It was a beautiful night at The Cottage last night (I love this time of year) and the Leadership Team took the opportunity to meet outside in the courtyard prior to our club meeting to discuss how we can improve our club in the upcoming term. Lots of good ideas came forth and we’ll be introducing a few in the weeks to come. Stay tuned!
The unflappable Shar McBee returned to the club to be our Toastmaster after being out for a few weeks. It’s always great to have Shar in the house and she gave us a terrific thought for the day from one of her favorite books, one of her own, To Lead is to Serve which I would highly recommend. Here’s the quote:
“People feel happiest when they feel they belong.”
As Grammarian, it was one of my favorite lines of the night although there were others.
“I’ve learned the more effort and intention you put into every little thing, the more joy you reap out of those things” – Ashton Jajonie
(Actually sung) “When you feel bad and you want to roar, take a deep breath and count to four” – Kenzii Rose
“Now, we’re going into the evaluation portion of our meeting, I just want to remind you to…be nice” – Shar McBee
Our newest member, Ashton Jajonie was up first with a terrific, well written, well delivered Ice Breaker speech. He took us through what he has learned so far as a human being which served not only as a great way to get to know more about Ashton but also a reminder that life is always a work in progress.
Then, Kenzii Graves took to the stage to deliver a speech from the Pathways project, Leading in Difficult Situations. Since Kenzii is involved in early childhood education (ECE), it’s a subject with which she’s quite familiar. She used a recent example of dealing with a young student on the spectrum having a very bad day. Kenzii diffused the difficult situation by spending a few quiet moments with him at eye level and employing some time-tested breathing techniques. Good advice for anyone dealing with anybody at any age. Now, all together now, breath in for a count of four…
Our TTM was Lora Larson-Miller and she did a masterful job listening very carefully to the content of both speeches and incorporating what she learned into great questions for the TT segment of the meeting. This format allows us to expand on the topics introduced and gives speakers even more feedback. If you couldn’t attend last night or would like to simply review your brilliant performance, here’s the link to the video which, by the way, was started on time thanks to a reminder from Karan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mE86SmQLH4
You can now review all your brilliant performances in previous meetings! Check out all our meeting videos (and those meeting photos that look like we’re having so much fun) right here: https://siliconspeech.org/meeting-videos/
Here’s the line-up for our next, online-only meeting, on Thursday, June 29th at 6:30 PM. If you weren’t with us last night, be sure to read through to see if you were “volunteered” for a role in your absence. If your name is Ashton, Karan or Shaun please send your intro including what you hope to accomplish with your speech and why (if you’re a speaker) to our Toastmaster, Kenzi at kenzii.rose@gmail.com If your name is Kenzii, send your intro to me at steveevans123@gmail.com
Toastmaster – Kenzii Graves
Table Topics Master – Ashton Jajonie
Speaker #1 – Karan Bavandi – TBD
Speaker #2 – Shaun Shue – TBD
Chief Evaluator – Kenzii Graves
Evaluator #1 – Shar McBee
Evaluator #2 – Steve Evans
Timer – Jianbin Gong
Grammarian – David Molloy
Ah Counter – TBD
Thought for the Day – Kenzii Graves
Joke Master – Steve Evans