My Journey as a Toastmaster

Meeting of February 29, 2012

2012-03-01T07:32:00.000-05:00

When I was VP Education at my last club, I always said that members should keep a speech in their back pockets so that if an opportunity arose, they could get in a speech. At today's meeting, the member who was supposed to speak said she wasn't ready so another member did have a speech in his back pocket and he got in a speech. I want to move forward at the rate of two speeches per month so I created a mind map and did Project 2 Resources for Entertainment from The Entertaining Speaker manual. Here are the particulars:

Draw humorous and / or dramatic material from sources other than your own personal experience
Adapt your material to suit your topic, your own personality and the audience. Use entertaining material as a means of conveying a serious message.

Time: 5 - 7 minutes

The speech went something like this:

Sir Isaac Newton said "I have stood on the shoulders of giants." Newton was a scientist and a giant himself, and the giants he was talking about were people like Archimedes, Copernicus and Galileo. We have all stood on the shoulders of giants meaning all the generations that have come before us. It would be impossible to know all the good men and women that have existed famous or not so we can only get to know a few people who have had a lasting impact in history. Two such people for me are Queen Elizabeth I of England and Malcolm X, the black civil rights leader.

Their lives went from tragedy to triumph. They were both very educated, Elizabeth formally and Malcolm X informally by being a voracious reader. They were both great communicators.

I spoke for 7 minutes, 30 seconds. I think at this point in my Toastmasters career, I should be able to prepare a speech in five minutes following the method in that workshop I took a few years ago. Anyway, two months of 2012 have passed and I've completed four speeches so I'm on track.

Meeting of February 22, '12

2012-02-22T17:04:00.002-05:00

I did Project 3 The Moral of the Story from the Storytelling manual at today's meeting. Here are the particulars:

To understand that a story can be entertaining yet display moral values
To create a new story that offers a lesson or moral
To tell the story, using the skills developed in the previous two projects

Time: 4 - 6 minutes

I was going to chicken out from speaking today because I had meant to do Project 2 Let's Get Personal from the same manual but I just couldn't wrap my head around this one. I didn't want to skip a project but as I was about to send an email to my club last night to say I wouldn't be speaking, I got an email from mysomeday.com reminding me that I had a speech scheduled for today! I took that as a message that I should speak. So I looked at Project 3 and almost instantly knew what I wanted to speak about! I launched MS Word and the words flowed easily. When I had written enough, I figured I'd create a mind map in the morning but I didn't have time so I printed the speech and drew a mind map at the meeting. I didn't use it at all. It went over really well with the audience and my evaluator, and I came in under six minutes.

I'm going to modify this speech and use it for Project 2 so I'll load the text and mind map for both after I give Project 2.

I applied online for the Advanced Communicator Bronze (ACB) award for our club President after the meeting. He sent me an email with the speech titles and dates. I simply copied the titles into the appropriate fields. He forgot to tell me whether he wanted his nickname or his Christian name on the certificate and whether or not he wanted a letter sent to his employer so I had to call him to ask. His accomplishment gives one point towards the DCP. He will now start working on the Advanced Communicator Silver (ACS) award.

Genivar Toastmasters

2012-02-21T19:39:00.001-05:00

I felt a bit like Dr. Frankenstein over the weekend except that I synthesize lecterns not humans. :) I put together a lectern using my daughter's music stand, a stick from the garage and a Christmas tree stand. I didn't want to take a chance that Genivar Toastmasters still didn't have a lectern and I hadn't brought my club's lectern home with me after our last meeting.

I served as General Evaluator again. The meeting started seven minutes late. I explained my role as Club Mentor. The agenda did not have speech titles or time ranges and the Toastmaster had not gathered these prior to the meeting. I told the group that Toastmasters meetings require preparation if they are to be successful. It is the Toastmaster's duty to collect the following information: manual name, project #/name, speech title, time range for each speaker. It would make the Toastmaster's life a lot easier if these were on the agenda but if not, he should gather them before the meeting. He did not introduce the speakers using the Name-Title-Title-Name standard as I had explained last meeting so I went over it again. He was also a bit tenuous about asking people to explain their roles and prefixed one of his requests with "If you don't mind". I suggested that this was not the language of a presiding officer and he should be more assertive as he presides.

Both speakers gave their icebreakers today. The first speaker came to the lectern with a large bottle of water and a thick pad of paper. She started speaking before the Toastmaster sat down. I added to her evaluation by explaining that at most she should come up with a few sheets so that she can shake hands with the Toastmaster. I said it's important to wait until the Toastmaster sits down before you start speaking. Although there is nothing that says that we should address the Toastmaster or anybody else, most of us address the Toastmaster, our fellow Toastmasters and any guests as part of our speech.

The second speaker used the text of his speech and I added to his evaluation when I said that doing this can result in the temptation to read the speech so it's better to just use notes.

The Timer did not hold up the timing cards so the speaker could easily see them. (This is the disadvantage of timing cards versus electronic lights.) I told the group that at my last club and my present club, the Timer sits at the back of the room.

The Table Topicsmaster doubled as Grammarian because the latter was absent. I suggested that the Grammarian role should have been done by someone else because there were enough members present that this could be done. We want as many members as possible to participate in the meeting. During the meeting, she stayed at her seat and I signaled for her to move to the lectern. I mentioned again that the lectern is the focal point of a Toastmasters meeting and must never be left unattended.

I said that if they were to vote on Best Table Topics, I would give it to one of two members who gave enthusiastic speeches with good vocal variety. I explained that a response to a table topic should be a mini-speech with an opening, body and closing. The speaker need not start speaking right away. It's okay to take ten seconds and gather your thoughts before you start speaking.

The first evaluator read the objectives of the second or third CC project. I interrupted him and asked if he were reading the right objectives. He wasn't. The other evaluator asked for the speaker's manual during the meeting. I told him that this needed to be done before the start of the meeting.

They didn't have any questions and I declined to be GE again. I said now you've seen my style of doing this role and I suggested that one of the speakers do it and she agreed.

Meeting of February 15, 2012

2012-02-15T20:51:00.000-05:00

We had two guests today. They found us through our meetup group. As the meeting was poorly attended, they offered to be Quizmaster and Grammarian. They did a great job!. I served as GE and I added to the evaluator's comments. The speaker seems to always mention that he's working in the Competent Communication manual and which project it is. I told him this is unnecessary; these things have been mentioned by the Toastmaster and / or the Evaluator so he should leave them out.

The theme of the meeting was Valentine's Day. The Table Topicsmaster asked me what I haven't done that I would love to do. I answered that I have been very fit at various times in my life but it was always only one dimension of fitness: endurance, flexibility or strength. I have never incorporated all three dimensions into a fitness program but it is one of my new year's resolutions to do so. I will address the flexibility through yoga, the endurance through running and the strength through weights.

I got my HPL certificate in the mail today.

Project 1 The Folk Tale

2012-02-08T20:21:00.004-05:00

I was the second speaker today. I did Project 1 The Folk Tale from the Advanced Communication Manual Storytelling. Here are the particulars:

1. The Folk Tale

Time: 7-9 minutes

Objectives:

To tell a folk tale that is entertaining and enjoyablefor a specific age group.
To use vivid imagery and voice to enhance the tale.

This was by far the most difficult project I've ever done because I just couldn't think of a folk tale I wanted to tell so I decided to do a super-condensed version of The Odyssey. I went through several iterations before coming up with what I wanted to say. I watched the 1997 TV miniseries starring Armand Assante to reacquaint myself with the story. Some of the criticisms I read of this series are ridiculous. The critics reviewed the series as if it had been made for the cinema. For sheer entertainment value and to see a film version of this epic, it's worth three hours of your time. I also read the graphic novel by Gareth Hinds. I got both of these from the library.

My evaluator correctly pointed out that a folk tale should only have a few characters whereas my choice had way more than that. Just Odysseus, his wife Penelope and his son Telemachus together make up three characters.

I absolutely love this story and it was either this or A Christmas Carol and I'd used ACC for a couple of other projects so I went with The Odyssey. I ad libbed and went a little over ten minutes.

Interestingly, I had come across the word Laocoon in ACC but I'd never bothered looking up the reference and when I was writing my speech for this project, I discovered that Laocoon is the name of the Trojan soothsayer who says "Beware of Greeks bearing gifts."

Since TI's new motto is Where Leaders Are Made, I mentioned Odysseus's leadership qualities: determination and resourcefulness. Later in the speech, I illustrated them using his encounter with the Cyclops. There is a student essay about this at http://www.bookrags.com/essay-2005/3/31/145638/393.

Genivar Toastmasters

2012-02-07T15:00:00.000-05:00

I brought my club lectern to the meeting and set it up for use so that everybody could see that a lectern in a Toastmasters club is a must. I explained my role as General Evaluator. It is a two-fold role where the first role is to introduce the evaluation team consisting of the Evaluators, Grammarian, Timer, and Quizmaster, and the second is to give a general evaluation of the meeting.

1. The meeting started at 12:08 which was three minutes later than the start time on the agenda. I advised everybody to come to meetings five to ten minutes early so that meetings could start on time. Since the President opens the meeting, he must be the enforcer.

2. I advised against the practice of passing the gavel. In five years of being a Toastmaster, I have never seen this done at any club I have ever visited. A lectern is the focal point of a Toastmasters meeting. Control of the lectern is passed from a speaker for example to the Toastmaster by way of a handshake after a verbal acknowledgment such as "Mr. Toastmaster".

3. I advised the Chair / Toastmaster to review the agenda at the beginning of the meeting making note of any changes. I also advised the Toastmaster to arrange for the workshop leader to speak first followed by one of the members who did her icebreaker so that the evaluation portion of the meeting would be the second last item on the agenda as it should be. The Toastmaster must instruct the Timer when to display yellow, green and red lights based on the time range of the speech. This is his job not the evaluator's. The evaluator simply reads the objectives including the time range; e.g., 4-6 minutes for the icebreaker. Since the Toastmaster is the Master of Ceremonies, he must learn to pronounce people's names prior to the meeting. The format for introducing speakers is Name-Title--Title-Name. E.g., John Smith-My Hometown-My Hometown-John Smith.

4. I praised the Table Topicsmaster for instructing the Timer and suggested that future Topicsmasters instruct participants that a response is a mini-speech consisting of an opening, a body and a close. I advised the group to take ten seconds to gather their thoughts before speaking.

Meeting of February 1, 2012

2012-02-02T15:57:00.002-05:00

I evaluated the second speaker today. He did Project 2 Resources for Entertainment from The Entertaining Speaker manual. Here are the objectives:

Time: 5-7 minutes

Objectives:

• Draw humorous and/or dramatic material from sources other than your own personal experience.

• Adapt your material to suit your topic, your own personality and the audience. Use entertaining material as a means of conveying a serious message.

I pointed out that he gave an inspirational speech instead of an entertaining one. I said that the four general purposes are: Persuade, Inspire, Entertain, Inform. Since he was speaking from The Entertaining Speaker manual, I felt he should have made the speech entertaining instead of inspirational. He did not start speaking immediately after being introduced because his video camera was not set up. I said that this should be done prior to his introduction so that he can start speaking immediately after he is introduced. His speech was well structured in that he gave three examples of people with disabilities and signposted his speech saying "the first example, the second example" etc. He referred to a disease called "excuses" and I felt he could have said "excusitis" to make it sound more disease-like. He has to stand using a walker which does not allow him to use his hands and I felt it would be better for him to sit in a raised chair. I spoke for four minutes but the Timer did not turn on any lights ( he was a guest but became a member at the end of the meeting). I really dislike evaluating for more than 3 minutes 30 seconds but since I didn't see a red light, I kept going.

The Table Topics were well done today. One of the guests, a DTM who I had invited to our meeting when I met him at Genivar felt that we should move the Table Topics session after the Prepared Speeches session because we had two speakers which requires two evaluators. This way, we only choose people who are not on the agenda to speak if we don't have enough time.

Meeting of January 25, 2012

2012-01-26T10:08:00.002-05:00

I evaluated the one speaker today. He did Project 3 Make Them Laugh from The Entertaining Speaker manual. Here are the objectives:

Prepare a humorous speech drawn from your own experience.
Strengthen the speech by adopting and personalizing humorous material from outside sources.
Deliver the speech in a way that makes the humor effective.

Time: 5 - 7'

He is a very high energy speaker and needs to tone down his energy because his speeches will be a blur to his audience. He used three topics / techniques to add humor:

1) Sex - there were no women in the audience and he talked about his second girl friend who played a song by Guns and Roses when they were being intimate.

2) A twist on Neil Armstrong's "One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" by changing the word "leap" to "leak"

3) Slapstick.

He rushed his salutation and mistakenly said "welcome guests" when there were no guests. He also said "thank you" at the end of his speech and sat down without turning control of the lectern back to the Toastmaster. The Timer got confused and cut me off at two minutes. I was going to mention the excellent appendix in this manual entitled The Pause. I encourage you to consider doing this manual for one of your advanced awards. The projects have superb descriptions and the appendix will help you with all your speeches. The speaker also spoke for a little over eight minutes. I think this caused him to rush the ending.

The General Evaluator said that for a small group, we are very high energy. I was disappointed that the guest from last week did not show up nor did our newest member. I know they would have learned something and enjoyed the meeting. But as I've said in previous posts, you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink.

David Chilton at the Living Arts Centre

2012-01-25T00:36:00.004-05:00

My son and I went to see David Chilton, the author of The Wealthy Barber at the Living Arts Centre (LAC). President's Choice Financial (PCF) put on the event. I got a free copy of his sequel called The Wealthy Barber Returns. I got him to autograph it. They had two chairs on stage and I thought it was going to be done interview style but Chilton spoke for almost two hours without notes. And I complain about memorizing a 5-7 minute speech. :) Shame on me. As with Dave Ramsey, I was amazed at the amount of humor he used. He told a lot of stories from his own life involving his interactions with his parents and sister.

Genivar GTA Toastmasters

2012-01-25T00:07:00.004-05:00

I went to the Genivar GTA Toastmasters meeting today. The other club mentor was there. She served as General Evaluator. The meeting was not well attended and they only had one speaker but an experienced Toastmaster was there and he spoke for several minutes towards the end of the meeting. He's someone who has recognized what a great thing has happened for them that they have a Toastmasters club on the premises. He praised them for giving up their lunch hour to learn something which will help them enormously in their careers. He is going to put on a workshop for them.

I recommended a couple of changes to their agenda by marking up a copy and gave it to the VP Education at the end of the meeting so he can apply it to next meeting. I gave several of the members some instruction including the Table Topicsmaster who did not instruct the Timer on when to display the color cards and the Timer who gave way too much detail in his report. I did this as I filled out his evaluation in his CL book. I also spoke to several of them about the importance of having a one-year plan for the accomplishment of their Competent Communicator (CC) and Competent Leader (CL) awards.

