Tuesday, June 23, 2020

Nasturtium Tuesday

Hannagh and Julie's Nasturiums
Are My Picture Of The Day
Today I deliberately overprepared for the SPEAKOUT meeting tonight, on the grounds that me whole purpose in taking leadership roles at Toastmasters was to learn to prepare and execute. I had a short inspirational speech ready for accepting the role, which turned out to be unused as there was no call for remarks. I did manage to squeeze in at the end, "For The Good Of The Order", thanks to him for doing such a good job in a difficult year, which all joined in (and showed the value of FTGOTO especially if the meeting Chair wants to avoid something, even if so innocuous as praise.)
I had also asked a few of the senior members with whom I feel comfortable whether it was customary for SPEAKOUT to give the outgoing Chair something. I want to respect cultural practices. One said they didn't, another said sometimes they did and she'd take care of it - which she did. It's a club where everyone knows what to do.
I am learning to give better feedback (which Toastmasters calls evaluations). One of the hardest thing a speechwriter does is to remove a speech element which is beloved, probably excellent and may have been the seed of the speech - but no longer serves the speech as it has grown. It is painful. It is necessary. It was the heart of my comments on a speech that started off with a pun about senses and census, but developed as a temporal travelogue. I also observed in an icebreaker speech using hats for a structure that one especially funny hat came at the end and quite rightly got a laugh, but left us with itself as the most powerful image. Even though the speaker resumed his mainstream hat, the joke hat overpowered the memory of the early hats of character. This was a visual issue I had not previously considered. I suggested putting the joke hat in the middle where it would be less dominating.
I did FEEST shopping at 10 - I like morning shops better because it leaves the whole day open to catch up on things, while moving slowly because of a general feeling of moving slowly or being easily distracted is a problem. I don't know whether it's the pandemic or feeling lonely or the warmth of summer.
Cherries over an alley

Gatewood B And B Is Magnificent

Another Little Free Library

Another PI Box Little Free Library!



I Think It's Art

No comments: