Toastmaster Club 375 NEWSLETTER
(THE Oldest and Best Toastmaster Club in Colorado)
Club 375 Area E-5 Eastern Division District 26 Meets every Tuesday from 7:00 to 8:30 pm
at Knights of Columbus Hall 121 N. Meldrum, Fort Collins Issue Date – Dec. 1, 2004
Editor – John Holmboe 881-2768 Club Information – Phil Hoefer 377-1950
The December 7th meeting will be a Special Holiday party event at the usual time at the K of C Hall. It is understood that the party will be similar to last year’s party. Members and guests will have speaking opportunities and there will be refreshments. Presumably attending members will bring the refreshments. If any questions please contact one of the club officers.
Traditionally, Club 375 has had meetings every Tuesday during December, except when the holiday hits right on Tuesday. That doesn’t happen this year. As a consequence, unless otherwise advised, Club 375 will hold club meetings every Tuesday.
Of course, those meetings close to these holidays are a bit hard to plan due to other demands on members’ time. However, with the ingenuity of this club a good educational meeting happens, and the attendees will be satisfied that the time spent was well worth it
On Dec. 11th, Bob and Jessica Dabkowski will have a Ranch Warming Party. Bob has sent an e-mail to all club members, so they won’t be repeated here. It sounds like it will
be a lot of fun, and don’t forget the 500 word essay on “Why I shouldn’t lose faith in the Red Sox”.
Any questions call Bob and Jessica.
Angie Babcock - Our Newest CTM!!!!
What a peformance! On the night of November 16, Angie Babcock did that tenth speech that really strikes the Club member-ship with pride and enthusiasm. Her tenth speech was a timely one on Cell Phone etiquette. As she finished the speech, our membership in traditional fashion gave her a standing ovation. Completing those 10 speeches is quite an achievement, and we all know it.
ANGIE! CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR ACHIEVEMENT. You earned it, and you know it.
There hasn’t been a Newsletter since about mid-August, and a lot has happened. Let’s catch up on what has been going on. First of all, we’ve added a total of seven new members. That’s quite a few, and we Club members most heartily welcome this new group to our Club, and promise to be supportive and aid and advise you in whatever you need to know about The Toastmaster Program and how to best deal with it.
At the August 18 meeting, six new members were inducted into our club with a seventh person added in October. The group of seven are Sheila and Charlie Thompson, Joe Adamian, Michelle Friedman, Tracy Mead, Peder Halseide, and Suzy McEwan. We welcome you , and please remember when you are up in front of us doing your speech – We too have been there.
In August we had a visit by Yung –Hai Chen, The Area Governor. It is always an honor to have a Governor of The Area our club is in to attend our meeting. We have a well performing club, and generally speaking visiting dignitaries of the Toastmaster organization are pleased with how well we are doing.
Also, Club 375 had the opportunity to select our Club 375 Toastmaster of the Year for the past TM year. Jenice Cutler was the selectee and a Good One too. As Selectee Jenice was our entrant for the Area Toastmaster of the Year. She won that too. Jenice certainly earned it. She was Club President and as such managed Club activities and interests so that the Club became a Presidents Distinguished Club. That’s quite and achievement.
CONGRATULATIONS JENICE !!!!
We like to follow the CTM group. It’s fun to watch them progress through the various stages of accomplishing their goals and to observe their speaking abilities change. Here’s how they stand toward their CTMs.
Speeches
Name Done To Do
Angie Babcock 10 0
Tiana Gill 8 2
Joe Adamian 6 4
David Reeh 5 5
Li-Ling Liang 4 6
Peder Halseide 4 6
Tim Leaman 3 7
Sheila Thompson 2 8
Tracy Mead 2 8
Charlie Thompson 1 9
Suzy McEwan 1 9
The listing of the number of speeches completed and left to do is based on the best current records and information available.
Club 375 hopes to have at least 4 CTMs for the Toastmaster Year (July 1, 2004 to June 30, 2005). At the present time we have 1 CTM – Angie Babcock. Tiana Gill has only 2 speeches to go, and Joe Adamian has 4 to go and moving right along.
Should anyone having 5 or more speeches to go to get his/her CTM by June 30, wish to try for CTM by the June 30th date, that person should talk to Al Ashbaugh or Brian Grossman to see what kind of speaking schedule can be worked out for that effort.
