Exuberant about our Peace Speakers Club!

The mission of a Toastmasters club is to provide a mutually supportive and positive learning environment in which every individual member has the opportunity to develop oral communication and leadership skills, which in turn foster self-confidence and personal growth.  

Our president of Peace Speakers, Sam, opens our club meeting by warmly inviting our guests to introduce themselves and share a little about themselves.  Robin, Greg and Jen have all returned after being here for at least one previous visit.  We are exuberant about seeing them again!  (Note:  Our Word of the Day is exuberant, which means uninhibitedly enthusiastic; extremely joyful.)

Our Toastmaster for the day, Eva, opens the educational portion of our meeting, which is about opportunities to practice communication and leadership skills. The Toastmaster introduces a variety of activities, giving members and guests a chance to speak and lead.  

The theme for this meeting is Work and Play, and it will be reflected in the Table Topics prompts soon to come.

Our prepared speaker for the day is Destini, who is on level 2 of her Pathways educational program.  Her speech today is about the leadership skills she's developed in this program and how she's tweaked those skills to better suit others.  At the closing, she'll compare her leadership skills to someone famous.

Destini suggests we've all heard the quote, "Famous leaders are born and not made."  However, in her Community and Economic Class, they believe that leaders are not born but are made through their environment due to one's education, economic disparities or achievements, or their health, upbringing, norms and values.  In contrast, William Shakespeare, who Destini is more in line with, says, "Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them."

Destini identifies with Shakespeare's quote because she wasn't born a leader.  After all, by U.S. standards, she's African American, a female, and is short.  Usually it's white males who are leaders.  She also comes primarily from a single-family home in a small, low-class city, all of which doesn't afford her a leadership edge.

Leadership was thrust upon Destini.  In taking her Pathway training in Toastmasters, coaching was identified as a strength.  Admittedly, she wasn't exuberant about having coaching as her strong point.  She thought it'd be influencer or innovator, but coaching?  That's a sideline role!  But now she realizes that she's played an influential role through coaching, and coaches are the ones who push the teams to the next level. She recalls the highs and lows of her work on the city/county school board. Whereas she's not in the limelight as much as some, it's her influence and decision-making that help people process and move them along to achieve their greatness.

In Pathways, coaching helps people prepare for their future, excel in their full potential and motivates by challenges.  But on the downside, sometimes people who are not ready for change push back.  In Destini's new role as a Young Adult Volunteer Program Associate, she's experienced some of that push back.  Even though she keeps an open mind, some of her suggestions to do or say things differently get some push back.  

Someone who exemplified coaching in a good skill set who also had the listening component down pat is Jesus.  He taught through parables and stories and helped the disciples come to their own conclusions about how things could be uplifted.   Jesus was a good listener, and he taught by coaching, building the foundation for a great religion.

So Pathways suggested that rather than always trying to coach people, it's best to sit down and do more of the listening skill.  Coaches often want to fix the issue instead.  Destini's learning that massaging and coaching are great, but she also needs to become a better listener.

Looking back on Jesus' life and how he was such a great mentor and uplifted so many, Destini feels a little more exuberant about coaching now.  You don't have to be in the spotlight or the main person giving the speech or preparing the way.   She does get to have influences throughout her daily encounters.

Restating the Shakespeare quote from earlier, "Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them,"  Destini concluded by asking, "Which will you decide?"

Our president, Sam, conducts the Table Topics session today, using the theme of Work and Play in her questions.  Members and guests may volunteer to speak for 1-2 minutes, and the whole point is to allow everyone a chance to participate as well as learn to think on their feet.  If volunteers aren't forthcoming, the Table Topicsmaster is supposed to call on members who don't have a role during the meeting.  After all, we're here to practice, and keeping tight-lipped isn't helping anyone!  

What is your favorite form of play...when you're at work?

Onyxe does not differentiate work and play. She plays. The first thing that comes to mind is "gong bath."  The power of the vibration of that gong makes every cell in her body exuberantly vibrate, and it is not only fun but joyous and healing.  On a small cushion, she closes her eyes and centers herself.  The sound of the gong she strikes plays her, too.  And when she plays it in service to others in a group setting, it's transformative.  Everybody has a different experience of it.  It's a fast-track to meditation, resting into the sensation of it as it flows through you.  When you come out of that experience, you are transformed. 

What does this quote mean: "By working hard, you get to play guilt-free. 

Robin was told you should give 100% in whatever you do, but then she read this book called "100 Ways to Relax and Chill Out."  It said to give yourself permission to give around 95%.  Subconsciously, she began doing this so she wouldn't burn herself out.  Then after having her blood drawn, she noticed later that her computer was missing from the backpack she'd set beside the phlebotomist.  She immediately stereotyped him and assumed he'd taken it.  But it turns out her word computer was actually in her office!  She didn't like that she initially blamed him and decided she needed to give 100% from now on.