The other mentor, the other experienced Toastmaster and I had a short meeting after the TM meeting. We agreed that meeting every two weeks instead of every week would make it more difficult for them to learn everything Toastmasters. They don't have a lectern and I consider that a must. The experienced TM suggested using a box that would their materials and double as a "lectern". I don't know about that. My club has the portable desktop lectern from TI. I may just throw something together on the weekend using this as a model. They can use my homemade lectern until they have one of their own or just pay me for the materials.

Dave Ramsey

2012-01-24T23:50:00.002-05:00

My son asked me about making a rather large financial purchase and I was against it because a young person can be wealthy if he spends his money wisely and invests it in the right financial vehicles. Starting early gives a decided advantage because of the power of compounding. So I enrolled us in a local Financial Peace University (FPU) class. We started the class by watching Dave Ramsey, the creator of FPU on DVD. It never ceases to amaze me how much humor these guys use. I had no idea Ramsey was such a good speaker. I haven't checked out his YouTube channel yet (http://www.youtube.com/user/daveramsey) but I will do so shortly. I may even buy his DVD just to study his style of making a subject that is so unpleasant to most people interesting.

Meeting of January 18, 2012

2012-01-18T14:52:00.004-05:00

I've changed my mind about the Professional Speaker manual. I've decided to go with The Entertaining Speaker instead. I did Project 1 The Entertaining Speech. The speech was entitled Elizabeth. Here are the objectives:

Time: 5-7 minutes

Objectives:
• Entertain the audience through use of humor and/or drama drawn from your personal experience.
• Organize an entertaining speech for maximum audience impact.

I did a bit of show and tell with my collection of DVDs about Queen Elizabeth I of England: Shakespeare in Love, Elizabeth, and Elizabeth I The Virgin Queen. I printed an image of the cover of the mini-series Elizabeth R because I have yet to purchase this item and I brought the book Glorianna The Years of Elizabeth I by Mary Luke. There was a sequence in which I had watched these and because I didn't have time to rehearse the speech, I used these props as reminders about which item to talk about.

I ad libbed a bit but here is what I had written:

Have you ever read a passage in a magazine article or a book and had a sentence or even a whole paragraph leap off the page at you? Or have you ever watched a movie or a TV program and had a character say something that left you breathless or speechless, even stunned? I have. Many times.

1. Mr. Toastmaster, Fellow Toastmasters and Welcome Guests. I’m going to share one of those times with you today. I was watching this movie Shakespeare in Love starring Joseph Fiennes as William Shakespeare and Dame Judi Dench as Queen Elizabeth I of England. Judi Dench’s performance as the Queen left me breathless, speechless and stunned. It’s no surprise that Ms. Dench won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for that amazing performance and the movie won Best Picture. And I was left forever connected to Queen Elizabeth I of England.

2. When I have this kind of experience, I follow up on it. I went to the library and discovered that Glenda Jackson had starred in a BBC series called Elizabeth R. The series was available in video form so I borrowed it and I watched all six 85-minute episodes. It was no surprise to me that Glenda Jackson won 2 Emmy awards for best actress and the series won an Emmy for best dramatic series. I got to know Elizabeth even better and my connection to her became even stronger.

3. My next encounter with Queen Elizabeth I came from the movie Elizabeth starring Cate Blanchett in the title role. Her performance earned her a Golden Globe award and a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Actress. The picture was nominated for an Academy award for Best Picture.

4. I’ve since seen Cate Blanchett in a sequel called Elizabeth: The Golden Age but I’m afraid it just wasn’t of the caliber of the original. I`ve also seen Helen Mirren as Elizabeth I in a movie called Elizabeth I. After seeing Judi Dench, Glenda Jackson and Cate Blanchett, I have to say that although Helen Mirren did a good job, seeing her as Elizabeth I didn't really add to what I felt I knew about the Queen.

5. All this involvement with Queen Elizabeth I led me to see Anne of the Thousand Days starring Richard Burton as King Henry VIII and Genevieve Bujold as Anne Boleyn. King Henry and Anne Boleyn were Queen Elizabeth I’s parents. I highly recommend you see this movie. Richard Burton is superb as the King and Genevieve Bujold is equaly superb as the Queen.

6. What does the future hold for discovering more about Elizabeth I? Elizabeth I The Virgin Queen and Gloriana The Years of Elizabeth I by Mary Luke.

7. Elizabeth I is a monumental figure in history. She inherited a religiously divided kingdom (Catholics vs. Protestants) and she was hated by the other powerful Catholic nations France and Spain. She was not considered by many to be the rightful heir to the throne because of the way her father had broken away from the Catholic Church. In fact she had been removed from the succession and considered to be an illegitimate child. England prospered greatly during her reign. Francis Bacon, Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare all lived during the Elizabethan era. England's navy led by Sir Francis Drake destroyed the Spanish Armada because the English ships were smaller, lighter and could maneuver more easily than the Spanish galleons. At the end of her reign, England was the most powerful nation in Europe.

8. Isaac Newton said "I have stood on the shoulders of giants." He was talking about the likes of Archimedes, Copernicus and Galileo. But the fact is we have all stood on the shoulders of giants. How do you put yourself into a state where you can connect with these giants? When you read magazine articles or books, be 100% focused on what you are reading. When you watch TV shows and movies, don't have other things on your mind. Don't fidget. You will then be in a receptive state. And when you get a message, do something with it. Don't just let it go. Get to know the character better. Investigate. Explore. Napoleon Hill in his great book Think and Grow Rich advised his readers to create an advisory council consisting of those individuals from history who have had an impact on you. When I read this I thought he was crazy. But after my experience watching Shakespeare in Love, I no longer think this way. The great men and women of history are waiting to connect with you. Mr. Hill was right. They can be your advisers. You can have a life-long relationship with them. I encourage you to get started.

I could tell that the audience was captivated. Both the GE and my evaluator gave me a glowing review. What a great start to the ACG!

Meeting of January 11, 2012

2012-01-11T19:46:00.002-05:00

I felt well enough to go to the meeting today. Good thing as I chaired and evaluated one of the speakers.

The Table Topicsmaster had some long topics which were numbered. He asked us to pick a number and then he read out the topic. I wish he had just cut up the topics and passed them around. My topic was "tough decisions" and I spoke about giving up a career in an engineering / technical area because I am not into climbing corporate ladders and prefer more people-oriented work.

The speaker I evaluated gave a speech from The Entertaining Speaker manual. As usual, he gave a dynamic delivery with great vocal variety and volume. I praised him for this. I did not feel that his message was clear nor that his speech was well-organized so I referred him to CC#2 and CC#3.

This was my first meeting of the new year. I'm scheduled to give my first speech towards my ACG next week. Hard to believe.

Which Advanced Communications manuals to choose?

2012-01-02T21:46:00.003-05:00

When I got my Competent Communicator (CC) award, I faced the same choice all Toastmasters face: what Advanced Communications manuals do I choose for my Advanced Communicator Bronze (ACB)? Obviously the same choices must be made when you complete your ACB and your Advanced Communicator Silver (ACS) awards. I had some discussion with senior Toastmasters back then and they basically said to choose manuals with projects that had similar time ranges to those in the CC manual to make the transition to the advanced manuals as smooth as possible. I had expressed an interest in the Humorously Speaking manual but was advised to stay away from it until I was a lot more comfortable using humor.

In retrospect, I think this was good advice. My only objective in joining Toastmasters was to become more comfortable speaking to large groups of people, say one to two hundred people. I had no aspirations of becoming a professional speaker but I did aspire to achieving the Distinguished Toastmaster (DTM) award. To that end, the last two manuals -- Interpretive Reading and Technical Presentations were very enjoyable. However, if you aspire to be a professional speaker, I would not recommend those manuals to you. I enjoy presenting more than speaking. It is far easier for me to come up with some interesting slides and speak using them than it is to write a speech that is easy to remember and practice it until I have committed it to memory. I know that sounds like a copout but I think that the existence of the last two manuals I completed suggests that this is an acceptable path to get you in front of an audience and moving towards your DTM if not towards becoming a professional speaker.

I've decided on Storytelling and The Professional Speaker for my last two manuals. I see Storytelling as a way to get to know this aspect of speaking. And I see TPS as being being a big challenge for me but one that I will be better prepared for than if I had chosen it earlier.

Gore Vidal's Lincoln

2012-01-02T21:20:00.003-05:00

I saw Gore Vidal's Lincoln starring Sam Waterston as Abraham Lincoln and Mary Tyler Moore as Mary Todd Lincoln. I was hoping to see Waterston portray Lincoln as the great orator but you would not get this impression from this movie. I haven't seen Abe Lincoln in Illinois starring Raymond Massey partially because it is not available from the library nor any local DVD rental stores -- not surprising considering its age. I will have to find another way to see it. Regardless, being down with the flu, and being very interested in this part of American history, I enjoyed the movie.

Recall that President Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address and issued the Emancipation Proclamation.

Completed my High Performance Leadership Project

2011-12-28T15:49:00.007-05:00

I gave the second speech for my High Performance Leadership (HPL) project today. The title of the project is Presenting the Results and the title of my speech was Where Leaders are Made. I used a mind map to speak. I didn't write the speech out as I usually do. Here is the outline:

A. Opening

1. Captures audience attention

Leadership, innate or learned?

2. Leads into speech topic

TI motto change:

Become the Speaker and Leader You Want to Be --> Where Leaders Are Made

HPL: requirement for ALS

Guidance Committee: 2-3 people

Club Coach / Club Sponsor / Club Mentor also req for ALS

DCP: Membership, awards, dues, officer training

B. Body

1. Main point: Success

How successful was the speaker’s leadership project?

ALS requirement not completed

White Men Can’t Jump

Rosie Perez as Gloria Clemente

Woody Harrelson as Billy Hoyle

Wesley Snipes as Sidney Deane

"Sometimes when you win, you really lose. And sometimes when you lose, you really win. And sometimes when you win or lose, you actually tie and sometimes when you tie, you actually win or lose. Winning or losing is all one organic globule, from which one extracts what one needs."

a. Sub point – I lost but I really won

b. Support material PK 5 awards: ACB, ALB, CL, triple crown, ACS

2. Main point: Commitment

Cultural anthropologist Margaret Meade:

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.”

Bacon and eggs.

a. Big club, small club

b. Support material. Sub point. Doubling up, rising to the occasion

3. Main point: To Lead is To Serve

- Served as club president,

- Served as VP PR in creating a club web site for the club and upgraded it to the new platform

- initiated the move to this location

- represent the club at speech contests

C. Conclusion

1. Leadership, Born with or Learned?

2. TI has answered that question for me

3. Leadership is a work in progress

4. Success, Commitment, Service

5. Where Leaders Are Made

Meeting of December 21, 2011

2011-12-21T20:53:00.004-05:00

Our member with the disability was the only speaker today. He talked about overcoming a disadvantage and used personal anecdotes throughout his speech. I chose the theme "Disadvantage" based on his title. I enjoyed his speech. He has a conversational style of speaking and is very comfortable speaking to a group that is quite a bit older.

The Topicsmaster chose the table topics accordingly. I was asked to speak about the advantages and disadvantages of belonging to a smaller club as I move into the last leg of the journey to the DTM. I said that speaking to a larger group of people has its advantages as in some ways there are more challenges and rewards but I didn't feel that it would make that much of a difference. The advantage of belonging to a smaller club is that there are greater speaking opportunities.

As several of us will be around over the holidays, we decided to meet next week.

Christmas Party

2011-12-15T10:07:00.004-05:00

We had our Christmas party yesterday. Several of our members are from India so no surprise that there was butter chicken, naan, samosas, and ras malai on the menu. I was the Table Topicsmaster. Here are the topics:

1) You said that the theme of the meeting (Home for the Holidays) was not just about being in your home or abode over the holidays but also about finishing the goals you had set for completion by year end in a strong way. What are the specific goals you intend to finish strongly?

2) Are there any songs that make you think about being home for the holidays? If so, which ones and why?

3) Do they celebrate Christmas differently in the Philippines from the way we celebrate it here? If so, what are the differences?

4) Are there any movies that you associate with the holidays? If so, which ones and why?

5) India is 80% Hindu. Canada being a predominantly Christian country, it is no surprise that Christmas is such a big event. How big is Christmas in India?

6) Is it all right for people who are not Christians to celebrate Christmas?

It was a guest who will be joining us as a member next week who answered this question. She said it is and she does. She also said that when you trust in God, you will understand that a prayer which is not granted is not rejection, it is redirection. Wow.

They gave me this one: The three wise men had a star guiding them to the birthplace of baby Jesus. Do you have such a star that guides you in your life?

My answer: Way back in 2003, I took a repackaged version of the Silva Mind Control Method over a weekend. The instructor led the group in a guided meditation. I bought her CD and listened it for many months before feeling that I could do it on my own. Many years later, I read The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari. The author, Robin Sharma, suggested creating a sanctuary in your home. I did this and now I actually have two sanctuaries in my home. I engage in a daily session of prayer and meditation through which I have come to realize that the star is actually inside you. Guidance is available and can be found by looking inward.

I believe the party was enjoyed by all the attendees. It's necessary to do this kind of community building in a Toastmasters club. We have to take off our Toastmaster hats at various times of the year and just be a community. Breaking bread with people is a great way to build this community spirit. It was quite clear that everybody was in a festive mood and enjoying themselves.

Genivar GTA Toastmasters

2011-12-13T15:56:00.003-05:00

I had some errands to run this morning so I really booted it on the 407 and got to the meeting just in time. It was the kickoff meeting for the club and both the club sponsor and the other club mentor were there. There was only one speaker who did her icebreaker so the meeting ended early. I suggested the members ask me or the other club mentor any questions they may have. They wondered how they should go about signing up for roles at future meetings and I said why not just do it manually for the first few months. At my last club, they passed around a binder with enough pages to sign up for a role several months in advance. I also told them that if they have signed up for a role and can't make it, it is their responsibility to find a replacement not the chair's.

I chatted with the other club mentor for a few minutes after the meeting. The club meets every two weeks and since I live 45 minutes away, I suggested we alternate at the meetings. She agreed to this plan so we mapped out what meetings each of us would attend for the next six months.

Meeting of December 7, 2011

2011-12-07T19:18:00.008-05:00

I gave my last speech for my Advanced Communicator Silver (ACS) award today. It's from the Advanced Communication Series Technical Presentations manual Here are the particulars:

Project 5 Enhancing a Technical Talk with the Internet

Time 12–15 minutes

Objectives

Understand the nature and process of a technical presentation supported with professional-level visual aids (Arrangements for this presentation should be made with your club's Vice President Education well in advance, taking into consideration the retirements for high-tech visual aids. Also, you should arrange to have printouts of your pre- and post- communications for your Evaluator to see at the lecture. Time mentioned does not include these other forms of sharing Information.)

