Functionaries: The Ah Counter

There are three functionaries at every meeting of Toastmasters. At Cromwell Community Toastmasters, our members sign up to be functionaries on our meeting agenda ahead of time; but at other clubs they're "voluntold" at the start of a meeting.  Those officers are:

1. The Grammarian
2. The Ah-Counter
3. The Timer

Each of those functionaries is there to hold you to a specific standard as a public speaker, and you can make use of the feedback they give you at the end of each meeting.  To my mind, the Ah-Counter is the single most important functionary: here's what they do.

The Ah-Counter listens to every speaker and evaluator, listening for filler words such as "and..." "so, anyway", and "like....".  They also listen for pauses when you are making noises with your mouth, such as "uh..." and "umm..."  The Ah-Counter keeps a running total of the noises that you make, and reports back to you at the end of the meeting.

Why is this the most important functionary?  Those sounds you're making are distracting your listeners.  Studies have demonstrated that most of the time, you yourself are not even aware that you're making these sounds. It's important to growing your powers as a public speaker that you make yourself aware of those sounds, and that you learn to curb them in your speeches and your off-the-cuff remarks.

As important as the job of being the Ah-Counter is, though, it's also important not to take this role too often.  No one wants to be the person who has practiced listening for those sounds so often, that they can't hear anything else in the speech!

So remember: thank your club's Ah-Counters often, and take their counting skills to heart; and take your own turn at the Ah-Counter's chair from time to time — remembering to get credit toward your competent leadership award along the way!  But don't sit there too often — you want to listen to speeches too, and not simply get caught in evaluating how the message is presented.

Upcoming Meeting: 19 August 2014

We're having our next meeting on August 19, 2014, in our usual place:

Cromwell Town Hall, 41 West Street, 

 2^nd Floor (follow the signs), Cromwell, CT  

Toastmaster Club 5908 ~ District 53, Area C-32 

First & Third Tuesdays Each Month, 5:30 - 7:30 p.m.

If you're a guest, we'd love to have you stop by! It looks like we're going to have a full slate of members' prepared speeches, and it should be an entertaining evening.

What you'll find is that this meeting follows a pretty standard format:

• We'll have an opening invocation, followed by a "word of the day"
• There will be a short business meeting
• The meeting functionaries will be introduced: Ah-Counter, Timer, and Grammarian
• The Topicsmaster for the evening will present a series of subjects for timed but unplanned speeches.  
• The Toastmaster for the evening will then present our formal, prepared speakers one at a time.
• The General Evaluator will introduce and mediate a series of evaluators, who will comment on each of the prepared speeches.
• The General Evaluator will call on each of the meeting functionaries to give a brief report on their observations during the meeting
• We'll close the meeting, with a brief bit of social conversation afterward, and give our guests a chance to talk with our membership.

If you're a member, please be aware that the Free Toast Host 2.0 site which hosts our agendas was experiencing technical difficulties earlier this week. If you signed up for a role, please confirm that you are still signed up for that role; if you haven't signed up for a role yet, please do so.

Most of all, please remember to Bring Your Manuals.  As our Vice President of Education (VPE) Bill Sullivan says, "Never speak for free." You're here to improve your skills, as a listener, as an evaluator, as a speaker.  Bring the manuals so that you can be evaluated on your work, and learn to make progress — toward your goals.  

See you Tuesday!

Fall Contest: September 16, 2014

Hi all.  It's nice to be able to write again so soon. The blog stats show that we have readers who are returning slowly but surely. Welcome back!

I'm writing to announce the Fall Speech Contest for 2014.  Cromwell Community Toastmasters will be holding its Fall Speech Contest on September 16, 2014, from 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm. Our topics for the speeches fall into two categories:

1. Humorous Speeches: For this contest, our members have to be funny, they have to be original, and they have to tell stories — not just string together one-liners.  They also have to avoid objectionable language: not easy, but great practice, and a terrific challenge.
2. Table Topics: For our second contest, our members are going to be given a subject for a speech about 10 seconds before they have to speak on it. Table Topics are challenging — you never know what it is that you're going to be asked to speak on, whether the price of tea in China or your favorite movie ever or the best meal you've ever eaten.  Table Topics contests are a real high-wire act, and they test your mettle like no other.

The Toastmasters website has a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) on the subject of contests: who may be in them, who can compete and advance to the next level of competition, and what the requirements are for judges.  If you can, please familiarize yourself with the rules before Hollie Rose, our Contest Chairperson, requires you to get familiar!

