331st Meeting: Breaking Boundaries

 

 

Still hung up about the D20TAC 2018 mania in Kuwait, Arjay, the Toastmaster of the Evening, decided to connect the theme with that of the district’s Rise Beyond Boundaries and called it “Breaking Boundaries”. With captured lines from the event, Arjay laced them into the meeting sessions allowing those members who did not make it to Kuwait relived the experience.
 

In the Prepared Speeches, Arjay quoted a line from the keynote speech of the 2013 World Champion Speaker, Pres, “Surround yourselves with people who share the same passion.” What a perfect line to introduce the speakers who undoubtedly share same passion as they delivered beautifully written and compelling speeches. Center Stage was the title of CJ’s 2nd speech for his Innovative Pathway. CJ used the stage as a metaphor of life and concluded his speech saying that you may not be in the center stage, you could be elsewhere (downstage, upstage, backstage) but know that you are still shining! Rashed, the 2nd speaker, delivered his 10th speech from the CC manual entitled, The Boy who Harnessed the Wind, which left everyone in awe of how he presented William Kamkwamba who built the famous windmill in Malawi and the lessons he learned from him. And finally, capping off the session, Joseph sashayed in a pair of red stilettos to deliver a tear-jerking storytelling project entitled, Lifted Up By Red Stilettos, which was about self-acceptance. Those 3 speeches certainly broke the boundaries of club-level speeches!
 

Moving along, Arjay quoted Nisha’s, “We all have a hero in our own homes – and that hero lies within ourselves” to transport everybody to a war zone, the Table Topics (TT), where some brave toastmasters and guests (the heroes) stood up to break the boundaries of Leo’s “Photo Interpretation” challenge. Dr. Farooq, Ganesh, Shyam, Ziad (guest), Lexen (guest) and Mikki (guest), carrying no weapon but only their wits and courage, took us through different journeys with their creative responses about the photos.
 

“Keep throwing the darts until you hit the target” was the line Arjay aptly associated the Evaluation Session with. Jessie, the General Evaluator, facilitated the session. She put an invisible dartboard in the room and the evaluators and role players used their feedback as darts. Nadim, Luis and Kit hit the bullseye with their spot-on evaluation for the prepared speeches and so did the role players (Diana, Anamika and Viji). In the end, Jessie was left with no space on the bullseye that she just commended everyone for another meaningful meeting!
 

Winners:

Best Speaker: CJ Rojas

Best TT Speaker: Mikki Espinosa

Best Evaluator: Luis Caetano