Arrange pre-meeting communications via e-mail

Find or create a post-meeting Web site for further dissemination of information supporting or enhancing your verbal presentation. You may create a Web page and add it to your club's Web site, making use of podcasting, webcasting, or a basic Internet template

Use a desktop computer, word processor, a Web browser, a simple graphics program for photos and other images, presentation software as well as the venerable flip chart to support your presentation.

When I practiced the speech at home, I was able to cover a lot more than I did at the meeting. We started five minutes late because it took me a few minutes to get set up. I was grateful that my laptop remembered the settings for our meeting location's wireless; otherwise, I would've had to ask our host for the WEP key. I think the Timer really enjoyed the presentation because I stopped abruptly very soon after I saw the red light. He really got into it. He wanted me to continue and asked if I would finish the speech at another meeting. You know what they say about speaking though, don't you? Leave them wanting more. Another member taped the speech for me so I will put it up on my YouTube channel as soon as I get it from him.

I showed the group how to apply for an award at the end of the meeting. Our President logged into the TI site. I had typed in my speech titles in a PowerPoint slide so we just cut and paste them into the appropriate fields on the web site. You choose the dates using a drop down calendar. After our Pres. logged out, I logged in to check my profile. There was my ACS! If you click the "+" sign to the left of your award, your speech titles and the dates you gave the speech are displayed. So are the names and series of the two presentations you have to give for the ACS. See below.

*Date*		*Supporting Information*			*Requirement*
12/07/2011	Technical Presentations			Technical Presentations
12/07/2011	Interpretive Reading			Interpretive Reading
12/07/2011	00007772		Wolfedale Electric Club	ACB
12/07/2011	Toastmasters on the World Wide Web			Project 5 Title
11/16/2011	A Christmas Carol			Project 4 Title
10/26/2011	Expense Management for the Self-Employed			Project 1 Title
10/12/2011	Introduction to EFT			Project 4 Title
09/07/2011	Introduction to Computers			Project 3 Title
08/24/2011	The Primerica Business Opportunity			Project 2 Title
03/16/2011	Ulysses			Project 3 Title
03/02/2011	The Prophet			Project 2 Title
02/09/2011	A Christmas Carol			Project 1 Title
12/01/2010	I Have a Dream			Project 5 Title
10/20/2010	SCS The Toastmasters Educational Program			SCS The Toastmasters Educational Program
10/13/2010	SCS Finding New Members for Your Club			SCS Finding New Members for Your Club

The speech was called Toastmasters on the World Wide Web. I had intended to cover not just our club web site and the TI web site but also Facebook and LinkedIn. Anyway, I'm glad it's done. I've contributed a point towards our DCP. Now on to the last two manuals and my Advanced Communicator Gold.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, several of the other members of my club have caught the speaking bug so I don't foresee us being short for speakers any time soon.

I find the Table Topics have improved substantially in a very short period of time. Repeated instruction to the effect that a table topics response is a mini-speech with an opening, body and closing has worked. Almost all the participants repeated the question before they gave their own response. This is progress!

Meeting of November 30, 2011

2011-11-30T16:35:00.002-05:00

We had an unusual meeting today. The speaker did Project 4 The Professional Seminar from the The Professional Speaker manual. He chaired and MCed the meeting with the theme being evaluation using Edward Debono's 6-Hats thinking method. The other speaker continued his thread on creativity also referring to Dr. Debono's work. Although I've attended some seminars on this method, I haven't done much with it. Perhaps something to investigate in the months ahead.

Our dual member brought his DTM plaque and medal. I thought it was a generic medal but they put your name on the back! He is a big man but quite reserved. I was surprised that he brought these items. They have obviously given him much satisfaction and pride. We all congratulated him on his big achievement. I think he said it took him nine years. I guess I shouldn't be so hard on myself because it will take me just over five years.

Not including me, three of our members have caught the speaking bug. :) It's amusing to me that I say the same thing to everybody and some get it and some don't. But my last club was like that too. Our organization is big on awards and has a path for us to follow so we can earn these awards. It's that simple. I guess that's what they mean when they say "You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink." Again this is why there are so few DTMs. It takes a lot of stick-to-itiveness to get this award.

Genivar GTA Toastmasters

2011-11-30T06:38:00.005-05:00

I spoke at Genivar GTA Toatmasters. I modified The Quiet Revolutionary to be more inspirational and gave it as Project 10 from the CC manual. Although the content was superior, the delivery sucked. I was stiff and my mouth became really dry five minutes into the speech. I've never had this happen to me before. I had been sipping water from when I arrived so I'm rather surprised this happened. I think it is also an indication that I haven't been doing much speaking lately. Also, the crowd was a little tougher than when I gave it back in the spring because they hardly laughed at the main joke.

I've been appointed their Club Mentor. I advised them to meet weekly but they said that the results of a survey were that the majority of respondents only wanted to meet alternate weeks. There are two club mentors so my guess is that only one of us needs to be present at each meeting for the next six months. The job description is at http://www.toastmasters.org/mentoraclub. My role ends May 31, 2012.

Successful completion of this assignment is a requirement for the Advanced Leader Silver (ALS) award. I only have one speech left for the HPL and I'm hoping to get that done by the last meeting of 2011 so I'm hoping to complete the ALS by May 31, '12.

I congratulated a Toastmaster who had completed her DTM before the fall conference. They gave her the DTM medal there. I don't think I've actually seen one of these medals because so few people go the distance. If everything goes according to plan, I hope to receive the medal at the 2012 fall conference.

Meeting of November 23, '11

2011-11-24T08:02:00.003-05:00

The table topics theme was "discrimination." Wow. I was the first speaker and was asked if there are any pluses to discrimination. This is how I responded:

"The words discriminate and discrimination have a negative connotation because of what Europeans who came to North America did to the native and African peoples. The words are largely associated with a person's skin color with white-skinned people giving dark-skinned people a hard time. But the expression 'discriminating taste' suggests that the word implies good judgment in aesthetics whether that be in clothes, food, wine etc. So in that sense, discrimination is good."

One of our members was obviously delighted with my response because I'm sure he didn't think there were any pluses to discrimination. As General Evaluator, I later commented that this was the second time we had a controversial theme for our table topics. I said that I didn't have a problem with this but generally Toastmasters steers us away from these kinds of topics.

Unfortunately, I had to double as an evaluator. This is the problem with a small club. Our Grammarian also served as Timer. I evaluated our member with the walker. He held on to it as he spoke and I commented that it would be better for him to sit on a stool for example so that he could use his hands and arms freely as he spoke. I also praised him for keeping a straight face as he told us some of the humorous incidents in his life. He glossed over his salutation and I told him that in my opinion, the salutation should be done slowly making eye contact so it is seen as an act of respect not just a formality.

Our timer passed the timing device to his left when he spoke and looked towards the front of the room as he spoke so he was unable to see the timing device. I believe he spoke longer than 2' 30". I advised the Table Topicsmaster that he should ask the Timer to lead the applause at 2' 30". The Timer did in fact do this when our guest was speaking. He belongs to another TM club and they practice clapping down people at 30" past the red light. I also advised the members to say "Mr. Topicsmaster" instead of "Mr. Table Topicsmaster" as the former rolls off the tongue more easily.

I announced to the group that I am no longer their Club Coach because my appointment ended June 30 and that I have asked our District Governor to give us a club coach. Our president acknowledged my contribution to the club and said that whether or not I am formally the Club Coach or not, the members should still see me as a resource considering how long I've been a Toastmaster and how involved I've been with the organization. That was nice. I think he knew I was disappointed that I didn't have until June 30, 2012 to get the club to distinguished level.

One of our guests came to the meeting close to the end. I see no point in this. I think it would have been better for him to just wait until next week. If you come early, you can be part of the meeting from beginning to end.

I'm looking forward to giving my last speech for my Advanced Communicator Silver (ACS) but I'll have to wait another two weeks because three of our members are gung ho about achieving their awards and want to speak next week. Being a lunchtime club, we can only accommodate two speakers per meeting.

I enjoyed the meeting.

MWTC AGM

2011-11-17T07:18:00.009-05:00

I chaired the annual general meeting (AGM) of the Meadowvale West Tennis Club (MWTC). Last year, everybody was all over the place at tables, the president was the chair and secretary; it had an informal atmosphere to it, discussions were long and drawn out, with one member in particular trying to call the shots. So being Secretary this year, I instructed the Board on how to set up the meeting room. We set up two rectangular tables at the front of the room where the seven-member board sat (one of our board members relocated out west and the other member is visiting India where he is from) , and just chairs for the audience. I got approval earlier in the year to purchase a gavel and sound block. I got them from Trophy Craft in Mississauga (http://www.trophycraft.com/). The gavel has an engravable band. You can see them by clicking the MISC link at the Awards for Champions web site: http://awardsforchampions.info/. Here are pictures:

I was challenged twice by two different members when doing the nominations. I checked the correctness of my actions in my copy of Roberts Rules of Order in Brief and so informed the two members. They did not challenge me again. The moral of the story is that you must bring this important book with you when you chair and have the ability to look up things quickly. We were done in two hours and the member who had been disruptive last year was very well behaved this year.

So even a rudimentary knowledge of parliamentary procedure is necessary for running a meeting. Being chair at Toastmasters meetings in the past has helped me in being Secretary this year at my tennis club and will help me again as I was acclaimed Secretary for the next season.

Meeting of November 16, 2011

2011-11-16T18:32:00.004-05:00

I was the second speaker today. I did Project 4 from the Interpretive Reading manual. Here are the particulars:

Time: 10-12 minutes

Objectives:

- Adapt a play for interpretive reading

- Portray several characters in one reading using voice changes as movement.

I did two scenes from A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, one of my favorite authors. The first scene has Ebenezer Scrooge's nephew Fred visit him at his office and the second scene has Jacob Marley's ghost visit him in his home. I had the film version with Alastair Sim as Scrooge in mind as I was doing the reading. I was so loud with Marley's ghost that the receptionist opened the door to our meeting room and asked if we could keep it down. :)

So that was the last speech in that manual. One more to go to achieve the Advanced Communicator Silver!

We had two guests today, one who is starting with the company that hosts our club. I met the other guest at yesterday's demo meeting; he is a Toastmaster with a club in Markham. He did the role of Timer. One of our members informed us that he had achieved his DTM; he is a member of another club and he achieved it there. He said he was going to start over and do another DTM. I jokingly said he was a glutton for punishment.

Another enjoyable meeting!

Toastmasters Demo Meeting

2011-11-15T17:52:00.003-05:00

To get the Advanced Leader Silver award, one of the requirements is to have served successfully as a club sponsor, mentor or coach. I went to a Toastmasters demo meeting in Markham because they will need a club mentor. I found out recently that my role as Club Coach of my club came to an end on June 30 because I had been appointed club coach on June 12, 2010 and my first year was deemed to be 2010! Interestingly, if you go to http://reports.toastmasters.org/reports_new/dprReports.cfm?r=6&d=86, it still says the award is pending.

Although the club is a bit of a distance from where I live, they are planning to meet every other week so it shouldn’t be that bad. I drove in with the Lieutenant Governor of Marketing and he came from London! My appointment will go into effect when they charter.

Meeting of November 9, 2011

2011-11-10T06:46:00.006-05:00

Our sole speaker did Project 3, The Sales Training Speech from the Professional Speaker manual in the Advanced Communication Series. He spoke for close to 20 minutes without notes. In his opening, he asked questions sometimes of the whole group and sometimes of individuals. He gave us a handout which required us to fill in some blanks. I think this is a good way to engage an audience.

In my evaluation, I praised him for:

1) his opening in which he interacted with the audience

2) his handout

3) his enthusiasm.

My value-adds:

1) include periods of intensity with more mellow periods.

2) slow down when you tell a joke and give the audience time to laugh. Wait until they stop laughing before you start speaking.

3) Use more humor, one joke isn't enough for a speech this length.

I have no doubt that he can become a trainer which I suspect he wants to be given the things he talks about.

The theme of the meeting was "Memories" because Friday is Remembrance Day. Here are the table topics:

1) The philosopher George Santayana said "Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it." Someone said "Let us destroy the past by burning all the history books and any other media that records the past. That way there will be no past to forget and thus to repeat." Was that someone right? Is that what we should do?

2) What is your fondest memory from childhood.

3) Remembrance Day is a holiday for bank and government employees but not private sector employees. Should it be a holiday for everybody?

4) Movies like American Graffiti and The Way We Were are designed to create a feeling of nostalgia. We often hear the expression, "taking a stroll down memory lane". And people often talk about the "good old days". Is this just the media doing their thing or is it natural for human beings to long for yesterday?

5) Psychologists tell us that every time you access a memory, it changes. Do you believe that?

Our member with the disability chaired the meeting and served as Toastmaster. It was his first time and he handled it well.

I think everyone really enjoyed the meeting.

FreeToastHost 2.0

2011-11-03T07:17:00.002-04:00

I cut our web site over to the FreeToastHost 2.0 platform. We have until February to do so but the new look is more in keeping with TI's rebranding and w're trying to attract people to the club so I thought it best to cut over sooner rather than later. The new URL is http://wolfedaleelectrictm.toastmastersclubs.org/.

I didn't back up the files that were on the old web site so I'm hoping I still have them on my PC. If you are planning to do a cutover, ensure you back up all files (including pictures) on your present web site before the cut over or they will be lost. Fortunately, there were no pictures on our web site. I didn't read the manual and assumed that all the information on the old web site would be ported to the new one. Guess I've been out of the IT business too long.

Meeting of November 2, 2011

2011-11-02T15:46:00.003-04:00

We only had one speaker today. He did Project 1 The Keynote Address from The Professional Speaker manual. He spoke for twenty minutes without notes. As he is handicapped, he has to stand with the assistance of a walker. Well done. He talked about Muhammad Ali and Nick Vujicic, the Australian who has no limbs. He also shared some personal stories with us. I wasn't his evaluator but I later told him that it's okay to sip water when you feel your mouth drying up.

I'm saving this manual for the last five speeches of my Advanced Communicator Gold. I had been advised by a DTM to pick manuals for my ACB that had shorter speeches than this one. He also advised me to stay away from the Humorous Speech manual until I had more experience writing and giving speeches. That was good advice.

We had a guest who is a Toastmaster so we got him to take a role in the meeting.

I was Table Topicsmaster and gave the following topics based on the theme which was humor:

1) I talked about the Division B Contest and then I asked which style of humor do you prefer, slapstick or subtle and why.

