It was a sunny perfect Saturday morning at the Bridge conference room and it will be the last meeting at this venue for the rest of the year.   Lara had bought some donuts to share, smiling as she passed out the agenda with a little explanation on the purposeful mistakes on the sheet.  All in good fun!

May gave the Club an eduation on the Terry Stop Law and Legal Definition. The law of 1968, this law gives the power to the police to stop cars.  In past year there was 5290 traffic stops in the greater Seattle Area.  As Oleg evaluated, May always has such great content to share with the Club members.

Lara had many roles for today’s meeting. She was the president, toastmaster, table topics master, and a speaker.  She continued her Strategic Relationship Pathways, level 3, using a Power Point presentation on the large TV within the conference room.  Lara updated a previous speech and leverage a slide show to give us a glimpse on being a professional photographer.  Scott evaluated the mechanics, her fundamentals, and gave Lara some advice on opportunities for more effective slides.

Lara also shared a new a box of ideas, thought provoking cards with phrases to help shake up your process.  All the attendees had a chance to give an impromptu speech, At the the conclusion, the table topics master said, “Everyone wins. You get a car, and you get car, and you get a car”, prompting laughter from the crowd. 

We ended the meeting with donuts and well wishes for a long weekend. 

Steven our outgoing President called the meeting to order. Paula was our esteemed Toastmaster and looked back at the growth and development of our officers this past year. Our Timer extraordinaire was Aleli, and Kathy picked the word of the day “Pride” as she fulfilled the role of the Grammarian.

Lidia asked questions about who, what, where, and how we renew ourselves during the one minute impromptu portion of our meeting called Table Topics. This is a time to voluntarily speak for a short duration to practice conversational speaking.

Having a structured agenda each week contributes to the success of our meetings because everyone knows their roles and expectations before each meeting. Our General Evaluator and now incoming President Lara had an ask for each of us to commit to arriving early so the meeting will start smoothly and on time.

Steven was our first speaker and placed himself in a story for when the “big one” hits. His visual aid survival bag was a good way to keep us interested in his story. Feedback to make his informative speech shine included to share more emotional impact of this devastating scenario.

Jimmy used descriptive buzz words -narcissist, lazy, entitled, for his speech “the worst generation”, that were familiar yet caught our attention. The use of repetition, “me, me, me, generation” had a powerful impact. He met his objectives to help the audience understand diversity. Feedback was positive for word choice, and to consider keeping his energy up as he completed his speech.

Brett shared how failure can be a learning experience and shared a process of setting a goal and time frame to achieve it. His speeches are informative, funny, insightful, and have a purpose, main points with examples, smooth transitions, and a call to action in his closing remarks. He used the space of the front of the room very well, and demonstrated actions for vocal variety. All these techniques are part of a well delivered speech. Feedback to make his speech even better included using larger gestures to emphasize a point.

Dave’s humorous speech painted a powerful scene as he set the stage and kept us all in suspense and guessing as his tale took us into his story of a dark night, a cool 80 degrees, powerful voices floating in the air, and an action -packed story that was gripping from the beginning to the end. He used wonderful vocal variety and pauses that packed a punch after loud, forceful commands, “HALT, DROP TO YOUR KNEES, FACEPLANT, and DO NOT MOVE!! The ending was hilarious.Feedback was scarce. Knowing the objectives of the speech will help in giving feedback next time. This process of feedback is to reconstruct or rebuild the speech in a way to add missed elements/objectives in a speech.

The next meeting will be later due to the NWH cafeteria changing their hours of operation. Contact Sunrisers Toastmasters for more information.

Prime was the theme of the day – chosen by our club president -elect Steven. He used it as a root word with the example that when one has stage fright you may experience a primal fight or flight feeling. He also used it as an adjective such as prime -number, and in the prime -of-life. Toastmasters can help you become a better presenter and use more descriptive words. Traci shared her story, “How to enjoy the journey”, and hooked the audience with her opening, “how many of you…” and added many colorful, word pictures and phrases. Lara was bold and direct when she talked about building relationships with a cross -cultural perspective from Chicago to Seattle, and to think about your hometown, what you love about it, and how it shapes you. In Toastmasters you get practice organizing and writing speeches, as well as valuable feedback about what were strong points and areas to work on in a supportive environment. Isabella improved her speech thru repetition, feedback, and repeating her speech several times over a period of a few months in order to better it. Toastmaster evaluations are honest and supportive in a friendly environment! Toastmasters -where leaders are made.

Homemade birthday cards was the topic chosen by our Toastmaster Kathy as she shared the story of how she was recently invited to a birthday party, with the request to not bring gifts or cards. The exception to this proclamation was that all homemade birthday cards would gladly be accepted. Her main point included the history of greeting cards, and why homemade cards are better than store bought ones. Dave was the Table Topics master for impromptu speaking and invited people to select a card with a picture on it and share who they would give the card to and tell a short story about the meaning behind the card. Dave shared that members and guests alike are welcome to participate, and anyone can pass if they prefer not to speak at that time. We heard powerful speeches about Space Junk, Nature Conservation, and Thoughts on Reparation. We learn about evaluating speeches and how to give feedback at every meeting. Don’t miss out! Join the fun.