I arrived at the North Hills Toastmasters meeting around 6:45. Before that I did a little shopping at Kohl’s and Target and this little bookstore in McCandless Crossing (not really). I was greeted by the president of the North Hills chapter, Karl Matos, and a few other longtime members (Linda and Beverly). Dan Hurley remembered me from many of our other District events. Karl went over the theme for the meeting and had his officer meeting. It looks like he has a great slate of officers.
As Toastmaster, Rick Ley provided some great tips for these virtual meetings. He then introduced his role players for tonight’s meeting. The word of the day was Gloaming. Amir and Indra would serve as Topicsmaster and General Evaluator, respectively. We had three speakers on the agenda tonight.
Mike Hess talked about human trafficking and provided some alarming statistics. I learned tonight that Pittsburgh is #10 in the country in human trafficking. The call for action was to take 21 minutes a day to study this issue. Susan Meyer talked about the difference between being an introvert and extrovert. Both have interesting traits. After listening to her speech, I can say that I happily identify as an introvert. Joann Walk did a speech fromg the Better Speaker Series. She gave a thorough and detailed explanation of the roles and responsibilities of club officers and provided great examples. She closed with a great quote by former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee.
Next up was Indra serving as General Evaluator. He’s looking for a couple of books to read this summer. Karl evaluated Mike’s speech. He commended Mike’s call for action and suggested he improve his vocal variety to match his passion. Beverly evaluated Susan’s speech on introvert vs. extrovert. How does being an introvert affect your time management was the question she had. Mike Bummer evaluated Joann’s speech. Suggestions included balancing audio with video. She was super thorough and well invested in the topic. He included a quote by Elon Musk to counter hers by Huckabee.
Amir served as the Table Topics Master. He provided us with a great list of summer reading. A lot of good responses from our members and guests. I gave my take on The Audacity of Hope and other books I’ve read. Rick then called on his role players to give their reports. Tonight’s speakers were motivational from Mike’s speech on preventing human trafficking to Susan’s speech on introverts and extroverts. I was very polished as well.
I was impressed with tonight’s meeting and all the role players did an excellent job with their jobs. Chad Hudson closed out the meeting with some good humor. Karl adjourned the meeting at 9pm exactly.
I’ll close off the blog by encouraging you all to live your best life. Thanks Karl and Susan for the invite. I’ll be back soon.
Stylish 🍒 