If given a choice between work and play, what form of work or play would you choose?

Jen believes that time is best spent helping people, whether that be in work or play.  What's important is making a difference in someone's life.  She has a community service project that serves people who are disabled, chronically ill and care-givers.  These groups are often overlooked and often have no resources to get by day-to-day.  Work hard and play hard is her motto in life.  If what you are doing makes you happy and you are adding value, there really is nothing better than that.

How do you balance work and play?  

David says that he doesn't have to think about seeking balance on Saturday because it's all play after working non-stop Monday through Friday.  One of the things he does for balance is if he's traveling, he'll try to find one or two things that are going on in the area rather than going back to his hotel.  In Maryland in the middle of nowhere, he saw an old farmhouse where Sam Mudd lived.  He tries to mix balance in every day, infusing fun and play into his work days.

Time to vote for the best Table Topics speech!

So that concludes Table Topics, where participants read a prompt and speak off the top of their heads.  You learn a lot about people this way, and it's a fun way to stretch yourself and grow your skills.  It does get easier with practice, and some are even exuberant about volunteering!  Btw, Onyxe was the voter's choice today for the best Table Topics speech.  She takes the trophy, which denotes what a star she is!

Kay asks, "How Can We Help You?" during an Education Check-in activity that gets people talking about ways they can become a better Toastmaster member. Three choices are given, and guests are encouraged to use this time in our small groups to ask questions they have about anything Toastmasters related. Later, our president, Sam, shares that she'd like to resume this activity at another meeting in the future.  More opportunities would be beneficial to share our questions, insights and answers in an effort to support and help each other.

David, who is Destini's speech evaluator, shares the opinion that he heard a great speech today.  Her exuberance and enthusiasm was contagious as she took us through her learning path.  At first, however, David disagreed with a few things he heard, but Destini took us around into new insights and assessments that he ended up agreeing with.  She did a fantastic job of drawing us in and outlining what was coming by taking us down her path.  He did note her use of a few space fillers, and from a stretch standpoint, Destini's specific gaze at individuals later in her speech along with her specific content made him feel more engaged and personally drawn in.  Overall, David concluded, it was a fantastic speech.

Perry, today's Timer, reports that most members and guests kept within their time limits, which allows our club to hold our meetings to 1 hour.  The speech was within the 5-7 minute range, and only one Table Topics talk ran over the 2-minute limit.  Furthermore, the speech evaluator was right at the 3-minute limit.  This respects the needs of those in particular who take time out of their work day to participate.  

Onyxe, our Ah Counter/Grammarian, reported that we had 55 space fillers!  WOW!  She's on it and isn't letting the ahs and ums slip by her ears.  That lets us know that more of us need to tackle this issue head-on!

The Word of the Day, exuberant, was used 6 times.  We can thank Onyxe for choosing this word and encouraging us to insert it into our talks today.

Sam, our president, closes our meeting with a quote from Dolly Parton, "Never get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life."  It's a good motto for keeping balance between Work and Play, today's theme for our meeting.  So go out and be exuberant about creating a life you want to live!

Many members of our Peace Speakers club pose for an impromptu picture at the end of our meeting.  Others are either out on vacations, tending to family concerns or work-related issues.  We're a gentle, thoughtful group of people all wanting to push ourselves out of our comfort zones to enhance our communication and leadership skills.  Until I posted this shot, I'd forgotten how much taller I am than most, but they make up for height in personality, purpose and zeal.  It's good to be a Peace Speaker!

On that note, any visitor to this blog is warmly invited to join us on an upcoming Wednesday.  You get to decide if we're a good fit.  Two of the people pictured above joined our club today, and we couldn't be more exuberant about Robin and Jen coming onboard!

OUR REMAINING 2019 MEETINGS:

Wed., Sept. 18 - Conference Room B

Wed., Oct. 2 - Conference Room 5000
Wed., Oct. 16- Conference Room B

Wed.,  Nov. 6 - Conference Room B

Wed., Nov. 20 - Conference Room 5000

Wed., Dec. 4 - Room 5000

Wed., Dec. 20 - Conference Room B

(Our holiday celebration...not a regular meeting)

Peace Speakers Toastmasters Club

1st and 3rd Wednesdays (usually)

1:00 - 2:00 p.m.

100 Witherspoon Street

Downtown Louisville, KY

Respectfully submitted,

Kay Chambers

Past President and Blogger for Peace Speakers