www.toastmastersd47.org
District Calendar January 2005 Planet Toastmasters Club Officer Training Workshops - Orlando Divisions to conduct Officer Training Clubs to review DCP goals February 2005 Talk Up Toastmasters Membership Program Club International Speech and Table Topics Speech Contests Divisions to conduct Officer Training Nominations for District Officers Clubs to review DCP goals March 2005 Area International Speech and Table Topics Speech Contests Club Membership dues are due at World Headquarters Clubs to review DCP goals
Distinguished District for the Fourth Consecutive Year
January 2005
CLUB OFFICERS - ALL TOASTMASTERS IT IS TIME TO GET TRAINED If you were elected for 6 months this is your training opportunity. If you were elected for a full year, you went through training in July. Why do I have to get trained again, if I was already trained in July, you may ask? Since you were new to the job in July, you may have missed some really important information to make your job more fun and rewarding. You now have six months worth of experience that you can share with other officers in the District. The training sessions are not just about officers, there are other sessions that can be very exciting opportunities such as Charting a Course for Club Success, Speech Evaluations, and Membership Building. This is also a great time to network with other Toastmasters from around the District. As you go through the training sessions, ask yourself, which one of these leaders will be the District Governor in 2007? Visit the District 47 Website at www.toastmastersd47.org for more information on your Division or Area Training dates, times and locations.
THE TOASTMASTERS ZEAL by Sharlene Burke, Sunset Speakers #5222
A District Council Meeting is scheduled for Saturday, May 21, 2005, at approximately 2:00 PM, for the purpose, among other things, of holding annual elections for the following District offices: District Governor – The Chief Executive Officer of the District; responsible for leading the District team in achieving Distinguished District and fulfilling the mission of the District. Must have served a year as a Lt. Gov, or Division Gov and six consecutive months as a club president. Lt. Governor of Education and Training – Responsible for club and District officer training; all speech contests in the District above the Club level; District conferences and Distinguished club program. Must has served a year as an Area or Division Governor and six consecutive months as a club president.
It is after midnight and I am wide awake. This is what happens to you when you attend a District Conference because you rekindle friendships, and become re-energized about your Toastmasters goals. This year Toastmasters celebrates its 80th year, and to commemorate this legacy, the guest speaker for the Evaluation Contest, Roy Grimsland incorporated the ride of a lifetime with Paul Revere and the effective use of communication. We had 10 evaluators, third place went to Jessica Schlenk whose outstanding sentence was “give the audience a ride of their life”. The second place went to Thomas Cummings whose advice was to “use your voice and gestures together”. The winner, Ron Rarpart, who sat near me during dinner and we had the opportunity to chat, stated that “as a speaker you do not have to jump off the stage like Richard Simmons, but do something”. You just never know who you are going to have the opportunity to meet at a District Conference. The educational sessions were some of the best I’ve ever sat through. I experienced “Meeting Moxie” by Jodi Short, ATM-S/CL, attended a session on “Powering Team Performance” by Jamaro Thompson, ATM-B/CL and “The Art of Telling your Own Personal Story” by Karen Dugan, ATM-S. There were nine other sessions, that I wish I could have attended. Our International Director, Gwen May, DTM gave a general session on “Building Strong Clubs” The Humorous Speech contest had TEN Contestants!!! Of course we had the Hurricane story, the voting poll story, the going on summer vacation story, see how you were being prepped from you were a kid to enter a Toastmasters Contest and possibly WIN, I gave it away didn’t I? The Summer Vacation Story DID WIN. It was fast, exaggerated and had a
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Notice of District Elections
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THE DISTRICT 47 GOVERNOR’S CORNER
Jim Ocque, DTM District 47 Governor
Six months left in the Toastmasters 20042005 Year and we are now beginning to build the energy to finish the year a winner – a Distinguished District for the 5th consecutive year! We have blown around and battered by our four infamous hurricanes but we are coming back! The positive events in the first six months include Toastmasters giving manual speeches and receiving their CTM’s and ATM’s. We have had a very high percentage (88%) of Clubs that had at least four or more officers trained. We had a successful Fall conference in Fort Lauderdale in November with over 300 Toastmasters in attendance. Although we chartered only one Club, SOCO in Miami, we have more than ten that have had a “kick-off” meeting and are in the process of forming. We have 291 paid Clubs and expect that number to rise in the next few weeks. The challenges require the effort of each District 47 member to meet their goals and the goals of the Area, Division and District. We need each Club to set a minimum goal of being Distinguished – attaining five Distinguished Club Points by June 30. If your Club has not paid their dues, now is the time to do that. As a Club member that wants to compete in the upcoming International Speech Contests, you must be a member in good standing in a club in good standing – dues paid. Is the glass half full or half empty? I know that District 47 Toastmasters do their best work in the last six months of each year. Let’s be a winner again! Let’s show the world that the largest District in the world can overcome the challenges presented and be a leader no matter what may lay in our path to success.