If you'd like to be part of the Speech Contest, you need to be a member of Toastmasters in good standing, and a member of our club.  Which means you need to come to the meeting on August 19 at 5:30 pm and talk to our Vice President of Membership, Miroslav, about joining up.  Hope to see you then!

Renewal

Hello, and welcome again!

After a long hiatus, I'm going to try to get this blog up and running again.  The Cromwell Community Toastmasters (Club 5908) is a President's Distinguished Club for four years running now.  It falls to me, as the club's Vice-President of Public Relations, to market and explain this club, and the Toastmasters program of public-speaking and leadership development, for a new audience.

But I get ahead of myself. My name is Andrew Watt, and I've been a Toastmaster for a year now.  In my first year, I completed my CC award (Competent Communicator), and I almost completed my 1/2 CL award (Competent Leader).  It's a bit of a stretch to say that the first half of my Competent Leader award has made me half of a competent leader — but it turns out that the first part of being a leader is showing up.

Being in the right place, at the right time, makes all the difference in the world.  When we Show Up, we're saying that we care, that we're making a commitment.  Showing up for a Toastmasters meeting — as a guest of a member or as a curious visitor, as a member, as an officer —is about making a commitment to yourself. You are telling the world, I want to communicate better, so I can lead more effectively.

Are you showing up?

Our meetings continue to be on the First and Third Tuesdays of each month, at Cromwell Town Hall, Room 222, from 5:30 to 7:30.

Meeting Minutes March 4th, 2014

Cromwell Community Toastmasters

3/4/2014

Theme:  No Supplies

Opening:  Charlie Hubert promptly opened the meeting at 5:30.  For an invocation Charlie read the Toastmasters mission and announced that we were going to run the meeting without supplies.  As Toastmasters we are put in positions where we have to improvise with what we have.   Charlie then introduced the Immediate Past President Rob Dalo to run the Business part of the meeting.

Business Items:  Rob welcomed the group and announced that the next meeting will be the Toastmasters Spring contest.  Rob introduced Tom to review for the group the speech contest and give his personal contest experience.    The speech contest will contain two segments the International Contest as well as Tall Tales.  Rob then challenged the group to “get out of the stands” and “get into the game”.   Currently 5 individuals volunteered to speak at the contest, more volunteers are needed. 

During the meeting Rob introduced the 2 guests in attendance Gaurav and Gloria, this was Gloria’s first meeting and Gaurav expressed interest in joining.

Rob then promptly introduced Brian Terry as Toastmaster of the Evening.

General Meeting:  Brian introduced the functionaries who gave a brief review of their roles.  John – Timer, Donald – ah counter, Charlie – Grammarian and the word of the day ebullience – extreme enthusiasm – was introduced by Carmen.

Table Topics:  Brian introduced Andrew as Table Topics Master who used thought challenging questions from Brian Eno, English musician and composer.  Andrew had the audience pull questions from a pile of index cards.

1.      Do something boring?  Mirslov (43 sec)

2.     Is something missing?  John (40 sec)

3.     Move toward the unimportant?   Heather (40 sec)

4.     Humanize something free of error?   Gaurav (38 sec)

5.     Your mistake was a hidden intention?  Carmen (20 sec)

6.     Only one element of each kind?  Rob (1:13)

7.     Revaluation a warm feeling?   Robino   (42 sec)

Speeches:  Brain Terry introduced the 4 speakers. 

1.     Elizabeth Landeen:  Your Body Speaks, All In or Fold -  6:30

2.     Sheetal Patel:  Persuade With Power, Skip the Bottled Water -  7:00

3.     Heather Turner:  The Persuasive Approach, The Importance of Networking for Business- 7:38

4.     Andrew Watt:  Vocal Variety, How I learned to Cook…Really Cook -  7:30

Evaluations:  Brian Terry introduced Heather Turner as General Evaluator who introduced the night’s evaluators.

1.      Carmen Jenkins - 1:00

2.     Bill Sullivan – 3:45

3.     Andrew Watt – 3:45

4.     Robin Thompson – 2:15

After the evaluations Heather asked for reports from the meeting functionaries.  She recapped the meeting and offered feedback to the group.  The meeting was handed over to Rob Dalo who asked for feedback from the guests in attendance, Gaurav said I’m want to join! and Gloria said It was great learning about Networking in the speech given by Heather.

