Franklin Toastmasters Club Blog

Come, be in the audience for our contests

2011-08-17T13:10:00.002-04:00

We encourage visitors to come this week and next to be an audience for our club speech contests.

Tomorrow we will have a Table Topics Contest in which each contestant will be given a topic when they enter the room. They will then speak extemporaneously (without preparation) for 1-2 minutes on that topic.

Next week (Aug 26) we will have a Humorous Speech contest. Contestants will deliver a prepared 5-7 minute speech.

Winners will advance to the Area contest, held in early September at a location to be named (watch this space).

Come and be part of the fun. Picture yourself as a contestant.

Farewell, we hardly knew ye

2011-07-14T12:09:00.002-04:00

We just elected Mark Gleason to the post of President and now he's gone. Sometimes that's what it takes to jar things loose in our lives. We wish Mark well in his new employment and move to the Athens area. At the same time we think ahead to a special election to fill the gap.

The theme at this morning's meeting was "Revolutionary Road" chosen by Toastmaster Anamika Lodh. Table topics selected by Erik Jul used the theme and a related one from a Pete Seeger song, "Turn, Turn, Turn." We saw clearly that revolution (sometimes called change) is a recurring theme in our lives. This brought to mind Teresa Hedlund's speech last week (Change: a Curve In The Road) and her statement that change won't hurt unless we miss the curve.

The new executive board (with room for a new policy maker) wants to bring some change to you. No sharp curves--just a few gentle bends. Primarily we want to become (even) more friendly to visitors with more transparency concerning how we will meet their expectations. We think transparency (also known as communication) is the best policy and we will be working hard to have ready answers for all questions. We'd like to eliminate anything we do that might discourage a visitor (even to the web site) from becoming a member and eventually a Distinguished Toastmaster or a World Champion Speaker.

Join our gentle revolution.

Club Picnic 2011

2011-06-29T14:36:00.000-04:00

Our annual club picnic was held on Saturday, June 25th at Teresa's house. We had a wonderful time and Teresa (at left below) was a most gracious hostess, with Vallery doing an outstanding job of organizing. The untiring efforts of both of them certainly assured a successful event. As you can see (below center) there were lots of smiles going 'round, and (below right) Erik was his usual eloquent self.

One part of the festivity was a Toast & Roast. Chris Quinn, our departing club President was the target of the first, much to the amusement of all. To his credit, he had at least as many Toasts as Roasts. Yours truly (me) was on the receiving end of the other. It was all in good fun. The accolades sent my way were rewarding and produced some 'warm and fuzzy' moments for me. I certainly appreciated the comments and the 'gold star' award I received for the 'Web Page Hall of Fame'. My thanks go out to everyone with a short bit of advice I've read many times in the last few months: "do what you love to do and you'll never work a day in your life". I'm just havin' FUN!

s'nuff fer now.

s

Blog Change, TI Web Site Changes, and Other Tidbits

2011-06-25T08:24:00.003-04:00

First of all, I've moved the Follow button that's on the right side of the screen to just down below the picture of the club awards. It just seemed to me a better place for it. The big change though, is that I've picked a new layout from the supplied templates. It allows for more text on a wider screen. I'd like to change the background photo, but for now, it is what it is. Let me know what you think.

Now, more importantly, there are changes on the TI web site. Click on this link to go to the TI web page that has tutorials on these changes. This is important for new club officers, as it will show how to use the tools that TI provides on the web for:
Submitting member dues and applications
Viewing/updating/printing officer information
Updating the club mailing address
Applying for educational awards for club members

Remember all, that there's a great TM resource out there, the monthly TI Podcast (click here). There's some great stuff out there. See last month's session for an interview with Robin Sharma, author of The Leader Who Had No Title, and The Monk Who Sold His Farrari.

The Elusive "Follow" Button

2011-06-20T10:36:00.000-04:00

The Follow button is supposed to appear on the blue Navbar across the top of the screen between the blogger search entry frame and the share button. It doesn't always. However, when I add the gadget to Share by Email (meaning you want to get an automatic email when there's a posting) to the top of the right side links, it suddenly does appear. If I remove the gadget... it then disappears again. It's the blogger software that's at fault there. Their support web site shows several requests for help in this area... none of which have been adequately answered yet.

So go ahead now. you should be able to follow using this button. You enter your email address and click on Submit and it sends you a confirmatory email which you have to respond to for it to be set.

s

Still More Inquiries...

2011-06-18T22:04:00.000-04:00

A google search for "Toastmasters Columbus OH" and "Toastmasters Central OH" both returned the Franklin Club as the first choice. The search "Toastmasters Franklin Co OH" brought us in as number sixteen, far down on the second page. A little more research shows that there's been a lot of web inquiries about the club... fourteen since the beginning of the year (all originating from our web site "Contact Us" page). That's fourteen in twenty-nine weeks... an average of one every two weeks. It sounds pretty good to me, how about you?

I find myself wondering... why all these inquiries? Is it that we meet in the morning and that's when a lot of people want to meet? Perhaps it's word of mouth" advertising? Another one just came in. I get a copy of all of them, since I designed the form and felt I needed to know how well it was being used. The form addresses the inquiry to the club President with myself (as Webmaster), the VPE, and the VPM as CC addressees. The problem I have is that I want to answer them all, and I know I shouldn't, that's not my job. But it's soooooooo tempting! I just want to DO IT! Allatime!

Some more research is warranted. OK, I signed us up to use Google Analytics a long time ago. I've been getting weekly reports but pretty much just file and forget. Let's visit the site....

Since January first we've had 1,112 visits to our web site. I wish we could exclude our own members but either we can't or I just don't know how to do it. Almost thirty seven percent of those were NEW visits. That comes to 410 new visitors. That's 169 days... an average of 2.42 new visitors each day. We've had a 33% bounce rate. This means of those 1,112 visitors, 366 leave the site without looking any further, and that 746 of the new visitors go from our home page to other pages inside. That means about 4.4 NEW users each day research more on our web site than just the home page. The average time on site is 2:16 minutes. To me... in the online world, that's a LOT of time. Unfortunately, 74% of the visits were of a minute or less (meaning only 288 stayed for a minute or more). There's an average of 2.69 pageviews for each of these visits.

I think one of the most telling statistics is that of 462 "Absolute Unique" visitors. At this time we have 33 members. We weren't always at that number. Even if we were, that means there were 429 NON MEMBERS that visited our web site since the first of January. I'm not an Internet or a marketing guru, but that seems impressive to me (remember, this is not a commercial site). Wow! there were 18 different languages used in these visits. Some 413 viewers only visited the site once, meaning that 699 people came back more than once.

Well, that's a lot of numbers. I've been called a "quant jock" (one that love measuring things) before. How should they be interpreted. Dunno. But it's interesting.

Darren LaCroix Videos

2011-06-17T12:18:00.002-04:00

We've all heard of Darren. Some of us have been fortunate enough to see him in person. I even jumped up to let him evaluate me when he was here in Columbus recently. Wow, talk about deflating! No, not really, more like... enlightening! PLUS, I got a free video CD from him (lucky me).

However, the point of this is... go to Youtube and find some of his videos. Brilliant, just brilliant. There's a funny one at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qovsP1aaEQY

Go ahead, check it out. His winning speech at the International Convention in 2001 can be seen at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUDCzbmLV-0&feature=relmf

Incoming Secretary Has Voice

2011-06-15T15:02:00.000-04:00

The idea of having or finding your voice is infused with power. Once we claim our voice, we become confident and assertive. We are able to affect our environment in positive ways.

Those who know the difference must be the difference.

Come with us this year as we work to help each member and prospective member find their voice.

New Authors

2011-06-14T09:26:00.000-04:00

Just opened the blog up to postings from incoming club officers for 2011 TM year. Welcome aboard folks! I'm looking forward to your contributions. We've got to promote this to our members... get them to be 'followers' (at least I think that's what they call it when someone gets automatic notifications of postings).

s

The King's Speech

2011-06-13T12:27:00.001-04:00

On Saturday night I watched the movie The King's Speech (click here for a Google search on it). A wonderful movie, one I think should be way up on the list of movies to see for all Toastmasters. If I were to pick the one phrase from it that is the most important, I'd say it was the scene where Bertie (the King) is in an argument with Lionel (which Lionel, the teacher deliberately started) finally blurts I have a VOICE. It's at that point that he realizes that he can overcome his stuttering. That phrase is one that is important to all new Toastmasters. We don't all have the same problem Bertie did, but we all come into the game to develop our voice. True, some have it and know it before hand, but some don't. The confidence and speaking skills that come from internalizing that idea is the what the Toastmasters journey is all about. Remember, success is a journey, not a destination.

Toastmasters CAN help you find a job

2011-06-10T06:49:00.002-04:00

Seven years ago yesterday was a turning point in my life. After working for a company for nearly fifteen years, I was handed a letter that said at the end of the month I would be dropped back to a twenty-five hour work week, and thirty days later would only be paid IF there was a project for me to work on. In other words, I was out the door without using the word fired. Needless to say, I was floored by this turn of events. Was I bitter, angry, upset? You bet I was. Fortunately though, I was able to negotiate something of a separation package without having to go through the stated process.

At the beginning of the next month, after attending several meetings at two different local clubs, I joined the Franklin Toastmasters. Those who have heard me speak before have no doubt heard my line saying I joined Toastmasters hoping it would help me find a job... it didn't. Pausing to let the astonishment grow somewhat. I then hold up three fingers and continue with... it helped me find THREE!

The reason I joined? Obviously, I needed to find a job and wanted all the help I could get. I had previously been told by a friend who worked at a company I had interviewed with that I didn't get the position because I came across as too tentative, unsure of myself, and withdrawn during the interview. Clearly, I needed help. My Toastmasters membership gave me that help. I gained confidence in myself by participating in as many Table Topics sessions as I could, and of course, presenting the speeches in the Competent Communicator manual.

A few months later I did land a job, out of town. I had to relocate (just myself, not my family) to Fairfax Virginia to work for a DOD contractor. That was the first job. Five months after that, I found another job back at home here in Columbus. That was the second job. Unfortunately, I was not a good fit there and soon found myself searching again. Three months later I landed my current position. That was the third job.

From being too timid and withdrawn in an interview, I went through at least seven interviews to land three different jobs in the space of a year. Some might disagree, but I credit my Toastmasters experience and the members of the Franklin club with helping me make it through a difficult period of transition.

Don't let anyone tell you that TM can't help you land a job.

s

.

Smile - It's GOOD for you!

