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RAY ROMAN Most of us probably joined Toastmasters to become better speakers. The Club's purpose is to help members progress toward their speaking goals: When the Club provides enough speaking opportunities for members, members receive helpful speech evaluations, and there are enough members to conduct the program, members can achieve their speaking goals. The Distinguished Club Program (DCP) helps our Club realize its mission by focusing on two areas:
Detailed information on these awards can be found on pp. 64-65 of the Communication and Leadership Program.
Mechanics of the DCP Running on an annual basis from July 1 through June 30, the DCP consists of 10 goals all Toastmasters Clubs should strive to achieve during this time using the Club Success Plan (see the end of this article for a look at our CSP). TI tracks the progress of our Club throughout the year, sending the president periodic progress reports (updates will be on the Club Web site http://users1.50megs.com/notablen/club_success_plan.htm and in every issue of the newsletter). At year-end, TI calculates the number of goals we have achieved and recognizes us as a Distinguished Club, Select Distinguished Club or President's Distinguished Club based on the number of goals achieved and the number of members we have. Goals to Achieve Following are the goals Notable Northgaters should strive to achieve during the year:
In addition, we must meet a membership requirement. At year-end (June 30) we must have:
Recognition Clubs that meet the membership requirement and do the following are eligible for TI recognition at year-end:
I and the other Club officers think Notable Northgaters can achieve the designation of President's Distinguished Club and ask your help in achieving this goal. We have agreed to pursue this designation because we believe that achieving this goal as a Club is a useful means to help our members achieve their individual aspirations. We also believe it will be great fun to tackle this challenge and celebrate our achievements as we accomplish our goals this year! Please see me if you have questions about the DCP. Club Success Plan Notable Northgaters #6949
Our Vice President Membership Membership Building Sometimes the people we invite to meetings may respond, "I don’t have time to join Toastmasters." I recommend emphasizing to them that our invitation is finite – in other words, we’re asking the prospective guest to attend one meeting. We’re not asking for a lifetime commitment. Once the guest attends, he or she may see that Toastmasters has a lot to offer, and joining can be beneficial to him or her. I also suggest posting Toastmasters flyers (available from Gabriela, thanks to Karen) around the community. This can be done in the course of the day without inconvenience. Flyers can be posted on bulletin boards, at libraries, coffee shops, colleges, churches, retirement centers, grocery stores, restaurants, recreational centers, doctors’ or dentists’ offices, movie theaters, Fred Meyer stores, banks, post offices, bookstores, beauty salons, Northgate Mall, condo or apartment bulletin boards, or anywhere else that people might look. Our flyers invite people to attend our meetings, and direct them to our Web site or to call our contact people (Ray and me) for more information. And finally, I recommend mentioning Toastmasters to at least one person a day. We encounter many people every day, and we often have opportunities to mention Toastmasters and our Club. If you can’t do one a day, then try it every time you have the opportunity. Sheila, our Immediate Past President, has recommended a "three-foot rule," which states that we mention Toastmasters to anyone who comes within three feet of us. This is something we can all do, and it helps our Club, and helps each one of us to improve our communication skills. (Some of this material has been adapted from The Toastmaster magazine, Sep. 1996 issue, page 13, Ó 1996 by Toastmasters International, Inc.) Bold New Ideas Imparted to Club Officers! "I couldn’t believe what I was hearing!" said one stunned participant. "This is tabloid journalism at its worst!" said another. District-Wide Officers Training Held on Sat., 7/22/2000, 9 a.m.-Noon NORTH SEATTLE COMMUNITY COLLEGE – Four officers from our Club attended training on a cloudy Saturday morning. The top officers in the District were all present, and the District Governor Jerry Weltner gave a rousing pep talk. Everyone met together for the first two hours, and then we broke into separate sessions for the different types of officers. Here are some of the new ideas our Club officers learned from the training. 
