FALL 2014
GLENN GORDON, ELLARY MORI, JERRY THRES
DOWNTOWN TOASTMASTERS C - 4350 D - 65 A - 17
table of contents 1 . Message from the President..............................................................................2 2. Notable Toastmasters.............................................................................................5 3. Members Corner..........................................................................................................6 4.Word from the Editor.................................................................................................8 5. Toastmasters Funnies..............................................................................................9 6. Toastmaster Tips.........................................................................................................11 7. Officers...............................................................................................................................13
Anyone care to join me with the leaves?
FROM THE PRESIDENT With this being the Halloween season, I was thinking about scary stuff. These include witches, goblins, ghosts, and one friend of mine who dressed as Osama bin Laden. Halloween brings a special kind of scary, a non-threatening kind. Although the above mentioned ghouls can raise residual fears that we may have from childhood, when an eight year old demon comes to my door asking for a treat, my trepidation is minimal! Toastmasters is like Halloween all year long. Instead of ghosts and ghouls, our scary demons include Speaking, Table Topics, and Evaluating! If we take a moment to evaluate our fears, addressing them at Downtown Toastmasters is like answering your door on October 31. Giving a speech can be scary, but you can be sure to get a warm, welcoming reception at our club. Table Topics can be threatening, and you may not win, but you know that all the members of the club will appreciate your efforts. Giving an evaluation may have your knees knocking in fear, but your evaluation will be accepted gratefully by the speaker. It is SO hard to get honest evaluations in life, so your efforts will be received with appreciation! In this spirit, I want to address some of the fears that I have felt and have heard from others in our club. The first point is regarding giving a speech. So often, we want to give a great speech and we don't feel that we are capable of preparing a great one. Either we are paralyzed with the thought of the effort required, or we work on the speech for months, trying to get it just right. I believe that there is a better way. When we go out to buy something, like a car, or a house, most of us can't afford to buy the best one ever, anyplace. I haven't seen any Mercedes S Class sedans at our club, and no one owns the penthouse at the new condos across the street from our building. 2
FROM THE PRESIDENT When we go out shopping, we set a budget, and then we buy the best that we can afford. Something similar applies to speaking, as well. We have an amount of time that we can spend on a speech, say, three hours. Do the best job that you can do in those three hours, and be proud of it. Give your speech, listen to your evaluations, and the sign up for your next one, applying the lessons that you learned from this one. In life outside the club, you don't have unlimited time to prepare for a speech. Set your time budget, and work on continuing to deliver! The second subject that I wanted to discuss is evaluations. As most of you know, the evaluator role is always the last one filled. It's scaaaaary! It doesn't have to be. We all want to help someone be a better speaker. But - we are afraid of hurting someone's feelings or looking foolish. How can we help our speaker? We identify negative behaviors and reinforce positive behaviors. There is a lesson that I learned in a psychology class a long time ago. If you punish someone for doing something wrong, the person will likely stop doing it, but will instead do something else. This other behavior may be good, or it might be a new form of misbehavior! Instead, we can reinforce someone's positive behavior. We might say that we like the smile on their face, their tone of voice, or the way that they structured their speech. By reminding the speaker what we liked in the speech, we increase the speaker's understanding of the good parts of their speech, increasing the chances that they will repeat those parts in a future speech. The evaluation that you give is just that: your evaluation. It describes the parts of the speech that you liked, and the parts that you thought could use improvement. No one can say your are wrong, because it is YOUR impression from the speech, and you know how you feel. Take the time right now to sign up for three evaluations in 3
the next two months, and you can stop worrying about the Trick of giving an evaluation, and concentrating on the Treat that you are providing. I have been a member of this club for six years now, and I get a treat every week, listening to our members. All of our skills vary, but every one of us benefits from the safety of our Halloween environment, 52 weeks a year!
FROM THE
PRESIDENT Glenn Gordon
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notable toastmasters
DIVISION | AREA | CLUB SPEECH CONTEST WINNERS
AMANDA CULLEN
JOHN BELLOMO
HUMOROUS
EVALUATION
outstanding member recognition Our club recognizes members every six months that fully engage in the Toastmasters Experience! New members do not despair! It starts all over again January 1st! 5
members
corner Article by Ellary Mori
An Evening with Cheryl Strayed at UB 6
An Evening with Cheryl Strayed at UB
“One step in front of the other, carrying your burden.” This was the core message of Cheryl Strayed’s speech at UB recently. Cheryl is the author of the popular book Wild, a memoir of her life, and specifically of her time hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. When a friend asked me if I wanted to go see Cheryl’s talk at UB I jumped at the chance. I had devoured her book when it was published, and last year read a portion aloud to fulfill one of my advanced manual projects at Downtown Toastmasters. Toastmasters tend to pay attention to the speechwriting and speech-giving at these types of events. It’s become impossible for me to attend a function where someone is speaking and not analyze the organization of the speech, the ahs & ums, the body language and gestures. But with Cheryl I found myself going one step further, and even ignoring the plethora of ahs & ums which she used to punctuate her speech. She was skilled in using the key tenet of Toastmasters – distill your message down to a phrase or sentence - it should fit on an index card - and build your speech around that core message. Cheryl’s trek on the PCT was a metaphor for the journey we all are on in our lives. One step in front of the other, carrying whatever burden is on your back at the time. What struck me about Cheryl is that she is so authentic. Every word of her speech, every description of her life reinforced who she is and what she believes, as well as her core message. She was confident and funny, and had such camaraderie with the audience that we felt like we were in her living room, instead of among a thousand other people in an arena. This type of knowing oneself comes from myriad life experiences, sense of self, and certainty that you have something to contribute to the world. 7
An Evening with Cheryl Strayed at UB
In Toastmasters, we take the journey to DTM, then (hopefully) turn around and start over. Maybe we are guiding others the second time, maybe we are walking alongside someone, seeing the same path from a different perspective. Maybe we are hiding in the proverbial bushes, letting future leaders make their own mistakes and learn about the trail. Whatever we do, and even though it may be the same path that we have passed over before, we see it with fresh eyes. The scenery is different. The companionship is different. You, yourself, are different than the first time. So don’t worry about what’s at the end of the path, any path you are on. Just keep putting one foot in front of the other, carrying your burden. Sometimes you will help guide others, and sometimes others will help guide you. Strive to be authentic, find your message, and carry on.
