Amalgamated Burns Blog

[The post editor apologizes for the title, but couldn't restrain herself. For any reader who doesn't know, Toastmasters International is an organization devoted to helping people throughout the world improve their communication and leadership skills, and find the courage to change: www.toastmasters.org]

In about ten days Liz will achieve a milestone. She has been a member of the Tarsus Toastmasters Club for a little over a year, during which time she has attended just about all of the weekly meetings, fulfilled all of the various functionary roles at the meetings numerous times (including Table Topics, Evaluator of Speakers, etc.) and delivered two Impromptu speeches during meetings when a scheduled speake was a "no show".

Even though she was proud of herself for being able to pull together a speech with only minutes of preparation, the down side is that those two speeches did not count towards her CTM because they were not actually based on a manual project. If you add the ten project speeches, the two impromptu and one other presentation, she delivered in her role as an officer, it brings the total number of speeches given to thirteen!

During the month of September, it is her goal to deliver her ninth and tenth prepared speeches based on a project from the first manual, which will earn her the title of Competent Toastmaster, or CTM. (Newer members who achieve this goal have a slightly different designation: Competent Communicator, or CC.) The titles and topics of her prepared speeches have been widely varied:

#1 - Thinking Inside the Box, an ice breaker

#2 - Ship Shape in Short Order, comparing the work of a Professional Organizer to that of a Personal Fitness Trainer

#3 - Startling Differences and Striking Similarities, a review and report on "Women in the Material World, a book which had a great impact on her

#4 - You Can’t Get the Whole Story from the Caption on the Picture!, about a picture taken when I was 14 on which mom wrote the caption "The Day Liz Set Her Pants on Fire!"

#5 - INCOMING!, about processing incoming mail and info

#6 - Alter Your Universe in Two Seconds!, the pivotal difference that two seconds makes

#7 - HOMEBIRTH: Cloaked in Controversy and Misperception for a Century, a perspective on the history of homebirth in America

#8 - Nineteen By Nineteen &, Uh, 4 or 5 More, an explanation of the Baha'i calendar

Her final two projects are called "Persuade with Power" and "Inspire Your Audience". She doesn't anticipate having a hard time coming up with good topics for either of those, but will need to get busy composing the outlines so as not to run out of time.

She served as the Vice President of Marketing for a while last fiscal year and has been the Vice President of Education since July. This means planning the schedule and assigning roles to the members for all of the Club meetings in addition to tracking their progress towards their goals. Managing many details makes the job rather demanding, however, the Club is really showing signs of renewed vitality and Liz would like to believe that her leadership has at least played a part in that transformation.

Some possible "next steps" for our favorite Toastmaster:

• choosing which advanced manual she would like to pursue
• finding a good mentor
• exploring what her next leadership role might be
• strongly considering entering some Toastmasters Contests

Executive Committee of the Tarsus Toastmasters Club

(Liz seated, far right)

# posted by Linda @ 4:31 PM