Tuesday night was our final Laurel Highlands Toastmasters meeting of the year. I’ll explain that a little later. The meeting started at 6:05pm due to some technical issues but we made up for it at the end as Cosmas gave his evaluation of the meeting.
The theme of the meeting was transformation. I pulled triple duty tonight, serving as the joke master, topics master, and timer. My joke centered around the theme of the meeting, as did my Table Topics questions which were about change. Do we see change as good or bad? I remember learning about that in the book, “Who Moved My Cheese?” in my first semester at Slippery Rock in the Fall of 2003. I threw in some great questions at the end, especially the one about Daylight Savings Time which I saved for our guest.
Our husband and wife team from both Laurel Highlands and Western Maryland Toastmasters were our speakers for the evening. Gary gave a presentation on Pathways and his handout was very helpful. Sharon spoke on love languages and emotional intelligence. At the end of the meeting, I made reference to my speech I gave at Greensburg Toastmasters from three weeks ago on my speaking streak. With next Wednesday’s speech at my home club, I’ll have given a speech at least once for ten of the last eleven months. The lone month in that streak when I did not speak was in January. I didn’t bring up the fact that getting up on stage and speaking has also helped elevate my mood, as my summer started off with me feeling discouraged. As I stepped up to the plate and presented my speech, it led to a great Fall season.
Our guest who was in attendance was at the launch meeting for the prospective club, which was held in Morgantown on Friday. A relatively new Toastmaster, she will be taking on the role of presiding officer for the Country Roads Toastmasters club. At last check, the club was at 12 members so it may have grown since then. Clubs need 20 members to charter and so far, things are looking good.
Our June 24 meeting will be an end of year celebration at Bud Murphy’s. It will be a great time for our club to get together and look back on the previous year and all of our achievements. Before that, we will get trained on June 21 at the District 13 Summer Toastmasters Leadership Institute. I’m looking forward to seeing everyone and kicking off my vacation week. This coming Tuesday we will meet up on Zoom and transform our officer roles to our successors. In the plans for October is the Fall Symposium, and there will be more news on that as we move through the Summer. At the end of the meeting, we talked about the importance of applauding our speakers every time they come up to talk as well as a strong handshake. We highlighted this at the end of our last meeting.
But, what a difference two weeks has made in terms of the weather. At our last meeting, it was cool and damp and we were stuck in the 50s. To be fair, I’d have taken mid to upper 30’s with snow flurries (in October or November). Yesterday was partly sunny and in the mid-70’s. Today has been even better, and that motivated me to take my first swim of the year. We opened the pool exactly one month ago and it took me that long to take my first swim, no thanks to the cool, wet weather. Thursday is looking just as promising for me to get back into the water. Friday may bring a few showers with it and start a pattern where we rain chances, but every day won’t be a washout. I’ll be making a Cutie’s visit Friday morning (I’m off Thursday and Friday). I’m trending towards a bagel or even a strawberry eclair crunch cinnamon roll.
This coming Monday is Bible Study at Cutie’s. The weather forecast for early next week is trending toward showers and thunderstorms, but it won’t be a washout. Despite the threat for wet weather, I’m still going list the event as questionable leaning towards probable and it will be a game time decision. Looking ahead, it will also become more humid, which could fuel those afternoon and evening thunderstorms. Air you can wear. Welcome to Summer.
Stylish 🍒 