of the month with Marti M. officiating as Toastmaster of the day. The theme of the day was “ Yay! National Cream Cheese Brownie Day!” which was heartily celebrated with real, home baked cream cheese brownies! Thanks Marti!

Kathy M and Sandy T. acted as Grammarian and Timer respectively. The Word of the Day was “Intemperance”, meaning “lack of moderation and restraint”. I, myself, found it hard to exert intemperance when faced with a plate of warm and gooey cream cheese brownies!

Isabella Z presented CC project #6 titled “Design Challenge”. Have you ever wished the customer service in restaurants could be streamlined and faster ? Isabella presented her solution to a faster way to order, to ask questions and to pay for your meal using technology( of course!). The idea is to present the tab for your meal…on a tablet. Have any questions about the bill? Just drill down. Hopefully, the answer will be satisfactory and you can swipe and go to your next activity!

Lara G. presented CC project #8: “Professional Organizations: They’re cooler than you think.”
This is the story of Lara’s growing relationship with professional organizations, from being a non believer to being an enthusiastic member. In time Lara, a professional photographer, learned to appreciate the value of these groups which she tagged as “old school” earlier in her career. “ Things that have been around a long time have value” she realized. Lara has been a member of the Professional Photographers of America for the past three years.

Zhou B. presented “Messy“, CC project #10 in which he posits that, whilst tidiness is associated with upholding social standards and conventions, messiness could lead people away from convention, in favor of new directions. When things get messy, they go out of whack, but this is also when you see creativity, adaptation, survival. Necessity is the Mother of Invention. So, next time mess comes your way, embrace it and turn it into an invention.

Aswini presented CC Project #9: ” Live Equitably in Seattle” on the negative impact of Seattle’s frantic pace of economic development of the past few years. Displacement, gentrification, lack of affordable housing… how will the City address these issues? Aswini gave a brief overview of City Counsel measures and invited the audience to be engaged in the solution.

Tom B. was Table Topic Master.
Our next meeting is February 17.

Takk Takk fyrir Þakka þér fyrir Kærar þakkir ( Thank you in Icelandic) to Justin K. for stepping in for Marti M. as the Toastmaster of the Day. Takk Takk : for saying “ Yes” to Marti’s call for a replacement,  fyrir … the rest  for the rest, namely wrangling speakers and helpers throughout the week and putting together a great program without losing steam or good humor!

The Word of the Day was “ Daring” and Paula L. and Neva C. acted as Grammarian and Timer respectively.

Speaker #1 was Victoria S. in her debut Ice Breaker speech. We learnt that Victoria, the “baby girl” of her family was well loved  and very sheltered by her parents. She also  felt  isolated from her much older brothers and she has not shaken this feeling of and proclivity for isolation as a young adult living on her own away from home. As a student in the US, Victoria has come to realize that she wants  to break out of a lifelong habit of isolating herself. By joining Seattle Sunrise Toastmasters, Victoria is making a bold statement and taking the first of many small steps to become the person she envisions herself to be.
Well done Victoria!

Speaker #2 ,Lara G., presented CC Project #6- Vocal Variety. In her speech titled “ Why Photography?”, she shared self reflections about her journey from being an aspiring actress to being a professional photographer. Through the years, Lara has discovered  that photography is more than just a skill, it’s an art, the art of capturing the soul of her subject in a fleeting, unguarded moment. It’s making a connection through an unwitting moment of truth captured on film or in pixels. According to Lara, “ You can’t have a persona without space and time.”. We love seeing Lara’s persona as a photographer evolve at Seattle Sunrise.

Speaker #3, Matt K., presented “ Do Talk to Strangers”, project #3- Get to the Point, from the CC manual. Standing in front of the audience, with football in hand and a confident stance, Matt, a self- professed timid, sold us all on how to transform ourselves and engage  complete strangers in conversation . Using humor, effective imagery , Matt delivered yet another thoroughly informative and enjoyable speech. My favorite parts  how to disengage, creatively from lengthy conversations( this is when a date.with Beyonce…or Mick Jagger…comes handy!) and the movie worthy ending when Matt threw the football  at a member of the audience- who caught it, thankfully- and said d : “ Next time, don’t be a stranger.!” with a twinkle in his eye. Cut! It’s a wrap!

Table topics were led by Saher A.

Steven, with evocations of penguin theme winter parties, complete with tuxedoed slip and slides and big egg shuffling races was voted Best Table Topic.

Aswini was voted Best Evaluator.

Two new members were inducted: Welcome to Victoria and Rachel!

Our next meeting is February 10th, 2018.

Kudos to Steven W. in his first foray as a Seattle Sunrise Toastmaster of the day! Steven reminded the audience that diversity fosters more opportunities for growth than uniformity. He also pointed out that the multicultural and multigenerational membership of our club is one of the reasons he decided to become a member. “ Keep fostering diversity and you’ll keep growing” he concluded he introduced the meeting.

The Word of the Day was “ Cognizant” and Paula L. and Saher A. acted as Grammarian and Timer respectively.

Speaker #1, Dilip, presented his CC project #6 – Vocal Variety speech titled : “Why do bad sandwiches happen to good people?”. Have you ever wondered whether we should have less choices in this country? I never thought so until I heard about Dilip’s adventures as he tried to order his first vegetarian sandwich at a Subway shop on his first day of life in the US. One tip: if you are a vegetarian, do not ask to put “everything that has “ pepper “ in it” in your sandwich. You might be in for a bad surprise!

We were especially pleased to welcome Speaker #2 , Dave E, one of our long term members back to the club after a long leave of absence. Dave, in his re-introductory speech titled              “ Getting to know me all over again.” shared his trajectory to and back from some serious health issues.Using humor and lively language, Dave did a great job of sharing what was a challenging year with levity. We look forward to seeing Dave back at the club soon!

Speaker #3, Brett S, presented project #3 from the Technical Presentations Advanced Manual: “What is machine learning and why does it matter to you? “ Is Siri deaf sometimes? What does it take to teach a car to self drive ? What is the language of Artificial Intelligence? All weighty and very [pertinent questions to our times. Let’s make a note to invite Zuckerberg and Musk to the debate next time…Not!

Speaker #4, Aswini H., presented CC project #8- Get Comfortable with Visual Aids: ” Social Media- Pros and Cons.” Social media is known as the great connector. What’s become clear over the years is the increasing influence of social media in our lives and how, we who grew up learning not to talk to strangers, are constantly telling millions of strangers every little detail of our life. In this powerful and well structured speech, Aswini outlines the pros and cons of social media. Her call to action is to use social media smartly and carefully.

Kathy M. led the Table Topics.

Sandy T., a guest was voted Best Table Topics.

Zhou was voted Best Evaluator.

Our next meeting is Saturday, January 27.

Paula L. was the First Toastmaster of the year, with Dilip G. and Brett S, acting as Guardian of the words( Grammarian) and Guardian of Time ( Timer) respectively.
The word of the day was “ Tenacious”.
Although New Year’s Resolutions represent a people’s desire for self improvement, about one third of respondents do not make them. One of the main reasons is that only about 8% stick to their resolutions. For Paula, making new year’s resolutions is more about the process of honest self examination and hope and she has a fairly good track record of meeting her goals mostly because most of her resolutions are things she really wants to do and that she does not look back if she forgets some of the other items.
She peppered a few of her resolutions throughout the meeting.