Notice of District Elections Lt. Governor of Marketing – Assists District leaders and clubs in achieving membership goals and in establishing new clubs in the District. Must have served a year as an Area or Division Governor and six consecutive months as a club president. Division Governor Leads Area Governors in the Division in helping clubs achieve their goals, oversees Division speech contests and is responsible for achieving the Distinguished District goals within the Division. Must have served six consecutive months as a club president or VP-education. Paul Meunier, DTM, Nominating Committee Chairman, will accept applications for nominations until March 10, 2005. Applications can be obtained on the District 47 Website at www.toastmastersd47.org.
Distinguished Club Program Half Year Progress Report DCP Goals Achieved as of 12/20/04 “Congratulations to our Clubs” 9 Goals 8720
8 Goals 3596 1600 7178
7 Goals 7286
6 Goals
5 Goals
4 Goals
4 Goals
2155 7911 546 3695 6818 1978 8345 2437 968
6690 8503 6861 2582 590751 4207 8370 9352 5933 3651 6796 6261 2733 1667 1810
3397 6886 2138 6045 8437 7250 2423 2445 2225 3299 2508 6003 861 6544 9628 479 2449
1958 7923 2284 2824 3771 1095 9477 7362 5264 2262
Other nominations may be made from the floor at the Council meeting on May 21, 2005.
Comedians or Toastmasters? Men can get in and out of the grocery store quicker than women. New Yorkers are slightly different from us Southerners. And your career certainly becomes interesting when you do business with the Mafia. This mixed bag of opinions was the recipe for a recent humorous speech contest hosted by the City of Jacksonville’s Toastmasters Club. Bob Williams, the city’s Real Estate Division chief, took first place with his spirited account about the culture shock he experienced while visiting New York City. Williams, a Virginia native, recalled the New York Times as being such a big newspaper that “it weighs 50 pounds.” Then he detailed how a stranger infringed upon him by sitting uninvited at his table and then helping himself to some of Williams’ snacks. There was no laugh meter at the contest, but Williams got the biggest response from the audienceof 40-plus. Three other area Toastmasters clubs participated.
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THE TOASTMASTERS ZEAL meaningful message at the end. Tm Jordan Camenker told us how each of his children, there were 5, viewed their cross country trip differently. He exaggerated all their nuances of the food they took, which were grapes and bottled Evian water, (every single parent father tries!) He had a different voice for every kid and it seemed as if he did not take a breath from the first word till the last. The entire audience could fully identify. I think that was what gave him the winning edge. The second place went to Maureen Ayers, who gave us a new twist on DIETING. A simple thing like dieting. How easy it seemed to write an easy speech and win, just everyday things. Michael Munning spoke about the non payment of Home Mortgages after the recent hurricanes in the Bahamas. The stories that people can come up with!!! They sounded like, ...dog eating homework stories etc. He went home with the third place trophy. I am glad I got the opportunity to represent Sunset Speakers at the District 47 20042005 Fall Conference, I laughed, I cried, learned life long lessons and renewed my Toastmasters zeal. One cannot attend and not be touched in every way.
Education Spotlight by Derwood McKinley, Asst. Lt. Governor Education and Training I am proud to report the results of the June 1 – August 31, 2004 District 47 Club Officer’s Training. Numerous training events were offered throughout the District which not only met the objectives of getting officers trained, but provided inspiration and strong effective leadership as well. The following delineates the report results of the first half of the 2004-2005 District 47 – Club Officer’s Training: All Divisions – 281 out of 320 Officers trained or 88% of the clubs having four or more officers. High Achievers – The Divisions and Areas Completing 100% training were Division I and Division J, congratulations on achieving this high accomplishment. The stretch goal for the second half of the Club Officer’s Training program is very ambitious, yet highly attainable at 100% for all Club Officers to get trained between January 1 and February 28, 2005. Please take advantage of the Division and Area Governor training sessions that will be offered in your area. As we all know, “Effective Officers are well Trained Officers”.
