Dick opens the meeting

There are only a handful of objective truths in the world.  Humans are 70% water, Saturday follows Friday, and Seattle Sunrise Toastmasters is the funnest place to improve your public speaking.  This week’s meeting was a perfect example.

A battery of our club members convened again and our toastmaster was Dick.  The theme was The best of times, the worst of times.  After some brief banter about the theme, Dick introduced our first speaker Nagisa.  Nagisa’s speech title was “The World Isn’t a Scary Place.” It was about stories in the news about terrible things happening to tourists traveling abroad, but that bad things can happen in one’s own neighborhood. She urged people to take advantage of opportunities to travel and also threw in a few tips for staying safe when traveling.

Our second speaker was Michelle.  Michelle delivered her first speech in Toastmasters titled “The Grass is Greener…Here”.  She shared her story about moving to Venezuela, getting married, and then … returning to the United States to escape Venezuela’s political instability.

Jun Lei leads table topics

Our final speaker was Rich.  Rich delivered an improved version of a speech he had presented earlier this year titled “Eddie and Chester”.  It’s always fun to watch a speaker improve a speech over time and Rich’s speech was no exception!

Jun Lei was our table topics master and she introduced an interesting twist.  After capturing information from the audience, each table topics speaker was presented a person, place, and action then asked to incorporate them into their 30 second table topics response.  Not easy, but table topics isn’t for the faint at heart!

Johan, Sonja, and Petra were our evaluators.  Madeleine served as our general evaluator.  She reminded the evaluators that it is important to address feedback to the speaker you are evaluating.  “Address them in the second person using ‘you’ rather than the third person.”

Madeleine delivers a Toastmasters General Evaluation

At the conclusion of the meeting, we inducted our newest member, Violetta!  Welcome to the group.  It’s the funnest place to improve your public speaking … that is, if you’re okay with us using funnest as a superlative.

Violetta is inducted as a new member of Toastmasters

Our next meeting is scheduled for 5/25

Dick tells a fairy tale

Seattle Sunrise Toastmasters club whipped up another fun-filled meeting this weekend.  12 members and 1 guest showed up to participate in the fun.  Our toastmaster was Rich who lead the meeting under the theme “dealbreakers”.

Our first speaker was Dick who told a fairy-tale that can only be described as a Cinderella for guys.  Our unsuspecting hero climbs a glass mountain using lynx claws to reach the princess.

Petra took the lectern as our second speaker.  She shared two stories about her hometown heroes  from the Czech Republic in her speech titled, “What a tour guide would not tell you”.

Our third speaker was Jun Lei.  Jun Lei presented an animated speech about how to overcome anxieties and get the most fulfillment out of riding an amusement park roller coaster.

Jun Lei shows everyone her visual aid

Mary responds to a table topics question

Our table topics master was Scott.  Scott asked audience members to explain why they were considered the expert at “X”.  Our table topics winner was Mary who revealed her secret to being an expert at sneaking a 3rd carry-on item onto the airplane!  You had to be there.

Our evaluators were Janell, Johan, Sonja.  Dave acted as our General Evaluator for the meeting.

At the conclusion of the meeting, Scott reminded all members of the upcoming district 2 conference scheduled for May 11th and officer elections on May 25th.

Sonja wins best evaluator

See you in May!

Scott leads the applause at the start of the meeting

Seattle Sunrise Toastmasters tacked-on another excellent meeting this weekend.  We had 13 members and 4(!) guests attend.  Mary took the reigns as our Toastmaster.  This was her first time in the role and she did a fantastic job!

Our speakers were Rich and Madeleine.  Rich spoke about the benefits of juggling and shared a short explanation of how he learned the skill.  He then gave a demonstration and warned, “In my next speech, I plan to juggle chainsaws and I’m selling tickets for the front row.”  Scott took him up on the offer.

Rich shows-off his juggling skills

Madeleine piqued the interest of many with her speech titled, “Ms. Manners’ guide to impeccably correct Toastmasters’ Behavior”.  Seriously, who wouldn’t want to hear the content of that speech?!  Toastmasters meetings require lots of coordination.  Good-mannered Toastmasters contact the meeting leader early and often.  Our Toastmaster Mary agreed, communication is helpful.

Members watch as Dave responds to table topics

Guest Eric participates in Table Topics

Steve led our table topics session.  He prompted members with an obscure word and then asked them to provide a definition.  Our guest, Omar won table topics by defining a word whose definition is more memorable than its pronunciation.  Omar’s winning response? “I’ll define that word by saying, you wouldn’t want to get caught with any in your pocket on the streets of New York.”

Our evaluators were Scott and Dick.  Scott asked Rich to consider incorporating sources for the facts he referenced in his speech.  Dick asked Madeleine to present a “part II” of her speech to elaborate on her key points and to reinforce her message.  Nicole presented the general evaluation of the meeting.  Patrick and Jun Lei filled the roles of Grammarian and Timer.

Members enjoy Omar’s humorous Table Topics response

Mary closes the meeting

At the end of the meeting Madeleine volunteered a “Toastmasters Moment” by commenting that Toastmasters has made her much more comfortable providing constructive feedback to others.

Our next meeting is scheduled for April 27th.  Rich will be our Toastmaster and the theme will be “dealbreakers” and we’ll meet in the back conference room.

Madeleine makes opening comments at the meeting

12 members and 2 guests attended today’s meting.  Our theme was “Don’t try this at home,” Madeleine was our Toastmaster.  Madeleine opened the meeting by questioning the value of home improvement parties stating, “no good can come from inviting friends over and giving them beer & power tools.”

Our first speaker was Scott.  Scott spoke about the upcoming club officer elections on May 11th and encouraged all members to consider giving back to the club by trying something new — serving as a club officer.

Steve and Michelle smile at Andrea’s humorous speech

Our second speaker was Andrea.  Andrea compared and contrasted living in Philadelphia vs. Seattle.  Food, weather, and sports fans were her main themes.  She also revealed that Philly sports fans are so fervent that the stadiums have their own courtroom used to settle disputes that arise during the game.  Who knew?!

Johan presented project 6 from the Competent Communicator manual on the subject of home buying.  As a Realtor, she sees the struggles of home buyers in Seattle.  The problem? Not enough houses available for purchase!

Johan presents on the Real Estate market

Our table topics master was Nagisa.  Nagisa asked a broad range of humorous questions.  One example was, “what would you do if you woke up looking like your boss?”  Our table topics winner was Janelle who revealed that she would choose to be a durian fruit as the polarizing attitudes thrust on upon her as a durian would lead to an interesting personality.

Janelle wins best table topics ribbon

Patrick participates in Table Topics

Our evaluators were Jun Lei, Dick, and Nicole.  Our general evaluator was Sonja.  Sonja praised all of the evaluators and specifically recognized Petra as having selected an excellent word of the day.  Nearly everyone incorporated it into their speech, which is always a good sign.  Nicole was voted the best evaluator.

At the conclusion of the meeting, our guests Subhabarata and Michelle both commended the club how much fun the meetings were.  Michelle submitted her membership application!  All right!

At the closing of the meeting, Patrick, Dick, and Andrea shared a “toastmasters moment” — an out-of-club experience where Toastmasters has helped them.  Patrick spoke about how Toastmasters has given him more confidence in presenting mood boards at work.  Andrea pointed out that she listens to speakers at work conferences differently than she had before.  Dick pointed out that Toastmasters has taught him that intelligence is not always correlated with good speaking skills.

Steve signals that time is up!

Our next meeting is April 13th.  Our Toastmaster will be Mary!