2011-05-18T20:18:00.000-04:00

I subscribe to periodic emails from TED Ideas Worth Spreading (that's short, I believe, for Technology, Education, Design). They have sessions around the world and people get up and speak about... well, just about anything. The sessions go from just a few to fifteen or twenty "ish" minutes. What a great place to get ideas for Toastmaster speeches. Yesterday there was a wonderful presentation on smiling. It was The Hidden Power of Smiling. I always knew I liked to smile but I learned some new things here. Things like:

- Unborn babies have been photographed smiling via ultrasound

- Babies are born smiling

- Children smile as much as 400 times a day

- Research shows one smile stimulates the brain as much as two thousand chocolate bars

- Smiling reduces stress and blood pressure

- Mother Teresa once said "I will never understand all the good that a simple smile can accomplish"

- A study of pre-1960 baseball cards revealed that players who didn't smile lived an average of 73 years while those that smiled lived to an average of 80 years

So... SMILE, you might feel better and live longer!

Public Speaking Blogs

2011-04-18T06:59:00.000-04:00

I'm amazed by how many public speaking blogs there are out there in cyber-space. I ran a Google search for "Public Speaking Blogs" and came up with 3,790,000 hits. That's a lot of hits. The very first one on the list though, was very handy (well, I haven't gotten past it yet either) as it contains a summary of 118 blogs. You can see this at http://sixminutes.dlugan.com/public-speaking-blogs/. It's definitely worth checking into.

Recommendation for a book

2011-04-13T17:37:00.000-04:00

I don't usually recommend books, even less before I've finished reading them. However, I just found a gem and want to tell you all about it. The book is Confessions of a Public Speaker by Scott Berkun. I found it on Amazon at $11.55 for the paperback, but I went for the $9.99 Kindle edition. I initially ordered the free sample that one can get for the Kindle but only read a few pages when I knew I had to have it.

This book goes through all of the ups and downs of public speaking. If you've had nerves, or disasters, then read this and you'll find disasters and nerves. It's something that could have been written by one of us. I'm looking forward to continuing with this and think that it would be a good edition to anyone's library.

s

Franklin Toastmasters Sweep the Area 26 Contests!

2011-03-26T20:59:00.000-04:00

This was another banner contest for our club. I wasn't present, but word from Teresa Hedlund was:

International Speech Contest:

Our Franklin 524 Toastmasters Club was well represented with Vallery Hoy and Mike Meier participating in the International Speech Contest. There were a total of 4 contestants in the Area 26 contest. Vallery Hoy took 2nd place with her speech on Hoy's Toys and Mike Meier took 1st place on his speech about Are You a Hero?

Evaluation Speech Contest:

For this contest, Area 26 had 5 contestants. Rhonda Frum walked away with 2nd place with her heartfelt evaluation and Erik Jul took 1st place with his focused coaching in his evaluation of the target speaker.

Vallery commented that Erik gave the best evaluation she'd ever seen!

Yes, our club took first and second place in both contests. What does that tell us? Wow... we've got some good speakers. It's a reflection on the skills of all of us and the support we give each other. We continue to grow those skills with every meeting. Is it any wonder membership has soared to over thirty when many clubs are struggling to keep their rolls at twenty? No it's not. We continue to attract new members, people who see our value and join to grow.

Keep up the good work, Franklin!

A Visit to the ICC Toastmasters

2011-03-26T08:06:00.000-04:00

Earlier this month (on Mar 15th) I had the honor and opportunity to visit the ICC Toastmasters Club (click HERE for info on them) as the target speaker for their annual Evaluation Contest. My topic was Magic In My Back Yard (club members will probably remember my giving this speech before). It went well, although upon reviewing the video I took I realize my old nemesis, the too-quiet-voice, was back. Anyway, what I want to bring up was the way that they conducted the contest.

I was rather surprised when I saw the agenda for the meeting... they were actually scheduling both the International Speech and Evaluation contests for the same meeting! I was even more surprised when it turned out that they were able to do it in the one hour scheduled. Well, it might have gone over a little bit. But I really don't remember, and the fact that if it did it made so little impression on me indicates that it was indeed insignificant. In our club we've always scheduled these contests on two subsequent meeting days. Of course, the fact that they only had two competitors for each contest helped. I do remember times though, when we only had two for each.

Congratulations to Laura Giller and John Crider for running such a smooth contest that day.

Oh yes, and a hint to Toastmasters everywhere: Remember, it's Stage Time, Stage Time, Stage Time. You've got to keep speaking, and the best way to continue growing is to speak OUTSIDE of your own club. Get out there and visit. Speaking at your own club is good... yes, but in doing that you can get caught up in a same-old same-old routine of a familiar, friendly audience. Go speak in front of strangers. Flex those speaking muscles and continue to grow!

'nuff fer now.

s

Toastmasters a help for WRITERS as well?

2011-01-31T06:44:00.000-05:00

Why not? It seems that some of the same things we learn about giving speeches also apply to the craft of writing. Authors, take note! See the article titled:

Write in the Midwest

'bye

s

Upcoming Speech Contests

2011-01-29T09:13:00.001-05:00

The annual Toastmaster speech contests once more are on the horizon. The first two to be held every year are the International Speech Contest and the Evaluation Speech Contest.

I'd like to address the Evaluation Contest here. The way this is supposed to run is that a club has in a "Target Speaker" for contestants to evaluate. The target speaker should be someone that the club is not very familiar with. After all, if you're competing and evaluating someone you've seen time and time again, you already have some idea of what his/her capabilities are and therefore your opinion is somewhat formed already. Additionally, if a newer member is competing, that member might not have that familiarity with the speaker and would therefore be at a disadvantage... definitely not fair. Thus the custom of having someone from outside the club deliver that speech.

I've often wondered why there was no structure for clubs to group together to provide target speakers for each other. There could be a web site that people could sign up on (or even a "Google Doc" that someone could maintain based on contacts received) to record those volunteering to be target speakers. The basic premise would be a "speaker swap"... I help your club and you help my club. However, instances could arise from where more than one person from a club volunteers, or where the receiving club has no one who volunteers. Even so, that wouldn't mean a club couldn't accept someone as a volunteer, nor that a someone couldn't/shouldn't agree to be a target speaker. Instead, the situation is such that clubs seeking target speakers must contact other clubs to solicit such. Often times (in my experience) these contacts... usually by email... are never even acknowledged, let alone acted upon.

The results of being a target speaker benefit both the speaker and the club where the speech is performed. None could deny that "Stage time. stage time, stage time" would be increased, giving the speaker more experience. The benefits of evaluations from people outside the home club would be great as well (fresh ideas and opinions). The club members that do the evaluations would have the benefit as well, by seeing someone new and different. Even those club members that don't compete would benefit because they would get to see and learn from someone new and different. This is a "win-win" situation.

Why isn't this done? I just don't know.

Also, here's an interesting newspaper article (however, I don't know how long it will stay up on the web:

How to exterminate the butterflies before speaking

District Newsletter - the Success Times

2010-12-14T07:08:00.000-05:00

OK... I'm once more going to do the district newsletter. See my blog at http://www.d40toastmasters.org/blog/12.

That's it.

s

Our Goals

2010-11-29T06:23:00.001-05:00

     Just got something in my email I thought I'd pass along. Actually, it's a question... well, two questions.
     First one: Are you selling yourself short? Tough one to answer. Have you established goals for yourself? Now I don't mean one of those "make a million dollars in the next six months" type goals, but rather something reasonably achievable, and not too easy. At our last meeting we passed out name tents. A name tent is a sheet of paper with your name on it. You fold in thirds and stand it up in front of you as you sit, so others can see your name. On the back of the name tent there's a place to enter a goal for the year (if you didn't get one last week you can get one at our next meeting). It's there so that each time you set it out you'll be reminded of the goal you've set for yourself. It's something to help urge you on. Have you written down your goal there yet?
     What's that you say? So... why set a goal? I'm glad you asked that question (you know, you do ask good questions). Remember Lewis Carroll, the author of Alice in Wonderland? One of his more famous quotes was: "If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there." Without goals, life can be boring. So can continuing to attend Toastmasters meetings. It's the same thing, over and over again. It can get stale. Unless of course, you can see your own progress. But, how can you see your own progress if you don't have anything to measure against, and what do you measure that progress against? Simple answer: Goals! If you don't know where you're going....
   What does a goal have to do with selling yourself short? Another good question. Is your goal big enough to really make a difference? A goal of "make it through my next speech" is pretty lame. One of "get my CC award in the next eight months" is more laudable. Your goal has to be achievable, but should also be one that really does help you grow. We are all capable of doing more than we think we are. From the time we were little, most of us have been conditioned to be humble, to not "rock the boat". The problem there is that all too often it translates into a lack of self-confidence. I suppose it could be a holdover survival instinct. I can see it now, there's Og (the first cave man) out hunting. He comes across a mean looking critter and thinks "mmm, not go there, it might eat me" The point is, we all too often, for one reason or another, think that we can't do something, or that it's too hard to accomplish. We sell ourselves short.
     Second question: If you are selling yourself short, do you care? Oh, that's another really good one. If you don't care, if you're happy, then that's fine. In that case, why are you a Toastmaster to begin with? I guess we can reasonably assume that yes, you do care. All right then, what are you doing about it? Did you set a goal? How are you trying to achieve that goal?
   Oh... almost forgot this: be sure to bring your name tent with you to each meeting. Otherwise, I might forget who you are.
     Lots of questions. Got answers?

'nuff fer now

s

Another Great Speech from Mark

2010-11-19T06:46:00.000-05:00

Here I am, back again to plug one of our club members... Mark.
Yesterday morning Mark delivered a very amusing look at the world of SHOPPING. He was talking about how to have a successful Black Friday shopping experience. His goal was to get friendly with using visual aids. He came in costume for the occasion. His message... appear intimidating (even though you're harmless) and everyone will stay out of your way! Quite amusing.

Speechcraft Session #3

2010-11-16T21:43:00.001-05:00

This morning we held our third session. Things looked a little shaky at first. Our meeting location was changed, two of our club members couldn't make it, a third one had forgotten and would arrive late, and a fourth one couldn't be contacted due to a changed phone number.

True to form, all other members of the team did show up at the new meeting room, we dealt with the situation, the 'crafters all arrived, and we had a successful meeting. Everyone did quite well, and the speeches given were all delivered with skill and confidence.

We had eight 'crafters and five club members present (see below).

A new Speakeasy Trailer

2010-11-14T13:19:00.000-05:00

Whoa there Nellie! I had to rush back here to post this.

There's a new Speakeasy Trailer out there. Whoever sees this... you've GOT to see that!

Nothing more I can say.

bye

s

Speechcraft Program Under Way

2010-11-14T10:46:00.000-05:00

This Tuesday (Nov 16th) will mark the third of six Speechcraft sessions that the Franklin Club is conducting at the Columbus Airport for their Leadership Academy educational program. There are eight student speech-crafters participating from the Columbus Regional Airport Authority, and six club members (Lina, Laura, Mike, Susan, Shelly, and Teresa-- with me as the coordinator).