President, Ray Roman: I liked Jerry's rousing motivational talk on the Success Program. He is always energetic and inspiring. I thought that the training in the breakout sessions offered the most, where other Club presidents offered their suggestions for solutions to various Club issues. I learned some tips for helping the Educational VP get meeting role commitments from members. We also learned that guests are favorably impressed by module speeches from the Successful Club Series. It seemed counterintuitive, but makes sense because it fills a guest in on the process rather than just dazzling them with performances by seemingly professional people whom they feel they cannot emulate (some guests have said things like "I could never do that" in response to our meetings). Vice President Education, Fred Coutts: I think officers training was worthwhile. You’re bound to pick up something that will help you, plus you get to meet other Club members. I would go again. As the VP Education, one of my goals is to ensure that each member performs every role periodically and I'm the one who is keeping the list of when and who performed roles. Vice President Membership, Theresa Collier: Having been to officer training in the past, I found the beginning segment to be a review of what I already knew. But I did like the break-away session. I liked the idea of making copies of the first manual speech assignment (the ice breaker) to put in the guest packet. Vice President Public Relations, Gabriela Remow: The most exciting thing I heard was from the District Governor. He said if we’re not having fun at our meetings, then we’re not doing our meetings right! He also urged us to party and celebrate throughout the year as we achieve the goals of our Club Success Plan. He said when we reach the status of President’s Distinguished Club (9 of the 10 goals) to invite him to our party, and he’ll come. He exuded so much fun and energy as he spoke, that my eyes were opened to a new way of doing public speaking that I haven’t seen before in Toastmasters.
Mary Ann Schroeder is our Club’s most recent recipient of an educational award. She received her ATM-B award after her last speech (in late May). After earning her CTM by completing the basic manual, Mary Ann chose the Storytelling manual and the Professional Salesperson manual to do next. She learned the most from her final speech, which came from the Professional Salesperson manual. That speech required three speakers (who were Mary Ann, Sheila and Theresa). Mary Ann learned a lot about coordination between the speakers, and about organizing herself and her speech. She says her next speech will be more organized than any speech she’s done before.
Congratulations, Mary Ann!
Membership Anniversary: Bob Goldberg, 8/93. Meeting Awards
Congratulations to Carol on completing her ice breaker on 8/9! Great job, everyone! Keep up the good work!
GABRIELA REMOW
Some Statistics
Some of this information was provided by Sheila Dixon. The statistics are from the Internet (http://www.toastmasters.org/dperform.htm and http://www.toastmasters.org/number.htm ) and the chart is from the officers’ manuals, Ó 2000 by Toastmasters International, Inc.
Special Online Extras
End of Special Online Extras
Table Topics: Master or Minion? RAY ROMAN Being Table Topics Master can sometimes feel like being terrorized by Time: if the speeches run long and the audience is large, the lack of time to cover everyone is a threat, but if the speeches run short and the audience is small, the expanse of time yawns like a chasm. I think the TT Master should always plan as if TT will not have enough time AND as if TT will have more time than usual. That is, be ready to cram in a lot of questions quickly AND be ready to fill time too.
Also, to make it easier to perform, consider writing up your lists in LARGE LETTERS THAT CAN BE READ EASILY FROM THE LECTERN. Finally, confirm in advance with the TM what time she thinks the transition to Evaluations should start (6:12 is typical), so there is no need for reconfirming that from the lectern. In this way, you can confidently run TT as the master, rather than the minion, of Time. Two Immediate Pasts Sheila Dixon, our Immediate Past President, is also the immediate past Area Governor for Area 23-B. She "governed" the five Clubs in our Area. Sheila says the most difficult part of her job was to ask people to do things (that is, to delegate). "But," she says, "if you hit on the right thing to ask them, they love to be involved." The most fun part of her job was visiting the five Clubs and getting to know everybody. As our Club President, she says the most fun part of her job was talking to and becoming friends with the members of the Club. Mary Ann Schroeder, our immediate past VP Education, had a fulfilling term of office last year. "The hardest part of my job," she says, "was to keep my cool when everyone wanted answers all at once before the meetings began." She learned to be calm, and not to act as harried as she felt. The most fun part of her job was keeping track of people’s progress, and she wishes she’d been even more on top of it than she was. Most people, Mary Ann says, like (or need) to be prodded along, and they like to be informed what else they need to do to get their next award. "The Vice President Education has the toughest job of all the officers," says Sheila Dixon. Mary Ann agrees that the scheduling of meetings and the organization of the Club-level speech contests are difficult, but she feels that the President’s job is tougher. She thinks that it might be a good idea, however, for Clubs to split the Vice President Education job into two 6-month terms, so more people could participate, and so that it would be less burdensome on