Freethought Toastmasters Club
By Bob Maline
Freethought Toastmasters club met January 1 as it does every first and third Monday each month. Two prepared speeches were presented: One new member described a personal obstacle he overcame as a young man and an experienced member reported on former president Trump’s plans to gut the professional civil service with Project 2025 if he is re-elected. As a community based club, rather than a corporate club, loosely affiliated with Minnesota Atheists, Freethought’s speech topics are sometimes more personal and potentially controversial than would fit the culture of many corporate clubs.
A highlight for many members was choosing one of the speech topics for a round robin discussion. At this meeting, they chose the threat of Christian Nationalism for discussion extending the topic of the Project 2025 speech. Each person got up to 1 minute in the first rotation, 2 minutes in the second rotation, and 1 minute in the third. This method ensured everyone got to speak and no one dominated the discussion. And, of course, a few people passed on their time as they’d said all they’d wanted to say.
Some members commented that this was the best and most important round robin discussion since a discussion of abortion many months prior. Not every speech or discussion is such a heavy topic, but Freethought Toastmasters club is one of the few places a discussion like this can be had in such a fair and open manner.
For more information find Freethought Toastmasters in the MN Atheists Meetup feed https:// www.meetup.com/minnesotaatheists/ and just show up.