On January 12, 2021, Mahi Saraf, Area A4 Director, installed our new officers. Mahi, waited patiently to perform her duties while we struggled with some technical difficulties which Phil patiently walked us through and helped us solve. To avoid technical difficulties and help ensure a smooth meeting experience, follow these guidelines outlined in our Meetng Checklist: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1H3mtULUti6IBabrwInG0hI25JFJFLQJ63QMvqNigf7U/edit?usp=sharing
The installation went well partly because Mahi and Olga prepared ahead of time and also because Mahi gave direction on what to do. Just like at an in-person meeting, it is appropriate to provide direction to the meeting participants. Instead of asking us to come up to the lectern or to please be seated, Mahi, instead asked us to show/hide our video and to mute/unmute ourselves. This contributed to the smooth experience.
In addition to the Officer Installation, we had a ground breaking speech, “The Perfect Pavlova” by Lindee. In her speech, Lindee introduced us to vlogging by sharing a video recording of herself preparing the perfect Pavlova. In her speech, Lindee demonstrated how to make this traditional Australian dessert while simultaneously introducing us to vlogging.
The meeting theme was “Inssurrection”—a theme spawned by the civil unrest and overthrow of our Nation’s Capitol the prior week. This was a lively theme that evoked a spirited Table Topices session.
With such a jam-packed agenda, it’s not surprising that we went over time. Here are a few tips to help keep the meeting on schedule.
– End Table Topics at 12:40. Table Topics is considered the accordian of the meeting. Its duration expands or collapses according to the time available, and it should always end at 12:40.
– The Toastmaster should call an end to Table Topics at 12:40 if the Topics Master loses track of the time. If the Toastmaster doesn’t interrupt, the the President may.
– The President should close the meeting and bring down the gavel as close to 1:00 as possible. If further discussion is warranted, announce that the meeting room will be held open afterwards in order to accommodate it.
I was Master Evaluator for this meeting. When I saw how late we were running, I asked for the short evaluation and brief reports from the functionaries. I omitted general comments and said that I would post them here in the blog. Here you have it!
If you missed the meeting or would like to see it again, you can view it in its entirety here: https://youtu.be/BIAuOlTXINU
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