The 2014 Fall Contest winner for District 53.

 

International President of Toastmasters, 

Mohammed Murad with Bill Sullivan 
at the District 53 Conference

Cromwell Community Toastmasters is proud to have a District Speech Contest winner in our midst.

Longtime Toastmaster Bill Sullivan recently competed in Toastmaster’s annual Fall contest and took his humorous speech about corporate productivity processes and laundry all the way for the win! Myself a member of Cromwell Community Toastmasters, I took the opportunity to interview Mr. Sullivan about his experiences.

Bill Sullivan, Thanks for taking the time to chat with me about your recent achievements and your Toastmaster journey. How long have you been a Toastmaster? 

I have been a Toastmaster for 6 years. I joined in January 2008.

And what originally drew you to the group? 

I have worked for the same company for 23 years. I love my job and the people I work with. As I was increasingly being asked to speak in front of different groups, I knew that I needed to gain better experience in public speaking if I was to feel comfortable in front of a larger audience. I had heard about Toastmasters while listening to a business book on tape by Jack Walsh, CEO of GE. I researched online, off and on, for a long time and finally made it a New Year’s Resolution to join.

That leads me to ask; Has Toastmasters helped you in your professional life?

Greatly. I use Toastmasters every day at work. Whether it's speaking in front of a group, presenting to customers, running meetings, inspiring employees or providing feedback, I am always referencing my experience in Toastmasters to help me communicate my message. I have found that Toastmasters is the only organization that provides members with the day to day knowledge of management and communication skills that is directly connected to being successful. 

It makes perfect sense that Toastmasters is effective in contributing to career success, but has Toastmasters helped you in your personal life?

Very much so. I have found that I am more willing to volunteer when asked because of my Toastmasters skills and the confidence I have gained through Toastmasters helps me know that I can bring valuable experience to any project. It has also helped me to recognize those moments when it is necessary to reach out to someone at a meeting or social gather who may just need a little nudge to be included in the conversation. This effort has allowed me to befriend individuals with whom I may not have had the opportunity before. Many of these relationships I still have today.

What officer positions have you held in the club?

My first officer position was Secretary of the club. When I joined the club had no Secretary so I decided to jump in with both feet. I was the club’s President in 2009 and the VP of Membership in 2010. This year I am Vice President of Education.

[VPE (Vice President of Education) is a very important officer position. Toastmasters has two education tracks. One is the Competent Communicator track, the CC.  It consists of ten speech projects designed to teach different aspects of public speaking such as, organizing your thoughts, using body language and using your voice effectively to communicate your message. When completed the member is said to have earned their Toastmasters CC. The second track is Leadership with a series of projects in the Competent Leader manual. When complete, the member has earned their CL. The VPE helps members track their progress in all education manuals.]

Along with the comprehensive public speaking and communication track, Toastmasters has an excellent leadership track that teaches you the basics of being a leader; from how to listen, to how to run a successful meeting. As VPE I continually remind members that it's easy and fun to start working on their CL as soon as possible. Once you have started the leadership track volunteering to help the club becomes much easier. Every time a member signs up for a role as Grammarian, as Timer, as Evaluator, our whole club reminds them to take credit for the roles in the CL as well as to sign up for specific positions that help fulfill the projects in the CL.

What Toastmaster awards have you achieved and what are you currently working towards?

After a member earns their CC we can begin work towards advanced certifications. First to follow the CC is an ACB – Advanced Communicator Bronze, then ACS – Advanced Communicator Silver, then ACG – Advanced Communicator Gold. Ten additional Speech Projects from a variety of possible manuals must be completed for each advanced certification. I had great fun working from the “Humorously Speaking” and the “Entertaining Speaker” manuals to get my ACB. For my ACS I completed the “Storytelling” and “Persuasive Speaking” manuals. I am working towards my ACG certificate currently with the "The Professional Speaker" manual and "Speeches by Management" manual. I have also been awarded the Advanced Leadership Bronze award.

Have you competed in contests before?