MARKETING OUR WAY TO SUCCESS by Loretta Sandy, Lt. Governor Marketing We are now entering the second half, of the Toastmasters year. The holidays are behind us and we can concentrate on the tasks at hand. What should be we doing at this point? Continue to build your clubs to charter strength and beyond. I ask all Division Governors to challenge their Area Governors to hold membership building competitions between the Areas, and Area Governors I ask you to hold membership building competitions between your clubs, and clubs I ask you to have your members compete in a membership drive. Visit the Toastmastersd47.org website under the Lt. Governor Marketing and pick out some ideas to help you with building membership. During February and March Toastmasters International challenges our clubs to bring in 5 new members to receive the “Talk Up Toastmasters” ribbon. With the drives you are putting into place I can see that most of our clubs should be able to achieve this goal. An ongoing challenge is the “Individual Awards Program” that began July 1, 2004 and will end on June 30, 2005. When you introduce Toastmasters to 5, 10, or 15 new members you will receive a special gift from Toastmasters International. February is a good time to remind club members that dues will be collected in March. Plan ahead and have a successful dues campaign. Don’t wait until the last minute. Planning equals success. As your Lt. Governor Marketing I am here to serve you i building stronger clubs, adding new clubs, and making sure our clubs are up-to-date on their dues.
Lets continue to work together and make District 47 #1 in the world.
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Thank You Dr. Smedley! By Marsha Freedman, ATM-B, CL
Shock! Amazement! Fear! Admiration! These were just a few of the emotions spiraling inside of me back in March of 1996 while attending my first Toastmasters meeting. I had just completed a master’s degree in Mass Communication and was looking for a new challenge. A friend told me about Toastmasters, so I decided to check out a club in my area. After being totally blown away by what I saw and heard, (“You mean those awesome mini-speeches called TableTopics aren’t rehearsed speeches?” I asked) I signed up right then and there— one of the best decisions I’ve ever made! I worked on each speech for weeks until I felt it was a masterpiece and within a short period of time, my skills improved dramatically. A fellow Toastmaster, impressed with my speaking abilities, asked if I’d be interested in teaching a college course in public speaking at Nova Southeastern University in Ft. Lauderdale. Wow—another new challenge! At the same time, I started getting paid to coach individuals on their presentations and was also hired to run a training session for the volunteers at the Make-A-Wish Foundation. This is when I decided to establish my own company, Express Yourself Communications. No matter which aspect of the business I’m involved with, whether it’s training, coaching or professional speaking, I never fail to bring up Toastmasters and how it has benefited me. I’ve recently written, Breaking Through the Fear Barrier: Overcoming Presentation Anxiety. Looking back, it’s amazing to think how one event—joining Toastmasters— can dramatically change the course of one’s life. This incredible organization has played a significant role in my life for the past nine years from the many friendships I’ve developed to the professional success I’ve achieved. I truly believe that I was destined to become a member so that I could assist others in their quest to become more confident and effective communicators. Thank you Dr. Smedley— and thank you, Toastmasters! Marsha can be reached at (954) 474-5235 or by e-mail at: mfreedman@xprself.com. Her website address is www.xprself.com
Since 1955 Publisher: Jim Ocque, DTM District 47 Governor jimocque@mailcity.com Public Relations Officer: Cathy Epler, DTM email: eplers@verison.net Sunshiner Editor: Pat Abeling, DTM email: pat.abeling@comcast.net
Toastmasters Chatter Bhetty Waldron, our Region 8 International Speech Contestant in 2001, presenter at both District and Regional Conferences, passed away Wed., Dec 1, 2004. She was an actress, theater director, motivational speaker, drama teacher. Through each role in her life, from Hollywood to West Palm Beach, Bhetty Waldron’s most important job was serving her community. “Bhetty was a person who was so involved with the community,” said Bill Nix, a Palm Beach County Cultural Council member. “With her teaching, she helped encourage others to live their dreams. She had a passion for theater and specifically black theater.
TALK UP TOA STM AS TERS JANU ARY 1S T - FEBRAU RY 28TH
DON’ K EEP IT A SECRET - LET EVERYO N E K NO W ABOUT TOASTM ASTERS
Toastmasters Chatter
ADD 5 NEW M EM BERS! H av To a
e yo u ab ou h e a r d s tm t a s te rs ?
Add five new, dual, or reinstated m em bers between January 1st and February 28th and receive a beautiful ribbon for your club banner. Introduce Toastm asters to new m em bers by holding a m em bership drive. Hold a special m eeting and invite past m em bers to return to your club. Now is the tim e to build your club’s m em bership!
Happy Anniversary to District 47 Clubs June 2004 Beaches Area Toastmasters Club #2862 - 30th Anniversary
Born in Monticello, Fla., the third of four children of two schoolteachers,
Sept 2004 Titusville #3018 – 45th Anniversary Gainsville #3019 – 45th Anniversary
She will be missed by family, friends and especially Toastmasters.
December 2004 Toast of the Gold Coast #4267 – 20th Anniversary
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reminder CLUB DUES ARE DUE AT TOASTMASTERS WORLD HEADQUARTERS APRIL 1! START COLLECTING NOW.