This week’s meeting of Seattle Sunrise Toastmasters was a cozy affair, with the Memorial Day holiday weekend taking many of our members elsewhere, but it was still a terrific meeting exemplifying our club’s high standards for quality and efficiency. Additionally, I was happy to be able to fill in as Acting President for the first time in my Toastmaster career while Peter is away.  I managed not to get too drunk with power or to instigate a coup. But there’s always next week when I get to do it again!

Our Toastmaster this week was a first-timer: Neva C. She did a great job, bringing in well-prepared and thought-provoking notes on the theme of Scandal. Well-done, Neva!

Our first speaker today was Alexa V, giving her CC Project #4 speech, “My Uncouth Great-Grandmothers.” She told “scandalous” stories from the lives of her great-great-grandmother and great-grandmother, including an adventurous cross-country road trip to California her great-grandmother took in 1921 by bike, train, and automobile. An entertaining slice of history. Thanks, Alexa!

Next up was Nicole S. delivering her CC Project 6 speech, “7:00 on May 11th,” in which she related the mishaps of a recent presentation–given at the titular time and date–to a group of parents and teachers of dyslexic children. The technology gods did not smile on her and consequently her speech was derailed by need for IT support and other things. Although she did not say so in her speech, I suspect her audience was probably charmed by her enthusiasm and great humor as we always are, and I also suspect Nicole learned the hard way that Murphy’s Law is still the law of the land. Very funny an engaging, Nicole!

Marti M. was our third speaker, circling around for the second time to her CC Project 9. This speech, “Owning Your Own Inner Leader.” In her speech she redefined the concept of leadership as the act of creating a shared experience and spoke about the creative opportunities to be found in each leadership moment. She has formulated some principles which she distributed on a handout. This speech was just a glimpse into the full presentation, which I would be eager to see. As always, compelling and inspiring work, Marti. Thanks!

I was our fourth speaker for the day, delivering Project 4 from the Storytelling manual. The speech, “Two Eulogies,” related some of the life stories and lessons learned from the example of my mother and father, who died in 1993 and 2011, respectively. Neither of my parents wanted funerals and so this was a long-overdue opportunity to verbally eulogize them. It was really wonderful to have a supportive audience to listen and to give supportive feedback. Thanks everyone!

Mark W. was our Table Topics Master, bringing one of the most unusual and amusing collection of prompts I’ve heard yet to our meeting. Inspired by a recent 36-hour layover in Reykjavik, Mark asked Ken B, Paula L, Michelle D, Mary L, Aanya L, and Yanyan Z to respond to Icelandic-themed questions, such as “How would you serve Puffin and what wine would you pair with it?” Michelle, a vegan, won the Best Table Topics ribbon by answering that question with “by protecting their habitat.” Brilliant! Congratulations, Michelle!

Our evaluators this week were Ken B, Michelle D, Mary L, and Dave E, with Tom B serving as our General Evaluator. Ken and Mary tied for the Best Evaluator ribbon. Congratulations!

Aanya L was our Grammarian this session, with her Word of the Day “Deception” being used numerous times. Paul L served as our Timer, and Bill S. returned as our guest. Hope to see you again, Bill!

Finally, I had the good fortune to stand in as Acting President on the day we got to officially induct Yanyan Z as a member into our club. Welcome, Yanyan! We are all very happy you’ve joined us and look forward to hearing your first speech next month!

Our next meeting will be next Saturday, June 4. Our theme will be “School’s Out” and our Toastmaster will be Tom B. Looking forward to it!

Save the date!

Everybody mark your calendars for August 13. Instead of our regular meeting, we’ll be holding our club Humorous Speech Contest and Table Topics Contest. I will be serving as the Contest Chair, so I’ll be coming around looking for volunteers to speak and to perform contest roles. This is a really fun contest. I’ve competed in it for the last two years and have had a blast each time. Any member meeting the eligibility requirements can compete in the Table Topics contest. More information to come, but for now, save the date and feel free to contact me with questions or, even better, offers to compete or help out with the contest.

I was honored to be Toastmaster for Seattle Sunrise’s meeting this week. My desire had been to dress backwards, walk backwards, and talk backwards, but I’m not quite that talented, nor did I want to be that uncomfortable. But I brought with me a half dozen tidbits I learned in my research about the phenomena related to the theme.

We had a diverse and interesting group of speeches, helpful and very funny table topics, and very solid evaluations by our members.

First up was Emily I, who gave her CC Project #3 speech, “An Antidote to Political Apathy,” in which she told of her participation in political activism during the Occupy Seattle demonstrations in autumn 2011. Emily said she had felt cynical and negative when it came to politics and political action, but her activity with a social justice, environmental, and social equity group helped affect real change by focusing their efforts on eliminating an 85-cent charge that Chase Bank inflicted on its customers for transactions, a cost most acutely felt by the poorest customers. The change recouped an estimated $275,000 for them. An inspiring story, Emily. Thanks!

Neva was up next, giving her speech “The True Wealth of Hong Kong,” her CC Project #4 speech. She spoke about the three years she spent in Hong Kong, accompanying her husband who had gotten a job there. In addition to her own job, she took on teaching English to foreign language students from all over the world. While the school’s boss was a little shady, she enjoyed the experience and spoke specifically about the rewards of teaching one young man who was functionally illiterate in Hong Kong because he couldn’t read or speak Cantonese or English, the two primary languages there. She concluded by saying that the greatest wealth Hong Kong or any other city has is in its people and she was enriched by her time there. Nice job, Neva!

Our third speaker was Paula L. who delivered her CC Project #5 speech, “21 Days,” so-titled in anticipation of the three weeks left before she leaves the job as a property manager she’s had for 13 years. She treated us to several “snapshots,” describing and acting out episodes that happened during the arc of her career working in her firm, from the day she found her job through to 2015, in her current position as regional manager. Her job has been filled with long hours, dealing with troublesome tenants, and occasionally having to investigate strange occurrences, such as when one of her tenants went missing and she had to go into his apartment to see if he was in there, presumably dead. (Spoiler: He wasn’t.) We all wish you the best of luck in your new job, Paula. Great stories! Thanks!

Andrea finished up our speaking portion with her speech, “What Is It About Diapers?” This was her Project 1 speech from the Humorously Speaking advanced manual and it dealt with her younger brother, with whom she has been very close and for whom she said she acted as a second mother during their youth. She told about how her brother often got into trouble, particularly because like many boys, he liked to set things on fire. Despite his troubled youth, Andrea concluded her speech by talking about her recent joy of being able to watch him get married and marveling at the successful, dependable, trustworthy person he’s become. A very touching end to a warm and amusing speech Thanks, Andrea!

Aleli was our Topicsmaster for our meeting. She brought in a Dale Carnegie mnemonic technique for remembering names through visualization which she demonstrated on her own name and then asked Nicole S, Tom B., Sanjeev, and our guest Bill S. to use themselves. Sanjeev won for his response. Congratulations!

Our evaluators this session were Makoto Y, Holly H, Brian H, and Andrew H, who provided feedback to our speakers, and our General Evaluator was Steve Wangen. Steve and Brian tied for best evaluator of the day. Great job, guys!

Jung K. was our Grammarian and her Word of the Day, “Abominable” was used several times during the meeting (including once backwards, which cost me a dollar bet. Nice job Peter!), and Preston kept us on time. Thanks for the great job! And thanks to Aleli for taking photos for the meeting!

Our next meeting will be Saturday May 28. Neva C. will be our Toastmaster and the theme will be Scandal.
Hope to see you all there!

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