A TMOD theme titled “2020 – The year that went by”

2020 – The year that went by

First things first. The Coronavirus exploded in 2020 across the globe and took over a million lives. There I said it. Covid occupies the single biggest share in the pie of events that happened in 2020 and no recount of this year can even begin without paying homage to it. So I have paid my dues and I promise I will not utter the C word for the rest of the meeting today.

That’s because frankly, a lot of other important things happened this year as well which did not get the right attention they deserved. For example, this year Britain quit Europe while Harry and Meghan quit the royal family. Now Donald Trump had quit a slew of businesses in earlier years but both these events made him feel left out of the quitting party. So he decided that US should quit the Paris Agreement. Little did he now by the end of the year, he would have to quit the White House as well.

Sadly, the quitting game did not end here. The year also witnessed some notable people quit this world. Kobe and Gianna Bryant died in a helicopter crash while Chadwick Boseman and Eddie Van Halen died of Cancer. This is a depressingly long list. So let’s hit pause on this and play the Toastmasters DVD.

For the benefit of the guest and new members, let me tell you how a Toastmasters meeting functions.

Every Toastmasters meeting is divided into three parts. The first part is the Prepared Speech section where our members prepare a 5 to 7 minute speech in advance, get it mentored and deliver the same. The second part is the fun and exciting Table Topic Session where anyone can speak for 1 to 2 minutes on a topic given by our Table Topic Master. And the last part is the evaluation session where our General Evaluator will give a comprehensive report on the entire meeting. Let me invite our General Evaluator for the day TM Name.

Once the GE is done explaining his role, invite the Prepared Speakers. After this session, continue with the theme as under.

The year 2020 also saw massive fire ravaging Australia that destroyed 47 million acres of forest that were rare habitats to endangered animals. The fire lead to the death of approximately 34 humans but more than a billion animals.

A different kind of fire also ravaged the urban life in several parts of the world. The death of a black man George Flyod at the hands of a white officer sparked protests against racism not just in United States but across the world. People en masse joined what was called a “Black lives matter” movement to seek justice for George Flyod and to bring about a change.

On that note, let me invite the Table Topic Master for the day TM Name to conduct the second session. Please help me welcome him with a big round of applause.

Once the Table Topic Session is over, continue with the theme as under.

Not everything that happened in 2020 was saddening though. Parasite became the first non English language film to win the Oscar for “Best Picture.” In a rather bizarre move, Pentagon released 3 UFO videos while a star went missing right under the astronomer’s gaze. Stem cells helped to cure second person from AIDS. But most importantly our planet got a moment to breathe coz you know why. Right now let me take a moment to breathe and invite the General Evaluator to do the talking while I do so. Please help me welcome TM Name.

Once the evaluation session is over, conclude the theme as under.

While the world at large changed fast, our own organization Toastmasters wasn’t left behind either. The entire organization showed immense agility as overnight all the clubs shifted to online mode during the year. Sadly, this also led to cancellation of the humorous speech contest. Toastmasters International though more than made up for all of this by gifting us a free path. Within our own club, apart from the new EC team, we also inaugurated a new club to give our members more chance to speak and take up leadership roles. With that our doors to learning and growing just got wider. On that note, I hope the coming year blesses us all with a lot of positivity and good happenings.