We had a great turnout at the Toastmasters Leadership Exchange last Saturday (12/12) in Manchester, CT and a number of people took advantage of our video setup and created videos for the D53 YouTube Challenge .
District 53's
Karin von Kaenel was officially dubbed by the 2008-9 National Hobo Queen (and current Area A4 Governor) Carmine Coco DeYoung at the Area A4 speech contest on Wed. Sept.30th.
Karin also received a certificate (so she can hang something on the wall when she is out walking with the walking stick) !
EVALUATION CONTEST
First Place – Michael Cummings, Cartus Magnus
Second Place – Don Lococo, Socially Speaking
HUMOROUS CONTEST
First Place – Daniel Rapley, Wooster Heights
Second Place – Croix Sather, WestConn
Third Place – Belle Garafola, Barnum Square
Pictured below (l-r)...
Dan Rapley, Croix Sather, Belle Garafola, Michael Cummings
From left to right...Jim Sacco estimates that his son Josh has watched "Miracle," the film about the 1980 U.S. Olympic men's hockey team's legendary upset of the Soviets, nearly 150 times. Apparently, the movie has made quite an impression on the young fan. ...... No professional coaching. No fancy editing. No script, because Rizzo hasn't learned to read yet -- he was just 4 years old when his father filmed the speech earlier this year, making it all the more remarkable.
One of my favorite authors, Seth Godin, had a short but insightful blog post today titled, "If Craigslist cost $1" and since the deadline for submitting Toastmasters dues is Oct.1st, I thought it would be appropriate to share his key point ....Money creates a sort of friction. In the digital economy, magical things can happen when there is no friction. You can scale to infinity. On the other hand, sometimes you want friction.
If you lead a group that allows anyone to join, for free, your group might be large, but it's not tight, it's not organized to make important change. Commitment slows things down in the short run, but ultimately aligns interests.If your club still needs to submit dues, please do it today (or tomorrow). If you are using a credit or debit card, dues can be submitted by a club officer via www.Toastmasters.org. Just be sure to get them paid before the deadline of October 1st.
We have all seen it on TV... the interview on the courthouse steps with a million microphones all crammed in front of the attorney's face.Now, you just have to come up with some scenarios to serve up to your club members as TableTopics !Preparing your Message for the Interview
- Don’t talk to reporters without giving yourself time to prepare the message.
- Don’t dodge questions!
- Answer the question in eight seconds or less and bridge back to your main message for the next 25 seconds or so.
- If a reporter asks you a complex, detailed, five-part question, focus on answering the one question that leads you back to talking about your message points.
- When listening to a reporter’s question (and you must listen very carefully), don’t think about how your vast database of knowledge can provide 10,000 new facts to answer every nuance of the reporter’s question. Instead, focus on how you can honestly answer the question in a way that allows you to talk about one, two, or three of your message points.
- Remember, questions don’t matter. The subject matters.
Michelle Russell over at copyblogger.com wrote an interesting article about writing ... which could very easily be applied to your speech for the upcoming Humorous speech contest.... Write for yourself, edit for your readers ...1. Find the spine of your content and stick to it
2. Cut the first paragraph
3. Don’t over-spice your words
4. Watch out for “creep-in” words
5. Cut exaggerations
6. Find a more precise word
7. Reuse the leftovers
This Word of the Day comes from the Norwalk (CT) Toastmasters via their new Area Governor, Peggy Jean.— in·sou·ci·ant \in-ˈsü-sē-ənt, aⁿ-süs-yäⁿ\ adjective
— in·sou·ci·ant·ly \in-ˈsü-sē-ənt-lē\ adverb
Here are some of pictures from District 53's training session for Area and Division Governors in June 2009. (Did you know that Area Governors and Division Governors had their own training session?)
Thought the following true story was worth sharing and repeating. Hope this finds everyone well.There we were…..stuck with nowhere to go, nowhere to hide and all bored to tears. Myself, Tim, Don and Scott all sat trapped in a conference room at the Millennium Hotel in Downtown Chicago.
For the last couple of years I have been attending a series of Sales Forum's of sales leaders from different industries and companies and this was by far the worst. The speaker was the Sr. Vice President of Sales for a company that all of us had heard of but will go nameless in case one of you has a friend, relative or happens to know this gentleman.
So why were we bored to tears? Because he talked about the one subject that none of us cared about, spent money to hear or travel hundreds of miles to listen to. Although it was our least interesting subject obviously it was the speaker's favorite subject. The subject was himself!
I couldn't believe it and I can't exaggerate how bad this presentation was. He had a slide deck that was no less than 25 slides and the first 8 slides were dedicated to this man up to and including a picture of himself on vacation displaying his burly white legs and whiter bare feet as he smoked a hookah pipe on the roof of a Middle Eastern restaurant.
He spent so much time talking about his background and his supposed successful turnaround of four operating divisions that when he finally got to content that the sales leaders in the room cared about he had ran out of time and had to click through the slides in rapid fire succession. It was a classic mistake that many of us have made before; we sometimes speak so much about what we care about that we are oblivious to the cares of our customers.
We don't always spend the time talking about us personally but how many times have you given or been part of a presentation where we simply go into our song and dance about the features and benefits of a product only to find out nothing about the needs of our customer or what they care about? If you've ever started a presentation by asking no less than a half dozen questions about the objectives of your customer, than I can guarantee that you are guilty of this! Every meeting or presentation should be started with a number of questions before the meeting and during the start of the meeting to get a feel for what is one the mind of the customer and what their priorities are for your product or proposal.
