Optimistic! ! ! Theme with Post of Upcoming Speaker from India

Karen Alexander was Toastmaster with the "Optimistic" theme.  Every Toastmaster goes into a meeting hopeful there will be some truths revealed, some humor shared, some interaction made.  Well, this meeting all these elements overflowing, and more.

As Joke Master, Don Glovan shared a number of jokes.  Stan Coss presented the word buoy and buoyant and buoyancy and got seven members to incorporate the optimistic word.

Ray Daley was the first speaker and used the title, "What is Education, Anyway?"  In the introduction from Karen, it was explained that Ray's daughter, Caitlin, was to have a big graduation ceremony from Florida State University on this very day, an event cancelled by the COVID-19 pandemic.  The speech contained  the thoughts Ray had told his daughter before she'd gone off to college four years prior, with three boxes of success he hoped she'd check off: 1) getting a good education not marked by grades but interaction with classmates and the professor, not just reading the text but gleaning the wisdom, yearning to learn; 2) getting involved in campus activities, the club and community opportunities to practice leadership; 3) having fun, while embracing differences and broadening understanding.  Ray concluded by saying a fourth box she was certain to check off, as that was the unwavering support of her parents.  Jeanne Resen was Ray's evaluator.

Don Groff was the second speaker and gave a tribute to his former coach, principal, and mentor: George W. Wingfield, A Reidsville Legend.   Don's great enthusiasm was evident from the get-go, as in recounting as a second grader his wayward football breaking a window at school.  He'd had to contributed his 25 cents allowance each week to Coach Wingfield until the window was paid off.  He returned to  Principal Wingfield seven years later as a proud Reidsville Red Raider with an undefeated football season to get the good sportsmanship award.    It was Wingfield that advised him to become a teacher and principal        Don's evaluator was Melinda Lowrance.

Judy Groff prompted five members with buoyance on table topics.  Each was to respond with optimism on some aspect of facing the COVID-19 difficulty.

The Eyes and Ears Team gave its reports:  Stan Coss as grammarian, Sally Jones as ah-counter, and Don Glovan as timekeeper.  Betty McCallister served as General and Table Topics Evaluator.

The Chat feature of Zoom on the right hand side below you can see brought into full play.

Members attending were the following: Karen Alexander, Stan Coss,  Ray Daley, Brad Dienst, Don Glovan,  Hoyt Griffith, Don Groff, Judy Groff,  Sally Jones,  Melinda Lowrance, Betty McCallister, , Jeanne Resen,  and Susann Swan.  Mark Burnette was a guest.

This is  Prithiviraj Saminathan.  You can call him Raj, as in Rog (short for Roger).  He is in computer tech support by trade and president of a Toastmaster club in Bangalore, India.  He will be giving an inspirational speech from level three of the Pathways Presentation Mastery by Zoom for our club on May 8.  He does book reviews on his Youtube channel as a hobby:   https://www.youtube.com/c/prithivirajsaminathan   .    He has given this speech on Zoom for 15 clubs in India and two in Sri Lanka and two in the U.S.  He is constantly revising as he gets feedback from multiple audiences.