The meeting adjourned at 7:15

Respectfully Submitted by William Sullivan

[posted by Hollie Rose CC, VPPR]

Meeting Minutes February 4th, 2014

Cromwell Community Toastmasters

Club 5908 ~ District 53

February 4, 2014

“Go Big or Go Home”

Attendees:    members attended: Tom Alvord ACB, ALB, Bo Bogart, Micheal Brillas, Robert Dalo, Miroslav Grajewski, Charlie Hubert, Carmen Jenkins, Donald Ostertag, Crystal Storo CC, CL, William Sullivan ACB, ALB, Brian Terry and Heather Turner ACS, CL

Guests:  Guaro Caromital

Business Meeting:

The meeting was called to order at 5:30 by Sergeant at Arms - Charlie Hubert. President Crystal Storo CC, CL mentioned that having meetings start and end on time is a club goal.  The Cromwell Community Toastmasters Club’s educational goal is to have at least two more CC awards, at least one AC award and a leadership award by June 30^th, 2014.  All present shared their educational goals:  Bill - ACS (completed 2/4/14); Rob – CC; Carmen – CC; Brian – CL; Crystal ALB; Bo – CC; Charlie – CC; Heather - ALB and 2^nd CC.  Later in February there will be a Toastmaster Leadership Education meeting led by Nathan, the area governor.  More details will be coming.  Crystal asked us to start thinking of what role we wanted for the Spring Contest.  Rob told us of an interesting quiz that can be found by googling - NY Times Dialect Quiz.                             

Meeting Roles:

Toastmaster: Heather Turner ACS, CL

Invocation: Carmen Jenkins – A quote from John Quincy Adams which said if you inspire people you are a leader.

Word Master:  Charlie Hubert

Word - of - the – Day: Bliss - great happiness 

Table Topics Master:  Donald Ostertag

Don had us choose a card, and he then read the question.  Rob told us the Seahawks blew their competition away because of their constant practice.  Bo wouldn’t be bothered by other people using cell phones in a movie theater because she’d be sleeping. When snowed in, Miroslav plans to celebrate Valentines Day early by; making frittatas with his sweetie, watching German movies and cooking a rack of lamb.  Carmen told us if her two aunts received each other’s flower arrangements she could tell the truth, tell them there had been a mix up, switch the flowers and tell them she loves them.  Mike thought he’d probably run away if he ran into an ex girlfriend in the store.  Charlie told about the first time he drove alone.  He drove as fast as he could on the highway; he was petrified and excited at the same time, and filled with bliss.

 Speaker # 1:  William Sullivan ACB, ALB

Manual/Project: Leadership Excellence Series

Theme:  Keeping the Commitment

 Speaker # 2:   Carmen Jenkins

Manual/Project: Competent Communicator/Project 2   Organize Your Speech

Title:  My Job

 Speaker # 3:  Heather Turner, ACS, CL

Manual/Project:  Competent Communicator/Project 8   Getting Comfortable w/ Visual Aids

Title:  What’s a Prepper?

The three speeches were evaluated by Round Robbin

General Evaluator: Tom Alvord ACB, ALB – Tom shared that he felt structure, efficiency and focus are important to a good meeting.

Distinguished Technicians:

Ah Counter:  Brian Terry 

Grammarian:  Rob Dalo

Timer:  Crystal Storo, CC, CL 

In closing, Crystal asked our guest Guaro his thoughts about the meeting.  He said he liked the meeting and liked the humor, but at the same time he was thinking “how would I do this, how would I do that?”

Give some thought to what role you’d like for the Spring Contest and now is the perfect time to sign up for roles for our next meeting.

Next meeting: February 18, 2014.

Respectfully submitted by

Bo Bogart, Secretary

[posted by Hollie Rose, CC]

VPPR on a Road Trip 5 - San Diego, California

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.

This time I'm in San Diego!

Toastmasters club #2327386
GSDBA Toastmasters
San Diego, California
Jan. 9, 2014 6pm
Location: The Inn at the Park - Balboa Room - 525 Spruce Ave. San Diego, CA 92103

I picked the hotel I'd stay in for three different reasons. 1 - It was very close to Balboa Park and all the Museums and art there. 2 - I found a great sale rate online. 3 - It had a Toastmasters meeting in one of the meeting rooms on exactly the day I was arriving!

Turns out, after an afternoon in La Jolla, I encountered more traffic than I expected. I got to the hotel at about 5:50 pm. I had just enough time to check in and go running downstairs to the Balboa Room. I walked in about 2 minutes before the meeting started.

What a friendly group! Small but very open. I often like the smaller meetings best because I can actually get to know the members some.
To start the meeting everyone introduced themselves - possibly for my benefit and it was much appreciated.
There was Steve Doster - President, Yvette Currie - VPE, Bob Sanchez, Milo Grecian, Stewart Bornhoft, Ryne Ramos, Cory Russo, Pamela MacPherson, Kris Angell, Bob Ristow and me. Later we were joined by Amir Shayan and everyone joked that he's often late.

