It was the night… that almost wasn’t. The plans on this Tuesday of my vacation week included a visit to the South Hills Toastmasters Club. Before I decided to head to Canonsburg, I almost made the decision to stay at home and attend online.
I’m glad I made the effort to drive to Canon-McMillan High School and attend the meeting, though. I thoroughly enjoyed myself. As the title states, this was my first time attending a Toastmasters meeting at a high school. I’ve attended meetings at courthouses, churches, restaurants, and even hospitals. But never at a high school.
The energy that I built up at Tuesday night’s meeting took a while to get going. I’m used to moving around at work overnight and closing my move ring. I didn’t go to the gym like I usually do nor did I go for a morning walk. I have all the time in the world this week. Seriously, why don’t I take 30 minutes to walk around Lincoln Heights? Boom. Exercise ring closed.
Once I took my afternoon nap and got myself ready, I was off on my adventure. I arrived early after treating myself to Sheetz five minutes up the road on Washington Road. That’s the main road between Washington and Mount Lebanon. With some time to kill, I walked around the Canon McMillan campus and noticed the parking spots decorated for those seniors who were graduating. A kind gesture for those who are moving on to their next endeavor.
I walked into the room around 6:45pm, just as the sergeant at arms was setting up. The Vice President of Education (also the District Club Growth Director) came up with a Word of the Day (Catalyst) and an anti-word (Leadership). There was going to be a backwards meeting, but that may have created confusion for guests.
We had a full agenda, and it was fun working around that anti-word. Some speakers had to use it though. That practice of not using the anti-word can come in handy in the real world. I stepped in as a speech evaluator and gave feedback on a speech centered around body language. I picked up some power moves along the way and practiced a few of those today as I left the gym. Thus, I made up for Tuesday’s lack of moving around. We also heard an ice breaker from one of our guests, and an amazing presentation from the past president of the club.
A lot of good humor went around at the meeting last night. It was kind of neat to see the DTMs all sitting close to each other too.
I’ll be returning to Laurel Highlands on the 23rd for their final meeting of the Toastmasters year. I’ll plan the agenda for the July 14th meeting soon after. That Thursday (June 25th), I’ll pay an online visit to the Western Maryland Toastmasters club as they wrap up their Smedley Distinguished year.
Congrats to South Hills Toastmasters on achieving Smedley Distinguished as well.
Stylish 🍒 