It was a full agenda Tuesday night at Laurel Highlands Toastmasters. Three speakers set to give their presentations. In addition, a tuneup for our evaluation contest as he hopes to bring home the gold Saturday. We had six in attendance at Connellsville, and three online. Our theme was Spring Cleaning, and our word of the day was growth. Our invocation talked about what it means to grow. In Toastmasters, we go to meetings to grow as speakers and as leaders. The feedback is constructive, and helps us in our future presentations.
One of the suggestions from our general evaluator was to have the Club President do his role first if he’s invocator or wordmaster.
We began our trio of speeches with a project from our Vice President Education on what it means to serve beyond our club. Using presentation software, he discussed how we can participate in speech contests. He highlighted the roles, including that of the contestant. He also hit on leadership opportunities. His take home questions were, will we serve the club in the new Toastmasters year. Also, would we be attending upcoming events that represent Laurel Highlands?
I wrapped up Level 4 in my Presentation Mastery path with the main project on “Managing A Difficult Auidence”. While my speech was serious-sounding as it centered on the COVID-19 pandemic, it erred on the side of humor as well. The suggestions for improvement included me being a little more commanding and taking more control of the meeting.
Our last speech from our Sergeant at Arms talked about “The Perspectives of Others”. It was an informative speech teaching to look at things differently and have a heart for others, as well as to be accepting. Overall it was a good night for speeches and that led into a good Table Topics session that tied around the theme of the meeting. I didn’t take part in it, but I’ll talk about my own Spring cleaning.
Despite the up-and-down March we’ve had weatherwise, I’ve been able to crawl out from the doldrums. Those being brought on by the extreme cold of January. Building off of a more active February, I’ve stayed the course and have a regular gym routine going for me now. With the end of March being five years since my health scare, I’m finally starting to take charge of my life.
Our evaluators were giving their initial feedback on a speech, and preparing for a competition. I’ve been at meetings where a member serves dual roles (like Toastmaster and General Evaluator) and when they evaluate two speeches. Our club president is practicing so he can be ready to compete on Saturday, and I believe that’s he more than ready. All speech evaluations were within time and ranged from 3 to 3 ½ minutes. Not too shabby.
We wrapped up the meeting on time and we’ll see each other again on Saturday.
Our next three meetings are April 14 and 28, and May 12. I’m looking at giving a speech at that May meeting leading up to Spring Conference.
Stylish 🍒 