Member Spotlight Debut

This week, we're debuting a new component of our blog called Member Spotlight. Certain weeks throughout the year, we're going to be featuring a member of our club and learning about why they joined Toastmasters and what they've gotten and hope to get out of the organization.

Our Member Spotlight this week is Susann Swan. Susann joined Toastmasters briefly in the Mid 90's because at that time she was interested in becoming a Franklin Quest Trainer and thought Toastmasters could help with that pursuit. 20 years later, after retiring and moving to Hendersonville, she found her way back to the organization. One of Susann's interests in retirement is Nameology, which is the science of what our names can teach us about ourselves. She hopes Toastmasters will help her with her presentation skills as she plans to give presentations on this topic for civic groups and organizations around town.

We're glad you found your way to Four Seasons Toastmasters, Susann!

This week, Karla led our meeting which was themed Halloween. Our word of the day was Drole, another term for funny. Thanks to Betty for an amusing joke to start our meeting involving a prescription for arsenic and murder.

Stan was our first speaker who gave a compelling speech on the hot issue of Confederate statues. Stan used a PowerPoint presentation for his speech and highlighted various statues around the country and several incidents of them being taken down. He emphasized that history is not something we can change, but it is something we can learn from. He said, "We cannot determine the history makers, but we can decide on the history markers."

Hoyt was our second speaker, and his speech was titled "Crisis Management." This was a project where he was to address the audience after a crisis as if they were the board of directors and he was in charge of public relations. The project was to give a speech about the crisis and then allow a few minutes for questions and answers. The company he chose was an amusement park company, and the crisis he chose was an accident with the carousel. 

Stan and Hoyt were later evaluated by Don E and Nathan respectively. 

Our table topics were cut short due to longer than normal speeches, but we were still able to hear from three of our members: Judy, Stanley, and Sally. Our Table Topic Master, Jeanne, had them speak on ghost stories, trick or treating, and Halloween parties.

Thanks to our General Evaluator, Melinda, who gave us an overview of the meeting, and for our Eyes and Ears team:  Wordmaster - Judy; Timer - Don 1; Ah Counter - Michael; Grammarian - Margaret

Our humorous speech contest was to held Saturday at Interfaith Ministries starting at 10am. It's located at 310 Freeman St. which is right behind KFC on Four Seasons Blvd. Invite a friend if you can, this is a great outreach opportunity for community members to get a snapshot of what we do. Also, we are planning on doing a small donation of money and household items for Interfaith Ministries as a Thank You for letting us use their space. We'll hear more about that at next week's meeting.

In Attendance: Sally, Melinda, Stan, Jeanne, Nathan, Hoyt, Judy, Don E, Betty, Brad, Michael, Stanley, Don 1, Suzanne, Margaret

Here's our fearless leader, Judy Groff, sounding out with your usual passion.  Below is club reporter and photographer, the one who'll usually be left out of photos.