The program is fairly flexible as it can be conducted in four, six, or eight sessions. The recommended program is eight sessions, but we opted for the six session schedule. The meetings can be spaced as far apart as desired and take as long as needed. Ours are spaced about a month apart, and are scheduled for two hours each. The length of the meetings will be directly affected by the number of 'crafters involved.

So far the meetings have gone well, with the 'crafters showing innate speaking skills from the very start. It's been a rewarding experience for us and I'm sure this will continue. I'll try to get some photos to post this time.

Club NEWS!

2010-09-05T06:34:00.000-04:00

Our membership keeps growing... and shrinking. Last Wednesday there was a farewell party for one of our members. Eric Pitzer has departed for Argentina, South America. Yes, Eric decided to make the biggest move of his life, all the way to the Southern Hemisphere. This is something he's been planning for a long time, and now he's gone and done it. Our club Secretary, Kristen DeMars has moved on to a new job and due to time constraints can no longer attend our meetings (however, she does intend to continue in another Toastmasters club). Recently joined member Bert Flores also moved... to another state. Long time member Pierre Daunic and his most charming wife (ex-member Terri) are also moving as well. They are going all the way to Tampa, Florida. To all these departed/departing members, we wish good health, good luck, and happiness. We also want to welcome our newest members, Jon Giganti and Cyntia Gerst.

Some news about our Web Site follows. The new version of the blank meeting agenda has been posted. To find it, go to the Info/Forms page, click on the Meeting Forms button, and then on the Blank Agenda button of the dropdown menu listing. There's a new meeting form out there as well, for those that want to use it. It's a newer version of the General Evaluator Worksheet. It can be found on the same dropdown menu as the Blank Agenda, but is listed as the GenEval Notes - V2 (the original version is now listed as the GenEval Notes - V1).

Arrangements are moving along for our club to present a Speechcraft program for the Columbus Regional Airport Authority (the CRAA). There will be eight 'crafters (the 'students') and so far five club members have committed to working on the program. Our first meeting is scheduled for 21 September, with five monthly meetings to follow.We are all looking forward to this new adventure.

That's it for now... 'bye

s

(This info and other postings can be found on our club Blog... at http://www.franklintoastmasters.blogspot.com/)

Speakeasy Revisited

2010-08-24T06:58:00.000-04:00

It's been a long time since I last visited the Speakeasy web page. I was pleased to see that more information has been added, but somewhat abashed when I realized what I saw as "new stuff" was added nine months ago. Looking closer I saw that there's a listing of short comments from... I don't know, I guess... Twitter? Some of them were only a few hours old. It does appear from these that the fellows that made the original documentary are still working on it. They were originally hoping to get it accepted for Sundance, but I don't think it happened (I was looking at the time but never found reference to it).

However, they do now have links on the web page indicating how one can pre-order (for sale of course) copies of the DVD when it does come out. I think it would be a good addition to our club library. I also think the movie trailer (at least) should be required reading for club officers. They also have a link on there for a video about Prison Toastmasters (yes, that's right, P-r-i-s-o-n). Here's the link: Prison Toastmasters on Vimeo. It seems this Vimeo is a new way to share videos. Competition for YouTube? Whatever.

Anyway, the Speakeasy web page is well worth a visit for any Toastmaster. Check it out!

s

Club Web Site update

2010-08-22T09:46:00.000-04:00

Our club web site has had an update. The next time you look at the Agenda page, notice the small link in the lower right hand corner labeled Click for our Calendar. If you select that, you will go to an actual calendar page showing the current month. The current day will be indicated by a darker gray shading than all of the other days, and the days where there is something scheduled will be indicated by a blue shading. There are directional arrows at the top right and left to go forward and backward thru the months as well.
.
Notice that each Thursday is shaded blue. Well, that's because we have our meetings on Thursdays (wow, bold concept!). If you click on the day, you will also see that there's a link there (indicated by the underlining and shading of the words). Click on the link and you get to see a Google map of our meeting location.

Notice too that the 24th of August shows an event. Click on that day and you'll see that that the Speeches Only meeting is scheduled. That too is a link that, if you click on, will show you the Google map for the Westerville Library.

I can add these for any event, any day. If you want an event added (or if any that I've already added need correcting) just let me know.

'nuff fer now.... bye

s

A New... Feature (?)

2010-08-05T10:00:00.005-04:00

First of all, I must apologize for having to leave early at our last meeting. I had a call from work on my cell phone. I had forgotten to mute it, but it was in my pocket and I tried my best to muffle the ring-tone. I hope it wasn't distracting. Anyway, after the speech in progress was over I left the room to see what was going on, and discovered that it wasn't an urgent issue after all. However, having left the meeting I wasn't going to re-enter and disturb things again, so I just went on to work. I really need to start sitting in the back and closer to the door so I can make a less distracting exit if such happens again.

Here's a photo of us getting ready for that meeting. Another day of good attendance. I don't know how many were actually there yet, but I can count 14 people in the picture, and adding myself and the two others that came in a bit later makes it at least 17 all together, but it could have been still more. We've been averaging around 20 at meetings for the last month or two... and that's more than many clubs have as a total membership!

I'm trying out a new way of notifying members of Blog entries. Because the Blog functionality only allows 10 notifications, I set up a special email address called Franklin Toastmasters and have it send the notice there. My Outlook mail client picks up emails to that address, and a rule I established for it forwards individuals I've entered in a distribution list I created. At this time it only goes to club officers, but if it works I will soon have it going to the entire club membership. See, there really IS more than one way to skin a... whatever.

'nuff fer now.

s

Welcome to the 2010/2011 Franklin Toastmasters Year!

2010-08-03T07:44:00.005-04:00

I'm a bit overdue in getting a note out to the membership welcoming you to the new Toastmasters Year. What exactly is a Toastmaster Year you ask......well it is essentially the fiscal year designated by Toastmasters International on which our officers are elected and through which the terms run. It is also the measurement period for our Distinguished Club Program which is the achievement benchmark for club health and development. We'll talk more about this in an upcoming blog post. For now, back to the welcome message. Our club enjoyed tremendous membership growth over the past year and I would like to welcome all of our new members to Franklin 524. With the membership growth comes new challenges we must address and these things will be our primary goals for the upcoming year. Things such as:

Keeping new members engaged and ensuring they are making progress toward the goals they brought to the club
Ensuring all club members get sufficient opportunity to participate in club meetings, speaking and serving in roles
Ensuring new member's questions are answered about club operations and processes
Making sure our club meetings remain vibrant, positive, exciting, and within time constraints
Maintaining our membership pipeline so we remain at a healthy club size when attrition happens

These are the key areas where I want us to focus in the upcoming year, and by doing these things we will in turn achieve many of the goals associated with the Distinguished Club Program. We will also have many other opportunities both within and outside of our club meetings with the various speech contests such as International Speech Contest, Humorous Speech Contest, Evaluation Contest, etc. We have the ability to visit and participate at other clubs. There are also community events available such as Speechcraft, speaking at area schools, community events, training programs, etc. The key is to push yourself and challenge that comfort zone. The possibilities are really only limited by your personal goals. I want our club to be a place for you to grow as your goals expand. Please join me in making these these things happen.

Let's make it a great year!

Chris Quinn
President, Franklin 524

A New Year

2010-07-25T10:25:00.003-04:00

A new club year has started. We are up to 35 members now, and because of that, have started scheduling an additional meeting each month for speeches only. It's scheduled for the 4th Tuesday of the month, starting at 6:00 pm at the Westerville Library, and is followed by the monthly Officers meeting.

We ended last year with a bang, achieving nine out of the ten TM goals (another ribbon to add to our club banner). It sure would be nice to be able to get all ten of them. I think we did do that once about four years ago, but can't remember for sure. The biggest accomplishment was the number of new members... I think it was either fifteen or sixteen. That's amazing, especially when considering that we never had a formalized recruiting drive. We had some truly remarkable efforts out of our members to achieve new TI ratings:

CC (Competent Communicator): Eric, Shelly, Vallery, Vanessa

CL (Competent Leader): Vallery

ALB (Advanced Leader Bronze): Lina, Sally

A new opportunity has also arisen for our club. We've had a contact from a large local organization to see if we'd be willing to put on a speech training program for them. I contacted some of our members that I thought might be interested and so far it looks like four of us might be willing to do it. I've sent a reply back suggesting we could run the TI designed Speechcraft program for them. I'm waiting for a reply back now to see if I can get a meeting with a supervisor or someone in charge of their training program to explore the possibility.

Keep on Toastin'

Club Summer Party

2010-06-14T06:49:00.000-04:00

We had a great summer party this year... 5 June at Lina's house. By my count there were twenty-five people there (of which six were non TM spouses and./or significant others). It was a great turnout. I remember (I think four years ago?) there were only three members that showed up. Remember the song What a difference a day makes? Well, this was more than a day and only goes to show how clubs wane and wax. It's the old historical cycle. As mighty empires rise and fall, so do relatively insignificant Toastmaster clubs. And, of course, the term 'insignificant' is a relative one. It all depends on your perspective.

In any case, the Franklin Toastmasters had a great afternoon out, one of sobriety, comraderie, good cheer, and general all-around fun! As W.D.Smith, our Division Governor said you've got something special here. However, let's not examine this too closely, as I've heard it said that the basic act of examining something results in changing it. Let's just keep riding it, and strive to do our best to keep the wave at it's crest.

Changing the tune a bit here, let's move on to something that the club did that was great. Last fall we participated in the Make a Difference Day campaign, donating food items to the W.A.R.M. (Westerville Area Resource Ministry) Food Drive. We did gather quite a bit over several weeks, and after donating it received a certificate of appreciation.

Some old news, some new news

2010-06-13T09:44:00.003-04:00

New News:
I just ran across the title of a book published in 2001... If It's To Be It's Up To Me (Thomas B. Smith) and yes, it's obviously one of those self-help books. However, it sounds interesting. I did order a copy (used) for a staggering $4.00, including shipping. With a price like that, how can someone go wrong?

We get to welcome two more new members, Padma signed on this past Thursday, and Karen the week before. Karen is a transfer from another club so her name won't officially show up for a bit. This brings our membership up to thirty-three. Wow!

We're starting to schedule a once-per-month, evening, Speeches Only meeting. Our first one was last Wed (June 9th) at the Westerville Library. I wasn't there so cannot comment, but have heard that it went well. There were seven members attending (Mike, Chris, Kristen, Lina, Susan, Ed, and Padma), and four speeches were given.

Old News:
Let's go back to February 25th of this year. I just received a photo of the new member induction we had that night. Five new members... another Wow! See it below. From left to right are new members Erik, Ed, Kristen, Paula, and Darlene. At far right is this year's club President, Lina.

What Has TM Done For Me Lately?

