Sept 11, 2017
by Dr. Eric Tangumonkem | | Permalink
We had another exciting, educational and enriching meeting this Monday. Faruq opened the meeting leading the recital of our Toastmasters club mission, “We provide a supportive and positive learning experience in which members are empowered to develop communication and leadership skills, resulting in greater self-confidence and personal growth.” This is a ritual that is done every week, and is always a reminder of the reason we get together each Monday evening.
This Monday was 9/11, and the president of our club Ven Kurvari asked us to observe a moment of silence to honor those who died on that fateful day.
After this sobering moment, Valerie Harris, our Toastmaster of the day, lifted the mood by focusing on the theme of the day, heroism. According to her being a hero does not necessarily require moving a mountain or achieving something great. Heros include the police, firefighters and even civilians that have been involved in battling the effects of the recent hurricanes that have afflicted the Gulf coast cities of the United States of America.
Emily Stohl, the first speaker this week, presented an interesting speech on how ice, rain, snow and other precipitation form. She concluded, “ Next time you are outside, and a rain drop falls on your head remember it has traveled thousands of miles to reach you.”
Ravi Sannidhanam’s speech was a history lesson on the thousands of years behind the swastika symbol. A symbol that had been used for thousands of years by many people on different continents to represent peace, prosperity, abundance, and success. Unfortunately, Hitler and the Nazis took over the Swastika and made it notorious. This symbol of peace has become a symbol of hate, mass murder, and pure evil and it has not been able to shake itself off.
We were uplifted out of this doom and gloom of the sordid history of the Swastika by Mickey Bennett whose speech was about giving an award and during the course of the speech he gave the Rookie of the year award to Lekshmi Krishnan and the Toastmaster of the year to Valerie Harris. He gave an opportunity to the audience to provide testimonies.
The meeting shifted gears into our table topics, to practice our impromptu speaking skills. This segment of the meeting was led by Lekshmi, and she posed well crafted questions to different members of the audience. We were thrilled by the visit of one of the members’ parents all the way from India, and he was called upon to tell us about is his greatest hero. The best definition of a hero was from one of the table topics participants, Denis said, “ A hero is someone who gives all they have to do what they have to do.”
We were tested on attentiveness during the meeting by the listening master and some of the questions threw us off. The toastmaster of the day concluded the meeting on a high note by emphasizing that."Everybody can be a hero, and you do not need to do a big thing in order to be a hero." As is our tradition, the winners of the day were announced by the vote counter, Amit Gupta. Best Helper Dean, Table topics Denis, Best evaluator Uthara, Spark plug Mickey, Best of the big three Valerie and the best speaker Emily Stohl.
Theme of the Day : Heroism
Word of the Day : Valiant
Best of 6 Winners
Best Speaker : Emily Stohl, TM
Best Evaluator : Uthara Krishnappa, TM
Spark Plug : Mickey Bennett, DTM
Best of Big 3 : Valerie Harris, CC, CL
Table Topics Speaker : Dennis
Five Star Helper : Dean Emmert, ACS, CL
