Who Am I? A Young Man's Journey and Zoomland: The Tour - a varied day at Early Birds Toastmasters!

 

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ear Members, Guests and Friends,



TM Pam – who moved to Orlando in the blink of an eye- launched us off with the colors of the rainbow… We learned that…

• TM Astrid loves RED, to her it symbolizes To Dare, so she’s sporting a RED car and contradicts naysayers by driving like a turtle to avoid traffic tickets, while she posts DARE TO BE ME affirmations on every flat surface she can find in her environs. She Won Best Table Topics Award.
• I, your perennial Recap Writer, mused about the fact that orange is a happy summer color, especially when eating a Navel orange or buying a Florida license plate. Not so much when wearing an orange jumpsuit at the state penitentiary.
• TM Kip is convinced that we currently live trapped in yellow silos – for lack of a submarine – and seeks out people clever enough -in his understanding- to agree with him on everything, including the cacophony found in news outlets.
• TM Aleta is a professed gardener and totally believes that GREEN is the color of immortality and money. She has lovingly tended to her immortal garden. In an intelligent aside, she remarked that she not interested in the political implications of green energy and the future.
• As Van Gogh famously said, without BLUE there is no YELLOW, and being that TM Jose is in the hair care business, he declared that blue is the only color that will remove that pesky yellow hair color we all wear at times. He also pondered the fact that due to Van Gogh’s one-ear situation, he would not have been able to hold up a face mask during the quarantine, would have ended up in an orange jumpsuit with an ankle bracelet trapped in a yellow silo with a cacophony of voices in his head.
• TM Marie thinks of VIOLET as shrinking violets (aka shy people), but in Toastmasters we call become EXPANSIVE VIOLETS by DARING to be while wearing red in our yellow silos.

Next, we moved on to prepared speeches. What a treat we had today!

• TM Mildred delighted us with her Icebreaker “Who Am I?”. A highly-educated, single parent for 30 years, she fondly recalled her first meeting at EarlyBirds, all those many years ago, where she was the only pepper, and where she thrived! Relocated to Orlando in 2012 (is Orlando becoming the new EarlyBird virtual headquarters?), Zoom has made it possible for her to reconnect with us. She Won Most Improved Speaker Award.
• TM Tom’s storytelling skills shone today and he told us the story of a powerful wolf in wolf’s clothing who tried to take Tom’s lamb away. As a courageous shepard, Tom let the wolf know,. loud and clear, that the lady is NOT a tramp! Way to go, TM Tom!
• TM Jim G. inspired us to use Zoom and gave us some very helpful tips and practical ideas to make the best out of this technology that has been thrust upon us. Boomer Zoomers, that’s who we are! (notwithstanding the GenerationXers and Millenials in the room). He Won Best Speaker Award.

As for evaluations….

• TM Chris pointed out that TM Mildred’s icebreaker was very inspirational to all of us. Mildred has already improved various aspects of Zoom technology to be at camera level and suggested she work on her vocal variety and looking more closely at us through the camera. She Won Best Evaluator Award.
• Visiting TM Sarah praised TM Tom for a memorable storytelling speech with descriptive phrases which will remain in our minds long after today’s meeting.
• TM Jeff commended TM Jim G. for his technology expertise and his (and TM Chris’s) generosity in sharing their knowledge with us. Perhaps integrating a story into it would make it more experiential – sort of Zoomeriential.

The Word of the Day was



CACOPHONY, noun



Random, wild sounds that make little or no sense.



Ex.: The committee in my head is loud and produces a great deal of cacophony.



We have a new slate of officers which will be inducted on July 1, 2020:



President TM Jeff R

VP Education DTM Kip B

Treasurer DTM Jim D

Secretary TM Tom

VP Membership DTM Mary Helen D.

VP Public Relations TM Joe G.

Sargeant-at-Arms TM Jim G.



Thank you to the outgoing officers for our participation in making EarlyBirds a fun and interesting club.

Welcome to the new officers and congratulations!



I apologize for not having copied the link to the UTube recording. Totally slipped by the cacophony in my head….



See you next week!



Ana I.

Outgoing Sargeant-at-Arms