2010-06-12T07:41:00.000-04:00

Here we are, back to the old WIIFM (What's In It For Me?) question. It's one that non-Toastmasters might ask when someone suggests they look into the program. One thing that can be done is to cite examples. I have one, a personal example, to mention here.

I had to go to a graveside funeral yesterday. It was a very emotional experience. We were saying goodbye to someone I'd known for twenty years, although we'd been out of contact for the last nine or ten. The local Air Force Honor Guard was there, and it was their ceremony that moved me. He was retired Air Force (just like me, even though we'd never served together or even at the same time).

Afterwards we met at a local restaurant for lunch. There were just over twenty in attendance there. I had no problem in standing up and "dinging" on my glass to get everyone's attention. I said a few words, pretty much spontaneously (although I have to admit I'd thought about it a bit). It even prompted two others to say something as well.

So what's the point? I had no problem with standing up and doing it. I did not feel nervous. I was calm, and I must admit, I think, rather polished. And... I did it because I wanted to and I could. That is the point. What has TM done for me lately? It made that little presentation possible, that's what it did. How about you?

s

How much time?

2010-06-03T22:01:00.019-04:00

I must apologize for causing this morning’s meeting to run overtime because I was rambling on a bit, trying to get a good photo. I must have looked the right jerk. I hope that (especially since time was mentioned by our General Evaluator as being within limits) nobody felt I was being disrespectful of everyone else’s efforts to keep the meeting on time. It was certainly not my intention to drag things on. Anyway, here's the picture. My, that's quite a crowd, isn't it?

Since I was thinking about my ‘over-time’ issue, I began to wonder just how well the club was doing in that regard. To this end I did some research on the speeches we’ve had so far this year and came up with some interesting findings. Of the 47 speeches presented since January, 15 went over-time for a total of 10:42 minutes. When you tally things up, that’s 32% of our timed speeches going over. Let’s look at the total time… 10:42 minutes. That’s almost 18% (nearly 1/5th) of a meeting.

Of the 21 members that gave speeches, 12 did not go over time and 9 did. One person went over 3 times, 4 went over 2 times, and the other 4 went over 1 time.

This bit of ‘bean counting’ only looked at speeches. It’s more difficult to measure things like how long a Toastmaster talks, or Table Topics presenters. I didn’t even try to measure them, and I didn’t look at evaluations. All of the data is there on our web site, accessible from the meeting ‘Minutes’ page.

When I was counting I was using the allowed overtime of :30 either way. Thus, for a 5:00-7:00 minute speech, one would not be over-time for a 7:30 speech. Of the 15 that went over-time, only 6 were longer than :30 over-time. Looking at it that way, the percentage (this time it's only 19%) decreases quite a bit.

Is this important? Will the world stop spinning? No, life will go on. The over-time problem is not as big as some might think, but even so, we as Toastmasters are supposed to be learning to gauge our time and manage it in meetings and when we give our speeches. This is especially important for our club, since we meet before work and people DO need to get to work... on time! We need all be more attentive to the time factor. This goes for club officers as well as speakers. There really is no reason that we should be exceeding the limit 32% of the time. When we do this, we take time from those that follow.

That's it for today. Bye.

s

Where We're At and Where We're Going

2010-06-02T06:13:00.009-04:00

Where We're At:

The Franklin Toastmasters are now at the highest membership level since I joined... almost six years ago. We now have thirty-one members! That is impressive... well, to me anyway. I can remember when our members numbered only nine, and I've been told we were actually down to three at one time shortly before I joined. I suppose all clubs go through membership peaks and valleys, but when those extremes happen it is a cause for reflection. Why are we doing so well? What is it that attracts so many to join our group?

Among the reasons that come to my mind are:

1. The economy. When so many are out of work or worrying about whether they might soon be out of work, it causes them to look more to the communication skills that help them get, or keep, jobs.
2. Social networking. The rise of networking consciousness (i.e. LinkedIn, Twitter, etc) has made people more aware of the value of social and professional interaction. This leads naturally to communications skills and thus the desire to hone those skills.
3. Our web site. Naturally, I have a bit of a bias (since I am the webmaster) when I say that we have a very good web site. It is true that it's more static than dynamic, since there's little direct interaction. It's more informational than anything else. However, it does have a different look. The availability of free web sites on freetoasthost.com does present a great opportunity to many clubs (especially those that don't have anyone versed in HTML), but.... Yes, there's a 'but' here... those web sites are so boring! I'm not saying ours is the most exciting site out there, but it is different and presents a lot of information. That shows we're worth considering.
4. Word of mouth advertising. I'm not so sure this is a big factor, although some newer members have said they'd heard about us before deciding to visit. Also (obviously) the more members we have, the more opportunities for people to hear about us.
5. The quality of our meetings. This, I think, is the most important reason we get new members. We follow a standard format, we keep to schedule, and our speakers are very interesting. When people visit, they like what they see, and want to be a part of it.
6. Our club atmosphere. This is sort of related to the quality of our meetings, but goes beyond it. This also refers to the way our club officers react to questions about the club. The one thing that stands out most to me is that we address the WIIFM question. That is, What's in it for me? When someone asks about Toastmasters and our club, we get around to discussing with that person what their goals are and what they're looking for and how the program and our club can help them achieve those goals.

Interesting item here: where do our club members live? See below:

Where We're Going:

That's where we're at. We are thriving. An important question now though, is... Ware are we going? What's down the road?

One of the pitfalls of a large membership is the danger of the individual member losing exposure. This is a particular problem for the VP of Education to focus on. Yes the VPE is responsible for the scheduling of roles at meetings. Some clubs allow members to sign up in advance, and some (like ours) make the assignments centrally. Whenever I've seen web sites or meeting notes of clubs that allow sign-ups it's always seemed to me that it just does not work. People do not sign up, and those clubs wind up scrambling to fill the roles at the last minute. Given that roles are centrally assigned, the problem comes down to being sure that each member does get to do something at enough meetings that they don't feel left out or forgotten. Why would someone join a club like this if they never get to participate? It gets boring just listening to others and watching them without being able to DO something. One joins TM to improve speaking and leadership skills. If there's little or no opportunity to speak or lead... then why bother?

That then, is the challenge for growing clubs; making sure everyone gets enough exposure. We do that by using the Club Scheduler program to lay out our schedules. In addition, we have just decided to start having one additional meeting a month, dedicated to speeches only. We're having our first Speech Only meeting this month in the evening on June 9th and very quickly had six people sign up for speeches. Since these members are getting in another speech, that means others can be scheduled a bit better during regular meetings to increase their exposure. If this works out well, who knows where it might lead. We might even decide to have two Speech Only meetings a month at some point.

So, where are we going? We're going into the future looking for new ways to make ourselves a better club. If we keep growing like this we may at some point be forced to split off into two clubs (it has happened to other clubs before). After all, since we meet before work, we are very limited as to time. We meet for one hour, and expanding that time by meeting earlier is probably not a workable solution. We will keep to the TM program, and will continue to focus on the needs of our members.

We are ready to march into a new TM year, with new officers and new ideas. We will continue to... Keep on Toastin' down the road.

bye

s

A New CC For Our Club - and its Value

2010-05-09T07:07:00.009-04:00

Congratulations to Vallery, she completed her ten CC speeches! Well, actually, she completed them in March, we only just now got around to submitting the details for the formal award from TI. Here are a couple of facts for those that may not be aware of them:

1. When you get your CC, TI will send you two free
Advanced Speech manuals (you pick them).
2. TI will send a letter of recognition to your employer.

So what's the big deal here? Firstly, manuals cost about $5.00 each, and by the time you add shipping to the order, it comes to about $11.50 or so. That's over half of the original sign-up fee back. Not a bad deal, really. Don't expect that to continue to other levels though. I originally thought it would, and was looking for my two freebies when I finished the ATMB. However, nope, they only do it once. (Note: ATMB = Advanced Toast Master Bronze, this has since been re-named to ACB = Advanced Communicator Bronze).

The really good part about this though, is the official letter of recognition you can have sent to your employer. This may not mean much to you, but can mean a lot to the boss. Last year I was reading Corporate Confidential: 50 Secrets Your Company Doesn't Want You To Know - And What To Do About Them, by Cynthia Shapiro. That's quite a title, isn't it? The author, by the way, was a former HR executive, and her name yields some 685,000 hits on Google. In chapter 4 (Invisible to Indispensable: Becoming the Fireproof Employee) secret number thirty-six lists four essentials all companies reward. These essentials are: (1) Flexibility; (2) Everything is sales; (3) Public speaking; and (4) High-level goal achievement.

Are we paying attention here now? Did you see number THREE above? That's the value of that official letter from TI about achieving your CC level. Actually, you can get one of those letters sent any time you achieve a new level in TM. Oh yes, by the way, did you see numbers one and two above as well? Does being a meeting Toastmaster come to mind as it relates to number one? Does learning to compete in contests and actually presenting a successful speech at all come to mind as they relate to number two? Tell me now, wouldn't achieving the higher TM levels (like CC Bronze, Silver, Gold, and the coveted Distinguished Toastmaster) relate to number four? It seems to me that active participation and advancement in TM can go far to helping someone put "a lock" on secret number thirty-six.

Oh yes, by the way... secret 35 in that book (The trick to wowing your boss - every time) can be in your hip pocket as well by successful TM membership. However, I'm not going to tell you about that one. You'll have to get the book yourself and read about it (pages 132-135). It's available in the Franklin County Library, call number 650.13 S529c - but it's better to buy it so you can dog-ear and highlight the good parts. It's available in Kindle and I've seen it priced as low as $9.99 on Amazon.com.

Let's move along a bit here now. I expect to be able to announce more CCs later this month, as Eric, Teresa, and Shelly are all within striking distance of that goal. After them look for Mark and Mike to reach it as well. So, how about the rest of you? Are you actively working towards that goal? There's also the CL (Competent Leader) award to think about too. Just about any time, repeat, A-N-Y TIME you perform a role at a club meeting, you can get some part of one or another project in the CL manual marked off. Remember to bring those manuals to the meetings when you do have a part. Get someone to check them off. It's like the little green guy in the Star Wars movie said... There is only DO!

That's it for today, so TTFN (ta-ta-fer-now) and... Keep on Toastin'

bye

s

Continued growth

2010-04-22T12:26:00.014-04:00

We continue to have good meeting attendance, and club growth. At the April 1st meeting (photo above) we had one new member sign up, and there were two more at the April 15th meeting. At this time our club is at a record breaking size (in my experience) of thirty-two! Our newest members are Andy Strauss, Vanessa Bey, and Laura Sammons. Welcome aboard to all, I'm sure you'll find membership in the Franklin Toastmasters rewarding and entertaining.