2) What was the funniest thing you've ever seen or experienced whether from your own life or from a comedy?

3) I mentioned our motto, "Where Leaders are Made" and also said that in Toastmasters, we tell people that public speaking is a learned skill. Are people born funny or can they taught to be funny?

The members all gave good responses to the questions.

Division B Humorous Speech & Table Topics Contests

2011-11-02T09:17:00.004-04:00

The Division B Humorous Speech & Table Topics Contests took place last night at the Region of Peel. The Humorous Speech Contest was first. One Toastmaster chaired both contests. There were seven contestants: two women and five men. I was happy that many older Toastmasters chose to compete. I was not a judge but I placed the second place winner in first place and did not place the first and third place contestants. The results concern me as I believe that the judges gave way more weight to delivery in loud, slapstick styles of humorous speaking that use props than to discreet styles. I think that the wrong message was sent: if you want to win a Toastmasters humorous speech contest, use a loud, slapstick style and use props.

The other female contestant that I placed spoke about taking up dancing. She did not use a mike and she did not speak very loudly which I think contributed to her not placing. But the speech was full of humor with references to her husband and his involvement. The other contestant that I placed spoke about the transformation of hockey parents into "Mr. or Mrs. Hockey Hydes". He also spoke about his wife and her transformation into a Mrs. Hyde. A good speech topic for Canadians whose national sport is hockey. Neither of these contestants used props. I enjoyed both speeches very much and was very disappointed that neither contestant placed.

Our District Governor came to the contests and stood up as the contest chair was doing post-contest interviews to tell him that he should not interview the contestant who was taking part in the second contest. I missed that one completely.

The topic for the Table Topics Contest was "FACEBOOK". I was the fourth to speak and I talked about the three qualities that I believe Mark Zuckerberg displayed in becoming a multi-billionaire through the creation of FB and encouraged the audience to read the book The Accidental Billionaires and see the movie The Social Network. I did not use any humor and consequently I did not place. I'm not sure how to take this as I think I offered some significant content compared to the contestants that followed me. Obviously, I did not see the speeches given by the previous three contestants. Although I felt nervous, I had no feelings of anxiety before or during the contest. It would appear to me that the tapping I did back in spring has had a lasting effect. The documentary The Tapping Solution is being offered for $1 plus shiping probably as a loss leader to get you to sign up for monthly access to the Tapping Insiders Club. You can check it out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OMRr_NNRCg.

Meeting of October 26, '11

2011-10-26T23:15:00.003-04:00

Our Area Governor came to visit us today. I evaluated the speaker. He did Project 2 from the Competent Communication manual. He wished everybody a Happy Diwali and said some other things about the holiday. In my evaluation, I thanked him for his good wishes and suggested he do that at the beginning of the meeting or at the end. When you're scheduled to speak, you should do just that. He was very relaxed even though our Area Gov was there along with the President of another TM club who I had invited to our meeting.

The table topics were fairly controversial regarding immigration as that was the theme of the meeting. The Chairman knew the speech topic was immigration so that's what he chose for the theme of the meeting and the Table Topicsmaster just followed suit. I don't have a problem with this. The comments were all positive from both the immigrants and the locals. Interestingly, the immigrants outnumbered the locals which I pointed out when I spoke.

AGF Roadshow

2011-10-24T22:33:00.002-04:00

Don Connelly spoke at the AGF Roadshow held at the Burlington Holiday Inn. The audience just ate it up. Here's his web site: http://www.donconnelly247.com. He advised us to be great storytellers. I think somebody's trying to tell me something. That's exactly what Craig Valentine said. I thought people would be tired because he was the last speaker and supper had been served. But he put on a good show.

Triple Crown

2011-10-22T11:44:00.003-04:00

If you earn three or more awards in a Toastmasters year, you can find your name listed at the TI web site. It's called a Triple Crown award but you won't receive a certificate from TI.

1) Go to http://reports.toastmasters.org

2) Click on Additional Reports (this takes you to reports2.toastmasters.org)

3) On the left, scroll down to District 86

4) Under District 86, click on Annual Reports

5) On the right, under Annual Hall of Fame, click 2010-11

6) On the right, scroll down to the table Education Triple Crown Awards

The table is ordered in descending order by Count, followed by Member surname in alphabetical order:

Kabe, Prakash

ACB, ALB, CL

Speakers Think Tank

2011-10-22T11:08:00.002-04:00

I went to a Speakers Think Tank event at the Mississauga Central Library. Three speakers who had auditioned and won spots opened for Craig Valentine: Colleen Cole, Alexandre Matte and Jeremy Tracey. Colleen did a 10-minute informational presentation on social media, Alexandre did more of a spiritual speech on looking for the good in the city in which you live and Jeremy did a 20-minute motivational presentation using a couple of stories from his work. And then Craig Valentine spoke. I must've been asleep when he spoke at a previous District 86 conference. He blew me away. I got my $20 worth and then some from all four of these speakers.

Craig is American and is the 1999 World Champion of Public Speaking. A genuine and charismatic speaker if I ever saw one. His web site is www.craigvalentine.com. Craig asked us to visit two of his web sites, 52 Speaking Tips and 20 Stories Tall: www.52speakingtips.com and www.20storiestall.com. I'll pass on these sites to a couple of members of my club who I know will eat up what's there.

Speakers Think Tank (STT) is the brainchild of Susan Lamb (www.susanlamb.ca) and Merri McCartney (www.merrimaccommunications.com), the Immediate Past District 86 Governor. I am so grateful to Toastmasters. How else would I have come into contact with two such fine people. Susan later said that the three opening speakers now have the distinction of saying they opened for Craig Valentine. Wow. That would be a nice thing to put on your speaker bio.

I'm looking forward to attending more functions of STT in the months ahead.

Meeting of October 19, 2011

2011-10-20T05:42:00.005-04:00

I was Table Topicsmaster today. The theme of the meeting was "competition" because of the Area 36 Contests on Monday. Here were the topics I gave:

1) It is possible to become a Distinguished Toastmaster (DTM) without ever entering a speech contest. Should the requirements be changed so that you have to enter at least one contest to get your DTM?

2) In Malcolm X's day, the Nation of Islam did not permit its members to enter competitive sports. Do you agree with this philosophy?

3) Janis Ian sang a beautiful song called "At Seventeen". One of the lyrics is "... when choosing sides for basketball" which has do with being the last one chosen. If you were a physical education teacher, how would you go about choosing sides for basketball?

They gave me one: Is it possible to become a good speaker by speaking only at Toastmasters events? My response: Yes it is. I used to do the Information Nights at the organization where I do volunteer work. There are no expectations from the audience when I speak compared to Toastmasters functions where it is known what awards I hold. A Toastmasters audience will expect me to speak without filler words, with vocal variety, gestures and structure. In other words, you will be held to a higher standard than you would at a non-Toastmasters event.

We had some time so I talked about the contests, congratulating our president for his 2nd place finish. I talked about storytelling as being a superior method of table topics responses than simply spewing facts. It is my strength to give a response which is factual but this lacks creativity and is not entertaining. I suggesting keeping a story file of the stories in our lives. Review it often so the stories are fresh in your minds and use them in your prepared speeches and in your table topics.

I also talked about Toastmasters meeting protocol. Quite often, members say "thank you", return to their seats and leave the lectern unattended. I told them that the lectern is the focal point of a Toastmasters meeting and can never be left unattended. The last two words of their prepared speeches should be "Mr / Madam Toastmaster", they should wait until the Toastmaster comes up to the lectern, shake his / her hand, then return to their seats.

One of our members addresses all presiding officers as Mr Toastmaster so I explained that a Toastmasters meeting is divided into segments, each of which has a presiding officer. You only need to address the presiding officer because the chairperson at that point is simply a member of the audience.

Our president felt that I was not being fully utilized as club coach which is why I decided to do some teaching. The group was very appreciative.

Women in Primerica

2011-10-20T05:37:00.002-04:00

My business partner gave me a ticket to attend the Women in Primerica event at the Mississauga Convention Centre on Tuesday. Peggy Hightower was the keynote speaker. You can see her doing a similar keynote on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z52-Ozh2ucs. This woman can talk! There were a number of other women who also gave some fantastic speeches.

Area 36 Table Topics Contest

2011-10-17T23:04:00.006-04:00

I won the Area 36 Table Topics contest. The topic was "believe" and I talked about the book, The Magic of Believing by Claude Bristol. The book is based on spiritual principles and Bristol recommends that the reader list their greatest desires and make an effort to believe they will come true. I said to start small. Don't think that you will buy a lottery ticket and believe you will win. Instead believe that there will be a parking spot for you close to the entrance the next time you go shopping.

I was the 3rd contestant in a field of four. Although I didn't get the official time from the Timer, I stopped speaking soon after I saw the yellow light so I would say about 1 minute 40 seconds. Any time I've been Table Topicsmaster, I've told people to take 10-20 seconds to gather their thoughts before they start speaking. I didn't follow my own advice this evening. Also, I didn't do a very good conclusion.

The fourth speaker didn't have a clear opening, body and conclusion and she didn't really have much substance in her speech. She's very attractive, speaks well and spoke for a good two minutes. Her smile, confidence, body language and demeanor were enough for me to give her first place for delivery. So that would I mean I beat her in content.

The president of my club took part in the Humorous Speech Contest and placed second. He was the second speaker in a field of three. I was very proud of him. He's only been a Toastmaster for seven months!

Both the Area and Division Governors were there. Two lovely women both of whom are gifted speakers. I really enjoyed the evening.

Meeting of October 12, 2011

2011-10-12T20:21:00.002-04:00

I did Project 4 Presenting a Technical Paper from the Technical Presentations manual. I had taken a one-day Introduction to Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) and read quite a few papers on it but ended up downloading a PowerPoint presentation from www.eft-therapy.com which I modified to suit my knowledge of the subject and the time I had for the project.

I concluded with a demonstration using the problem of blanking out at an area contest I had participated in a year and a half ago. I told the group that it took only two rounds of tapping to bring my anxiety to a zero level.

The Toastmaster gave me a long and glorious introduction! The evaluator recognized that I liked presenting material I was quite familiar with and said he liked the way I was able to capture the essence of the subject and give the audience enough information to pique their interest. I went overtime by about a minute.

Here are the particulars:

Presenting a Technical Paper

Time 10–12 minutes

Objectives

Deliver on interesting speech bused on a technical paper or article
Effectively use slideshow to illustrate your theme
Provide additional information, such as answers to questions, using a flip chart

Meeting of October 5, 2011

2011-10-12T20:03:00.002-04:00

I was Table Topicsmaster today. The theme of the meeting was "Thanksgiving" so I gave the following topics:

1) You are the MP for this riding and President Obama is coming to Parliament. Since Canada and the United States are the only two countries in the world that celebrate Thanksgiving, you feel that the collective feeling of gratitude would be greater if our two countries celebrated the holiday on the same day -- Canada's day of Thanksgiving. You've spoken to Prime Minister Harper and he has agreed to let you address President Obama.

2) You are a vegetarian and you've decided to stand on a soapbox in the local park and speak against the slaughter of turkeys.

3) You are American. PM Harper is visiting Washington and you saw the previous table topics participant on YouTube and you think that Canada should celebrate Thanksgiving on the same day as the U.S. You've spoken to President Obama and he has agreed to let you address PM Harper.

4) The member from China got this topic: The Chinese government has heard about your accomplishments in Canada and has invited you to speak to their government about why China should celebrate Thanksgiving.

Project 3 The Nontechnical Audience

2011-09-07T17:17:00.002-04:00

I did Project 3 The Nontechnical Audience from the Technical Presentations manual. Here are the particulars:

The Nontechnical Audience

Time 10–12 minutes

Objectives

Understand the principles of communicating complex information to nontechnical listeners,
Build and deliver an interesting talk based on these principles.
Answer audience questions that arise during the presentation,
Illustrate your message using a slideshow with presentation software

I gave an introduction to computers using PowerPoint. I had a slide listing my credentials and work experience. The next slide was about why I had chosen this topic. In my experience, when I was in the computer business, my clients did not give their employees enough training to use their PCs to the max. I noticed a great deal of fear among them when something went wrong. I consider the computer to be the most powerful tool ever created by mankind and that it was counter-productive to sit employees in front of this great tool and give them no training.

The next slide had a quote from the novel Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula Leguin along the lines of when you can name something, you have power over it. I mentioned this because I felt that it was important for PC users to become familiar with computer terminology: RAM, hard drive, hardware, software, operating system and so on. I mentioned that every field and sport had its jargon and I mentioned terms from Toastmasters and tennis.

I spoke for just over 12 minutes including a couple of questions from the audience.

Meeting of August 24, 2011

2011-08-24T17:22:00.004-04:00

I did Project 2 The Proposal from the Technical Presentations manual. Here are the particulars:

Time 8–10 minute speech, 3–5 minute Q&A

Objectives

To prepare a technical presentation advocating a product, service, idea, or course of action.
To present your viewpoint logically and convincingly, using an “inverted-pyramid” approach.
To effectively use presentation software on a laptop computer to illustrate your message.
To effectively handle a question-and-answer period.

I used my laptop and a projector. I gave a disclaimer at the beginning. The PowerPoint presentation was created by someone else but suited my needs. It had color, photographs, pictographs and a little animation. The audience enjoyed it. I went overtime by a couple of minutes for the presentation but was on time for the Q&A. My evaluator felt I needed to personalize it more but otherwise clearly met my objectives.

I'm working through one other advanced manual. There's one project left in that one and three left in this one. I gave a good speech for the first project in this manual about expense management for the self-employed and was going to do a follow up for the second but when I came across the presentation, I felt that I should do it as I will be doing it for a non-Toastmaster audience sometime in October. It'll be considerably longer for that audience.

I almost got into an accident on the way to the club (almost rear-ended the car in front of me when the driver decided rather abruptly not to go through the yellow light) but I wasn't at all flustered when I set up the equipment and did the presentation.

It's been a while since I spoke and I enjoyed taking the stage. I have no regrets about the time since the last speech as it's been a nice summer and I've had a chance to play lots of tennis. There will be plenty of speaking opportunities in the fall and ample time to prepare.

Primerica Consortium

2011-08-24T17:15:00.002-04:00

I went to an all day Primerica Consortium. I was shocked by the caliber of speakers they had. I don't know if any of them are Toastmasters but I think not. It appears to me that they have developed their skills just through watching other presenters and by actually doing the presentations. They used humor continuously but still got their message across. In other words, they didn't just get up on stage and perform a comedy act; there was a lot of meat for us to digest.

I told one of the members of my Toastmasters club that he would've enjoyed it. I'll be sure to invite him to the next one.