Word from the editor Responsibilities pile up as we get older, therefore causing us to push aside our dreams and aspirations to make room for these respoinsibilities. Sometimes we need a push from an external element. An element that reminds you to make room for those dreams. My mom mentioned Toastmasters to me when I was very young. As I finished college I expected that I would do at least one semester of Toastmasters. My age increased, along with my list of responsibilities. The goal of becoming a Toastmaster was on its way out the door. One random day, a friend of mine said that “we should all go to Toastmasters.” Since that day, I chose to start taking my dreams aspirations a bit more seriously. I dedicate my first newsletter to my external element, Amani. - Jerry Theresanathan
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PINCH OF
HUMOR
Jokes, riddles, and more...
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Painful puns Q: What lies at the bottom of the ocean and shakes a lot? A: A nervous wreck! Q: Do you ever get stage fright? A: No, I'm not afraid of the stage. It's the audience that scares me. Q: What did the shy pebble say? A: I wish I was a little boulder Parallel lines have so much in common. It’s a shame they’ll never meet. Have you ever tried to eat a clock? It's very time consuming.
10 Things I know about You 1) You are reading this. 2) You are human. 3) You can’t say the letter ”P” without separating your lips. 4) You just attempted to do it. 6) You are laughing at yourself. 7) You have a smile on your face and you skipped No. 5. 8) You just checked to see if there is a No. 5. 9) You laugh at this because you are a fun loving person & everyone does it too. 10) You are probably going to send this to see who else falls for it. If you are interested in sharing your joke, submit it to jerrythres@gmail.com. 10
TOASTMASTER TIPS Engage Your Audience Unless you are a naturally riveting speaker, keeping an audience engaged can be tough. Here are a few ideas that will make it easier to keep your listeners actively involved in your presentation: • Ask them questions and use their answers as part of your talk • Ask questions just to get a show of hands • Get out from behind the podium and move around as you speak • Invite someone from the audience up to the stage for either a demonstration or a Q&A
USING HUMOR Don't try to make jokes about areas outside your expertise! If you are an insurance salesperson speaking to a group of nurses or architects, it can be tricky to try to inject humor about the nursing or architecture fields. Many professional speakers have flopped when they've tried to talk "inside baseball" to professional groups. This can also apply if you are a man speaking to an all-female audience, or vice versa. Tread gingerly on jokes about the opposite sex. They are probably not worth the risk. Remember, bring the relatable aspects of your world to your audience. Don't try to pretend that you are "one of them." 11
This is your club! WE AIM NOT ONLY TO BRING OUT THE GREAT SPEAKERS INSIDE YOU, BUT ALSO THE GREAT LEADERS INSIDE YOU! There are several opporutinites at Toastmasters to improve your Leadership and Team Building skills. THE BOARD IS HERE TO SERVE YOU!
Please feel free to contact one of our officers for comments, questions, and suggestions.
There are three things to aim at in public speaking: first, to get into your subject; then to get your subject into yourself; and lastly, to get your subject into the heart of your audience. 12
— Alexander Gregg
officers PRESIDENT
GLENN GORDON glenngordon@gmail.com
VP EDUCATION
DEBBIE HUNT
mikedebjr@gmail.com
VP MEMBERSHIP
SARA JABLONSKI
sarajablonski0702@yahoo.com
VP PUBLIC RELATIONS
JERRY THERESANATHAN jerrythres@gmail.com
SECRETARY
KASIA DEC
kasiadec@gmail.com
TREASURER
WENDY HUSS
wendy.huss@roswellpark.org
SERGEANT AT ARMS
KEVIN CRATSLEY kevincratsley@gmail.com
AREA 17 GOVERNOR
KEITH MADERER
WESTERN DIVISION GOVERNOR 13
NED LINDSTROM
announcements EVALUATION WORKSHOP NOVEMBER 8, 2014 - 10 AM DISTRICT 65 FALL CONFERENCE NOVEMBER 15, 2014 1890 Ridge Road West, Rochester NY
HOLIDAY PARTY DECEMBER 2014 TBD
let’s get some fresh air Hikes, Outoor/Indoor Activities
Keep an eye out for emails from Kasia, for the next exciting adventure! 14
HAPPY
HOLIDAYS! FOR MORE INFORMATION ON OUR CLUB AND TO KEEP TRACK OF UPCOMING EVENTS
downtowntm.toastmastersclubs.org
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MADE WITH LOVE FROM DOWNTOWN TOASTMASTERS BUFFALO, NY FALL 2014 SPECIAL THANKS TO SUNSPIN MEDIA