Page 22 - April 2020

PERSPECTIVES

well you get the picture. I now have the luxury to use the already in place online tools in

of time. It may take me two minutes to get to Pathways. We can embrace the “new” norm
a meeting online.. Now I can leisurely take my of online club meetings, and still strive to
time to prepare meals, clean the house, etc. It’s achieve our goals while practicing social
the same in Toastmasters. I have been able to distancing and stay-in-place protocols.

sit down and take the time to write a speech, The choice is yours. Become part of
review material in my files, and prepare for my history, and not just let it pass you by.
online role. (Wow! What a concept!) I have even Embrace the new Toastmasters methodology
finished unpacking the last box from my most of communication and activity, or let your

recent move—now four years ago. Files have skills fade away and become stagnant as we
been perused and evaluated. I just completed wait out the pandemic. As for me, I want life,
recycling all the old material, speeches, fellowship, and continuing to learn.
workbooks, and ephemera one collects over their

Toastmasters career—turning two files drawers
into half of one. (Goodbye to my 2005 first
speech evaluation) I feel productive—not
pressured—and ready for whatever may be

the next level of this 2020 adventure.
Each generation seems to have had a
milestone that they called their defining The ultimate measure
moment. For my generation, it was where of a man is not

you were when John F. Kennedy was shot. For
others like my parents, it was the Depression where he stands in
or World War II. For the younger members,
perhaps Y2K or 9/11. This year will be that moments of comfort

for all who are alive today—we’ve not faced
a world-wide pandemic like this in our and convenience, but
lifetime. For this Toastmasters moment in
history, what are you doing to keep yourself where he stands at

educated? Are you keeping in social contact
with the club members, reaching out to times of challenge and
somebody outside your walls even if only by
online technology? How about your club? Are controversy.

you involved still with online meetings or in
the dark waiting for this all to end? We can ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
either become an ostrich and ignore what’s
going on, seclude ourselves, or continue

22 ONE COMMUNITY