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Seattle Sunrise Toastmasters October 22 Summary: Be Prepared

The Toastmaster of the day was Aanya and her theme she chose was, “Be Prepared.” Aanya did a wonderful job of tying in how she prepares when she has speaking engagements. Her takeaway was to have a solid introduction and conclusion and three main talking points for the body of the speech – great advice, Aanya!

Today’s meeting was a little shorter with only two speakers. Our first speaker of the day was Tina who gave her first speech titled, “The Emperor’s New Clothes” from the story telling manual. This was a wonderful story that demonstrated that people are easily influenced and can be swayed easily. In her story, there was an emperor who had seamstresses that were supposed to make custom clothes for him using gold. However, they were stealing the gold and convincing the emperor’s staff and the emperor that there was in fact gold in the clothes. The seamstresses were very persuasive and persistent. By always telling the emperor he had beautiful clothes with gold, when in fact there was no gold, they had swayed and convinced him otherwise. The moral to this tale is to be careful of what you hear because if told something enough, you’ll begin to believe it. Great speech Tina!

Our second speaker of the day was, Andy who gave his 3rd speech (humorist speech) from the CC manual titled, “My Middle Ages.” This was a presentation of how when you turn 50 your body changes. During his 40’s he had some health challenges such as weight and skin issues. Now as he is approaching 50’s he has another type of health issue…. hemorrhoids. When he made his appointment with his regular doctor, an older man that resembles Santa Claus, he found that he was out for the day. Instead, his replacement doctor was an attractive, younger doctor that quickly made Andy embarrassed. As Andy has now entered into the 50’s age bracket, he has found that wisdom comes with age, and that aging actually isn’t what it’s cracked up to be…. but it beats the alternative! Great, funny speech Andy!

Seattle Sunrise Toastmasters October 8 Summary – Best Friends

Today’s Toastmaster was Andy and ‘Best Friends’ was the theme he chose. This theme was very close to Andy as it was his best friend (of 35 years!) birthday today! He did a great job of weaving the theme throughout today’s meeting.
Katherine gave her first speech from the CC manual titled “My Life at 13,000 Feet.” Her speech was an insight to her life and we were able to learn a lot about Katherine. Currently she is a nursing instructor at a local college and prior to teaching she was a cardiac nurse. During the week while she’s teaching, she remains very cool and calm. However, on the weekends she seeks adventures to get an adrenaline rush. A couple examples included skydiving with her sons and river rafting with her daughter and husband. Sounds like an adrenaline rush to me! This was a great ice breaker, Katherine. I look forward to hearing more speeches from you.

Marti went next and gave her 8th speech titled, “Toastmasters through a Different Lens” from the CC2 manual. Marti has been a member of Seattle Sunrise Toastmasters for 2 ½ years and a therapist for 35 years. While in Grad school she found three qualities that are beneficial in life. First is empathy, second is respect, and third is unconditional positive regard. Marti also brought to light that Toastmasters is a space that allows for a positive place to practice these intrinsic qualities. It was a well thought out speech and very insightful. Great job Marti!
Nicole gave an impromptu speech, “The Power of Two.” Have you ever been terrified? Often times, when you’re by yourself you only have the power of one. However, if you have another person you can partner with you then you have the power of two – giving you more confidence. Nicole gave the example of when she was a brand new kindergarten teacher for 60+ kids. At first she felt she wasn’t fully trained and didn’t have the resources to perform the task. Luckily she befriended another teacher, Betty, from across the hall. Betty shared her lesson plans and teaching materials that allowed Nicole to successfully and confidently teach her students! By entrusting Betty, Nicole became more confident and successful. Thank you for the impromptu speech Nicole!

Kiki gave her 8th speech from the CC manual titled, “History of Mac and Cheese in My Life and in American History.” Kiki spoke about how when she was a little girl she would go to Becky’s dining room and would have the best mac-n-cheese she’s ever had! Kiki has been trying to recreate Becky’s spectacular mac-n-cheese for years and still hasn’t found the right recipe… yet. She has searched many, many cook books including the Joy of Cooking (multiple editions!) and has found the most success with Simple Cooking. Even though this might be a simple comfort food, it connects Kiki to piece of her childhood she’s hoping to find. I think this brought us all down memory lane and can’t wait to hear more speeches from you!

Hello! Just a notice that although our blog has been inactive, our club is still active and meeting regularly. Stay tuned for more meeting write-ups in the near future.