Volunteer Information Night

2011-08-24T17:06:00.002-04:00

I did another Volunteer Information Night with the same presenter as before. Although she is a much younger woman, I don't know how different the dynamics would be if my co-presenter were a man or if there weren't such a big age difference. I think co-presenters must have respect for each other and share the stage to whatever extent each wants. It wouldn't make a difference to me whether I spoke one tenth or one half the time but I think the audience benefits most when we split it equally. I think my co-presenter would agree.

When we do the question and answer, I ask the attendees to speak loudly so I can hear them without having to ask them to repeat themselves.

Meeting of Wednesday, August 17, 2011

2011-08-17T20:16:00.004-04:00

The theme of the meeting today was "Rapport". There was one speaker and I was his evaluator and also General Evaluator. The young man I evaluated a couple of weeks ago spoke at the club last week and was a guest today. He is thinking of joining our club because he sees that there are plenty of speaking opportunities. You can imagine how happy I was to hear this! He is an enthusiastic Toastmaster and we need some more like him!

The speaker did Project 9 Persuade with Power. His conviction and desire to speak are evident and I mentioned this in my evaluation. I was waiting for him to say something specific but for the most part he spoke in generalities and I was not sure exactly what he wanted me to do after the speech. So I mentioned that as well as WIIFM (What's In It For Me?). In his opening, he gave a quote by Walter Cronkite but weakened his reference by saying "I don't know if you know who he is." If you are unsure if the audience knows who a person is, qualify your reference by saying something like, "Walter Cronkite was an American broadcast journalist, who served as anchorman for the CBS evening news for 19 years". That will give the famous person credibility and provide the audience with some information about him.

The Table Topicsmaster asked me how I would go about motivating members of our club to buy into the Toastmasters Education Program (TEP). Obviously a loaded topic! I said it is unlikely that this can be done. I used myself for support of my statement. When I first came across Toastmasters way back when, I hardly ever went to meetings and had no plan in place for achieving the various awards. There were other people who had joined the club at the same time or afterwards who were achieving their awards in a timely fashion.

"You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink." I said that when you have a club of at least 20 members (the number required to charter), there will be people who will pursue their awards and achieve them and there will be people who won't so it's not an issue. But when you have a club that is our size, it is an issue. So what we want to do is not to kill ourselves trying to motivate our few members but to increase our membership to 20 and you can almost guarantee that we will have a few dedicated Toastmasters who will never miss meetings and who will buy into the TEP.

I turned the question on him after the last table topics speaker asking him to agree or disagree with my hypothesis with support either way. He disagreed and felt people could be motivated.

In my general evaluation, I told the group that Toastmasters meetings are divided into segments with a presiding officer in each segment. One of the duties of the presiding officer is to instruct the Timer when to turn on all three lights. The Toastmaster did not do this. The Topicsmaster did not say how long the table topics should be but he did state that a response should be a mini-speech with an opening, body and close.

I enjoyed the meeting.

Risky Business Toastmasters

2011-08-02T16:24:00.003-04:00

There were only nine people at the meeting today. I served as Evaluator for the one speaker. He is disabled and has to use a walker even though he's a young man. He did Project 9 Persuade with Power. It is supposed to be 5 - 7 minutes long but he spoke for 8 minutes. I didn't say anything about it and he was not clapped down as would normally be the case. I think the attendees did the right thing.

In my evaluation, I praised him for his self-deprecating humor. He did it on three occasions. The evaluation form talked about the self-interest for the group and I didn't think he addressed this point so I suggested that he do something like ask us what our most challenging day was in the past week. Then tell us something like just getting from his bedroom to his bathroom is a challenge for him. I liked his use of proper nouns and figures. Specifics are good. I told him some other things privately that I'm sure will help him. I invited him to come speak at our club.

I had asked the Chair to put me before the reports so I could be timed and have the Ah Counter count my filler words. I spoke for 3 minutes but at this club, they only have 2-minute evaluations. This is not how it's done at contests so I'll speak to the executive about it. I think three minutes is a reasonable amount of time for an evaluation.

The Table Topicsmaster had what looked like a crossword puzzle on the flip chart. She asked for volunteers who then gave her one of the numbers listed and the column -- across or down. She would then write the word. As the theme of the meeting was family history, her words had to do with family history. My topic was "black sheep". I had no trouble speaking to this topic in that I was the black sheep in the family because growing up, academics were stressed and athletics were not. I enjoyed sports and I used to love watching the Olympics but I was the only one who did!

I was the oldest or second oldest person in attendance. It's good to see so many people in their 20s and 30s attending meetings and getting the most out of their membership. I was very early to the meeting because I still haven't got the route fixed in my mind and I like being 5-10 minutes early. On the way home, I went a different and less confusing way and that is the way I'll go next time.

I do wish some of the members from my club would come and just see how a different club is run. I'm sure they would enjoy it.

Meeting of July 27, 2011

2011-07-29T08:05:00.002-04:00

I chaired the meeting of July 27, 2011. We had one of our members redo his icebreaker. The theme of the meeting was "heat wave" because of the heat wave we've had recently. The Table Topicsmaster chose his topics accordingly. The grammarian chose two words, "hot" and "heat".

My topic was how do I handle situations where either I or another person have reached the boiling point with each other. My response was that I physically take a step back from the other person and I also count to ten in my mind. After my salutation (Mr. Topicsmaster, Fellow Toastmasters and Welcome Guests if there any), I always restate the topic. I then answer the question and in this case I also talked about why I think this technique works. The Topicsmaster had given us 2 minutes but I only talked for a little over a minute. When I first started at my last club, we occasionally made the Topicsmaster do a topic. I did that today.

I think we need to do a table topics workshop as I did not think the responses today were coherent mini-speeches with an opening, body and closing. I found some of the responses to be all over the place and not as interesting as they could have been. To some extent, I think this was because the participants started speaking as soon as they stood up instead of taking even 20 seconds to come up with a good response. I'll bring this up at the executive meeting.

Risky Business Toastmasters

2011-07-29T07:59:00.003-04:00

I attended a meeting of Risky Business. They had three speakers. The first one talked about going on a firewalk with Tony Robbins. The second one talked about the Caribbean island that she's from. The third one talked about her challenges with her mother-in-law. She had the greatest vocal variety and voice projection. This is important for a room the size they meet in.

They have their reports before their evaluations. I suggested they reverse that order because evaluations should be timed and the results included in the Timer's report.

I enjoyed the meeting.

ORMOND SpeechMasters

2011-07-13T06:29:00.002-04:00

I went to a meeting of Ormond SpeechMasters (http://ormondspeech.freetoasthost.biz/). They meet on Tuesday evenings from 6 - 7:30 pm at the Comprehensive Cancer Center at Florida Hospital Memorial Medical Center. They had two speakers both of whom did projects from the Advanced Communications manuals.

I was late to the meeting so I wasn't introduced at the beginning. The Toastmaster said at one point that she had been in Ontario and people up there were more pale than in Florida. When I spoke I said that I didn't think her comment applied to me. That got a laugh and allowed me to make some suggestions about their agenda and the importance of having evaluators read objectives. Also their banner was outside the room and I said that I felt it was important for the banner to be in the room.

Toastmasters on the Halifax, Daytona Beach

2011-07-10T09:25:00.002-04:00

I went to a meeting of Toastmasters on the Halifax, Daytona Beach, FL (http://halifax7286.freetoasthost.com/index.html). They meet on Thursdays from 6 - 7:30 pm at the University of Phoenix. They have a spacious, well-lit meeting room with windows on the ground floor.

They had two speakers, the first one did her ice-breaker. The second one brought her iPad 2 and hooked it up to a projector. Looks like a pretty cool device.

They do table topics after the speeches and they announce eligibility for best in each category. I won best table topics. The TTmaster asked about moving to Volusia County and taking on a political position. Considering my recent involvement in politics, this was an easy topic for me to speak about.

The president asked me for my thoughts at the end of the meeting and I gave them lots of things to think about. This is the first time I've ever attended a non-Canadian TM meeting but it appears that American TMs are just as warm and friendly as Canadian TMs! I'll try to attend a different club meeting before I leave.

Last meeting of the 2010-11 Year

2011-06-29T15:55:00.002-04:00

We had two speakers today and the meeting started five minutes late so we had to skip table topics. Too bad because I had some good topics. Our second speaker gave his 10th speech and completed his CC. That is enough for us to be a distinguished club.

The theme of the meeting was "last" because it was the last meeting of the 2010-11 Toastmasters year. At the end of the meeting, I brought up the poor attendance of last summer even though the club only met every other Wednesday. I anticipate a similar attendance this summer which is why I recommended we meet at Risky Business because I think they have lower attendance in the summer months as well. By combining our meetings, we could have a larger number of members at a meeting. No motion was made and no vote taken so as it stands we will continue meeting weekly. Because of other commitments, I told the others that I wouldn't be able to make the next two meetings.

So my presidency comes to an end. I'm somewhat glad because I am going to focus 100% on completing the remaining speeches to get the Advanced Communicator Silver (ACS) and Advanced Communicator Gold (ACG) awards completed at the rate of about one speech a month. I'm looking forward to it.

Meeting of June 15, '11

2011-06-16T07:20:00.002-04:00

I hadn't explained to our chairman that he sets the theme of the meeting, then the grammarian chooses the word of the day based on the theme, and the Table Topicsmaster chooses his topics based on the theme. The meeting feels disjointed otherwise. As General Evaluator and as evaluator for our honored guest Susan Lamb-Robinson, I took the opportunity to educate the group on speech writing using Susan's speech. I explained to the Topicsmaster how he should choose speech topics. I thanked the the chairman for acting as Sergeant at Arms and told him that he can't wait for members who had signed up for roles to show up. I said that this is a lunchtime meeting and if we have to double up, we do it because the meeting has to start as close to the set start time as possible.

A couple of people we hadn't seen for a while came to the meeting. These people are good Toastmasters but I know for a fact that work often prevents them from coming. I would rather see them join an evening club as they are not getting the most for their money by being members of our club.

Conservative Party of Canada Convention

2011-06-13T10:09:00.002-04:00

I went to the 3-day Conservative Party of Canada convention held at the Ottawa Convention Centre. I stayed at the University of Ottawa residence which is less than a 10-minute walk from the centre. Our prime minister, Stephen Harper, sure is a good speaker. He uses a lot of humor. He gave a speech at the Chateau Laurier during the Leaders Circle lunch and he also delivered the keynote on the first day. He switches from English to French easily and speaks French much better than many of the other non-Francophone MPs.

The Pundit's Panel session had a pundit who used a huge amount of filler words. I doubt that he is aware of this. Being a Toastmaster, I hear it loud and clear but I wonder if the non-Toastmasters in the audience hear it the way I do.

Club Officer Training (COT)

2011-06-07T15:49:00.002-04:00

I attended the Club Officer Training (COT) at Mississauga Secondary School yesterday evening. I got there at about 6:20 pm. They had the usual fare: samosas, cut up fruits and vegetables and sushi. Kathryn Mackenzie was the keynote speaker. Her theme is based on the characters from The Wizard of Oz. My son liked the movie when he was a child but I didn't use it as a means to teach him any lessons. I think he enjoyed the movie in a way that a child would so I let it go at that. But I liked what Kathryn did with it. I have yet to do a keynote but having watched her do it, I think it would be fun especially if you were to choose a theme as universal as The Wizard of Oz.

Our trainer has of course been Treasurer at his club which puts him in a position to train us. He used the slides from TI. He also took snapshots from the TI web site to show us what we have to do to enter dues.

I've never done this role before and I'm looking forward to it.

Elections

2011-05-25T20:48:00.002-04:00

We finally had our elections! Every position was filled through acclamation. Our newest member is going to be our Sergeant-at-Arms. The only position left to fill is the VP Public Relations. This is the first time I've ever run an election. I had my President's manual with me as it shows how. There was enough time to have a table topics and one of our members, who will be our next President, served as Table Topicsmaster.

Risky Business Toastmasters

2011-05-10T14:07:00.002-04:00

I won't be able to make our meeting tomorrow so I went to Risky Business Toastmasters. The table arrangement is a horseshoe. The table topicsmaster wrote down a list of things on the flip chart, started with the first person to her left and went around the room giving each person 45 seconds because the meeting had started late. They start clapping when the red light comes on as it did for a few of the participants.

The speaker spoke about being separated from her husband. She kept it together but it was an emotional topic for her and one I wouldn't tackle. The evaluator was very empathetic. I think speaking is tough enough without having to talk about something so personal so I tell people not to speak about emotional topics like this.

In my guest comments I suggested that table topics be done randomly because those of who sat further along the horseshoe had an unfair advantage. I enjoyed the meeting.

Dawn Frail at Brampton Toastmasters Open House

2011-05-10T13:48:00.002-04:00

I went to see Dawn Frail at Brampton Toastmasters Open House. She opened with a story. The comfort level she has is obviously through years of practice. She talked about Myers Briggs. I'm not all that familiar with M-B but I think I've had an assessment. It's hard to believe that a professional speaker would have difficulty with table topics but that's what she said. Even though Dawn is a pro, she still belongs to a TM club. Our district governor and the area governor were also there. They served lots of good food afterwards. I enjoyed myself. I guess we need to have an open house at our club.

Federal Election

2011-05-03T09:27:00.002-04:00

We had a federal election in Canada yesterday. I hope you can appreciate the value of a Toastmasters membership after all the speeches and debates you've seen the various leaders give and participate in. At the end of an election, a leader has to give a victory speech or a defeat speech. Both Gilles Duceppe and Michael Ignatieff were dealt a crushing blow. I can imagine how difficult it was for these two as they saw where the election was headed and what they would have to do and say when it was all over. I didn't see their speeches but I did see Stephen Harper's and Jack Layton's victory speeches. It's going to be an interesting four years...

Limitless

2011-04-27T07:31:00.007-04:00

I took my family to see the movie Limitless on Good Friday. We all loved it. The movie has been on my mind since then. There was a scene in the movie where Eddie's girl friend, Lindy, is being chased by Hank Atwood's henchman, and hides behind some rocks. She is scared to death and is advised by Eddie on a cell phone to take an NZT pill because the effect of the drug is that it opens up possibilities which will get her safely out of this predicament. She does so and within seconds, the transformation shown by the look on her face is complete: she is no longer scared and zeros in on three weapons: hedge trimmers, a baseball bat and the blades of skates in a nearby skating rink. She chooses the skating rink and runs out of the rocks, across the park and into the skating rink with the henchman on her heels. About halfway across the rink, she grabs a little girl and with perfect timing swings her around cutting the henchman's face with the blade of one of the skates. You can see the scene on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VI7-NSyz_1M.

I was thinking of the parallels between her situation and table topics. We need to relax when given our topic and let our mind zero in on no more than three responses. We pick the best one and like Lindy head for it full throttle adding drama if possible and end with a powerful conclusion.