Make sure that each and every account call is focused on the one thing that matters most to the customers…..the customer. Whether in the business of sales or in your everyday relationships if all your focus is on yourself you'll find yourself a very unsuccessful sales person and a very lonely individual.
Bill Miranda
The University of Bridgeport has a nice article on the "News & Events" section of their website about the involvement of their students with the Greater Bridgeport Toastmasters club (click here).
Dave Wheeler has discovered Twitter.com ... and is becoming an active "tweeter" !
Don’t think you’ll have time to finish all your speeches by the end of the Toastmaster Year?
Well, Division A wants to say “YES you can” and to help you, we are pleased to announce our
Year End Super meeting
Speech-a-Thon and Membership Drive
King of Kings Church
543 Union Ave
New Windsor, NY
The day will consist of two Toastmaster meetings, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. This will provide an opportunity for up to 12 people (6 each in AM and PM) to give a speech and up to 12 people to serve as Speech Evaluator (for CL).
Also, up to 10 people (two each role) can serve as Toastmaster, Timer, Grammarian, Ah-Counter, and General Evaluator (for Competent Leader). (Note, there will not be Table Topics, just speeches). Roles will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis. The event is open to all Toastmasters and all Toastmasters are invited to bring guests (AKA potential members) as well. Membership information and forms will be available. Agenda is as follows:
9:00AM Registration/Gathering/social time
9:45AM Welcome and Introductions
10:00AM First Meeting starts
12:00PM Lunch / Registration for PM Session Only Attendees
1:00PM Second Meeting starts
3:00PM Wrap up
There will also be prizes for:
If you’d like to participate, please email Registration Chairman Andre White at dtxr2001 [at] gmail.com and ask for the applicaiton form.
It will be a lot of fun ! Don't miss it !
Neatorama.com had a recent post about a "new Stonehenge" in Georgia which ends with a question that would make for an interesting TableTopics session ...In 1979, an anonymous group erected a massive stone structure in Elbert County, Georgia. This modern-day stonehenge is more than twenty feet tall and arranged to serve as a calendar and a clock. Its slabs have instructions in eight languages for reconstructing society after the collapse of civilization. The instructions are more philosophical than technological, but perhaps nonetheless prudent:PROTECT PEOPLE AND NATIONS WITH FAIR LAWS AND JUST COURTS. LET ALL NATIONS RULE INTERNALLY RESOLVING EXTERNAL DISPUTES IN A WORLD COURT. AVOID PETTY LAWS AND USELESS OFFICIALS. BALANCE PERSONAL RIGHTS WITH SOCIAL DUTIES. PRIZE TRUTH—BEAUTY—LOVE—SEEKING HARMONY WITH THE INFINITE. BE NOT A CANCER ON THEIf you were composing brief instructions for survivors of the collapse of civilization,
EARTH—LEAVE ROOM FOR NATURE—LEAVE ROOM FOR NATURE.
what would you write?
Did you know that if you are a member of multiple clubs, you will get multiple copies of the Toastmasters magazine?... the magazines can be shipped directly to an address of your choice.
Simply contact World Headquarters and ask to have that extra copy redirected to another address. It can be sent directly to a local library, friend or business associate.To make this request, please send an e-mail to membership@toastmasters.org with your name and club number as well as the new name and address. A staff member will make sure your magazine gets a new home.
It’s always a good idea to ask permission of any office staff before leaving
copies.
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To all Toastmasters, Friends, Guests, and the Public
FREE - YOU ARE INVITED
Springfield Toastmasters Club
presents special guest
TOASTMASTERS WORLD CHAMPION OF PUBLIC SPEAKING
ROBERT GARTON
Thursday, May 7, 2009
7:00pm - 8:00pm
The Glass House
1380 Main Street, Downtown Springfield
(free on-street parking
and adjacent parking lots)
Mr. Garton earned the title of International Champion in 1962.
He is one of only 68 Public Speaking Champions in the world.
He later became a Senator for the State of Indiana for over three decades.
for information http://springfield.freetoasthost.biz
The Finalists:2008 is a compilation of the stories of the 2008 Toastmasters World Champion of Public Speaking Finalists and their path to the big stage.
The 2008 Finalists included:
Rich Hopkins
Robert MacKenzie
LaShunda Rundles
Martin Presse
Colin William
Charlie Wilson
Katherine Morrison
Henry Flowers IV
K. Loghandran
Jock Elliot
Seth Godin (one of my favorite bloggers) wrote an excellent post that finds a silver lining in the current economic situation...A lot of corporations have seen dramatic decreases in revenue and have cut back projects as well. In many cases, this is accompanied by layoffs, and so everyone is working far harder.
But in other organizations, and for a lot of freelancers, there's more time than work. In other words, slack time.
Assume for a moment you don't have money to develop and launch something new. So, what are you going to do with the slack?
What can you build over the next year that will take time now and pay off later?
1. Learn something. Become an expert.
2. Earn a following and reputation.
To these two things, I would add ... join Toastmasters !
Seth, as a speaker, you should know that 3 is the magic number ... and Toastmasters is where speakers practice their magic!
Kevin Wortman, winner of the District 53 Evaluation Contest last Fall, sends us some ideas about presentation / meeting skills that he picked up at the blog, SixMinutes.
As our district governor, Karin von Kaenel, often points out, "Toastmasters is about going from not having a voice to having a voice" and speaking up for yourself is obviously part of that process !
