Category: Special Events

Andrew Brewer, operations, communications and management consultant, offered strategies and practices he developed as an introvert during the Spirited Speech Masters Meeting, Thursday, April 13. View Andrew's entire speech in which he discussed how he developed his schedule template, which you can download from the link below.

Andrew Brewer, an operations, communications and management consultant, will be guest speaker, Thursday, April 13 at noon.

Andrew has been in leadership and management for more than 20 years and has taken pride in working with organization to drive change in their staffing and procedures to improve efficiency, internal communication and external reach. Early in his career, Andrew struggled with networking, conference attendance and large-scale professional events in general. During his talk, he will willingly share simple ways to turn something that is intimidating for many people into smaller, management objectives that can help you unlock your ability to advocate for yourself to a larger audience.

Our first guest speaker for Fiscal Year 2022 will be Justin Henderson, Ph.D., LPC-S, a senior EAP specialist at MD Anderson. Dr. Henderson's talk on Thursday, Nov. 17 at noon will target stress, burnout and exhaustion by actively presenting and exploring foundational principles found in cognitive behavioral approach to mental health.

A native of Baytown, Dr. Henderson has experience in providing behavioral health-related services to academic institutions, justice systems, churches and outpatient facilities. His research focuses on eliminating mental health disparities and increasing service utilization among minority populations. Dr. Henderson has been afforded the opportunity to uniquely share his knowledge and experiences in various training courses, workshops, seminars and conferences.

On June 24, Spirited Speech Masters presented Melodies and Healing by Melvin Sword, MD Anderson Employee Choir Director. Sally served as Toastmaster, welcoming everyone and introducing "harmony" as the word of the day and "the power of music" as the theme.

Melvin joined the employee choir in 2007 and became director in 2014. Sally called him a true servant leader, having done amazing things with the choir.

Melvin defined melody as a sequence of notes that are musically satisfying. The result is that it has a remarkable impact on people in their lives. Healing is to make well again. Music produces immediate effects that have a positive impact on mood and strengthen one's ability to cope. Research in 52 clinical trials with patients with cancer has shown that it improves coping and social integration and improves mood. Reduction of the hormone cortisol helps us to reach a calm state.

This is shown in the employee choir, bringing the joy of music to patients, families, and associates. Typically the choir has sung mostly during the holiday season. Check out Deck, Deck the Halls (2020). Another remote performance to enjoy is Count on Me (2020). Our own Sally is singing!

Melvin explained when talking to new members, he tells them to be sure to learn the music so you can look at the audience. Once you look at the audience and see their response, it's going to change you forever.

Usamah led the group in a series of Table Topics on healing after sharing 3 tips that may lower your anxiety of public speaking: 1. Greet your audience. 2. Get to the point and slow down. 3. Have structure; talk in 3s. The Table Topics were water, earth, air, and fire. Volunteers spoke on each one. Lucas explained while fire can be a purifying destructive agent, it is also a key ingredient to creating heavier elements or to shaping many of those elements into a shape that we find useful.

Doug closed out the meeting by evaluating Melvin's speech, indicating it tied in perfectly with Sally's introduction. Great eye contact and vocal variety, with a sense of being comfortable in front of the group. The overall meeting fit together well, with continuity from beginning to end, an arc that was gorgeous.

We would welcome Melvin back anytime he would care to join us. The group thanked Loni for all her wonderful work as president in the last year, with this meeting being the end of the Toastmasters year. Cheers to Lucas for opening the next year next week as the new president. Another fine Spirited Speakers meeting!

On May 20, our special guest speaker Lee Coffee Jr. presented Capturing the Magic in the Moment. He has been a social justice practitioner for 33 years. He combines the creativity of storytelling with the analysis of philosophy, psychology, nursing, and leadership best practices. Over 30 people attended and gained from Lee's message. Brittney served as Toastmaster.

Lee opened with, "What has death taught you? How has working at MD Anderson taught you to capture the magic in the moment?" Lee proceeded to discuss that what he learned in the formative years from the age of 10 to 17 was that life is very fleeting. He told stories of loved ones he had lost, and gave us a true sense of how meaningful the connections were to him.

The best thing to happen to him in March of 2020, he said, was COVID. It allowed him to go home and sit, reflect, and consider where he had been and how he had lived his life. He has always captured the magic in the moment. The morning a dear loved one died, he tried to grasp the reality of what had just happened. He felt the sun on his face, smelled the bacon cooking, heard the clock ticking. He was present. He learned how important it was to be awake. He decided he was going to write books, have a piece of land, and he has strived to do that all of his adult life.

Lee ended by quoting the French Quaker Steven Grellet, "Any kindness I can show to my fellow creature, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it for I shall not pass this way again." He encouraged the audience to create the magic in the moment with love and respect.

Lucas served as Table Topics Master for the extemporaneous speaking portion of the meeting. Brittney led off, describing a scene from a movie that was especially poignant. Ruth spoke of the scent of jollof rice. In addition, two guests participated skillfully in Table Topics and it was appreciated that they were willing to step up.

Loni ended the meeting with a speech evaluation and general evaluator's report. We value evaluation because it's there to show you what you excel at so that you can lean into those strengths going forward and also highlights areas for growth. She liked how Lee opened the speech with a story; it established familiarity that can lead the audience to be more receptive to the overall message. She loved how impactful the question “What has death taught you?” was. We don’t often think about death as a vehicle of personal growth; Excellent job tying the message about the meaning of death back to our mission at MD Anderson.

Evaluating the meeting overall, Loni explained that a sign of an experienced Table Topics Master is to clearly listen to the answers given, as Lucas had done. One of the fun things about our meetings is to learn something new about each other.

Thank you, Lee, for being our guest and thanks to all who attended!