Tuesday was our first Laurel Highlands Toastmasters meeting of the year. En route to Connellsville, I wasn’t sure how the meeting was going to go. New to FreeToastHost, I didn’t have an agenda prepared. One reason could be that I am used to doing things different at Greensburg. As I walked in the room, I saw our founding member and tech officer hard at work getting the room set up. I explained my predicament to both Ryan and Nick, our two engineers in the room. Ryan encouraged me to RIOT (Relax, It’s Only Toastmasters). We had a guest at our meeting, TJ. While waiting for our president, we got to know our guest and the line of work he’s involved in. We also introduced him to Toastmasters and explained the meeting process.
As our Toastmaster prepared the agenda for the meeting, we had a few openings. We had a slot for a speaker as one of our members wasn’t able to make it that night. Our guest stepped in and gave his ice breaker speech that night. This is the first time that’s happened in the club (or any club I’ve been a part of). We learned a lot about our guest’s career in real estate and how he splits time between living in Uniontown and Pittsburgh. Later in the meeting, TJ officially joined our club as a member. We welcomed him with open arms. Our two speeches were diverse. One from our guest who took QA for us to know him better. The other from our founding member, President and new District 219 Director. She had us write on a 3 x 5 note card the three things that we’re good at. One I included was doing math. It’s a subject that isn’t popular with most students, but in school it was one of my strong suits. Duolingo has helped refresh my memory when it comes to this subject that I excelled at in the past. Nick provided us with a different take on Table Topics. With the help of his computer, our vice president membership listed three questions for the members to answer. Of course, we could use our own question and that’s what I did.
Why should you join Toastmasters?
Cosmas gave his word, or phrase, of the day. He encouraged us to Speak Up. I think District 13 speaking legend Charlie Wilson had that phrase on a license plate.
Towards the end of the meeting, our President instilled mentors for the new officers to help them do their roles effectively. I have three Vice Presidents of Education to turn to. Primarily, it’ll be Cosmas as he recently held the role. In addition, I’ll also turn to Ryan and Gary who have also done the role. Gary is serving as Treasurer for both of his clubs, just like I’m doing as Vice President Education for both of my clubs. Ryan helped clear things up for me and showed me how to edit the agenda. I’m confident everybody got it, as it was sent at 7:35 yesterday morning. I’m all set to edit the agenda for August 11 and other meetings going forward.
So, a potential disaster turned into a great night in Connellsville. That Chernobyl turned Three Mile Island in my mind was nothing to worry about. I’m grateful that everyone understood and having a good tech guy really helped along the way. All of us are now set and we have our goals in place for the new Toastmasters year. I gave my treasurer what he needs for the year, so he’s set too.
I was on my way by 8pm to get ready for another night at the Eagle.
Stylish 🍒 