Backwards: Seattle Sunrise Toastmasters May 21, 2016 summary

Posted on May 23, 2016 by Andy

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!