NEA Toastmasters Jonesboro, Arkansas

6/30/20

 

We’re having a summer party!!

 

Or that’s how it felt coming into this club.  We arrived online and there were already members dressed in summer attire.  Their backgrounds were beaches and water scenes.  They had leis around their necks, and were decked out in  Hawaiian shirts and big beach hats.  They told us is it was a special meeting.  A summer themed meeting.  Steve and I quickly stopped our video and ran to get our own leis and beach type props.  WE ARE  GOING TO A PARTY! We needed to fit in with this summer crowd.  By then, many more members had logged on and they were laughing, smiling and, well... having a party!  Each person was greeted by name as they arrived. This was the most festive group I have been to yet online.

 

NEA has 20 members and is President's Distinguished and from their enthusiasm I can see why.  They are a fairly new club, chartering in 2014 but they have made a big splash, jumping into the Pathways Educational program with both feet. They have 28 awards on record.  Wow!  Now that’s impressive.  So as fun as today’s meeting is, they take their learning seriously.

 

They said this was their very first themed meeting online but have decided to have themed meetings every 4^th Tuesday of the month for the rest of the year.  Lacey (incoming Area Director) and George were two we had met before at Blue Nile Toastmasters.  In my opinion, this first themed meeting was a success.

 

Due to this being a special meeting, they did away with any reports at the end.  No grammarian, no Ah counter, no timer, no evaluations and no general evaluator for this meeting.  Only speeches and table topics.  Everyone seemed to have a great time trying to work in the Word of the Day, "coconut." There were four summer-themed speeches 3-5 minutes and four Table Topics questions along the same line.  Two of the speeches were regular speeches, one reveled in the joys of summer and the other the travails.  The other two speeches were different.  One was a dual poem recitation with another member and the other speech, a member recited an original free verse on why he hates summer.  I like poetry so I found it very enjoyable.

 

I really enjoyed being at the meeting.  If there was any low spot or lull,  I might say during Table Topics don’t ask for volunteers. It was like the teacher in  “Ferris Bueller's Day Off” repeating, “Bueller, Bueller”. Only the Table Topics master was saying “Any volunteers? Any volunteers? Any volunteers?”  Just call on someone!  He had already said the response could be anything you want to talk about so it shouldn’t be that hard.  One of the members that volunteered was one that had already spoken.  But that’s what happens when you ask for volunteers. 

 

To keep the meeting lively and fun, during the middle of the meeting they had a mini-dance session. They played the song “Surfing USA” by the Beach Boys and we enjoyed a few minutes of dancing. This club definitely gets the award for most creative meeting.

 

All in all, it was a fun meeting!  This meeting even gives me some ideas that I may use in my club.  Thanks for the laughter and smiles NEA Toastmasters! You gave me something we could all use at this time.