Had Lindy stayed in her panicked state, the henchman would have found and killed her. So to avoid death in table topics:

- relax,

- wait for as many seconds as you need to allow no more than three solutions to come to your mind,

- pick the best one,

- go for it with gusto and

- end with a powerful conclusion.

Meeting of April 6, '11

2011-04-06T18:40:00.003-04:00

I did the Grammarian role today which was my last role for my second Competent Leader (CL) award. This gives my club another DCP point for a total of 3.5. I will also be awarded the triple crown for completing three awards in the Toastmasters year. I served as evaluator for the second speaker who gave an impromptu speech. It's interesting to have another member of our club who likes speaking as much or more than I do. I couldn't believe how much he knows about Hinduism even though he's Caucasian. Our guest today was the District 86 Sergeant at Arms. He was our Quizmaster. The Chair didn't know he's a Distinguished Toastmaster when she asked him if he could time while the Timer gave his icebreaker. I mentioned that elections for club officers will take place in a month. The Toastmasters International web site has club officer role descriptions and pdf manuals for each role. The new officers will each receive hard copies as well and get training from the District; the club pays for training. Considering the size of the club, I may have to take a role in addition to being Past President.

Meeting of Mar. 30, '11

2011-04-01T20:58:00.002-04:00

I was the General Evaluator today. We had two speakers. One of them did his icebreaker again. The other loves to speak and did his 3rd speech. I'm now only one role away from another CL which will give my club another DCP point putting us at 3.5 points. The member who did his icebreaker only has to do his tenth speech to get his CC giving us another half point to take us to 4 points.

Our guest spoke for quite a while when asked to introduce himself. Whenever I'm chair, I always ask guests to keep their introductions to thirty seconds or less. I think we could have had at least one more table topics participant if the guest had kept to 30 s. I'm sure he spoke for three minutes.

I later called up two of our members who haven't been showing up to see if they intend to renew their membership. One of them called back to say he was.

Division W Evaluation Contest

2011-03-25T23:20:00.002-04:00

I was the target speaker at the Division W Evaluation Contest. It was held at the Arts Lecture Hall at the University of Waterloo. I left early because westbound traffic on the 401 can be quite heavy. I got there about 6 p.m. which was half an hour before the start of registration. The contest was supposed to start at 7 p.m. but it actually started at about 7:15 p.m. The hall can seat about 180 and I would say there were at least 70 people there. I sat in the bottom row in the corner seat. My area governor came and sat with me. The Immediate Past District Governor, Doreen Hillier was there as was one of my first mentors in Toastmasters, Isobel Hershaw.

I fixed the printer problem and printed a nice clean mind map which I took to the contest and put on the lectern. I delivered the speech flawlessly. Isobel was very happy for me.

There were a couple of reasons for my success:

1) I slowed the delivery considerably and paused between the opening and body, between each point of the body, and between the body and the closing.

2) I breathed more deeply than I had at the Division B contest.

One of the evaluators suggested that I do a mirror image of how I held up my arms to illustrate Cambridge, MA to Palo Alto, CA. Another evaluator recognized that it isn't my style to sing and dance. They gave me a generous gift card to cover my gas and the $3 parking.

I feel redeemed by this experience. This was a location I've never spoken at to an audience of mostly people I don't know. Finally.

Division B International Speech & Evaluation Contest Pictures

2011-03-24T17:33:00.003-04:00

Division B International Speech & Evaluation contests

2011-03-17T09:44:00.005-04:00

The Evaluation Contest was first. I was the third evaluator in a field of seven contestants. The target speaker spoke about King Henry IV. It was hard to follow his speech because of the number of characters he spoke about. I felt rushed during the five minutes which we have to prepare. I used my template but decided to present differently from the way I usually present. This was my downfall. I started off with a quote by Jim Rohn and went on about how we measure the success of a speech. I did not give much in the way of commendations or recommendations. I was surprised to see the red light and wanted to get the heck off the stage so I rushed the ending. Here are the results:

1st Place: Joseph Thomas

2nd Place: Patrick Douglas

3rd Place: Vishal Badiani

For the International Speech Contest, I was the fifth contestant in a field of seven contestants. My delivery was flawless until I got to the closing at which point I lost my place. This is what happened: my printer malfunctioned before the contest so I hand drew my mind map but I put the whole map on one sheet of paper. I crammed the closing into the bottom left corner of the page. I was using my mind map mentally to work my way through the speech. When I got to the closing, all I could see was the illegible writing on the page. I recovered but left out a few lines. I left the stage somewhat in anger that I had messed up again. Interestingly I placed second! If I had been a judge, I would've eliminated a contestant who stumbled as I did. Maybe I'm too harsh but the way I look at it, it's okay to stumble at a club meeting but not at a contest, particularly a Division Contest.

If for some reason, the first place contestant can't make it to the District 86 Contest, I go in her place. I am going to prepare for the contest as if I'll be going because I don't wish to stumble at District if I have to go.

Meeting of March 16, '11

2011-03-16T20:59:00.001-04:00

I was the second speaker today. I did Project 3 in the Advanced Communication Series manual Interpretive Reading as follows:

The Monodrama

Time 5–7 minutes

Objectives

Understand the concept and nature of monodrama.

Assume the identity of a character and portray the physical/emotional aspects.

I chose to do Ulysses by Alfred Lord Tennyson. Once again, I gave a thorough introduction. I used a book of poetry and turned to one side so as not to look at the audience. My evaluator said the reading got better as I relaxed into the character. He felt I should have used the lectern and put the poem on a single sheet of paper because I lost the means to use gestures because I was holding the book. He also said the ending was abrupt. I needed to use my voice in such a way as to let the audience know it was coming to an end. I came in under five minutes.

Area 36 International Speech and Evaluation Contests

2011-03-10T10:40:00.000-05:00

I won both the Area 36 International Speech and Evaluation Contests. The Speech Contest was first. I was the second speaker in a field of three contestants. I delivered my speech flawlessly until I got to the third point in the body. I stumbled and lost the value of the joke and the point. But I corrected myself and continued well. After the third speaker spoke, I felt sure I had placed second but I think that the judges must have felt that the delivery prior to the stumble and after were good enough to give me first place. I think my content was more substantial than the other two contestants.

I was the first evaluator in a field of only two contestants. I used the same template I had designed two years ago when I also won the Area Evaluation Contest but for a different area. The second contestant gave a good evaluation but my structure was better and very clearly separated so that the judges would know what the opening, body and closing were. I also think I made some good points where I added value to the target speaker particularly with his speech rate being too fast with few pauses and his abrupt ending. But he is an excellent speaker. He has it all: authenticity, enthusiasm, vocal variety, gestures, good use of the stage, speech content with good structure and superb delivery. Good thing we had the speech contest first. The judges might have been inclined to give him first prize!

I was feeling some anxiety this afternoon about blanking out at the International Speech Area Contest two years ago. I thought I had gotten over that but I guess I hadn't. I took a one-day course in Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) several years ago and a refresher course recently but never did much with it until today. After only two rounds of tapping, the anxiety was completely gone!! I couldn't believe it. I will definitely be doing more tapping for success in speaking and tennis.

Meeting of March 9, 2011

2011-03-09T18:05:00.000-05:00

I was General Evaluator today. I completed Project 8 in my second CL manual. Two more meeting roles and I will be able to apply for my second CL and give my club another DCP point. Our Area Governor came for his second official visit. I was hoping for a larger turnout but he was kind enough to be Table Topicsmaster. He started a story and passed it to the person on his right. Some of us came up with some ridiculous or whimsical responses and there was a great deal of laughter during the session.

The Area Governor brought up tomorrow's Area Contests and I brought up the Division Contests. Our VP Education has had trouble coming to meetings so I spoke to another member and asked if she would be willing to take over. I later emailed the VP Ed and she graciously stepped down. Here is the email I sent the future VP Ed:

Xxxx advised me that we should have an election next week for VP Education. The job description is at http://www.toastmasters.org/whenyouarethevicepresidenteducation.aspx. I will nominate you and advise everyone that you are a good candidate because you never miss meetings. I will ask Yyyyyy to give you her VP Ed manual; in the meantime, you can go to http://www.toastmasters.org/WhenVPE.aspx and download the pdf.

Yyyyyy and you will each get 6 months credit. Serving as a club officer is a requirement for the Advanced Leader Bronze (ALB) award.

Next week you and I can figure out a way to track our members' progress and get them working in their CC and CL manuals.

Thanks for stepping up.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

We had a new member join today and I want to get him another new member working on both their CC and CLs. The new member did his icebreaker And the other new member redid his icebreaker.

Volunteer Information Night

2011-03-09T17:59:00.000-05:00

I co-conducted another Volunteer Information Night. My comfort level in front of an audience is very high. It's different from speaking at a contest in that there are no judges and there's no problem using notes. I did make the mistake of not bringing notes because my partner said she would bring them and she didn't arrive until 6:55 pm and we had agreed that we would meet at 6:30 pm. Lesson learned. She cannot control traffic and we have to allow for that in the GTA. Fortunately, some of the potential volunteers had brought their packages and there were informational pages included. I would've used these and tapped into my own knowledge of the organization to conduct the session if my partner hadn't shown up.

District 86 Appreciation Brunch

2011-03-06T13:49:00.000-05:00

I went to the District 86 Appreciation Brunch for club Presidents, and Area and Division Governors at the Delta Meadowvale Conference and Resource Centre. The food was great and the keynote speaker, Eric Stoltz, was amazing. He gave an inspirational keynote and he had the audience in stitches. His wife is a Toastmaster. This is the second year in a row that I've had the privilege of attending this event because I was an Area Governor last year. Nice of District 86 to do this for us.

Guest Speaker at New TM Club in Acton

2011-03-04T08:42:00.000-05:00

A new Toastmasters club is forming in Acton. The District 86 LGM who is a member of my club asked if I would speak there. He picked me up at my home on his way there -- he was to be the chair. I became somewhat ill in the afternoon developing a slight fever but I decided not to cancel. I'm not sure if my state resulted in forgetting what to say next at the halfway point in my speech. I'm sure glad I took my mind map. I didn't practice much so once again I paid the price. I actually left out some key items in the speech resulting in a finish time of 6'. This is too bad. I think the audience would've appreciated the speech more if I had delivered it as well as I had at the Area 45 Evaluation Contest.

The venue was the basement of a Catholic church but the organizer said they would be moving to the library. Lots more women than men, surprisingly. An eager bunch from what I can tell. I think they will come to appreciate the benefits of belonging to and participating in a TM club.

Risky Business Toastmasters

2011-03-02T15:36:00.000-05:00

I visited Risky Business Toastmasters on Tuesday. They only had one speaker who presented The Moments of Truth module. She did a good job with it. I suggested that they have blank name tents for guests and that they write the word of the day on the agenda. Very nice meeting room - spacious and well lit.

Meeting of March 2, 2011

2011-03-02T15:35:00.000-05:00

I presented Project 2: Interpreting Poetry from the Interpretive Reading manual in the Advanced Communication Series.
Objectives:
• To understand the differences between poetry and prose.
• To recognize how poets use imagery, rhythm, meter, cadence, and rhyme to convey the meanings and emotions of their poetry.
• To apply vocal techniques that will aid in the effectiveness of the reading.
Time: 6 to 8 minutes.

I chose The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran. My introduction was longer than 45 seconds (which was the time suggested in the manual). When I was practicing at home, I felt a more in-depth intro would set the stage better. This was a good call on my part because the evaluator praised the thorough introduction. I mentioned Gibran's life span, place of birth and death, and how it is that I came to know about him and why I chose to read the particular pieces I did. I read the pieces on love, marriage and children. I came in at 6' 25" which is funny because it was longer when I read it at home. I must have read faster at the meeting. The evaluator also suggested pausing longer after each piece so there would be a clear understanding that a different topic was coming. The General Evaluator was obviously listening because she said some things about marriage that echoed what Gibran had said. I must say that it feels good to complete a project. That's four projects I've completed towards my Advanced Communicator Silver (ACS).

We had a guest today! He participated in Table Topics and said he would return next week.

Target Speaker for Area 45 Evaluation Contest

2011-02-24T18:53:00.000-05:00

So I finally got the speech where I wanted it. I practiced it on my way to and from Cambridge which is about 45 minutes from where I live. I changed the ending at the last minute and so I still took my mind map and hid behind the lectern but I didn't use the mind map even once! Both the evaluators commented on the organization of the speech. The first one rambled and actually did something of a rebuttal! The second one commented on the fact that I had stood behind the lectern.

A member of the audience sent me an email commenting on the evaluations and what she thought of the speech. She described my style as one of "quiet elegance". This is very much the way I like to come across. I replied to her to thank her and stated that I was a big fan of Malcolm X's style of speaking. He spoke with conviction and passion, His knowledge and experience contributed to his authority and aura. I had felt that this was what public speaking was all about long before I knew who he was. It was my impression that many Toastmasters think that the song and dance style of speaking is what makes for a great speaker. I guessed they didn't know who Malcolm X was.

The Area Governor gave me a Chapters gift certificate as a token of her appreciation for being target speaker. All I got from the last two clubs was a thank you. :) No problem. If you want to be a speaker, you've got to speak.

I stayed for the Speech contest. I was quite saddened that one of the speakers was disqualified. I had thought he would win. I had emphasized the importance of time at my last club but I think the members felt I was too serious. Perhaps some of them need to enter a contest and see how it feels to be disqualified.

Meeting of Feb. 16, '11

2011-02-17T07:43:00.000-05:00

I gave the speech I want to give at the Area Contest if I get to go there. It's better than what it was when I gave it last week in that I took out the bit that the evaluator last week had said was unnecessary. I guess speech writing is no different from writing in that it's about rewriting. I got some good feedback as my evaluator asked all the attendees to give me a mini-evaluation.

Target Speaker at Sheridan Park Toastmasters

2011-02-17T07:41:00.000-05:00

I was the target speaker at Sheridan Park Toastmasters last night. I still haven't got the speech where I want it particularly the closing. I haven't practiced it enough as I had to refer to my mind map again. I did mess up the third point in the speech in that I gave the supporting material in the wrong order. One of the evaluators said my closing did not refer back to the opening. He was right and I'll fix it for next time. I left at the break.

Target Speaker for Lakeview Toastmasters

2011-02-10T21:15:00.001-05:00

I was the target speaker for the Lakeview Toastmasters Evaluation Contest. The agenda had the International Speech Contest first. I told the Chair that I had thought it would be the Evaluation Contest first. A couple of other people in the club had thought the same thing so they did have the Evaluation Contest first.