District 53 Governor, Bette McIntyre with
Bill Sullivan at the District 53 Conference 

I try to encourage participation in the club and I enter each contest every year, or if needed, I volunteer to help run the contest. So you might imagine I compete in these realms a lot. I've had some memorable experiences with contests. Twice I went as far as the District level contests. The first time, in November 2012, I went all the way to the District 53 finals in the evaluation category. I was fortunate to place first in the Evaluation Contest that year. This year I placed first in the 2014 District 53 Humorous Speech Contest. It was the second time that I had entered the Humorous Contest. The first time I made it as far as the Division level, but I learned that to win you really need to be confident in your speaking ability and really connect with the audience. It gave me great insight into how well prepared the other Toastmasters were. I took what I learned at that contest and applied it this year. Winning Toastmaster contests is a big achievement but I truly feel that the experience gained participating in these events and the support shared amongst the folks attending and competing is the greatest reward.

If you had advice to give to the larger world – both toastmasters and non-toastmasters alike – what would it be?

We are often told that if we set our mind to something we can achieve almost anything. But this thought process needs to be accompanied by a plan of action. Generally a good plan of action includes many, many small steps. Toastmasters has a proven step by step process that takes you from small opportunities to speak, to the ability to deliver expansive presentations, while making you feel comfortable every step of the way. If you asked me when I first joined Toastmasters if I ever would compete in a speech contest the answer came easy to me "NO." But today I’m a different person. I am more confident in my speaking ability and I believe I owe that to Cromwell Community Toastmasters and the Toastmasters education program.

Thank you Bill for taking the time to share with us.

Toastmasters International is an international organization that teaches Public Speaking and Leadership skills. TMI thrives in 126 countries with over 14,000 clubs. Cromwell Community Toastmasters is proud to be a part of this 90 year old organization. We meet twice a month at the Cromwell Town Hall, on the first and third Tuesday of every month from 5:30pm to 7:30 pm. Upcoming meetings include January 20^th, February 2^nd, and February 16^th.

Any last words Bill?

I encourage anyone who is looking to grow and learn, to come visit one of our meetings. Come see what Toastmasters is all about. Visiting is free and guests are always welcome.

See you at the next meeting!

VPPR on a Road Trip 4 - Scottsdale, Arizona

As you may know, your intrepid VPPR (that's me - Hollie Rose, CC) is on a Road Trip. I have determined to make Toastmasters a part of this adventure. I'm blogging about other clubs I visit.

The last Club I visited was in Memphis on December 17th. After that most clubs I found weren't meeting,or had changed their schedule because of the holiday, so I sort of gave up looking for a while. So there's no visits in Arkansas, Texas, or New Mexico.
The first week of the new year I spent mostly at a friend's house in Scottsdale, Arizona.
As I was getting ready to leave, it occurred to me to look for a TM meeting and I found one to visit just as I headed out of town.

Toastmasters club #8576
Chats Toastmasters
Scottsdale, Arizona
Jan. 6, 2014 Noon
Location: The Raintree Corporate Center    15333 N. Pima Rd Suite 270

I walked into the room a few minutes early. It was a large room bustling with activity and people. A greeter introduced herself to me and took my name and information.
The tables were set up in a basic U shape, with a couple layers in some areas. Speakers had their own table, as did the functionaries. The group is a large one that meets every Monday. I believe they have nearly 50 active members. Today there were 23 members present and three visitors - myself, a prospective member named Candice and a Toastmaster visiting from Denmark. I sat next to her. Her name was Joy and she also visits clubs wherever she goes. She advised me on which ones might be worth visiting in some of the places I'm headed in the next few weeks. She has just relocated to Scottsdale and I believe she is trying to decide which club to join.

Trish Ferree the Sergeant at Arms opened the meeting and gave an invocation. She quoted Zig Ziglar (RIP) saying "You don't have to be great to start, but you do have to start."

The Toastmaster of the day, Jenny Locklin, started their first meeting of the year speaking about the concept of keeping a jar, throughout the year, and putting in it, notes about the joys and glories of a year. Then, at the end of the year, or the start of the next year, when everyone is saying how glad they are to see the old year go, you can pull out the notes in the jar and reflect on just what a good year it was. 
"If Chats had such a jar, some of our notes might read like this..."

So and so overcame breast cancer, So and so celebrated his 50th anniversary with his wife, So and so went on her 3000th date and she's still single, So and so adopted a rescue dog, a group of our male members had a man's day skiing at the lake, So and so started a new business...
It was a very nice start to any year and had everyone cheering and laughing and shouting out comments about the different happenings.

The word of the day was EXTOL - to praise highly
The Ah counter explained his duties while holding up a piggy bank, explaining that infractions cost 10 cents each and at the end of the meeting, after the report, the pig would be passed around and you should pay up on the honor system.