Speaking of entertaining, Chris gave a speech this morning (April 22nd) that was very amusing. He was telling us about an experience at work when a co-worker's 3-year old son pushed the wrong button and plunged the entire server room for the company network into darkness. No lights, no servers, no comm, no... nothing! Certainly a moment he'll remember for a while. They did manage to recover (in case you were wondering).

Some other recent history. The Division Speech Contest has come and gone. I was representing our club and Area 25 in a field of five competitors. Alas, I came in third instead of first. However, I think I was still a winner, because I really do believe it was one of the best presentations I've ever given. I've often read that the toughest competition is your own past performance. I'm even thinking of making this speech one I'll repeat in the future, in some capacity, somewhere.

Our last two meetings were very well attended, with over twenty members present. That is pretty good, especially for a club that was down to nine a year and a half ago. Of course, I can't forget that Pierre told me that we were once down to three members. Now that must have been discouraging. We've actually added fifteen new members so far this Toastmasters year. How would Yoda put it? Impressive that is....

We have club elections coming up soon (the May 6th meeting) and will need as many club members as can be there at the meeting.Voting by proxy is not permitted by TI, so all need to try their best to attend. We need to have a quorum present, which is 50% of the active membership. Of our 32 members, probably 28 would be considered active, so that means we need at least 15 there to vote.

Our nominating committee (Sally, Teresa, and Cindy) are working to come up with a candidate list for us to vote on. Of course, when the meeting time comes, anyone can be nominated to stand for election. One doesn't have to be nominated by the committee. We need some new, fresh faces in the officer positions. Clubs that continue to have the same people running things tend to get into a boring rut... they get stale... and don't serve members well. That's when membership falls off. So remember, when the time comes, COME ON DOWN and vote your choice.

That's it for today. Bye....

The 2010 Area 25 Speech Contest

2010-03-21T21:33:00.021-04:00

On Saturday, Mar 20, the combined Area 23/25 International Speech and Evaluation Contests were held at the Safe Auto HQs in Easton. We had two contestants in each, Sally and me speaking, and Sally and Paula evaluating.

We had a good turnout, with seven members (our four participants, along with Kristen, Teresa, and Mark) attending. Additionally, one of our members (Eric) was the target speaker for the Area 23 Evaluation contest. Eric deserves a lot of credit for stepping up to volunteer for this. Anyone who wants to get an extra speech accomplished at the next level can volunteer to be a target speaker at the the Division Contest on 10 Apr. The additional feedback you receive (not only your own written evaluation, but the verbal input of extra really GOOD evaluators) is a great experience.

The competition was stiff, with four great speeches and three insightful evaluations. I was selected as winner in the speech competition, and Paula as runner up in the evaluation competition. This means I will represent us at the division speech contest, with Paula a standby evaluation competitor should the winner (Clark Hahn) not compete.

This will be the second year in a row our club has had a competitor at the division speech contest, and I urge all of our members to come out and experience some great speeches. The higher the level of the contest, the better they get. I must also say that seeing friendly faces of club members in the audience means an awful lot to any speaker. It boosts morale tremendously.

There is one other thing I want to point out, especially for newer club members. As I stood there, giving my speech, my hands shook from nerves. I've given over thirty speeches in five years in TM, and competed in... probably five contests at the Area level and I'd guess two at the Division level. My hands still shake at times. If you worry that nerves will get in the way... if you worry will you ever be able to get past that... DON'T. The important thing is not whether the worries or butterflies go away, but rather how you deal with them. You make the speech in spite of them and don't let them interfere with your performance. It's more a test of will and perseverance than one of nerves. As the little green guy in the Star Wars movie said... There is no try, there is only do!

That's it for now. See you Thursday.

s

Visiting a Gem of a Club

2010-03-11T22:40:00.007-05:00

The Roaming Gnome is back. This time, I visited the Safe Auto Diamonds Club, meeting Wednesdays at noon at the Safe Auto building in the Easton office development. While this is a closed club, they do welcome visitors, and that indeed is what I was. This club has only been around for about a year, but has grown to the point where they have two groups meeting on separate days (Wednesday and Thursday). I visited looking for new ideas, and I found them.

One thing that I noticed that impressed me was the difference in the way introductions are practiced here. In our club the intros are just what the speaker provides, and if there isn't any then the intro is... minimal at best. Here however, the Toastmaster actually worked at providing an introduction of the speaker. Stop and think about it, there isn't any reason, really, that the TM shouldn't put some effort into an intro for a speaker to make it more personal and meaningful. The speaker does still provide something, but the TM can add to it, embellish it. What is the value in this? It's more of that magic phrase "Stage time, stage time, stage time". If the TM is really adventurous, he (or she) will not plan for this, but use it as a sort of self-imposed Table Topics session.

The other great idea I found here was a more personal approach to the Grammarian/Ah-Counter report. Here the notes are recorded on small notepad sized slips of paper that are given to the individual speakers at the end of the meeting. This way they can be taken away and examined later for more of a learning experience.

I did notice that this is another club that brings the evaluation team to the podium to deliver reports rather than allowing them to be recited from the seat. This worked well, and I've suggested we start it at our club too. The trick here is to bring all of the team up at one time... well, not the Evaluators, but rather the Grammarian and the Timer. We did try it this morning, but with one coming up at a time. This introduced a delay in time. We need to try it with both coming up at the same time. What's the advantage here? The same as the idea of each Evaluator introducing the next. That is, more experience for the newer members. By coming up with someone else, the experience is more shared and less intimidating.

That's it for now.

s

A Visit to the Gahanna Club

2010-03-09T12:15:00.013-05:00

Being one that believes in "Practice What You Preach", I put my travelin' hat on, assumed my personae as the Franklin Roaming Gnome and visited the Gahanna Toastmasters meeting last night. They meet the 2nd/4th Monday of each month, 7:30 pm at the Good Samaritan Reform Church in Gahanna.

I've been to the Gahanna club before, and even considered joining it five years ago when I started in TM. At the time though, the Franklin Club won my vote, but this club is still one I enjoy going to. The meeting was really a good one. There were, as I recall, seventeen members and visitors attending, and the enthusiasm of the members was obvious. One of the reasons I go to other club meetings is to find ideas to bring back to the Franklin club, and I did indeed find a few good ones here to mull over.

First off, and this is something I've never noticed at a club before, this club seems to have a couple of... Cheerleaders. At most clubs (ours included) there's always the polite and expected applause. At Gahanna though, there's also a vocal element. Whoops and cheers were, well, not annoyingly present, but there, and it helped elevate the mood of the meeting. Go Cheerleaders!

Another thing I never saw at a club before was a tribute to two of their members (a married couple) who are moving to Chicago. The goodbyes were certainly heartfelt. Here is just another new thing... they must have five or six pairs of members - both husband and wife having joined.

This club practices something we considered regarding evaluation reports (Grammarian, Timer, Vote Counter). These reports are delivered from the front of the room rather than from seats. It worked well, and I can see how it gives increased experience up front (especially important to newer members). I had not been in favor of this before due to time limitations, but... it's a good idea.

I also like their devoting the occasional meeting (every fifth Monday of the month) to just speeches. We've also talked about this, and maybe it's time to reconsider the option. They extended an invitation to our club members wanting to speak to come by to one of their Just Speeches meetings. It's a great opportunity.

The speeches were great, the Table Topics devoted to the member tribute, and the Evaluations right on the money. My thanks go out to Detwaine Gantt (President) and old co-Toasties Ashlee Ralph and Jerry Smith, as well as all of the other Gahanna members for a warm welcome. I did of course, invite one and all to come visit us at the Franklin Toastmasters. If I weren't already a member at Franklin, I'd sure be a member at Gahanna!

That's it for this road trip. I'm hoping to go visit another club later this week or next. If it works out, I'll fill you in then. Remember all of you Franklin members, going on visits is great experience.

Bye...
Steve

Speaking Outside the Club

2010-03-02T05:15:00.003-05:00

As a club grows, and as an individual member of a club grows, it may become more and more difficult to get "stage time"... to get to deliver speeches. We all want to belong to a dynamic club, none want to be in a club where so few show up at meetings that filling roles becomes a challenge. However, there may well come a point at which the club has so many members that it gets harder to be able to fit YOUR presentation in. Not only that, but the situation arises as one moves on to the advanced manuals, that the times required for speeches increases to 10-15 or even 15-20 minutes. When your club only meets for an hour (as does ours), and grows, it gets even harder to fit that speech in.

What to do? How to get it in there? It can be a bit of a problem. However, there is a solution. Considering that one of the reasons for being a Toastmaster to begin with is learning to speak in front of other people, then the solution is... speak in front of other people! I'm not trying to be cute here, I'm just getting ready to point out something that we don't often consider. We join a club, we go to meetings, we learn to be comfortable doing "our thing" as a Toastie. There's a problem here though... we get too comfortable speaking in front of our own club members. We know how they're going to react to us. It's a safe environment. That being the case, what's going to happen when all of a sudden we're called upon to stand up in front of people we don't know in an environment we aren't familiar with. It's very possible we'll wind up with that old familiar case of the shakes that we joined Toastmasters to overcome to start with!

I'll say it again, the solution is to go visit other clubs to give some of your speeches. Public speaking is like exercise, if you don't get enough practice you get flabby. It's the same old story, use it or lose it. There are many clubs out there, and some of them are crying out for speakers. Some of them (the more advanced ones) meet for longer periods and are the perfect venue for those longer speeches in the advanced manuals. Getting up in front of members of another club to speak is a great way to increase your comfort level and skills. Not only that, but (and not everyone knows this) you can still advance your way through the TM manuals doing this. Each one of us can get credit for up to two speeches per manual outside of our own club, as long as: (1) the club VP for Education approves; (2) a Toastmaster (not necessarily from your own club) does the evaluation; and (3) there is both a written and verbal evaluation. That's the solution. Simple, isn't it?

s

Continued Growth

2010-02-07T07:42:00.012-05:00

Our club continues to grow. Since my last entry we've added three more members. A warm welcome here to Ed, Kristen, and Shakeel. We've yet another new member waiting in the wings, and that's Andrew. That would bring our roster up to twenty nine. There is some negative membership news, in that Senthil is heading back to India for a while and will not be able to stay with us, and long-time member Rhonda will be continuing her TM activities with a new club that meets where she works. Good luck to you Senthil, and 'Bon Voyage' Rhonda. Thus, the twenty nine quickly becomes twenty seven.

Why is our club doing so well membership-wise now? That's a good question. There are those that would be tempted to say it's due to the economy... because people are unsure of their jobs and what will happen tomorrow they want to improve their communications and leadership skills to better secure their future. That may be true to some extent, but I think it's due more to the nature of our club itself. Our meetings are very interesting, varied, and fun. We seem to have had two or three visitors at nearly every meeting for the last few months. One important feature I think, is our varied membership. I did a brief survey recently, and of the sixteen members that I can specify, I found we have three consultants, a paralegal, a teacher, two IT workers, a CPA, a career coach, two engineers, a Project Manager, and one each real estate and sales professionals, as well as one each insurance and restaurant executives. Of the twenty seven I mentioned, there are sixteen men and eleven women, and although I've not polled this, I believe our ages range from the mid to late twenties to seniors (I'm one of 'em). This variety makes for a lot of different points of view and interests.

