Sarah served as Toastmaster while providing some great tips on how to stay calm and relax. There were 8 Members in attendance. The meeting started 2 minutes late and ended 20 minutes early.

Dues are due by 4/30 and can be submitted online here or by check and mailed to Angela.

Sarah attended the Division B virtual speech contest on Friday and shared with the group some of her takeaways. She was thoroughly impressed with some of the speakers in our area.

Scott’s speaking tip was to try doing a screen share with Zoom during one of your speeches.

Scott also reminded the group that these questions are available for use as Table Topics Master should you get stumped on what to ask. There will also be a permanent link to them under the “Role Checklists”.

Traci was our Word of The Day Master with “Sanguine” as her choice. It means optimistic or positive, especially in an apparently bad or difficult situation. It was used 8 times by the group!

Sarah suggested creating a space in your home to act as a “calming corner”. She shared her own list of things that she uses to help cultivate a calming state. She also said calling an old friend is a great way to relieve tension. You can check out her gardening live stream on Facebook for extra calming vibes. She also spoke about “kintsugi” – the Japanese art of mending broken cookery. Check out an article here and cool video on it below:

Tony gave a speech titled “Learning from Everyone,” which highlighted how we can learn from imperfect leadership. Most of the time we default to only learn from good leaders. In addition, pay attention to other peoples mistakes as leaders. If you learn from those mistakes then you can prevent yourself from making the same ones. He specifically highlighted respect and balance as qualities of a good leader. Respect everyone on the team, stay even tempered and balance work and life.

George was our Table Topics Master pulling inspiration from politics. He asked the group to imagine they were a politician and had to advocate a particular policy initiative that they would introduce should they be elected. Some were more realistic than others:

  • Sunny was against kids throwing tantrums. She would offer educational programs for the parents and the kids. 2 phases of training to help eliminate tantrums.
  • Steve was against martians. Yes, aliens from Mars!
  • Traci was asked about bad footwear, but pivoted and talked about poison ivy. She’s currently covered in it!
  • Robert was asked about being on time.
  • Sarah’s national issue was free coffee for everyone. She won (again!)

Traci encouraged the group to sign up for more than one role if spots are still unfilled last minute.

Sunny will serve as Toastmaster next week. Yes we are meeting even though it is the day after Easter. Robert will be Toastmaster for his first time on 4/20.