The GE explained he job as that of evaluating the evaluators. (This was nice to hear as it's been something we've been pushing for in our club! Let's make it an official art of the role description!)

Table Topics was Fortune Cookies. And while everyone exclaims what a brilliant and original idea it is, in my Toastmaster travels, it seems to be the Table Topics tactic I see most.
People lined up at the side of the room. I was unsure how the participants were decided on. I quietly asked the TT Master if one just gets up in line. He said no, people get picked. I watched him, hoping to get picked but it was not him doing the picking. That was the role of another member, who did eventually ask me if I'd like to get in line. In this way they were able to get about 10 or 11 Table Topics in a very short period of time.

Speech # 1 - Humorous Manual, project # ?
Title: Proposed Laws For Language Criminals; Are You and Offender? by Sheila Whittington.
Sheila used slides to consider three of the worst offenses, as well as considering appropriate penalties for each.

Speech # 2 - Facilitating Discussions Manual, project 1, Panel Moderator.
Title: Global Warming; Fact or Fiction? by Brent McDonald.
Brent said he was a seeker, and unsure of his positions on the matter. He introduced 2 experts (club members Kevin Maxwell and Avery Goodman, playing experts, with scripts) with opposing viewpoints. Most of the speech stage time was taken by the two experts telling their perspectives on the matter, with some light prodding by Brent.

Speech # 3 - First speech - impromptu speech, hasn't even done Icebreaker yet, but stepped up today when a slot opened.
Title: How to Make Your Dreams a Reality by Jeff Geiser.
You know I loved this one! Jeff spoke about jumping into your resolutions. He told of a friend who gave him the book "Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway." Said he didn't even need to read the book. He gets it. The title told it all! He also said he'd written a book "Awakening Oneself."He closed by talking about the power of Purpose in every single thing we do each day.

Evaluations were good. I liked how Brent's evaluator (Stephanie) pointed out that in a really good panel discussion, the moderator has an opinion and an awareness of both sides of the argument and uses his knowledge to guide the discussion, as opposed to the way he opened, saying he didn't have an opinion.
Stephanie actually had a really good overall approach and a theme to her evaluation. "Well, that's Awkward."
Everything she said was couched in the view of what was awkward.

Towards the end of the meeting votes were tallied and prizes given to the winers of Best Table Topics, Best Speech, Most Improved Speaker, and Best Evaluator. Today's prizes, in reference to the opening talk about a jar for notes on the year, was a small mason jar. I sure hope it included a note inside that said "I won Best ____ at the year's first Toastmaster meeting."

This club has a man who functions at Club Mentor. His name is Joel Weldon and he's a professional speaker and friend of many well known professional speakers whom he has convinced to interact with the club in the past. The last segment of the meeting was a talk by Joel Weldon about the importance of accepting and dealing with controversy in a club like Toastmasters. Especially a club this large.
He also gave a short evaluation of everyone and everything that happened in today's meeting. His thoughts on it all were truly top notch. This Club Mentor concept is a good one and methinks this club benefits greatly from having Joel's insight

The meeting closed and members were reminded to sign up for roles for the next meeting by putting their name tags of a large bulletin board that was off to the side of the room.

After each meeting Joel Weldon adjourns to a smaller room for what is known as The Mentor's Minute. Any member is invited to stay after for deeper discussion of the day's events as well as important things to consider for the club's future plans. I joined this week's Mentor's Minute. I was surprised only four member and myself joined Joel in the luxurious room with a gorgeous table and comfortable executive chairs. It was a bit of a round table discussion with all of us adding thoughts and ideas and experiences to the conversation.
He discussed in more depth the reality of controversy in a group setting and how to be free to express your opinion and yet, do it without offending others. Often merely acknowledging the other side of an issue is enough to mollify those who don't agree with you. "I know not everyone here will agree with me, but this is what I think." as opposed to "This is the way it is."
He likened the Toastmaster's approach as best seen like they view their experience on the lake when he has a summer home; Don't harm anyone. Don't inhibit anyone. Don't harm the lake. Or. Don't harm anyone. Don't inhibit anyone. Don't harm anyone else's experience of Toastmasters.

He closed by reminding folks of Chats Toastmasters Motto - "Get Them On Your Bus."
And to do that you always have to be respectful.