That's it for now, so goodbye for now and... Keep on Toastin' down the road!

s

New members, new feature, and a new role

2010-01-27T07:05:00.003-05:00

Our club now has two more new members... welcome Paula and Dennis. We're now up to 25, back to the level we were two years ago. It seems our club (and I've been told most clubs) goes through a periodic membership slump. That's why it's important to always work on recruiting new members.

We're continuing on with our TM101 sessions at each meeting. The TM101 is named that to sort of emulate a college class name. It's basic information about Toastmasters and the TM program and is designed to help members learn a bit more about it all. There is a LOT of information out there and a LOT to absorb. Even long time members can learn something new here.

I'm trying to start a new role for our meetings this week, that of CL Evaluator. It's just one member of the club that's assigned to do the evaluations for anyone that wants his or her role evaluated for the Competent Leader (CL) manual and award. They just hand their book over to this person, and he/she does the evaluation for it.

That's it for now.... Bye'

s

Who Evaluates the Evaluators?

2009-11-28T17:52:00.010-05:00

Do you remember… back in College, or maybe High School… having to read The Republic by Plato? A classic in literature, dealing with the optimum form of government. One question covered was about those that watched the citizens of the Republic to ensure they… behaved properly. I've read that the original Latin phrase translates as Who watches the watchers themselves? and reads:

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

When it comes to our Toastmasters meetings, I paraphrase on this saying and come out with “Who Evaluates the Evaluators?” Think about this now, those that give speeches are evaluated, so is the Toastmaster and presiding officer of the meeting. But, do the Evaluators of the speakers actually get evaluated? They are supposed to, but often this is actually overlooked during the General Evaluators review of the meeting. It’s not a criticism, just an observation.

There are three major areas of development for every Toastmaster: 1. Public Speaking; 2. Leadership; and 3. Evaluation. Indeed it could be said that evaluation is part of either the public speaking or leadership parts, but still, it is a definitely separate skill. It is one that many of us need to use in our careers. Because of this we need practice, but the only feedback we can get on how well we do is by notes passed to us during the meeting or by the General Evaluator. So each of us, when we have that role, need to remember how important it is for us to give some of those few minutes to a review of the performance of the speech evaluators.

As a side note, remember that there was a very good article in August issue of the Toastmaster magazine about evaluations, so take some time and go back and read it again at:

The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

So long, and remember... Keep on Toastin'

s

Educational Tips

2009-10-20T06:18:00.003-04:00

The more I look around, the more information I find that can help individuals wanting to learn the art and practice of Public Speaking. Take a look at the link from our club Agenda page to the TM101 Topics and Presenters spreadsheet. I’ve listed fifteen topics that we will be addressing through the coming year in brief educational presentations at the beginning of our meetings. That’s fifteen… and I found those with only a few minutes thinking and browsing. In addition, I’ve listed seventeen web page links to articles and other web pages that provide more information on those topics. Take for instance the topic How to Connect With an Audience…. There are two references there, both pointing to articles from the Toastmasters Magazine (Who’s your Audience from Dec 2007 and Tips for a Terrific Talk from Oct 2007). Any Toastmaster wanting to learn something about speaking skills can probably find something to help from the TI web site page for the magazine’s past issues. All of the current year’s magazines and the two years before are available there. Then there’s the old reliable Google search. Are you at a loss for what to use as a Table Topics session when you’re going to be the TT Master at a meeting? Just Google it, using the phrase ‘Toastmasters Table Topics’. I came up with 245,000 hits. If you use the new search engine Bing, you’ll get 145,000 hits. In Bing the query for 'The Art of the Pause in Speeches' brings up 1,670,000 hits and in Google 1,350,000 hits. In short, there is an awful lot of information out there to help. In the final analysis though, while such research and reading can help, the only way you really get better is stage time, stage time, stage time. Remember, SPEAK OUT, you have nothing to lose but the Heebie-Jeebies!

Area 25 TT/Humorous Contest

2009-10-02T06:26:00.013-04:00

On Sept 26th, Areas 23 and 25 held a joint, combined, Table Topics and Humorous Speech contest. Our club had one contestant competing in each (Vallery for Humor and Rhonda for TT). While we didn't win in the Humor category, Rhonda did come in second for the TT contest. There were quite a few people present, as the attached photo shows.
Our club had eight members present, an all-time record for us (as far as I know). Here's a shot of four of our members that were there (Sally, Anamica, Manoj, SteveM). Other members that were there were Rhonda, Vallery, Teresa, and... yours truly.

2009 TT Contest

2009-09-20T06:43:00.005-04:00

Our club Table Topics Contest for 2009 was held on Sept 17th, with three members competing to move forward to the Area Contest (shown at right, from right to left - Rhonda, Eric, and me). This year, each club in our Area gets to send two members to compete, and we will be sending Eric and Rhonda. Eric has been in our club for a little over a year now, Rhonda has been a Toastmaster for eleven plus years, and I have been around for five years. Good luck Rhonda, good luck Eric!

Speech Evaluations

2009-09-05T08:21:00.002-04:00

Just listened to the new entry concerning speech evaluations on the TI Podcast page. It's an interview with Carol Dean Schreiner (DTM) about her presentation at the last TI Convention, where she shared her views on The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of evaluations. Check it out, she gives great advice here.

s

Toastmaster Myths

2009-09-01T09:54:00.003-04:00

If any of you are involved in Linkedin, you can go to one of the many Toastmasters groups there (this one is named The Official Toastmasters International Members Group) and see a listing of Toastmaster Myths and the real info by going to this link.

Officer Training Session

2009-08-29T15:47:00.019-04:00

On Saturday (the 29th) I went to the Spring -- or should I say Summer? -- officer training session. Well, actually, I think it was the makeup, to the makeup, to... the makeup? Whatever it was called, it was the last opportunity to attend one of them this round for official credit to the TI DCP (Distinguished Club Program). It was pretty well attended, as the attached picture shows. I must admit, I've been in TM for four years, and an officer for three of those four. I've been to most of the available training sessions that were going through that time. I have to say that this one fired me up more than the others. The session that I was there for was, of course, the VP Education (my position this year). Maybe it's the unfulfilled teacher in me (I always wanted to be a teacher, but the USAF and computers waylaid me). I can't wait to try out some of the ideas that were presented today. I've got to say that Charley Ashley did a great job as presenter for the VP Ed session.

Yesterday our Area Governor (Shelly Hunt) sent out copies of the handouts Charley had. These are great tools for explaining the awards paths that TMs take, from first (CC, or Competent Communicator) to the top (DTM, or Distinguished Toastmaster). Even better, it also includes the CL (Competent Leader) levels. They'll soon be on our club web site. Thanks go out to Charley and to Shelly.

BTW, in case the dates here look confusing, I'm actually finishing this up on Sept 1st, even though I started it on Aug 29th.

'bye
s

Remember to ALWAYS Bring Your CL Manual to Meetings

2009-08-27T12:22:00.003-04:00

I've heard that there are those that never realized they could be working on their Competent Leader (CL) projects at the same time that they work on their Competent Communicator (CC) manual projects. Well (as Paul Harvey used to say), "Stand by for NEWS!" Yes, you can work on them together. Even better is the fact that while there are lots and lots of things to do for the CL, a fair number of them can be taken care of just by filling regular club meeting roles.

OK, so you're the Grammarian at the next meeting, right? Projects 1, 2, 3, and 4 have Grammarian tasks. Go ahead, pick one of them. You're the timer? Project 4 is the one. Even meeting and getting to know guests that come to your club can get you credit (Project 7). You're a Speaker? Projects 4, 5, and 6. If you're going to be an Evaluator, check out Projects 1, 2, 3, and 8.

'nuff fer now

s

New Events on the Web and in the Media

2009-08-22T08:58:00.007-04:00

WOW! I was just blown out of my socks. It started when I found a link to the Talking Toastmasters Podcast on the (I guess it was) TI web site. I went there and listened to a couple of the interviews. Really good stuff, that. Something really piqued my interest though, and that was the interview concerning a new movie that's supposed to come out "soon" called Speakeasy. Well, this sounded very intriguing and so I went to the Speakeasy web site (well, it's more a Blog than a web site). While there I looked at the trailer for the movie (the link is easy to find, it's near the top right hand corner of the screen). That was what really knocked my socks off. I've already sent the link out to all Franklin club members. This should be required viewing for all Toastmasters. I can hardly wait for the movie to come out. It's so great I put a link to it on the home page of our web site.

Articles Found On The 'Net

2009-08-12T07:07:00.003-04:00

While browsing, I ran into a couple of interesting articles on public speaking. One deals with overcoming the fear of public speaking, and the other gives four steps to improve presentations (click on the highlighted words to see them). I found these after reading a reference to something called an Article Bank. Having never heard of such I looked it up and found there really are places like that, and that if you have something that you've written that you want to 'spread around', these sites will publish them for you for free (you don't pay them, they don't pay you). One of them is ArticleCat. Another is Article Bank. The understanding is that anyone that reads the tome can copy it or refer to it. You're basically giving the article to them. Interesting. Anyway, check out the original articles on public speaking for some tips that might help you.

2009-07-29T21:09:00.009-04:00

I wrote this a few days ago, while... well... on the road....

I'm on my way back from vacation in the Hilton Head (South Carolina) area. We stopped last night here at a hotel in Becton, W Va. Sitting in the breakfast area, I thought I'd write a few words.

While in SC, I put on my Franklin Roaming Gnome hat , and visited a local Toastmasters Club. It was club 607838 of Bluffton, South Carolina. They're a relatively new club, only around since June of 2004. They have about 20 members (I think they said... eighteen ?) There were nine members and three visitors present.

One of the reasons I like to visit other clubs (aside from the obvious... “stage time”) is to get new ideas for our club. This visit was rewarding in that regard. This club has each speech evaluator call up the next evaluator, rather than turning the meeting back over to the General Evaluator for the GE to call up the next one. The last one then turns things back over to the GE. With three speakers, I think this could save perhaps up to four or five minutes meeting time. I think it's a great idea and believe we should adopt it in our club.

True to form, I always try to leave behind an idea as well, and mentioned how we post our Word of the Day at the back of the room for speakers to see, not just on the lectern for the audience to see.