The theme for the meeting was "Life at the Speed of Mayberry." Toastmaster of the day Bob Ristow gave an interesting and complete vision of why he chose this theme. Recounting a particular episode of an Andy Griffith show and how it led him to this theme. At some point in this monologue he used the word "flustrated" which I loved so much I wrote it down with three exclamation points in my notebook!!!
Basically the idea was that to rush around from place to place all the time like so many of us do, just doesn't give the best experience of life. In the episode he told us abut a visitor through town had his car break down on a Sunday and spent countless hours chasing people down trying to get it fixed only to learn that they'd gone fishing or don't work on Sundays. By the end of the half hour he'd decided he liked Mayberry's speed and decided to stay a bit.
Bob encouraged us to slow down and enjoy life at a laid back pace. Life is not meant to be sped through.

Grammarian Stewart explained his role like we do it in Cromwell Community TM. Not just as grammar police, but keeping an ear open for "awkward or interesting phrasing." 
The Word of the Day was Flexibility and while all members are encouraged to use the word, Table Topics speakers are especially encouraged to do so.

The Table Topics Master was Cory Russo and he used Mayberry as his jumping off point for a theme loosely connected by the topic of old tv shows.
First TT speaker was President Steve Doster who told us about his part playing Opie in the movie of the Andy Griffith crew all grown up, and how it wasn't the blockbuster it was expected to be. The movie went right to TV.
Second was Yvette Currie. She was asked to explain how it was that the Professor on Gilligan's Island could make a radio out of a coconut but yet he couldn't fix a hole in a boat. She justified the Professor's inability by talking about the differences between book smarts and street smarts.Lastly, Amir was asked about Goofy and Pluto and why one talks and walks on two legs, while the other barks and walks on al fours. They're both dogs after all! Amir was great! He talked about the flexibility of doing table topics when you have no idea who Goofy and Plato are! Isn't Plato a Philosopher?
GSDBA Table Topics was fun all the way around.
This groups shares heartfelt laughter a lot and the warmth and camaraderie is palpable.

Speech # 1 - CC Manual, project 4, How to Say It
Title: Believe by Kristine Angell. Evaluated by Pamela MacPherson.
Believe is a simple but weighty word.
Kris is an Ethnographer. She shared with us exactly what that means and how it helps people and companies learn more about their products. With examples, she told us how her works helps them understand when users and customers go "off label." Her works helps them to see when people stop following directions in order to make the product work for their needs. Very interesting. I learned a lot from this speech.

"We need a second speaker."
Me - "Okay, I'll do it."

Speech # 2 - Custom Speech
Title: Flexibility at the Speed of Mayberry by Hollie Rose. Evaluated by Kristine Angell.
This theme and word of the day was perfectly suited for me to tell some of my story. I talked abut my walkabout and the freedom I'm experiencing to change my plans and my mind about the direction I'll go and the need for flexibility to adjust one's thoughts while on the road in order to be open to the situations that present themselves. I also touched on the fact that I'm doing this partially in order to really enjoy life and the places I visit. Much like the visitor to Mayberry in the episode Bon Ristow told us about, I'm in no hurry.

My evaluation by Kris was (and this is no exaggeration) one of the very best evaluations I have ever gotten as a Toastmaster. In a few short minutes she told me what was good and/or distracting about my stance, my hand movements, my eye contact, my use of today's themes, my voice modulation and the fundamentals of the organization of my speech. She told me what was phrased well, what impact my stories and examples carried both as personal stories and as stories, traits and overarching perspectives from which others can learn. AND she told me exactly how to improve. 
She said this was only her second evaluation! Kris, I hope you participate in your club's next Evaluation Contest - you are a natural and I appreciated your insights. I am vey glad I was able to learn from you!

The meeting wound down and I give props to Stewart's Grammarian report as well - it was filled with great detail of both interesting and awkward moments. Great job!

Proving the extra special friendliness of small Clubs... A couple days later, while sitting on a bench waiting for a restaurant to open, I hear someone say my name with a questioning tone. It was Stewart. He recognized me and I was so pleased he stopped to say hi. Thanks for being so welcoming and awesome GSDBA!

I didn't remember to bring my camera in with me from my car when I literally ran from the check-in desk to the meeting so this photo of the club was taken with my phone. And the photo of me was taken by Bob Sanchez with his phone.

Thanks everyone! I loved meeting you and hope to visit again someday!