Another week in the books! Here is your Big “D” Toastmasters meeting summary for April 18, 2019. Note, we did not have a meeting on April 11, due to a Toastmasters contest.
Theme – Aviator
The Toastmaster this week was Big “D” Pilot, Aleluya. His skills as a pilot and a Toastmaster were on full display as the meeting was run with the scheduled precision that is needed of a Toastmaster.
There were quite a few guests who joined us this week, and they were treated to some amazing speeches. You should have been there!
Table Topics
After our usual business meeting, we moved on to Table Topics. Table Topics this week was run by long time member, Elizabeth. With the theme of Aviator, many of the questions were focused in aviation, airplane and other travel related topics. We learned about some fellow members recent trips, and what someone would do if they woke up to find themselves on a plane with no pilot. Quite the entertaining topic and answers!
The Speeches
We had four great speakers this evening. Of course, we have great speakers every evening, so this is not out of the ordinary. We were treated to a mix of speeches by very experienced speakers.
The first speaker this evening was Jeremy. His speech was about neighbors and dogs. Of course he wasn’t implying that his neighbors were dogs, rather his dog seemed to cause concern with one particular neighbor, despite being well behaved. It was an interesting speech which included intrigue and a bit of misunderstanding from one particularly ‘difficult’ neighbor.
Our resident geophysicist gave us a preview of his speech that he will be delivering at an upcoming conference. The speech focused on the fact that when it comes to Water issues in third world countries, it’s there more to it than simply locating a water source. There are many other factors that need to be included into the equation.
Interestingly, our third speech of the evening was that about leadership, just as it was 2 weeks ago. However, this time Zak introduced that idea that while skill and education does play a major factor into the success of people, there is a little bit of luck as well. The speech was very thoughtful, and left members thinking and talking the rest of the night.
The final speaker of the evening, David, was giving a repeat speech. This is part of the new Pathways educational program in Toastmasters called “Evaluation and Feedback.” Here you give a speech, take the feedback given to you in the evaluation portion, and give the speech again. This is to help you learn how to incorporate the feedback and evaluations that are given to you in Toastmasters.
New Members
This week saw Big “D” Toastmasters induct two new members into our group. Please give a warm welcome to Jeremy and Alexander! We look forward to hearing their ice breakers in the next few weeks.