I cannot stress enough the value of going to visit other clubs, especially for our newer members. Doing this increases one's experience and comfort level in with groups of new people. It is even more valuable if you get to stand up in front and participate in a TT session. So what if it doesn't go well? It's E-X-P-E-R-I-E-N-C-E ! As Darren laCroix said, “Fail forward”. It isn't a crucial social experience, it isn't an important business meeting. It's PRACTICE, and as the old saying goes, practice makes perfect.

From on the road, this is me.

Yes, We Can

2009-07-10T06:23:00.003-04:00

There are so many things I’d like to write about that I find it hard to decide on any one topic. OK… here goes… I‘ve discovered Dale Carnegie. Yes, that’s what I said. We have a selection of old self-improvement books and tapes at work. Some of them have been sitting around there for nearly twenty years. Bob (the owner) recently weeded some of them out and knowing of my activity with TM asked me if I’d like to have a couple of them. One was Effective Speaking, by Dale Carnegie. Another was his classic, How to Win Friends and Influence People. I’m reading the first one right now.

Dale Carnegie began teaching his first public speaking class in 1912, this book has a 1962 copyright, and my copy was from the ninth printing in 1972 – figure it out, yes that’s thirty seven years ago. I found (on the very first page) a description of what he heard many people saying about having to speak in public, in effect that they become paralyzed with fear as soon as they are up there… in front... of everybody.

That’s people, and it hasn’t changed much for most. That’s what Toastmasters is all about changing, banishing the fear. If you’re a Science Fiction fan you’ll recognize the saying Fear is the little death, from Frank Herbert’s novel Dune. It is, but we can overcome it. We do overcome it. To borrow another phrase… Yes We Can.

s

Introductions r'us

2009-07-05T11:24:00.003-04:00

I presented a speech the other day at my club, project number 3 in the Persuasive Speaking advanced manual (The Winning Proposal). Much to my chagrin, when the Toastmaster for the meeting asked for my intro, I realized that I'd been so busy the last few days that 'dI never prepared one. Intros are something we are always supposed to provide. They're something I frequently remind people to do, and there I was, guilty myself. So... here's a hint for all you beginning Toasties (hmmm, even some not so beginning I suppose) and it's something I intend to do for myself as well. Prepare a fill-in the blanks preprinted general introduction that you can use for those times you DO forget to make one up.

s

Club Officer Meeting - 29 June

2009-06-30T06:10:00.009-04:00

We had our last club officer meeting for the TM year last night. at the Golden Valley Chinese Restaurant in the Sunbury Plaza. It's a nice, quiet, family place. There were eight of us there, a mixture of old and new officers. We had a few laughs and talked about plans for the upcoming year. Here's a picture of us. I guess the detail isn't very good, we're all wearing funny sunglasses (the guys) and little plastic tiaras (the gals).

I'm going to get away from doing descriptions of club meetings in this Blog... that's what the minutes are for. Instead, I'm going to start focusing on the "meat and potatoes" of Toastmasters. Now, you may say "what's that?" You do ask good questions. It's about the methods and techniques of public speaking, and about Toastmasters itself. Now, I'm not pretending to be the great guru that knows it all, but I do know a couple of things.

Until next time,

s

Club Software

2009-06-23T10:40:00.006-04:00

I’ve been working on changes to the web site for about a month now, off and on. It came out of a club member (Lina) making suggestions as part of her new CL track projects. As part of this, and also because I’m to be the new VP for Education, I went looking for a software package to schedule roles for members and keep track of who’s doing, did, or will do, what, and when.

I found one called ClubScheduler that was mentioned on the TI web site. It keeps track of club members, educational tracks, and meetings. It records who did what, when, and allows me to schedule future role assignments. It will also create club membership lists, and can generate emails of all reports to members and/or guests. It's just a great all-around piece of work. It's also free software (that's good), although they do ask for a $40 donation. I don't know if the club will want to pay it (now?... maybe later?) because we don't have a lot of money, but... maybe.

I created a club roster to put on the Internet in the form of a web page. I had been using a Google spreadsheet, but this looks a lot better. I did not put home addresses in, but did include phone numbers and email addresses. On the email addresses, I changed the HTML so that the actual address wasn’t displayed, but only the ASCII code version of it. I used a small program I picked up a long time ago to use for just this purpose. Thus, instead of the code showing the address internally, it’s a series of code numbers that a browser will interpret into a character string showing the address, but which a crawlbot out on the ‘net looking for addresses cannot interpret. This one is called ecloaker, and it's very simple to use.

I’ve also started using the CoffeeCup web authoring software I bought a year ago. It works very well too. I generated some dropdown menu screens and a separate web form for contacting club officers with comments and/or questions.

It's Been a While

2009-06-17T07:16:00.002-04:00

It's been a while since I made an entry here. I don't have to list every meeting. As a matter of fact, I even missed the last meeting (June 11th) as I had to take care of some family matters.

I do have one new thing to report though, and that's a new software package I'm trying out for scheduling meeting roles. I'm doing this as the new VP for Education for the club (it's my job to make up the schedule). I found the link to it on the TI web site. The package is called Club Scheduler (click on that to go to their web site) and it appears to be a free package. Well, at least there's been no mention of $$$ so far. I've installed it on my PC and begun using it. I have to gather some more information. It takes in a lot of information, like when a person joined, how many speeches they've given, when the last one was, how many weeks to go before considering them for another role, and so on. When it does the scheduling of speeches for a meeting, it puts the speakers in order of experience, from least to most. I suppose that way there's less chance of a newer speaker being intimidated by a more experienced one.

It seems like a good deal. Only time will tell.

Tomorrow is the next meeting. I'm "on deck" to do a speech. It will be project 3 from the Advanced Manual on Persuasive Speaking, and the topic is The Winning Proposal. My proposal is for the club to go back to it's roots and resume meeting weekly.

'nuff 4 now

Books and Toastmasters

2009-06-02T12:15:00.004-04:00

I just went to the D40 web site, and read something I think is really remarkable. It's the story about the writing of a book titled (and you can see it by clicking on this link) The Girl From Gladden Street. The book was written and self-published by a Toastmaster here in the Columbus area. It's about the stories, experiences, and speeches from her seven years in TI and her younger life. What a remarkable achievement, and yet one more proof of how Toastmasters can indeed change lives.

Speaking of books, I've about finished reading one by Seth Goodin, titled Tribes (We Need You To Lead Us). I picked it up from Amazon.com a couple of weeks ago for... less than $15 in all. It's a wonderful read. I'm no book reviewer, but I think everyone going into a leadership position in Toastmasters should read this. One of the really neat things he says is that we should ask ourselves if we are a thermometer or a thermostat. Now, that's not as cryptic as it may seem on the surface. A thermometer reacts to change by measuring and displaying what's happening. A thermostat on the other hand, senses what's happening and causes changes in order to reach a desired goal. Makes sense.

Neat. OK... 'nuff for now.

s

May 28 Meeting

2009-06-02T07:21:00.007-04:00

Our meeting this day was a little on the lighter side… attendance wise. It was, after all, one of our bonus meetings. That is to say, it was not a regularly scheduled meeting but one that we put on to help a few people get in some requirements for those CC and CL awards before the end of the official club year. Lina gave the last speech needed to qualify for the Competent Communicator award. This was number 10, the Inspire Your Audience one. The topic for this one was Volunteer for Something, Anything, Just Volunteer. Vallery followed with a speech on the 30 Year High School Reunion that she’s involved in organizing.

We are all looking forward to summer, and the big highlight for us is the end of the official club year. That comes on June 30th. The next day (July 1st) our new slate of officers becomes official. One of the things that I want to be sure that we review then and vote on as a club is the frequency of our meetings. Right now we meet on the 1st, 3rd, and 5th (when there is one) Thursdays of the month. When I first joined the club we met weekly. There was a point about two years ago where our membership declined due to many job, supervisor, and working schedule changes. At that time the club voted to meet less frequently. Now that our membership is back up again, we need to consider if only meeting twice a month (sometimes three times) is enough to keep our membership active and involved. Personally, I prefer meeting weekly. There’s no confusion there and people can move through the manuals more quickly. The decision however, is one to be made at the club level as it means a change in the club charter (a simple thing to do that can be taken care of online).

I will be moving to the position of VP for Education, and plan on reviewing goals with each member. I’m also hoping to schedule and conduct a Speechcraft workshop that would run on Saturdays at a local library. I have the materials to start and two others in the club have said they’d be willing to work with me on it (Sally and Theresa). It’s a matter now of getting it off the ground.

May 21 Meeting

2009-05-22T23:49:00.019-04:00

This week we had a very good turnout. There were twelve club members present, and five visitors. Three of those visitors (Cindy, Manoj, and Susan) signed up to join the club before leaving. Our official membership is now twenty one, of which two are graced and have indicated they will not be able to continue membership -- leaving us at nineteen.

Tom gave his third speech, titled The First of Human Qualities (concentrating on Courage), and Senthil give his Ice-Breaker, Live By Choice and Not By Chance (which is really about Courage as well). We then had a Table Topics Pageant with four volunteers competing by answering questions that Shelly asked. Manoj talked about Telling Little White Lies. Terry answered the question Do Athletes Make Too Much Money? Eric on the other hand, described The Biggest Challenge For Children Today. The final contestant was Susan, who told us how she would Change One Thing In The World.

We had a couple of good laughs, and I made a recording of Senthil's presentation. This goes on a CD for him to review at his leisure. This is an excellent way to observe and critique one's own performance.

Getting ready for Table Topics

We also held our club elections for the next year. Lina will be our President, I will be the VP for Education, Chris is to be the VP for Membership and Vallery the VP for Public Relations. Sally will serve as Secretary, Theresa as Treasurer, and Eric as Sgt @ Arms.

That's it.

s

May 14 Meeting

2009-05-18T21:20:00.009-04:00

This week we had the pleasure of the company of a long-time, seldom seen member, Margaret. Actually, the reason we seldom see her is that she really lives in Florida and only comes back here to O-Hi-O once in a blue moon. But... when she does... she comes to see us. Margaret is a DTM, and for those that don't know what that means... she's achieved the Distinguished Toastmaster rating. That means she's given more than 50 speeches in five different speaking levels, been a Club and a District officer for a year each, reached each of the three leadership levels, and tackled at least two complicated advanced level leadership projects. Wow... Our club can boast of not one, but two DTMs in our ranks (Rhonda is the other).

We had three visitors, Mark, Susan, and Ildar. I believe all three indicated their intentions of joining. Here's hoping it comes to pass.

Vallery gave us a speech on how to plan and execute a simple (that's S.I.M.P.L.E. - for Select, Invite, Menu, Purchase, Layout, and Execute) party. She even gave out some party favors to help liven our spirits. Lina really opened our eyes to the realities of using bottled water. I used to drink at least one a day at work. Now I use an oversized coffee cup and the filtered water fountain. Finally, Liz gave us her Ice-Breaker, and boy did she cover a lot of ground. Liz, if you read this, know that I think you'll do great in future. I managed to do a video of Liz and Lina, and will put them both on CD for them.

