Do you C what I C?

I know .. I know ...we need an acronym for the word acronym.  In Toastmasters, acronyms are alive and well there too.  You just can't get away from them it seems.

 There's CC's and CL's and DTMs, and ACBs, and on and on and on and to speak the lango you'll  need to tango with the tongue of the Toastmaster.   

But  S-L-O-W  D-O-W-N ... it's not really all that bad....if you're just starting out, you do need to add vitamin C to your Toastmaster diet, as C stands for "competent" and "communicator" making you a Competent Communicator (or CC) once you've completed your first 10 speeches.  Let's start here!

Competent Communicator = CC and consists of 10 speeches which are:

1. Speech 1: The Ice Breaker — The first speech of the Toastmasters program is about introducing yourself to your peers, providing a benchmark for your current skill level, and standing and speaking without falling over.
2. Speech 2: Organize Your Speech — Introduces the basic concepts of organizing a speech around a speech outline.
3. Speech 3: Get to the Point — Clearly state your speech goal, and make sure that every element of your speech focuses on that goal.
4. Speech 4: How to Say It — Examines word choice, sentence structure, and rhetorical devices.
5. Speech 5: Your Body Speaks — Shows how to complement words with posture, stance, gestures, facial expressions, and eye contact.
6. Speech 6: Vocal Variety — Guides you to add life to your voice with variations in pitch, pace, power, and pauses.
7. Speech 7: Research Your Topic — Addresses the importance of backing up your arguments with evidence, and touches on the types of evidence to use.
8. Speech 8: Get Comfortable With Visual Aids — Examines the use of slides, transparencies, flip charts, whiteboards, or props.
9. Speech 9: Persuade With Power — Discusses audience analysis and the different forms of persuasion available to a speaker.
10. Speech 10: Inspire Your Audience — The last of ten speeches, this project challenges the speaker to draw all their skills together to deliver a powerful inspirational message.

When you join Toastmasters, you are given a Competent Communication manual like THIS

 ...but Toastmasters is not just about overcoming your fear of speaking, improving your speaking, and building confidence.  It also builds leaders through it's Competent Leadership program.  Because leadership skills are so important and coincide with the ability to express yourself professionally, the other half of Toastmasters consists of improving your leadership skills.   The Competent Leader or CL can be worked and earned together with the CC program and both manuals are provided when a new Toastmaster member joins.   Like the CC's 10 speeches, the CL consists of 10 projects to help grow leadership skills giving you the opportunity to complete these while serving in various club meeting roles.   See the Competent Leadership manual HERE

Want to learn more?  Come join TOTTs (That's an acronym for our club Top of Texas Toastmasters) as we'd love to have you at our next meeting.   

You can visit our Web Page HERE

Come see us!

May 7th  Recap & Upcoming Open House on May 14th...

Congratulations to Lina Choun who gave her 10th speech and earned her CC!   

Way to go Lina!

Marcus not only gave us our word of the day (which was Zenith), but he also provided his Vision for our upcoming Open House this weekend, May 14th!

Our Open House will feature guest speaker Timothy Park.  Things get underway promptly at 9am, and there will be snacks provided.  Please join us.

The theme is of interest to the Open House, as it is "Public Speaking"

 

We are located at 5025 Jacksboro Hwy, Ft Worth, TX 76114.

Follow the signs and enter thru the back of the Northwest Bible Church.

Hope to see you there!

- Ken Dorsey, Top of Texas VPPR.

Top of Texas Represents Area 56 at the International  Division Speech Contest

Our own Anne Brown recently won the Top of Texas International Speech contest and advanced by winning 1st place for Area 56, representing at the Toastmasters District 25 Division Contest held Saturday, April 30th.

Anne's speech entitled, "Breathe, Believe, Battle" was an inspirational and touching expression she shared about a member of her family and the will to overcome enormous hardships.

Great job Anne!   

And thanks also to Lina who helped out as time keeper for the district competition!

Great job guys!

Why I joined Toastmasters

by Vanessa Foster

I believe there are two types of people in this world: word people, and number people.
And since I was nine years old, I’ve known to which tribe I belong—I’m a Word Person,
through and through. Some might call me a Word Nerd! My fate was sealed in the fourth
grade. When I began struggling with fractions, Mr. Teacher patted me on the head and
said, “Don’t worry your pretty little head, your husband can do the math in the family.”
And it stuck. To this day, math and its confounding intricacies continues to elude me.

But words—words are my friends!