I asked the Chair to turn the lectern sideways as I hadn't practiced my speech much and would probably need to refer to my mind map. The map printed out quite small to fit on one page so it was somewhat difficult to see. Next time I'll create three mind maps, one for each of the opening, body and closing. I did need to refer to it a few times. I came in at 7' 20".

There were three contestants. The contestant who said that one of my examples illustrating a quality that the protagonist in my speech had but using a different character was too long and too scientific. He also commented on my use of notes. If I had been a judge, I would've given him first place because I would've given a similar evaluation. I was wearing an expensive shirt but obviously not a good one according to a different contestant because he suggested I dress up more!

I left during the break.

Meeting of Feb. 9, '11

2011-02-09T15:53:00.000-05:00

We had a good turnout and two of the guests joined! I did Project 1 of the Interpretive Reading manual as follows:

Read a Story

Time 8–10 minutes

Objectives

Learn and understand the effective interpretation of elements of a narrative.
Learn and apply vocal techniques that will aid in the effectiveness of the reading.

I read A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens from where the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come visits Scrooge to the end of the novella. It was well received even though I spoke for 11 minutes. I started off by giving a brief description of the author, story and why I chose it. One of our members suggested that it would have been easier to have photocopied the pages that I was going to read so I wouldn't have to flip pages.

Volunteer Information Night

2011-02-08T21:14:00.000-05:00

I finally had an opportunity to speak at a non-Toastmasters event. Another volunteer and I did the Information Night for potential volunteers. I had notes to refer to because I wasn't expected to give a prepared speech as such. There were about 14 people in the audience. The Volunteer Coordinator had asked me to do this after she had seen "public speaking" as one of my interests in my profile. I was completely at ease not necessarily because I'm a Toastmaster but because I'm a senior volunteer and have come to know the organization well. Still, I know that the more you stand in front of an audience, the more comfortable you get doing it.

Glen Abbey Toastmasters

2011-01-27T08:04:00.000-05:00

I visited Glen Abbey Toastmasters (http://www.glenabbeytm.freeiz.com/) in Oakville. They have a very spacious meeting room and the tables are arranged in a horseshoe pattern; the lectern is on wheels. There were about 20 members present and two other guests. They allow guest participation in table topics. The Topicsmaster handed out sealed slips of paper that were numbered. I got slip #5. During table topics, she called on the first speaker to open her slip of paper, told her she had a minute to prepare, and when she started to speak, the person with slip #2 should open their slip of paper and prepare their speech and so on. The first speaker was an experienced Toastmaster and said she didn't need the minute and launched into her speech. The theme of the meeting was "history" and this was my topic:

"What Canadian Prime Minister would you have liked to have dinner with, and what would you discuss?"

Each person only had a minute to speak. I answered Sir John A. MacDonald. I would tell him that I had seen a marvelous movie called Dances with Wolves which portrayed the native peoples in a very positive light. They have a rich culture with deep spiritual traditions as shown in the movie. Since the native peoples are the real founding peoples of Canada not the English or French as my elementary school history book had incorrectly stated, they should not be treated as second class citizens.

There was a fun parliamentary procedure session and because there were only two speakers, they had an evaluate the evaluator session. I enjoyed the meeting in that there were enough members to have a satisfying meeting but since I've become used to an hour-long lunchtime meeting, it did feel long.

The King's Speech

2011-01-22T07:50:00.000-05:00

I took my wife to see The King's Speech starring Colin Firth as King George VI, Geoffrey Rush as speech therapist Lionel Logue, and Helena Bonham Carter as the King's wife. I won't review the movie here but will just say that we both enjoyed it tremendously. I particularly like historical drama and with the generous amount of humor thrown in, it was very enjoyable. I encourage you to see this movie if you have any fear of public speaking or if you have a stammer or other speech impediment. I’m sure you'll leave feeling inspired that even people of privilege have the same challenges as the rest of us.

If you do have a speech impediment, I’m sure you’ll be moved by a poignant scene in the movie where the King, referred to as Bertie before he became King, reveals the unpleasantness of his childhood. He had a strict father, he was forced to use his right hand even though he was inclined to be left-handed, he received a painful treatment for his knock knees and he had a mean nanny who preferred his older brother. I inferred that Bertie’s stammer was to a great extent, a psychological problem, not a physical one.

You can listen to the original speech on YouTube at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAhFW_auT20.

Lakeview Toastmasters

2011-01-14T06:31:00.000-05:00

I went to a meeting of Lakeview Toastmasters. I had wanted to speak but they had 2 guest speakers already. One of them had been a target speaker at my last club; she has achieved her DTM. The other was Gregory C.N. Smith who did a workshop. I participated in a small act he did to illustrate the difference between focusing on your past (blunders) instead of your future (vision). He gave the three volunteers a copy of his book, Life's Loudest Secrets. Gregory is very sincere and enthusiastic. He talked about what he had done to prepare for the District 86 Humorous Speech Contest. He also won the District 86 International Speech Contest prior to that. It is definitely worth the time to attend a workshop put on by a speaker like this.

I was the first to raise my hand for Table Topics. The topic was the first time I rode a bicycle. I used a bit of the first speaker's content but forgot to use the theme of the meeting when I said that I have to be grateful for two people, my best friend Stephen and my brother who taught me how to ride a bicycle. I enjoyed the meeting.

HPL Part III - Action Phase #1, Winning Commitment to Your Objective

2011-01-08T10:27:00.000-05:00

I had a meeting with my guidance committee to cover Part III - Action Phase #1, Winning Commitment to Your Objective. The Project Plan & Timetable worksheet has a column for tasks and 12 columns for each of the 12 months beside it. Since we achieved 1 ACB, 1 ALB, 1 CC and signed up 1 new member in 2010, I recorded those tasks as having been completed from July to December 2010. Tasks remaining for January to June 2011 include completion of 1 ACS, 1 CL, 1 CC and signing up 2 more members next week, and 2 more members after that. As I mentioned in an earlier post, that won't get us up to charter strength but it will meet my commitment to the club. I tasked two members with canvassing the premises for new members. I tasked myself with putting advertisements in the local papers.

The meeting went well. I felt somewhat more motivated to push forwards with my role as Club Coach. I recounted my attitude as a new Toastmaster when I first joined Toastmasters many years ago, to my committee. Back then, I hardly ever attended meetings and had no plan for achieving my awards nor did I even consider taking on a role as a club officer. And I was single at the time! One of my earlier mentors said that doing well at Toastmasters could mean success in my company but as the saying goes, you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink. Members have to discover for themselves the benefits of achieving their awards in a timely fashion.

Sheridan Park Toastmasters

2011-01-05T22:52:00.000-05:00

I'd been meaning to attend Sheridan Park Toastmasters (http://www.sheridanparktm.org/) for a while and finally got around to doing so this evening. They meet in a meeting room at a church. The meeting starts at 7:15 pm but I thought it started at 7 pm so I was early. They asked me to be an evaluator. I was also the Jokemaster. I told the Albert Einstein and chauffeur joke. It went over well.

I was the first person to volunteer to do Table Topics. My topic was "winter hiking". I said that I prefer winter hiking to summer hiking because it can get very hot in July and August in Ontario making hiking very tiring and unpleasant. Winter hiking on the other hand, if you are properly dressed, can be very exhilarating. I said that I'd been a winter runner and had learned about specially designed clothing material that takes the moisture (i.e., sweat) away from your body very quickly. It's actually the sweat that makes you feel cold. I said that I don't believe that humans are designed to run but they are designed to walk or hike because I have never had an injury as a walker / hiker whereas I have had plenty as a runner, particularly with my knees. I ended by recommending winter hiking to everyone as a means of physical fitness and communing with nature. I tied with one of the other guests for best table topics.

The speaker I evaluated did Project 5 - Your Body Speaks. In my evaluation, I explained why we do evaluations and that an evaluation is simply an opinion of how well a speaker met their objectives. As I don`t like the sandwich technique, I never use it. I enumerated what I liked and why; then I enumerated points where I could add value and explained why and how. I came in at 3 minutes 30 seconds and won best evaluator. It's been a while since I evaluated a speaker as I've been doing so much speaking at my club and hardly any evaluating. I didn't have the form I designed for evaluating but I have the template in my head so all I needed was a blank piece of paper.

I had come prepared to speak and was a little disappointed that I didn't get to do so. So I told them that if they gave me at least 24 hours notice, I would come and speak if available. I invited everyone to my club.

Christmas Potluck

2010-12-08T17:14:00.000-05:00

We had our Christmas potluck today. The owner of the company where we meet is from India so no suprise that there were samosas, biryani and tandoori chicken. I took some hummus and shortbread cookies. We had a former member show up. She took on the role of Timer when we did Table Topics. I was watching her as she did her role. I wish she'd come back to the club as it would be nice to have some more experienced members.

We had an interesting Table Topics today. The Topicmaster asked us to ask three people in the group questions such as "What is your favorite color?" and then take the three answers and give a response. He said that he had seen a member of another club do this and give a 6-minute impromptu speech. He mentioned the rule of three. By speaking for two minutes on each answer, you will have spoken for six minutes.

I asked one member how many children she had, another member if he's still on his first wife, and a thrid member how many years he'd been out of school. Then I talked how long I'd been married, where my children are in their education, and what I expect of them in the years after high school. That was fun.

We established the agenda for our last meeting of the year. I got to take home some leftovers. :)

Meeting of December 1, 2010

2010-12-01T15:04:00.000-05:00

I was the Table Topicsmaster today. The theme of the meeting was Returning because one of our members returned from a visit to India. The topics follow:

1) Tell us about a time when you took a trip but were glad to return and why.

2) Tell us if you’ve had an experience with déjà vu and what happened when you “returned”.

3) This was for our Indian member: In a sense, even though you live in Canada now, you are returning to India and you are also returning to Canada at the end of your visit. Contrast the two returns.

4) For our young guest: How does it feel to return home considering that you`ve been on your own for several years.

Although we didn’t vote, I would’ve given the best table topics to our guest. He gave a good account of the separation of his parents and the importance of supporting his mother but with the benefits of her cooking.

I spoke again today. I did Project 5 - The Oratorical Speech from the Interpretive Reading manual. Here are the Objectives:

To understand the structure of an effective speech
To interpret and present a famous speech

I did Martin Luther King’s I Have a Dream. Andrew Dlugan has done an excellent analysis of the speech so please go there and have a look: http://sixminutes.dlugan.com/speech-analysis-dream-martin-luther-king/

In my introduction, I gave a brief history of the African peoples and how they were kidnapped and brought to this part of the world as slaves; I talked about Abraham Lincoln, the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, Gandhi’s influence on King, and my own experience growing up as a visible minority in 1960s Halifax, Nova Scotia. I had indicated that I would be speaking longer than the upper limit of the time range for the project and spoke for about 16 minutes.

The evaluator liked the introduction and said she felt as if she were back in 1963 as I was reading.

Meeting of Nov. 24, '10

2010-11-25T08:31:00.000-05:00

Our speaker bowed out and I'd been wanting to introduce this club to mind mapping so I gave my mind mapping speech as Project 8 using a new Competent Communicator (CC) manual. It's based on Dr. Dilip Abayasekara's article Mind Mapping - A Powerful Tool to Unlock Your Creative Genius (www.drdilip.com/mind_net.htm). This time I actually drew a couple of primary component branches of a mind map for a member who is giving her icebreaker next week. Since we don't have a projector, I passed around copies of my mind maps for my previous speeches including the most recent one for which I had used FreeMind. I made copies of Dr. Dilip's article for all the attendees.

I invited a guest who is a director on my tennis club's executive. He'd heard of mind mapping but it was something new for everyone else.

I had wanted to make a motion to change the name of the club but we didn't have a quorum so I just asked everybody to think about a new name and proposed the name I have in mind.

The chairman talked about the District 86 conference. He really enjoyed the Humorous Speech Contest and the workshops.

Sharing Your Vision

2010-11-17T19:24:00.000-05:00

I gave my Sharing Your Vision speech today. I brought a mind map but hardly used it because I structured the speech so as to make it easy to remember. I concluded with a suggestion for a name change and came in at 6' 22". The speech was well received. Considering the number of new people we have in the club, it's no surprise that they didn't know it takes 20 members for a club to charter. My evaluator has been used to a club that has been well below charter strength since he joined and he admitted not knowing how important this is to the proper functioning of a club.

One of our members spoke with me privately about the challenge of English being her second language which I found interesting because this is the case for several of our members. I told her I knew lots of Toastmasters who didn't speak English as well as she did. She also thought that people whose first language is English didn't feel nervous in front of an audience. I cleared up that misconception for her! I printed role description sheets for Timer, Grammarian and Quizmaster for her and explained the protocol of Toastmaster meetings.

It was the first time for one of our members to be General Evaluator so I explained the role to her.

Parts I, II of HPL

2010-11-12T23:40:00.000-05:00

I had my Guidance Committee Meeting on Friday evening. We spent about two hours. going over Parts I and II of the High Performance Leadership (HPL) workbooks:

Part I – Learning about Leadership

Complete the quiz – Assess your Knowledge of Leadership
Assess current leadership skills by answering a questionnaire and plotting results on a model
Develop a list of leadership projects to choose from
Recruit a Guidance Committee

Part II – Choosing your Objective

Describe in writing the vision for the project
Write a mission statement based on the vision
Define core values for the project
Plan and present a speech about the project

My committee consists of two Toastmasters from my last club. They liked what I had to say for Part II. First, from what I can gather, Toastmasters clubs that are not at charter strength (20) will have a hard time of surviving because there simply won't be as large a pool as necessary for meetings and for club officers. Again from what I've seen of Toastmasters clubs, on average only 3/4 of the membership shows up at meetings. For a 20-member club, this is 15 members. It takes 9 members to have a Toastmasters meeting: Chairperson, Toastmaster, Table Topicsmaster, General Evaluator, Timer, Grammarian, Quizmaster, Speaker, Evaluator. This leaves 6 members for the audience. This is a good meeting because members just want to be a part of the audience sometimes. They don't want to be forced to do a role at every meeting. At election time, there are 20 members to draw from for club officer positions. To be successful as a club coach, I have to increase the membership by 5 but in our case this won't get us up to charter strength so I have some work ahead of me.

Second, I likened the Toastmasters Educational Program to the curriculum of a 4-year university degree but at a fraction of the cost. We explain the program to new members and get them to buy in to it. From what I've been able to conclude, on average, members take eight years to get their Distinguished Toastmaster (DTM) awards but I argued that we should encourage members to do it in four years. I believe only 1% of Toastmasters finish their DTMs and I think to some extent, that figure is so low because most members don't go through the program fast enough. If you give one speech per month, you should be able to finish your DTM in four years. The one speech per month rate gives you momentum and keeps you involved. Robert Ringer writes in one of his books that if you have some rules for yourself and then make an exception, the exception becomes the rule. So... one speech per month with no exceptions even if that means speaking at another club if required.

