Tonight marked a year of new beginnings at Laurel Highlands Toastmasters. We had a great program that was sure to please and, it was an important night as the club held officer inductions for its new officers. Some of us were in person for the meeting, while others were virtual. Those who were inducted at the meeting will get their pins at the next meeting on July 22. I will be in person for that one. I was virtual since I had an appointment before the meeting. No worries though as it was very productive. The agenda had two speakers, table topics, and an important evaluation session as we reviewed the speeches and our General Evaluator did the same for the meeting.
Cosmas, our Vice President Education, gave an ice breaker and talked about having to grow up at an early age. Ryan, our presiding officer, spoke about his plans to lead the Laurel Highlands Club to Smedley Distinguished. Since I served as his evaluator, I’ll highlight a few of those points I picked up from his speech.
He gave praise to our club for having a successful year and finishing Presidents’ Distinguished, but also how to improve from there. He explained how we can get those 25 members to finish Smedley Distinguished. This is something all clubs are trying to achieve, and finding the best way to achieve that goal. At Laurel Highlands, we may hint at going online. Ryan also talked about setting up a WhatsApp for the club (I got the link for it today).
Our Table Topics session also centered around new beginnings, and four of us answered the questions that were given to us. Mine was to “Think of something that was so challenging, yet when you went ahead it turns out to be amazing.” Answering this question, I thought about a time back in high school when my teacher and mentor had a great opportunity for his introverted sophomore student. It was to join the swim team as a manager. That week I took the time to sit on it and I nearly squandered the chance to try something new, but in the eleventh hour I came through. It turned out to be one of the best experiences of my young life so far.
As the person responsible for giving the Word of the Day and trying to keep the word close to the theme of the meeting, the word I chose was Genesis. It wasn’t used very much last night but that’s ok. We concluded our meeting a few minutes before 7pm and then had officer inductions afterwards.
It’s important that meetings run on time, and this one wrapped up right at 7:30. Also, guests should be welcomed and allowed to express why they come visiting and if they will be willing to return in the future. We had two guests in attendance including the president of the newly chartered Country Roads Toastmasters. Terre participated in Table Topics. Prince also attended the meeting, our youngest guest in attendance at 12 years old.
Our next meeting is July 22. I will speak at the first meeting in August on the 12th.
Stylish 🍒 