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Ken B. was our Toastmaster this week. It was his first time and he did a great job. He said that taking on the role was in its own way a rite of passage because while he’s a comfortable, confident speaker, it was something scary and new. Welcome to the echelon of past Toastmasters, Ken! It gets easier each time.

Our first speaker was one of our newest members, Yanyan B., who gave her CC Project 1 Icebreaker, “Childhood in a Rural Village.” She gave a vivid description of her upbringing on a peasant farm in the village of Golden Star in Ganzhou, Jiangxi Province in Southern China. She talked about the hardships she suffered as a young child, such as having to hand carry 30 containers of water from a distant river to irrigate her family’s fields. She then told of how she eventually was able to leave it behind for university and eventual emigration to the United States, closing with a touching remembrance of those in her family she regretted having to leave behind. A wonderful speech, Yanyan, and, as I said, a tough one to follow.

Which is what I did with my Storytelling advanced communication Project 3 speech, “Ugly Americans.” I described a trip I took with my best friend in 2003 to Southeast Asia, seven months after the invasion of Iraq and a week after the CIA announced what most of the world seemed to already know: that Iraq had no WMDs and thus the pretense for the war had been founded on lies and misinformation from the start. Despite travel advisories for Americans going abroad, we went and were the best ambassadors we could be, and also typically we made many errors in judgment. Adventures were had and my speech discussed some of our experiences over our 10-day stay. (FYI, if anyone is interested in reading it, I can send you the full travelogue I wrote during the trip.)

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Hello Sunrisers! Our meeting this past weekend was hosted by our veteran Toastmaster Marti M, who did an outstanding job as always. Appropriate to the theme, she reminded us of the potential that exists in getting a second or third chance at things, particularly our speeches. Thanks, Marti!

Holly H. was our first speaker, with her CC Project 4 speech, “How to Say It,” in which she related the long chain of procrastination and distraction that led up to her last-minute prep for her speech. Appropriately she asked for a do-over, and I sincerely hope we get to hear the speech again. She discussed a fascinating topic of speechmaking identity types and modes. Would love to hear more about these as I’d never encountered these before. Thanks, Holly!

Jung K. spoke next, delivering her CC Project 5 speech, “Living with Regrets.” She told the story of an incident that happened to her in Afghanistan which she continues to regret and think about, even though she didn’t understand the circumstances and the incident was not really her fault. She noted how it is particularly difficult to deal with regret when the opportunity for apology is lost. A touching and thoughtful speech, Jung.

Next up, Mark W. delivered a speech from the Persuasive Speaking advanced manual project 3, “Time to Stretch our Tongues: A Proposal to Provide Long-Speech Training for Sunrise Members.” He pointed to the value of long speeches and implored members and officers to consider offering an extra Sunrise Lite club for the purpose of allowing members to work on long speeches. He also encouraged interested members to contact officers to show support for the idea. (Note: I am going to look into this. I’m not sure whether Toastmasters allows a “sub” club, but it seems like an idea that would work for our club during one regular meeting a month. The upcoming officers will definitely look into it.) Thanks, Mark for taking the time to do the research and make this proposal.

Our fourth speaker was Eric O, one of our newest members (but clearly a veteran speaker), who delivered his CC Project 7 speech “Will Technology save Us or Do Us In.” He spoke about the drastic changes in technology that have occurred in the 20th and 21st centuries, exploring some of the less salutary effects on the environment and society. He then turned to the question of how advances have impacted us morally. Here he was more optimistic, noting that technology such as daily papers were in large part responsible for spreading sentiment leading to the abolition of slavery. He pointed out that technology only works when based on fact, and so technological advancement has created the space for fact to overcome things like prejudice and ignorance (unfortunately it doesn’t appear to be wiping that out). A really interesting and well-done speech, Eric!

Nicole S. was our Topics Master this week and she asked me, Kiki N., Peter F., and our guest (and now new member Cara S.) to speak about a regret we had. She added a twist, saying that we could lie, and afterward the membership voted on whether they thought the speaker was lying or not. We are all such unfailingly honest people that we all told true stories, and Peter’s won the Best Table Topics ribbon. Congratulations!

Our evaluators for the meeting were Emily I., Yanyan Z., Andrew H., and Aanya L., who each provided feedback for our four speakers. I served as the General Evaluator and spoke about the meeting as a whole. Aanya won Best Evaluator for her feedback to Eric. Congratulations Aanya!
Dave E. was our Grammarian and his Word of the Day “Transmute” was used several times. Johnny I was our Timer and kept the meeting running on time. Nice work, guys!

Our next meeting will be 6/18. The theme will be Rites of Passage and our Toastmaster will be Mark W.

We will also be holding our officer elections at the end of our next meeting. We hope you will attend!

By the way, with Scott and Nicole C busy with creating a new generation of Champions, we have been without our photographers. We’ve been trying to make up for it with cell phone photos, but this meeting we had no photos. If anyone member with a camera would like to volunteer to photograph our next couple of meetings, please contact me. Thanks!

Hope to see you Saturday the 18th.

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