Third, I've seen the transformation that occurs with a lot of people who join Toastmasters. They go from teeth chattering, knees knocking, stammering speakers to solid, confident and poised speakers. Everybody progresses at different rates and as somebody said to me about another program I was involved with, "As you work on the program, the program works on you." Until members see this happen to another member, I don't think they will believe it can happen to them. Again it's very important that we have the 20 members and that they are all signed up for the DTM so transformations occur for different members at different times.

Meeting of November 10, '10

2010-11-10T22:18:00.000-05:00

One of our members didn't show up so I took his place as Evaluator. We had two icebreakers today. The 2nd icebreaker was from a member who's been with the club for three years. One of the guests joined today and I expect we will have more guests join next week. I explained table topics and how to handle it but I think it will be a while before people become comfortable with it -- it certainly took me long enough.

High Performance Leadership

2010-11-04T13:53:00.000-04:00

I`ve selected my guidance committee for my High Performance Leadership (HPL) project. I gave each of them their handbooks. I`ve been motivated to get started on this because I`ve enoyed being on the guidance committee for another Toastmasters who`s doing his HPL. I plan on having our first meeting within a week.

Club Officer Meeting

2010-11-04T13:37:00.000-04:00

I reviewed the Distinguished Club Plan (DCP) and said I felt we would meet the 5 goals required to be a Distinguished club as we have 2.5 now but I didn’t think we would be able to attract 5 new members if we were to stay at the present location. Moving to the trial location would give us 4 or 5 new members. The owner of the building is a member and he is very pro-Toastmasters. I expect that his enthusiasm will bring more members to the club. The other officers agreed. So we have a new location!

I found an interesting post at

http://www.sgmaverick.com/CompanyInfo/ToastmastersInternational/tabid/186/Default.aspx

Evaluate Your Club Name: Do you think your club name attracts, or repels, potential members? Two years ago, our club name was Executive Toastmasters. That name fit in the 1980's. Recently, we discovered the word “executive” was a turn-off for some people and they could not identify with us. We changed our name to Community Toastmasters and almost immediately we had a newer and stronger connection with people in our community. Is your club name working for you?

I’m inclined to think we should change our name now that we have a new location. I will find out how to go about doing that and then put it to the club.

The last item on the agenda was the Christmas party. We decided to have a potluck on December 8^th. Our last meeting of 2010 will be December 15^th. I’ll let the club know so one of the members can organize it and get CL credit.

Meeting of November 3, 2010

2010-11-04T12:02:00.000-04:00

I was the only speaker today. I did Project 1, The Technical Briefing. Here are the particulars.

Time 8–10 minutes

Objectives

Using a systematic approach, organize technical material into a concise presentation.
Tailor the presentation to the audience’s needs, interests, and knowledge levels.

The speech was entitled ``Expense Management for the Self-Employed.`` I talked about a system I designed for myself and my wife who does some consulting to manage our expenses. I asked how many people were self-employed and three people put up their hands. I said that I had adopted the mantra "Manage your expenses, minimize your taxes" when I first became self-employed; while I wasn't expecting them to adopt my system, I hoped they would adopt my mantra and be motivated to come up with a system of their liking.

The system consists of four components:

1) A 12-pocket accordion file labeled with the months of the year.

2) A portafile with pockets labeled with categories such as "Taxes" and "Utilities".

3) Quicken for Home and Small Business

4) A weekly planner

In the body of the speech, I went into greater detail about each component and offered tips to make expense management easier. For example, last night I had used my wife's car and had put gas in it. So I immediately wrote Corolla and my initials on it, circled the date, and wrote ``Nov. 2`` beside it so there wouldn't be any confusion about which digits were the month, date, year. I process receipts weekly, downloading transactions to Quicken for each bank account and credit card. If there is a one-to-one correspondence between receipts and transactions, no further investigation is necessary. Otherwise, receipts need to be found or transactions need to be investigated to find out whether or not they are authorized. The only receipts that need to be kept are for expenses that fall into one of the categories on Canada Revenue Agency for T2125 Statement of Professional and Business Activity.

I came in at 10`14``. My evaluator didn`t have any suggestions for improvement. This was my first speech towards my Advanced Communicator Silver (ACS).

Meeting of October 27, '10 at Different Location

2010-10-28T00:55:00.001-04:00

We had our meeting at a different location today. Our Sergeant-at-Arms picked up the banner, lectern, gavel, stopwatch, and timing device from our normal location on his way to the meeting. We had four guests, all employees of our host's company, and four members. The guests did three of the roles: Timer, Grammarian, Quizmaster.

The theme of the meeting was "elections" because we had municipal elections on Monday. I was Table Topicsmaster and because we had so many guests, I explained that a table topic response is a speech with an opening, body and close. To make it easy to respond to a topic, participants should relate the topic to their knowledge / experience. I gave the following topics:
1) One of the candidates for Councillor of my ward said that there should be a 2-term cap for Councillors; there should not be any "career councillors". Do you agree with this candidate?
2) The reelected mayor of Mississauga is 89 years old. Some people have said that she is too old for this position. Should we have a maximum age for the position of mayor?
3) With Rob Ford becoming mayor of Toronto, some people are saying that the next provincial election will be a conservative sweep. Are these people correct?
4) What qualities are you looking for in your councillor and mayor?

One of the guests answered the last question and it was unofficially the feeling in the room that she gave the best response!

We only had one speaker although I had put together a speech for Project 1 of the Technical Presentations manual.

I have proposed that we have two more meetings there to see how our members find the drive and how the guests feel about joining the club and having us meet there "permanently" They were all very positive.

I suggested that the Timer and the Grammarian repeat their roles at our next meeting because they are now familiar with them. I also suggested only one speaker next week so we could have a brief club officer meeting.

Pins for achieving ACB, ALB

2010-10-21T06:38:00.000-04:00

I received my pins from the District 86 Lieutenant Governor of Education and Training (LGET), Avis Brodie. They are so well organized! The District 86 Governor, Merri McCartney, chose the theme "Soaring to Excellence". See the logo to the left.

Area 36 Table Topics Contest

2010-10-21T06:13:00.000-04:00

I participated in the Area 36 Table Topics Contest held at Loblaws at the corner of 407 and Mississauga Road. The address is 1 Presidents Choice Circle. I was the 2nd speaker in a group of 5 contestants. The chairman did a great job. He instructed the Sergeant-at-Arms to show us the topic outside the room; she would then let us in and we would wait there while he announced our names and the topic which would give us a few seconds to prepare as we walked to the lectern.

The topic was "passion". About 2 months ago, I was at a round robin at my tennis club; the man (Arthur) who organizes this weekly event told me that tennis is his passion. That was the first thing that went off in my head when I saw the word so I went with it. I suggested that it was important we discover our passions and then let nothing stop us from engaging in them. I used some humor when I said that Arthur was on his 2nd wife and I didn't know if that was because of tennis. I said that engaging in activities that we are passionate about is a means of connecting with our souls and thus with God. I quoted Eric Liddell from the movie Chariots of Fire, "I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast. And when I run I feel His pleasure." I saw the green light and kept on talking. When I saw the yellow light, I concluded by saying that when I play tennis, I feel God's pleasure.

That was good enough to get a 2nd place. I didn't see the first contestant but I predicted correctly the three who would place.

Meeting of October 20, '10

2010-10-21T05:51:00.000-04:00

The table topic today was on growth and having spent the last month getting my house ready for winter, I spoke about the growth I've experienced in the use of tools. I lived in apartments most of my life and my dad wasn't the type to fix things so a lot of what I've learned about home repair is through asking questions, enlisting the help of friends, and trial and error. The benefits are saving money, satisfaction and a happy wife!

The paralysis I used to feel when doing table topics is gone. If you get a chance to go to a workshop on table topics, I highly recommend you do so.

I presented the Toastmasters Educational Program module from the Successful Club Series. We have the old version when the Competent Communicator (CC) was called Competent Toastmaster (CTM), on overheads, so I modified the script but left the overheads unchanged. I may get some colored markers and change these as well. Or I'll just put it to the club that we should get a whole new set which will have CD-ROMs with PowerPoint presentations. I spoke for about 10 minutes as I didn't go into detail for each award. See below for the description from the Toastmasters International web site (http://www.toastmasters.org/300).

The great thing about the program is that you can bank your project completions / requirements until you apply for you award. In my case, I've now completed the two presentations required for my Advanced Communicator Silver (ACS) award and when I complete the projects in two advanced manuals, I can apply for the ACS award.

The Toastmasters Educational Program

Item: 300

Presentation Time: 10-15 minutes

Part of The Successful Club Series. What does it take to receive the Competent Communicator award? What about the Competent Leader? This module provides a terrific education program orientation. The information is valuable to new and experienced members. Includes a script and a PowerPoint presentation.

Discovery Toastmasters

2010-10-17T21:56:00.000-04:00

I went to a meeting of Discovery Toastmasters (http://discovery.freetoasthost.biz/index.html). They have a very relaxed meeting with lots of laughter. They thought I was going to speak but I didn't have anything prepared so I just took on the role of Ah Counter. I had my CL manual with me so I got another Toastmaster to evaluate me. There were 15 people there! Two members gave formal speeches and two members did educational presentations. Nine of the fifteen are not native speakers of English. Their meetings go from 7 - 8:30 pm. I also had my Go Outside Your Club form so I got the VP Education to initial it. I invited them to come to my club.

District 86 President's Reception

2010-10-17T21:49:00.000-04:00

I went to the District 86 President's Reception today. Felt a little strange to go there with a new District 86 Executive team at the front. Division B used to be at the far end. I actually felt a bit nostalgic.

Janice MacDonald handed out the awards to last year's area governors which would be picked up by this year's area governors to give to them. I received an award for Area 37 being a President's Distinguished Area because a new club, Brampton Speakeasy, had formed.

The guest speaker was Gregory C. N. Smith who won the District 86 International Speech Contest earlier this year. He memorized Marianne Williamson's "Our Deepest Fear" passage and recited it to us. I told him that I had recorded it and put it up on YouTube (www.youtube.com/passagemeditation).

Finding New Members for Your Club

2010-10-13T13:43:00.000-04:00

I took on the role of Table Topicsmaster and gave the following topics with the theme being that October is the tail end of getting things done to get your house ready for winter.

1) Who gets your house ready for winter, you or your spouse or do you pay people to do it and why.

2) Do you have any tips that may help us to do some of the work more effectively.

The topics were not hard so the responses were good.

I then presented the Finding New Members for Your Club module from the Successful Club Series. It's a requirement for the Advanced Communicator Silver award. The club has this series in overhead form, not PowerPoint. Here's the description from the Toastmasters International web site (http://www.toastmasters.org/291):

Finding New Members for Your Club

Item: 291 Presentation Time: 10-15 minutes

Part of The Successful Club Series. Ways to help you seek out those vital new members!

I came in around 10 minutes and used the script but only as a guide which is the way it is meant to be used; i.e., it is not meant to be read. I took the most recent copy of the Toastmaster magazine to display it because one of the overheads made reference to it.

One of the advantages of being a member of a small club is that there are plenty of speaking opportunities.

High Performance Leadership Guidance Committee Meeting

2010-10-08T06:14:00.000-04:00

I'm on the guidance committee for a Toastmaster doing his High Performance Leadership (HPL) project which is to organize an area contest. He's an area governor and both the other committee member and I are immediate past area governors. We had a conference call on skype. He asked some good questions. One of them was about email. I reviewed one of his emails and found that the particulars of the contests (time, date, location) were buried in the text. I suggested he organize it as follows so as to enable readers to extract the relevant infomation at a glance:

Date: Oct. xx, 2010
Time: 6 - 8 pm
Location: TBA

To help him keep track of all the players required, I suggested he use a checklist like the one at the Division B web site: http://www.divisionb.info/contest-tool-kit.

He will have to be in people's faces somewhat as we get closer to the contest date with emails that include the required roles, the names of the people taking on these roles and the roles that have to be filled. The names of the judges have to be kept secret; only the identity of the chief judge will be known. The tie breaking judge should be someone from outside the area. I advised him to call all the presidents of the clubs in his area if they were not responding to his emails. People can ignore emails but they can't ignore you when you are on the phone with them. I advised him to ask people to be ready to fill in roles in case people don't show up.

I recommended the book How to Get Your Point Across in 30 Seconds or Less by Milo Frank. The other member recommended The Hamster Revolution: How to Manage Your Email Before It Manages You. I'll have to check this one out.

I told him that I had single-handedly organized the first set of area contests during my term but recruited a group from my club to organize the second set. I said that I didn't think it was fair the first time because Toastmasters is about helping other Toastmasters. I had coached four members of my club to organize the the second set of club contests and a couple of them stepped up to the plate to help with the subsequent area contests. Once you've been part of a team to organize a contest, the task isn't so daunting. But you have to start planning early. The other member emphasized that participation gets you a CL credit.

This was useful because I will shortly begin work on my HPL and both these Toastmasters have agred to be on my guidance committee.

Meeting of Oct. 6, '10

2010-10-07T12:59:00.000-04:00

When you don't have enough members in your club, you have to double up on some of the roles at a meeting. I served as Chairman, Evaluator and Table Topicsmaster. Whew! Our guest took on the role of Grammarian. She was a Toastmaster but it was 15 years ago.

I like doing fairly meaty table topics so I gave the following table topics based on October being known for Halloween.
1) Since Canada is a predominantly Christian country, and Halloween is not a Christian holiday in any way, it should be abolished.
2) Halloween is celebrated on October 31 but this is inconvenient for many people if it falls on a Sunday or a weeknight other than Friday; therefore, we should celebrate Halloween on the last Saturday of October.
3) Some schoolteachers have suggested that wearing costumes to school or celebrating Halloween in any other way is distracting for many students so Halloween should not be celebrated in any way in schools.

We had enough time, so I gave everybody 2-3 minutes requesting that they speak for at least 1.5 minutes but not more than 3.5 minutes. Table Topics is not easy. The answers surprised me. You've got to be careful not to ramble or to give a response totally unconnected to the statement or question. Peter James's acronym SPOT for Salutation, Posture, Organization and Technique is a good thing to keep in mind as you put your thoughts together for your response.

Our only speaker finished his 11th CC! Wow. He has developed his speaking to the point where he speaks with no filler words (ahs, ums, etc.). He belongs to 4 Toastmasters clubs. His hard work has paid off! That's a half a point towards our DCP tally. We get the other half when another member of our club completes their CC.

In my President's report, I said that I felt we didn't have enough members to have a contest so we should just acclaim the members who were interested in participating at the area contests. I said I would like to participate in the table topics contest.