Reflections on the speaking life and human interaction
I have the cure for almost whatever is ailing you today. It’s this guy who decides he wants to dance. It doesn’t matter to him if others don’t join in. It doesn’t matter that he dances alone. It only matters that he hears the beat of distant drummer and follows his heart. Turn up the volume.
Be uplifted: http://blog.chasejarvis.com/blog/2009/06/someones-got-to-be-first.html
Last night was the concluding evening of stellar year for First Oakville Toastmasters. Around the room and at an overflow table set at the back sat over 40 Toastmasters and their guests. These are huge numbers for any Toastmaster club and First Oakville is likely one of the biggest clubs in North America ending this season with 51 members.
So why is First Oakville Toastmasters so successful?
The simple answer is the club provides an experience that attracts newcomers and keeps existing members coming back. This year that was due in no small measure to our president Katherine Ryell and her first-class executive team. When a great team works together it benefits us all and that was certainly the case of this year’s executive.
Another stellar player this year was our Toastmaster of the Year Deborah Bartucci. The Toastmaster of Year Award isn’t a popularity contest although, as one of the best vice-presidents of memberships in living memory, Deborah is certainly popular and well-known by al. No, the Toastmaster of the Year is awarded based on a formal point system so Deborah, congratulations, you earned this recognition by your peers due to your own hard work and good Toastmaster skills.
Well done all and looking forward to reconvening in September.
I went to a photography workshop a week ago that featured one of the best celebrity wedding photographers working today. Joe Buissink at 60 is at the top of his game. He is passionate, articulate and talented beyond all description.
During his two-hour talk he had his audience of harden wedding professionals in tears more than once. His call to his colleagues to rise above their concepts of what was “good” wedding photography had some, who had sitting as if in a dream literally gasping for breath.
He was like the speaker in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner which begins “An ancient Mariner meeteth three Gallants bidden to a wedding-feast, and detaineth one” and at the end of the third paragraph has this line: “The Wedding Guest is spell-bound by the eye of the old seafaring man, and constrained to hear his tale.”
We, all 30 of us, were that wedding guest and Buissink our ancient Mariner. How wonderful a moment. I will remember it until the day I die.
And then came the second act.
A company, whose name I’ll not repeat solely to avoid embarrassing the corporate types and to prevent them from firing outright the two presenters who bored the audience for the next three hours, took the stage. (I’m guessing at three hours. I left half way through at the break. As I was going out another photographer turned to me and said “pretty awful.” That’s a killer unsolicited comment.)
What a wasted opportunity. The product was pretty interesting (at least to photographers) and they had a captive and receptive (at least for the first 30 seconds) audience and then it went down hill from there.
Want to know how not to suck? Check out the best presentations offered at TED many of which are available on You Tube. Here’s a link to the top 10 (You must watch Jill Bolte Taylor’s talk about witnessing herself as she is struck down by a stroke.
And here’s a link to the 10 Commandments of speaking at TED: http://branddna.blogspot.com/2009/05/ted-commandments.html
Every year most clubs hold a tall tales contest. The objectives of this contest are to tell a story that’s three to five minutes long which must be a highly exaggerated, improbable nature and has a theme or plot.
Sounds simple enough? Right. I’ve always found tall tales the toughest contest to pull off. Maybe I don’t have a brain that works that way but I find standing in front of an audience at a tall tales contest about as much fun as going to the dentist.
But there are Toastmasters who can really pull it off. We held our Division L, Area 56 area tall’s contest last week and it was universally wonderful.
Sorry I can’t remember the names of all the contestants but the tall tales were unforgettable. I particularly liked First Oakville’s Vincent Daly’s story about his recent surgical procedure. The tall tale part came when he had to pick whether to have the anaesthesia in the first half or last half of the operation since the doctor didn’t have enough to last for the entire procedure.
And Mike Isber of Might Oaks clipped a happy face balloon to his shoulder and talked about his conjoined twin from whom he was recently separated.
Deborah Bartucci of First Oakville talked about a new way of giving birth in nine days instead of nine months. She brought her new family with her.
Toastmasters is so much fun. If you’ve been wondering whether or not to join why not go visit a club as a guest. You’ll be made to feel very welcome. And, who knows, maybe next year you’ll be competing in your club’s tall tale contest.
As many of you know I’ve been working Thursday nights for Henry’s School of Imaging so I’ve been unable to attend First Oakville Toastmasters on a regular basis.
Of course, I am doing anywhere from four to seven presentations a week so I am keeping my skill set sharp although I do miss my meetings and the camaraderie of the membership (which is hitting 50!!! members),
So what’s new?
Well our advanced club Mighty Oaks has voted to disband after a tough year which saw our membership fail to rise. In fact, it fell and now we have less than 10 people per meeting.
Our District executive offered to send us a rescue team but unfortunately the members didn’t take advantage of this opportunity. I’m going to guess that the reason was simple pride. All of us in the advanced club have our CC (or CTM as it was known as in my time) and many of us have well over 10 years of experience.
So who would the District send? Somebody else with 10 years of experience? And how would have have helped?
I don’t know and I guess now we won’t find out. Pity.
Another new development is the District realignment of the clubs in Oakville. Unfortunately through some miscommunications those of us directly affected weren’t included in the discussions or decision. That’s not the Toastmasters way of doing things so when I complained to our District folks I got back an email that essentially said suck it up and live with it.
Oh dear. That too isn’t the Toastmaster way and I’m attempting to point that out in direct emails with those who govern but I don’t seem to be having any impact. Pity.
I think this is another learning opportunity that we’ve lost.
