Meeting Minutes – 04.16.2020

Hi Everyone,

It was a fun meeting last night with the members of Silicon Speech, once again, showing their gumption and going the extra mile to improve their online communication skills. It’s great to escape the confines of self-isolation once a week and join the group which, these days, is only a click away.

Alex Schams was our Toastmaster and he did an excellent job facilitating the online activity which included two speeches, two evaluations and Table Topics.

Dustin Guay was up first with the follow-up speech in the Pathways, Evaluations and Feedback assignment. Dustin gave us a life lesson in the importance of perseverance set in the surreal setting of the Mojave Desert. The centerpiece of the speech is an epic, nighttime battle between a scorpion and a werewolf mouse. It was nature night at the WWE! I won’t tell you who won but (a hint here) it was the one who fearlessly persevered.

Karan Bavandi was up next with his speech about the duel between capitalism and socialism but more importantly how we can use our current health crises to reevaluate our society and come back, bigger, stronger, more just and more inclusive when all of this is behind us. A great and timely topic well delivered.

Speeches were followed by insightful, constructive evaluations by Marina Romanova and yours truly then it was Table Topics with Armando Yee! Once again, the current quarantine made its way into the conversation. Everyone, including our guests, talked about things like their favorite quarantine book (Planet of the Apes), what they’ll do with their stimulus check (buy everybody chocolate) and how great it would be to have a giant billboard on Sunset that said, Don’t Quit, Just Do It! And, it was agreed, we’re all missing hugs at this point.

Speaking of guests, a special shout out to the guests who joined us last night, Lisa Bono, Urja Nadibail and Ron Roman. It was great having you be part of the group and we hope you’ll join us again.