September 20th Meeting - Small, Intimate, and Full of Content

Saturday's meeting was an intimate one. Lina, who graciously stepped in to be Toastmaster picked the theme, "An Apple a Day Keeps the Doctor Away." What did she share with us all? Interesting facts about apples, of course, because it was Eat an Apple Day. Did you know there are 7500 varieties of apples around the world? I learned this among facts about apples!

Ken was the only speaker, and he spoke out of the Competent Communication manual Speech #8: Getting Comfortable with Visual Aids. His speech title was "Space and Nanotechnology." It was a fascinating explanation on the expanse of the universe versus even the expanse of the "microuniverse" we cannot see in terms of atoms and molecules. It is through nanotechnology, attributes of things as common as plastic and foil can drastically change once they are broken down to its smallest components. It was a captivating speech which piqued my interest in the advancements we're making in technology. Ken spent a considerable amount of time preparing for this speech, and he is showing a strong dedication to Toastmasters.

Table Topics was fun because everyone was called upon twice to speak! Fun questions. It was a tie breaker!  Both Jeff and Lina won! Shannon asked terrific questions ranging from topics on organic foods to holistic medicines. I think everyone did a great job on participation.

Next week Jeff will be the Toastmaster, so it's definitely going to be the meeting to attend!

DeAnne Wolf, CC, CL

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The Rickey Henderson Effect

Gary Vaynerchuck

I was recently reminded of a post Gary Vaynerchuk wrote a few months back called the “The Rickey Henderson Effect.”In the piece he recounted an incident that took place in 1985 at Yankee Stadium. Yankee outfielder Rickey Henderson was running toward the dugout after catching a fly ball to end the inning. On his way to the dugout he looked over at the then 10 year old Vaynerchuk and gave him a wink. Vaynerchuk then goes on to talk about how special that simple gesture was to him and how he became such a huge fan.

Maya Angelou once said “I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” For the 10 year old Vaynerchuk that effortless wink that Henderson gave him made him feel special and nearly 30 years later he is still telling the story.

Remember the “Rickey Henderson Effect” when preparing a speech. This is apparent in certain speeches such as speech 10 in the Competent Communicator Manual which calls for an inspirational message. However, when giving informative or research speeches it is essential to mix in some emotional content to capture the audience’s attention and make the speech memorial.

The “Rickey Henderson Effect” is clearly more applicable in the leadership zone of Toastmasters. I once had a boss that left me waiting in the lobby of a hotel for over an hour while he checked his email. I remember telling my wife later that night that my boss had a real knack for making me feel unimportant. My call to action is this: as you become more involved with the leadership team in your Toastmasters Club look for opportunities to make your club members feel wanted, appreciated, special.  

Marshall Lehr, CC, ALB

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Club Speech Contest on September 13th

Contest season reminds me of the first club contest I experienced last fall. I wasn't quite sure what to expect at the contest or what to do as a vote counter, but everyone in the club made sure to answer my questions and brief me on my duties. Since that first contest, I've been looking forward to participating in or just spectating at future contests at all levels (Club, Area, and District). The friendly competition between fellow club members along with the speeches always make me smile.

Top of Texas will be kicking off the fall contest season with a Breakfast at Tiffany's themed club contest this Saturday!

Anne Brown, Contest Chair, has gathered a handful of seasoned and novice Toastmasters for the Evaluation and Humorous Speech contests. Competing in the Humorous Speech contest will be Regina Clay and Ken Dorsey. These two speakers will also be competing in the Evaluation contest along with myself, Lina Choun.

This will be my first time as a contestant! Our Contest Toastmaster will be Aparna Valluri and many other members of the club have volunteered to be key players in making the contest a success.

Lina Choun

National Read a Book Day Theme at Top of Texas

Saturday’s Top of Texas Toastmaster’s meeting had two themes – National Read a Book Day, and Football.  You see, the toastmaster (me) inadvertently failed to advise the Table Topics Master of the theme and he felt it should be football because ‘tis the season for football. Nevertheless, we still had a great meeting with two speeches and three guests!  Our area governor paid a visit to the club and Aparna brought one returning guest and a brand new guest.

During his speech, Ken provided his ideas on how to reinvent education and with it he is just a couple more speeches away from completing his CC (Competent Communicator) award. Next, Jeff gave a speech from the Toastmasters Educational Leadership Series: Goal Setting and Planning. A job well done to both speakers on personalizing their speeches in order to draw in the audience.

When Table Topics time came around, Thomas, our Table Topics Master still managed to ask a question pertaining to reading, even though in his heart the theme should have been football!  One of our guests took the plunge and got up in front of the members and provided her answer to the Table Topic question about reading, and in doing so won the Best Table Topics ribbon!  It’s very exciting for our members when a guest overcomes his or her public speaking fears, gets up to the lectern, and gives a great answer to the Table Topics question.

Next week will be very exciting at Top of Texas Toastmasters when we hold our Fall club speech contest!  We have a good number of competing speakers and the entire club will participate in one form or another.  The fun begins at 9 am Saturday September 13th!  I’m looking forward to the speakers, the fun, the food, and the camaraderie!

Ana Ortega, ACB, ACL

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Holidays, A Time for Family

This past holiday weekend, I got a chance to spend time with my family, but I didn't want to.

At first.

For the past two holidays, I've tried to have a Father/Daughter holiday.  We would sit, watch movies, and he'd do some repair work around my house in return, all while my mom cooked.  Last holiday, July 4th, was a disaster.  My brother got wind of our get-together and conveniently showed up right as we sat down for movies, with his wife and newborn little boy.  As soon as the baby arrived my dad went nuts over him!  There I was, arms folded, pouting, sitting in front of the tv, subtitles on because I couldn't hear over everyone's cooing.

This time around, I kept our Father/Daughter holiday secret from everyone.  But even more siblings got wind of it, and by the time I realized, I had my mom, my dad, my two sisters, my brother, his wife, his stepson, and of course, the infant.  Grumpy at first, I realized that it had been a long time since all the family and I had really gotten a chance to get together.  Although we live no more than 40 minutes from each other, our schedules and lives are so different that we rarely see each other, or, if we do, not all of us are there at the same time.  When I joked with my sister I remembered how our senses of humor are identical, when I saw my nephew I loved how much he reminded me of my little boy when he was that age, and when my dad put up pictures on my wall, I knew that I can still have that time with my dad and still have a better time with my expanding family.

So if you have family close by, I challenge you to invite them over!  If you don't, then give them a call or videochat!  Now's not the time to be caught up in our own lives to forget about those we grew up with.

I'll be seeing them all next holiday!

DeAnna

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