Writing and telling stories have been passions of mine for as long as I can remember.
As a child, it was not uncommon for me to climb a tree with a tiny spiral notebook and
a pencil so I could have some peace and quiet and let the words flow. I wrote poetry,
I journaled (even though it would be years before that word entered my vocabulary), and
I made up stories. I also wrote plays and would gather my sisters and friends and we’d
act them out for the neighborhood kids, charging a nickel for admittance.

As an adult, I have written poetry, short stories, two memoirs, and am three-quarters of
the way through my first novel. After publishing my memoir, More Than Everything (and
becoming an advocate for helping young women find a way out of seemingly impossible
situations), I found myself talking to groups of people—sharing my story in front of an
audience. And as an introvert, this did not come naturally.

Enter Toastmasters!

After being invited to attend an open house, and witnessing first-hand the positive
atmosphere and helpful attitudes of its members, I knew I’d found an answer. It was
immediately clear that the club environment of support and positive feedback, with
assignments and the goal-tracking process of the Toastmasters program would be a great
fit for me.

My goal is to someday be a professional speaker. I also dream of telling stories live,
on stage in front of an audience. With four speeches under my belt, I’m growing more
and more confident that Toastmasters will help this Word Nerd reach those goals.

                                                                                                              - Vanessa


Top of Texas would like to wish Vanessa all the best with her Toastmasters journey. 
We will miss you!  

Riding high

Top of Texas Toastmasters Meeting Recap – January 23, 2016

Top of Texas had another great meeting on Saturday with three speakers, a large audience, and one guest.  Our guest, Wayne, is a past member of our club who is back in town after five years of living out of state.

In honor of the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo that is currently taking place at Will Rogers Memorial Center, the theme of our meeting was the Stock Show & Rodeo.

Our first speaker was Carenthia who gave her Ice Breaker speech.  We learned about Carenthia’s childhood, education, and her strong desire to serve her country.  Carenthia used humor and storytelling skills in her speech and did a great job!  We thank Carenthia for her service to our country.

Next, Jennifer told us about her experience with the Beachbody products and fitness plan.  From the sound of it, the Beachbody supplements have been very good for Jennifer’s body and has helped her health.  With this speech Jennifer is halfway to completing her CC (Competent Communication) manual and attaining her CC education level! 

Our third speaker was Ken who educated the members with a speech from the Toastmasters Successful Club Series.  Ken walked us thru the two Toastmasters educational tracks: the Communication track and the Leadership track. 

Ken provided us with a number of online resources that are available and can help members move toward earning the DTM (Distinguished Toastmaster) award.  This speech provided a good overview for many of our new members, and a good refresher for some of our long-time members.  Here are some links from Ken’s speech below:

§  Toastmasters Education Flowchart

§  Links to Advanced Competent Communicator Topics & Objectives

§  District 25 Toastmasters

§  Top of Texas Website

§  Successful Club Series Downloads

§  Best Speaker Downloads

§  Successful Leadership Series Manual

§  Successful Communication Series Manual

§  High Performance Leadership Manuals (for purchase)

§  Youth Leadership Manual & Supplies (for Purchase)

Our club welcomes all guests and we meet every Saturday morning (except holidays) at 9 am at the Northwest Bible Church in northwest Fort Worth.  We hope to see you at our next meeting!

                                                                                                                

                                                                                                                               - Ana Ortega  ALB, ACB

Time for Those 2016 Resolutions

As another year trucks in and another runs out…let’s analyze things:

This time last year the Dallas Cowboys were on a roll, and we knew if they didn’t win it all, that THIS YEAR (2015) would be THEIR year to go all the way!

Hmm – how’d that work out for us?

And last year, we knew going into 2015 we all felt uneasy about the economy … and going into 2016 it seems like Déjà vu.
But I think I did OK on my resolutions for last year :-)    I am of the breed that actually really writes them down, and really tries to stay after them beyond February.  I haven’t had that bikini / swimsuit one on my list for several years, it’s easier to just stay clear of watering holes.   But I did make some resolutions to continue the journey toward acquiring my DTM (a Distinguished Toastmaster Title) and so far looking at last year, I believe I’ve stayed on course!  So what’s in store for you this year?    

I asked a few fellow Top of Texas Members what their commitments were for 2016, and I’ve got to say that after hearing others chime in with their resolutions, I’m going to have to adopt some of them as mine too.  For instance…Marcus wants to pay off some debt and get back in the gym.  

For me, the gym is a debt…I mean, I don’t even know what the gym hours are.  Pretty bad.  I think I got my gym membership after guilt over a brownie bottom pie.  But OK! … This year I’m with Marcus!…the gym will make my list!