And There Were The Speech Contests
Toastmasters conducts Speech Contest Twice a year. In the Fall, the contests are The Humorous Speech and Evaluation Contests.
In mid September, Club 375 held its Humorous Speech and Evaluation contests. The Humorous Speech contest drew four participants, Hubert Johnson, Brian Grossman, Tim Leaman, and Angie Babcock.
Tim Leaman took first place with his humorous speech “An Idiot’s Guide to ….” All the participants did great speaking jobs, and we applaud them all for the work and effort they put into it.
The Evaluation contest had 2 contestants, Alan Ashbaugh and BobDabkowski. What a contest with Alan and Bob, surely two of our very best evaluators, going against each other in a contest. In the end Bob Dabkowski was the winner. Our most sincere Thanks to Bob and Alan for participating in this contest.
As victors at the Club level, Tim and Bob moved on to the Area Contests in late September. They not only participated at the Area level but both did great jobs, as we all knew they would, and won their respective contests Yeah Guys!.
The next challenge was the Division Contests which were held on October 16th. Both Tim and Bob did their very best, but this time both came in second in their contests. Tim and Bob we are so very proud of you. TM Club 375 continues to be a major factor in the TM Speech contests.
Tim and Bob continued the great reputation Cub 375 has in the various Toastmaster Speech contests. Tanis and Jim White set quite a mark for Club 375 a couple of years ago when they both won at the District Level – Tanis for International Speech contest, and Jim White for Table Topics contest. This was the first time in District 26 that one club (TM Club 375) won two titles at a District Contest session.
Let it be made known that Tim Leaman, as victor at club level in the Humorous Speech contest is also the winner of the Club 375 Albert Wu Humorous Speech Trophy, and his name will be added to the Trophy as a worthy winner. Congratulations Tim!!!
The best and most effective Public Relations is really at the personal level. And one of the very best is “wearing your Toastmaster pin”. From years of experience, if you wear your pin, someone will ask about it, and if you’ve got a preplanned response to “And what’s that pin all about?” you’ll get an opportunity to talk one on one about Toastmasters.
At a recent Club meeting, Tanis mentioned that when you win a trophy at the Club meeting, you have the right to take it for the week, and that will give you the opportunity to display the trophy at work, get some questions from fellow workers and have the opportunity to talk about Toastmasters.
Some Thoughts for Those Seeking CTM
The following are some thoughts that those seeking their CTM’s might consider.
Do your Ice Breaker as soon as possible – don’t put it off
Decide on what speaking schedule you like to do (say a speech every 3 weeks) and then work with the Educational V.P. to schedule your speaking times to fit. You can always change it if it just doesn’t work.
On completing a speech assignment, take some time to digest the evaluation. Decide what you want to try to do better in your next speech.
Start preparing the next speech within the week following the previous speech was given. Practice the speech, but do not attempt to memorize it. Do real practices (i.e stand up in a room and deliver the speech with vocal variety and gestures).
Consider the notion of going for the Competent Leader program. Toastmasters recommends it, and going for it in connection with the CTM program seems to work pretty well. The editor has noted that the quality of our club leadership has improved since the CL program was introduced.
Attend all meetings possible. In some ways the meetings that you have no “speech” to give provides the most learning for each of us, and especially newcomers. Listening to speakers with a great variety of experience and know how is so educational, as is listening to speakers who are in the struggling stages of learning how to do it right. And, of course the evaluations of others is also beneficiary.
Regardless of your ability, volunteer to do a Table Topic, and do your best – you will be applauded, and it’s only a minute or so.
It’s time to start looking ahead to 2005. Do some planning. What do you want to accomplish in Toastmasters in the first half of 2005? Do some planning
Sometime in February or March, Club 375 will be having The International Speech Contest at Club level. That’s kind of a long way off, but it will creep up on us so fast. If you are interested in this contest you do not have to do much planning right now, but maybe you will want to think over a winning speech scenario. In all events – you’ve now been alerted. Do some planning.
Does the CL designation seem to be something you’d be interested in? Do some planning. Talk to Alan Ashbaugh and or Brian Grossman about it.
And of course. Have a Happy New Year..