I really am not a fan of mid-day Toastmaster meetings. The very first club I was ever a member of met at noon every Monday. It suited my needs at the time, but we always felt rushed to get the meeting wrapped up at exactly 1:00. There was no time to socialize after the meeting. Many people left the meeting early so they could get back to work. You figure 15 minutes travel time to and from the meeting site and your allotted one hour lunch time has been eaten up. Every Monday I had to stay longer at work to make up the time. My supervisor was not very happy with me.
My husband and I finally found a club near us that met after work and that made all the difference. I still understand why some people prefer middle-of-the-day meetings, especially meetings that are corporate clubs that meet in the building that they work at. What a convenience! Many people have other obligations after work and mid-day meetings work best for them. Me, I don't have those obligations so I just am not a fan, I am not a fan of early morning meetings either but that's for a totally different reason. Anyway, after-work meetings meet my needs perfectly.
I was looking forward to this trip to Hawaii, probably the only time I will ever go (even though it is on my bucket list) so I took advantage of the virtual trip. Seemed like many people had the same idea. There were 12 visitors at the club from all over: Germany, Nebraska, New York (Dave, who we have seen at 2 other clubs), Alabama and a few others. This is a meeting that meets at noon Hawaii time (which explains my rant above). A perk of this sheltering in is that clubs are now online, so I and many others can visit this mid-day meeting. However, it seems like the rush was still there so it is likely many members are possibly still at work while attending this meeting.
No Ka Oi has a great website with colorful and inviting pictures and testimonial videos of club members. I was really impressed. They have 21 members and are President's Distinguished.
We arrived 15 minutes before the meeting started and there were already four in attendance. They were having a nice little chat with Stephen, from Germany. They did stop and greet us, which I appreciated.
They spoke of having a BBQ at the End of the Year party (outside). Guess they aren't too worried about COVID19. Our club voted to have our End of the Year party virtually this year.
Before the meeting started each visitor introduced themselves and where they were from and with 12 visitors that took awhile. With a one hour time slotted, I was surprised that they had 3 speakers and 2 table topics respondents. But one person did mention that they don't usually have 3 speakers. They did go over time a little, but kudos to them for the attempt. Again, the meeting did feel a bit rushed and they didn't have time to ask visitors for their thoughts afterwards but we did sneak in a picture so I could post it in my blog. There are mid-day meetings all over the world and it works for them. No Ka Oi Toastmasters is President's Distinguished so I can't argue with that. They are doing what meets the needs of their members and that's what it's all about.
Well now I can say during this shut down that I visited Hawaii, which is strange because the majority of people that were "there" weren't from Hawaii at all. However, can I still cross it off my bucket list?
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