Hollie Rose and Joel Weldon January 6th, 2014

Meeting Minutes November 19, 2013

Cromwell Community Toastmasters

Club 5908 ~ District 53

November 5, 2013

“Go Big or Go Home”

Attendees:    members attended:  Bo Bogart, Micheal Brillas, Robert Dalo, Miroslav Grajewski, Cheryl Mason DTM, Phil Mason CC, Donald Ostertag, Sheetal Patel, Hollie Rose CC, Crystal Storo CC, CL, Heather Turner ACS, Andrew Watt and Carmen Jenkins.

Guest: John Hart

Business Meeting:

The meeting was called to order by Donald Ostertag.  New name tags were distributed to all members. President Crystal Storo CC, CL had all the club members introduce themselves and tell how long they’ve been members of Cromwell Community Toastmasters.  Crystal went over the Distinguished Club Program goals. Cheryl Mason DTM was presented with her 7^th (WOW) CC award.  Congratulations Cheryl!  John Hart told the club his reason for coming to Toastmasters and shared with us that he is joining tonight

.

Meeting Roles:

Toastmaster: Hollie Rose CC

Invocation: John Hart   -  Toastmaster Mission Statement.

Word Master:  Micheal Brillas

Word - of - the - Day:  Ubiquitous – to be found everywhere

Table Topics Master:  Cheryl Mason DTM

Theme:  Cheryl‘s questions came from a special deck of cards designed for asking Table Topics questions.  Phil told us of his dream house.  He builds houses and has seen all sizes and styles but his ideal would be on the Connecticut River.  It would have a boat house underneath filled with high powered boats.  When asked where, out of any place in the world he would like to spend New Year’s Eve Miroslav told us about last New Year’s Eve in Quebec City.  He described the big blizzard and all the snow and thought maybe this year warm sunny Florida would be a good choice.  The holiday that Micheal would like to celebrate every six months is the 4^th of July.  Simply put, he likes to blow things up. An exciting new ride at Disney that Rob would like to create had the rider getting a sensational manicure while riding past ubiquitous displays of shoes and having ghost shoes appear on their feet. When asked how he cheers himself up when having a bad day, John told us he is fortunate to have an office door, he closes that door and plays music and/or games.  Don shared that his ideal high temperature would be 75 degrees but thinks his wife would prefer 45 to 50 degrees.

Speaker # 1:  Crystal Storo CC

Manual/Project: Educational Leadership Series/Project 6 Building a Team

Title:  Team Spirit! 

Crystal defined team and differentiated between leaders and managers; leaders motivate and managers coordinate. She told us why teams are important and described some factors in building a team - being genuine, including everyone, and open communication.  Team building is important for moral, “Nothing great was ever achieved without motivation.”  Crystal hung up three foot wide sticky note showing the composition of TEAM –Together Everyone Achieves More.

 Speaker # 2:   Andrew Watt

Manual/Project: Competent Communicator/Project 4   How to Say It

Title:  Why I Love Sewing   

Teaching at a school where children can design and construct things to learn how the world works, Andrew noticed that mostly boys signed up for certain courses.  Wanting to know how to get more of the girls involved he paid attention to what interested them and he decided to learn to sew. After taking some lessons he constructed a lunch bag and pencil case.  He now has a 3:1 ratio of girls to boys in his sewing group.  As satisfying as that is he has also made his own Hallowe’en and Renaissance Fair Costumes and finds, to his surprise, that he loves sewing.

 Speaker # 3:  Sheetal Patel

Manual/Project:  Competent Communicator/Project 7   Research Your Topic

Title:  Corporate Social Responsibility   

Outsourcing and globalization started growing in the 1970’s; factories are ubiquitous in China and the United States.  Sheetal spoke of problems caused by outsourcing including slavery, transit and pollution. She spoke of social, health and environmental auditing.  After listing four reasons for Corporate Social Responsibility she stated there are now 7.125 billion people on this planet and everyone has a stake in Corporate Social Responsibility. 

General Evaluator: Heather Turner ACS

Evaluator # 1:  Rob Dalo

Evaluator # 2:   Phil Mason

Evaluator # 3:  Bo Bogart

Functionary Reports:

Ah Counter:  Miroslav Grajewski

Grammarian:  Andrew Watt

Timer:  Don Ostertag

In closing Crystal thanked everyone for coming.  John said he enjoyed the meeting and filled out a member application.  It was another great meeting!  Now is the perfect time to sign up for roles for our next meeting.

Next meeting: December 3, 2013.

Respectfully submitted by

Bo Bogart, Secretary

[Posted by Hollie Rose CC - VPPR]