If we start going to the gym, just maybe when we give our speeches, people will be so overcome with our super hero physique, they won’t notice our “ums” and "ahs".  But then that’s what Toastmasters is for; and because one of my resolutions is to become a better leader and speaker, I want to up the ante and vow to end 2016 with my Advanced Leader Silver and Advanced Communicator Silver!  (OK, I’ve done it now, it’s in writing for all to see).  But I’m serious!  Toastmasters is such a great opportunity for all of us to improve, I just need to take advantage of it.  I hope we all do!

One of the best tips someone shared with me a few years ago was that in life, we should always work hard at recognizing and overcoming Parkinson’s Law.   I’ve found this to be a great tool for Toastmasters when you are trying to settle down to write that speech!   Parkinson’s Law states that “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.”  It’s really just a nice way to coin that favorite word we all know - procrastination.     Think about it – how many hours (and I mean LOTS of HOURS) have you spent in your life PREPARING to study, and deciding instead to clean a drawer that has been dirty since the Roman conquest just so you don’t have to sit down and study for that test, read that book, or write that paper?   It’s Parkinson’s Law that gives power to resolutions!   Really!   We have resolutions because we all suffer from procrastination … oops, I mean Parkinson’s Law. 

A good friend of mine showed me a trick.  If you need to finish up something you’re working on, rather than daydreaming or doing any of a 101 things you shouldn’t be doing that wastes time; (i.e. Facebook, email, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google, Groupon, MeetUp, eBay, texting, Spotify, Amazon, Rhapsody, Kindle, Pandora, Instagram, ESPN, Tumblr, IHeartRadio, Pinterest, Fox News, Fandango, MSN, Yahoo, YouTube, Nook, Periscope, WhatsApp, SnapChat, Netflix, Hulu, Vine, Kik, Craigslist, OfferUp, Etsy, Fitbit, E*Trade, Drudge Report, Audible, WebEx, Apple App Store, KickStart, OneDrive, iCloud, Dropbox or just that good ole’ fashioned phone call) …that instead, work to grow conscience about what you ARE doing with your time!!!   

Take notice of what's going on and recognize that you’re EXPANDING the time you have to instead fill-up the time so that you will finish what you need to be doing just in time to meet the deadline!   That's just BAD BAD BAD!   Stop wasting time, and knock it out ahead of time!   How you ask?  Simple.  Unplug your laptop and work from your battery only. 

You now have given yourself a window of approximately 3 hours to finish your work, and you can’t waste time with those 101 things because if you do, your battery will go dead before you finish!  Try and finish it before the battery dies, and remember to save often.  Hey, it works for me!   In the words of Timothy Leary (well sort of) “Turn on, Tune In, Plug Out”  I promise you will work faster and get things done!     

OK, so if that's as radical to you as Mr. Leary was,  then just do a 5 min (no longer) surge thru the house to get the drink ready, the pen, paper, and PC ready..then  hide the social devices in the next room to charge, turn off the TV, the radio, put the dog outside, take the phone off the hook, and sit down and start without anything to distract you.  If you have kids, tell them you are not to be disturbed or feedings and allowances will cease to exist. Well, maybe that's a little harsh, but make sure they get the point that knocking politely doesn't apply here.  Starting is usually the hardest thing for most of us.  Set a goal to finish by a certain time that pushes you and don't give yourself any time off for good behavior.  Just stay with it and knock it out!

  

Perhaps we need to make 2016 the year of getting things done.  Our country needs it, and we all need it in our lives more than ever with so many apps and devices to distract us.   I hope all your resolutions come true, and who knows – maybe I’ll run into you at the gym.   If not, I’ll see you at Toastmasters.

Happy New Year!

Ken Dorsey, CC

New Officers Dec 2015

Congratulations and thank you for the new officers that are assuming their roles for Top of Texas.  They are:

President - Anne Brown
Vice President Education - Shannon Watenpaugh
Vice President Membership - Dudley Mecum
Vice President Public Relations - Ken Dorsey
Secretary - Ana Ortega
Treasurer - Lina Choun
Sargent at Arms - Marcus Mitias 

Club officer training has begun!  You can check the District 25 website calendar for officer training dates here:  http://d25toastmasters.org/tli/index.htm 

Toastmasters Founder Ralph Smedley said, “Skills are not learned by reading books and taking courses, skills are learned by practicing.”  Thanks to everyone at Top of Texas for giving us the environment to continue to improve our skills through practice!