TRTMC Meeting #80
2020/03/21
GE (General Evaluater) : Daniel Ndevu
GE’s Report:
On Saturday, March 21st, we held our 80th Tokyo Rainbow Toastmasters club meeting — and our
1st online meeting!
Due to the outbreak of the coronavirus and the social distancing recommendations administered by the
government, we decided that we would rise to the challenge and hold our club meeting
via videoconference,
using the online platform, Zoom. Our Toastmaster of the Evening, TpS. did a wonderful job of organizing
everyone in the virtual room and keeping us on schedule.
Our club president, Toastmaster Ts, introduced the Word of the Evening: “resilience.” It was an especially
apt word choice for the evening, given that it spoke to the resilient nature of our club during the coronavirus
pandemic. But more than that, it also spoke to the resilience that has led the LGBTQI+ community through
many of our own struggles over the decades.
It was soon time for our LGBT lecture, this evening presented for the first time by Toastmaster Hs.
The topic
was ‘International Women’s Day,’ with a special focus on what men and allies can do to support the cause
for women’s rights and gender equality. It was informative and interesting.
We had a packed night with three speeches, presented by Toastmasters R, F and U. It was certainly a
different experience hearing their speeches over the web, but the speakers still managed to captivate the
audience with effective pauses and vocal tonalities.
Our TableTopics section was presented by Toastmaster H on the topic of ‘LGBTQ parenting.’
It was a
welcomed topic and our impromptu speakers offered poignant and thought-provoking insights.
One of the best outcomes of our 80th meeting online is that it was completely paperless—which is great for
the environment! There were many new adjustments that we had to make, too, such as the new, electronic
voting procedure, but everything went on without a hitch, thanks to the wonderful preparation by our
amazing club officers!
We all felt that we conquered our challenge successfully and, in doing so, proved our resilience—as a club
and as a community.
Written by T