Page 29 - Voices-2021-05

GLEANINGS FROM THE GROVE

Paul Fanning, DTM

We are now poised on the edge of “back to the we have not met in a person-to-person meeting
future” in the coming months, both as a society for a long time. Our normalcy has been Zoom

and as an organization called Toastmasters meetings, a visible part of the “Hollywood
International. Before you use your cell phone Squares” or “Brady Bunch” screen, all of us in
and call the authorities to pick me up as being our little boxes. What will happen now? Simply
hopelessly mentally unstable, let me explain. my friends, we go “Back to the Future” as we

I want you to think about, but not dwell on, return to our meeting locations and shake hands
the world pandemic and the responses we have in our Toastmasters meeting. For people like me,
all participated in this past year plus. Modern I will get out of the chair and stand and deliver
science was at first not able to deal with the virus. a speech with gestures once again, “work the

It took months of crash testing and development room,” and physically engage the audience like
to get to the place we are in today; able to remove we were taught to do in the pre-Covid 19 world.
our masks if we are vaccinated, no longer having Our clubs will face a challenge, one we did
to hide in our homes, working remotely or not have to broach prior to this date in time.

whatever form of social distancing you have What kind of meeting do we want our club to
shared in. Our lives are returning to participate in? Remain an online only club, be a
Normalcy. Yes, it might be a new normal that person-to-person only club, or blend the two into
embraces some of the lessons learned over the the hybrid club most often talked about today?

past year and a half. We can see the light at the A club that has some members participating
end of the tunnel, and we are ready for it. online, and the other members being physically
Our lives have been on hold. We in in a room together. The future is knocking at our
Toastmasters have perhaps gone backwards as club doors. What will be the sergeant-at-arms

VOICES! | MAY 2021 29