each. "If you enjoy your Club and care about it, you should think about becoming the Vice President Education," says Mary Ann. "You get to know the ins and outs of Toastmasters Club life. No matter what amount of effort you put into the job, you get back twice as much, because your efforts as VP Education spur other members to increase their input into the Club. The VP Education is the engine of the Club, in terms of getting it to progress (in CTM’s and other awards). If people keep on track, they get these awards. If members do the work, they end up improving their public speaking skills." So says Mary Ann. The Secretary’s Corner - Club BusinessMADELEINE KOLB Executive Committee Meeting 7/12/00 The incoming Club officers met for the first time in executive session. Those present were Ray Roman (President), Sheila Dixon (Immediate Past President), Fred Coutts (VP Education), Theresa Collier (VP Membership), Gabriela Remow (VP PR), Michael Suver (Treasurer), Lisa Smith (Sgt-at-Arms), and Claire Richards (filling in as the recording secretary – thank you, Claire!). The officers established the Club Success Plan for the upcoming year (July 1, 2000, through June 30, 2001). They also discussed the possibility of producing a Club newsletter, but the decision was deferred to the full Club at the next meeting. Club Meeting 7/19/2000 VP PR Gabriela presented a proposal to the Club that a Club newsletter should be produced, at a cost of no more than about $25.00 per 6 months. The Club voted to approve the proposal, and this newsletter you’re seeing now is the result. Executive Committee Meeting 8/9/2000 Those present were Ray Roman (President), Sheila Dixon (Immediate Past President), Fred Coutts (VP Education), Theresa Collier (VP Membership), Gabriela Remow (VP PR), Madeleine Kolb (Secretary), Michael Suver (Treasurer), and Gina Coluccio (Sgt-at-Arms). The officers updated the Club Success Plan for the upcoming year (July 1, 2000, through June 30, 2001). They also began planning for the Club's demonstration meeting on Sep. 6, 2000. Finally, the officers voted to recommend that the Club pay to register a domain name for the Club Web site. The Club will vote at the next meeting (8/16/00).
Upcoming Events Aug. 19th, District-Wide Officers Training North Seattle Community College, room CC2153, 9 a.m. – noon.Aug. 23rd, regular Club meeting, 5:30 p.m. Aug. 23rd, Division B Officers Training, St. Stephens Lutheran Church, Shoreline, 7:00-8:30 p.m. Aug. 30th, regular Club meeting, 5:30 p.m. Grand prize drawing! (see Quiz below) September, semiannual dues due - submit $30 payment to Michael Suver, Club Treasurer, no later than the Sep. 27 regular meeting. Thank you! Sep. 6th, Club Demonstration Meeting (see article on this page), 5:30 p.m. The Executive Committee will meet afterward. Sep. 9th, Newsletter Deadline (submit materials to Gabriela – paper or email). Sep. 13th, regular Club meeting, 5:30 p.m. Sep. 15th, next newsletter publication date. Sep. 16th, Club Sponsor, Mentor, and Specialist Training -Bellevue City Hall, 9 a.m.-noon. Nov. 4th, District 2 Fall Conference. Demonstration Meeting September 6th, 2000 – Be There! What is a demonstration meeting? A demonstration meeting is a chance for our Club to demonstrate, to the public, how a Toastmasters Club operates and how the Toastmaster system helps people sharpen their public speaking and leadership skills. While many people have heard of Toastmasters and know the organization has something to do with public speaking, they don't know much else about Toastmasters. We will be announcing the meeting in newspaper notices, flyers, and by inviting former guests and members to attend. The format of the meeting will be no different from any other meeting, but the number of guests should be greater than usual. So, we should strive, as always, to put on a good show that day. We should warmly welcome all guests, and we should be well prepared for our roles that evening. This is our chance to shine before the world!
Want to see your article in print? Any upcoming events, anniversaries, celebrations, or anything else you’d like to share with the rest of the Club? Have you seen anything in our meetings you’d like to see done differently? Or something you’ve seen that you’d like to see more of? Would you like to try your skills as a reporter, interviewing and profiling other members? Do you want this newsletter to improve? For any or all of the above, please contact Gabriela. Submit articles (less than 500 words please) before Sep. 9 for the next issue of Notable Northgater. See the newsletter submission policy.
For the results and answers see this page.
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Last Updated: Wednesday, May 23, 2001
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It is important to continue beyond the CTM award, Mary Ann says, in order to gain continued exposure to public speaking. This allows more time to internalize and to reinforce what was learned while earning the CTM (such as use of hands, eyes, and voice). There is opportunity to practice those basic skills in each speech, in addition to learning the new skills (such as storytelling) from the advanced manuals.
The way to do this is to have many more brief questions prepared than you expect to use. Instead of drafting 10 or so, think up 15 or more. However, keep them short so that many candidates can be fit into TT if need be. Also, your list of targets should include absolutely every soul in the room, starting from most desirable (no role) through the more desirable (small role), the less desirable (GE, TM, etc.) and the least desirable (speakers, evaluators), in order. Check questions and targets off as you go so there is no confusion at the lectern.