We will be meeting weekly thru the month of June to enable some of our members to get in enough credits for the Competent Leader (CL) and Competent Communicator (CC) ratings. Our speakers will be Tom and Lina are scheduled to speak, as are Senthil (his Ice-Breaker), and Eugene (his second speech). Sally will be our Toastmaster, and I will be taking on the General Evaluator role.

See you then.

s

May 7 Meeting

2009-05-10T07:14:00.016-04:00

Alas, I was unable to attend this meeting, but the minutes tell a story. We originally had not two, not three, but FOUR speakers scheduled. As can happen, three of those speeches were OBE (overcome by events) and only one was actually presented. We knew this would be the case late in the afternoon the day before, and I volunteered to step in and make a presentation. I had it all ready, I was going to re-do the Powerpoint show on Meeting Roles and Responsibilities. This would have been a good one now, since we have some new members that might not yet be too familiar with the normal flow of events at a meeting. However, as I indicated, I was unable to make it to the meeting either.

Having said that, a look at the meeting minutes (Click here) shows there was a lot going on. There were seven Table Topics presenters! For those that may not know, Table Topics is a very important part of the Toastmasters program. What is it? In short, it's extemporaneous speaking. In other words, someone stands up, is given a topic or asked a question, and speaks for one to two minutes. There's no preparation, no planning, and no practice. The speaker doesn't even know what the question... or proposition... (however the tasking may be phrased) is going to be. This is what teaches us to think on our feet (literally) and be creative. Think of how helpful that can be for those that are job hunting, for those that find themselves in the public eye, and for those that have to be ready to respond to sudden questions at company meetings! Being able to do this without getting flustered is a very, very, valuable skill. The best of the TT presenters was actually our newest member, Liz. Good job!

As an extra note, we are starting up a program of "bonus meetings" to run through the month of June. We will be meeting every week of this period in order to get extra speeches and role performances logged for those that want to complete requirements for a speaking level and the Competent Leader designation. See you all next week.

April 30 Meeting

2009-05-01T06:33:00.016-04:00

Our Meeting yesterday was well attended, with ten members and four visitors present. On behalf of our club, I extend a warm welcome to Anamika, Cindy, Mark, and Manosh. I hope you join our club.

Sally's speech was titled Grandpa, and was the second project (Speaking in Praise) from the Special Occasions advanced manual. Sally is now one step closer (and only one speech away) from gaining the Advanced Communicator Bronze (ACB) award. She's already done nineteen prepared Toastmaster speeches. Way to GO Sally!

Lina was our second speaker, and her speech on Dining Etiquette certainly taught me a thing or two. She completely laid out, and explained, how a table setting should look. She even described the reasons for putting this here and that there. Very interesting. I always knew there was a certain way to place some things, but never thought about the reasoning behind it all. One thing I learned was that knives are always placed with the serrated edge IN towards the plate (thus not a threat to one's neighbor... wow).

On a side note, I have received a firm date for giving a presentation to the 40Plus Club. I will be going there on the 6th of July, and have tentatively decided on a topic... Toastmasters and the WIIFM Question (that is... What's In It For Me). I'm told presentations there should run for about an hour. So... I do have some preparatory work to do. But then, it should be easy to talk for an hour about the benefits of Toastmasters membership.

Club minutes for the meeting are now on the web site... go to the Minutes page for that. We will be meeting again next week, and we have a full schedule set up. First off, Senthil will be delivering his Ice-Breaker speech. Teresa and Shelly are also up to speak, and if I'm not mistaken they will also be giving an Ice-Breaker. Wonderful! We all started there. Our fourth speaker will be Lina, who is closing in on her CC (that is... Competent Communicator) award.

A Visit to 40Plus

2009-04-29T06:32:00.015-04:00

I went to visit a 40Plus meeting last night. A non-profit founded in 1982, it helps those over age 40 who are transitioning from one job to another. It's a very worthwhile effort (they're a non-profit organization). I'd love to know how many members they've had since they started and how many have been successful in their job search as a result of membership. I first visited them about four years ago when I was going through my own period of layoffs. It hasn't changed much... the table arrangement had been moved around but that's the only difference I noticed. I talked with them about making a presentation for the membership about the benefits of Toastmasters, and they agreed it sounded like a good idea. It looks like the date would be sometime in July.

There were about thirty people attending. Imagine my surprise when I found that there were other Toastmasters there. Two were lapsed members from the Polaris Club, one from the Toast of the City club, and one from the Nationwide Club. One I even knew and had competed against in a Speech Contest once upon a time. I invited several of them (seven, I think) to come visit our meeting this week. I didn't get a chance to speak to the group, but am supposed to be on their speaking schedule for July.

People don't always realize that, even if they're not 'in' sales, they are really sales people when job hunting. That's when they have to 'sell' themselves to the company they're interviewing with (or at least, to the interviewers).

Another Meeting, Another New Member

2009-04-16T21:09:00.010-04:00

Our meeting this week was most enjoyable. We had four visitors (Terry, Mari, Susan, and Liz), two Speakers, and five Table Topics responders. One of those visitors (Liz - a three time visitor) decided to take the plunge and join the club. Way to go, Liz! Welcome to the club. Next we'll assign you a Mentor to help you get started out on your first few speeches.

The Theme for this meeting was Today is the First Day of the Rest of Your Life, and we had some very creative questions. One was:
Today is the first day of the rest of your life, if you could change one thing in your past life that would change the rest of your life, what would that be?

Chris won the best speaker award for the day, with his discussion of the trappings used by those competing in Triathlon events. The gear was... amazing. I for one, would never have thought how complicated mere... stuff could be. But then, what would a couch potato like me know about it anyway?

Eastern Division Contest Results

2009-04-04T23:05:00.007-04:00

The results are in for the Eastern Division International Speech and Evaluation Contests.

Six of us competed in the Speech Contest, first place going to Janet Prince with her speech on 'Let's Laugh'. My speech, titled 'Only So Many Words, Only So Much Time' placed second.

In the Evaluation Contest, five of us evaluated Target Speaker Mike Perez presenting his 'Living Beyond the Board' speech. The winner here was was Erik Anderson. I placed second here as well.

The competition was tough in both contests, and even though I didn't win either one, I'm still pleased to have finished second. The higher one goes in these contests, the better the speakers get.

Keep on Toastin'

April 2 Meeting

2009-04-03T05:25:00.001-04:00

We had a good turnout yesterday morning... eleven members plus three visitors. One highlight was Pierre receiving a round of applause for returning after a long illness. New members Teresa and Senthil were both inducted into the club. We were pleased to welcome Mike, a one-time-long-ago member and club President who is now back in town and came to visit. We also welcomed Cindy, visiting us for the third time, and a first-time visiting Terrence. Sally gave us an overview of our standing in the TI Distinguished Club Program, describing what goals we had met and what ones we could still achieve. Shelly did a great job on her Ice-Breaker, and our Table Topics turned into a wonderfully humorous ten minutes worth of simulated radio interviews. It was a great meeting, one that certainly got all of us in a good mood to start the work day.

Tomorrow is the (drum roll) Division Speech Contest. How well will I do? None can tell at this point. I will most likely face some really good speakers and just need to relax and do my best. Stay tuned viewers, for more news from the Franklin Front.

Welcome New Member

2009-03-20T06:59:00.000-04:00

Yesterday's meeting was attended by... eight regular members, and three visitors... one of whom signed up as a member. He still has to be officially voted in and inducted, but the paperwork part on the TI side is done. Welcome Senthil.

We had two Ice-Breaker speeches, an unusual approach to Table Topics, and I practiced my competition speech for the Division contest coming up on April 4th. The Ice-Breakers were very well done by Eugene and Teresa. Neither showed much (if any) nerves and they did as well as many other more accomplished Toastmasters I have seen in the past. I only wish I had done as well. My presentation was... lackluster. All I can do is perhaps hope it was the early morning, the lack of a spirit of competition, and the fact that I was rushing all morning, late for everything, and just generally... off.

Patrick did a great job with TT by using an unusual idea. The TT topics were spread out between speeches, and limited to just 30 seconds. It was fun.

Our First "Roast & Toast"

2009-03-17T06:42:00.000-04:00

A little over two weeks ago, on Feb 28th, we had our first (hopefully) annual Roast & Toast meeting. We met in the Community Room of the Panera Bread Bakery & Cafe at the Polaris Towne Center (1391 Polaris Parkway) in Westerville. The facility there is nice, it's actually a separate room at one end of the restaurant. We closed the doors, and rearranged the tables into a big "U" shape. There were... twenty of us I think (twelve members and eight guests). The meeting was pretty much one big Table Topics session, and there were quite a few laughs.

Franklin Club makes it to the Division Contest

2009-03-16T18:50:00.000-04:00

As you can probably tell, this is a very new Blog. It's something new for our club and for the Webmaster (me).

Once more one of our club members is a contestant in the Division International Speech Contest. The contest is on April 4th, at the Nationwide Insurance Building, at 215 North Front Street in Columbus, from 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM. I've been told there will be five areas represented in the International Speech portion of it (I don't know about the Evaluation Contest).

I was fortunate enough to not only represent our club at the Area Competition last Saturday, but was considered highly enough to come out the winner in both contests. I was last in line of the three speakers for the Speech part and must say that the other two contestants were pretty good, and I wasn't at all sure what my chances were. I knew even less about the Evaluation contest because I was last there as well, and due to the rules of that contest didn't even get to hear the competition.

I cannot urge other club members enough to come out to participate... or just WATCH these contests. It's a great experience in learning how these things run, and the exposure to other speakers is really eye-opening. Now, some might say it would be intimidating, as in the case of "Yikes! I'll NEVER be THAT good!" The real truth of the matter though, is that those competitors didn't start out that good. None of us did. The only reason I can win my way through to this level is because I learned how to do it from our club meetings, and taking advantage of every opportunity to observe and learn from others. Come out to watch and see how good you CAN be. It's just like the motto of our club... "Tell me and I forget, Teach me and I remember, Involve me and I learn".

I hope to see some of you in the audience on that Saturday, two weeks from now.

Welcome to Our Club Blog

2009-03-16T07:21:00.000-04:00

The Franklin Toastmasters Club (#524) was chartered on Nov 1, 1947. We meet the 1st, 3rd, and 5th Thursday of each month from 7:00-8:00 AM at the Vineyard Church of Columbus at 6000 Cooper Road, Westerville, OH. WE are an open club and all are welcome to visit.

This Blog is an attempt at establishing an ongoing News, Information, and Education tool for our club members, with the goal of further enhancing the Public Speaking and Leadership skills of all.

Steve Guenther
VP Public Affairs
Franklin Toastmasters