Hutchinson Toastmasters II

Toastmasters is more than just about speaking, the parallel Leadership track is just as important.  I want to remind all club members that they can work on their Competent Leadership manual at any meeting.  Now all your hard earned work by helping at meetings can count for something.  You can count almost every role at least once, some multiple times, to get credit for your Competent Leadership manual.

The CL manual starts your journey into more and more leadership opportunities which can help you in and outside the club.  We all would like to take a leadership role at some times in our lives, usually they find us, so it is good to train and prepare ourselves for those times.

So the next time you are Toastmaster, General Evaluator, or even Timer, dig out your Competent Leadership manual, hand it to a fellow Toastmaster, and have them fill it out for you.  A little bit of leadership goes a long way.

We are experimenting with an online club scheduling tool called Easy Speak. This tool allows the member to have a more active role in scheduling and tracking their attendance, meeting roles and speaking projects. It also allows the Toastmaster to know who’s going to be at the meeting without having to send out a bunch of emails.

You can find a link to our Easy Speak page on the Weekly Schedule page, just above the schedule image. The Easy Speak public page shows only user names, but after you login, you’ll see member names.  We will continue to use our static schedule image as well until we determine if Easy Speak is the best solution for us.

Are you passionate about a subject, work, or hobbies? Maybe you are passionate about good food, or entertainment ??

Join us April 15th, 7:00 AM to tell us about it. Come prepared to share the things you are most passionate about. People who are passionate and hold strong convictions are great fun to listen to, as they share their  wealth of knowledge on a subject.  It promises to be great fun as we attempt to keep everyone from exceeding time limits while sharing their passions!

Lisa Jenks, District Six Public Relations Officer, just sent us an email stating that our website has won the 2009-2010 Best District Six Website award. She also invited us to the Spring Convention for Saturday’s breakfast, April 24th, when the best Public Relations awards will be handed out. Field trip anyone?

Master Your Facial Expressions

Facial Expressions are a very important part of effective communication.

• Start with eye contact. Being prepared- having control of your message is a prerequisite for being able to project and establish a bond with the audience. Don”t just pass your gaze throughout the room; try to focus on individual listeners and create a bond with them by looking them directly in the eyes for five to 10 seconds.

• Smile!

• Avoid distracting mannerisms – have a friend watch as you practice and look for nervous expressions such as fidgeting, twitching, lip biting.
• Stay true to your personality. Don’t copy gestures from a book or other speaker, but respond naturally to what you feel and say.

2009-2010 Toastmasters International President, Gary Schmidt.

Toastmaster International President, Gary Schmidt, said in the April 2010 issue of Toastmaster magazine, “Whether it’s face to face, voice to voice or keyboard to keyboard, Toastmasters helps us all become better communicators. The ability to connect with others, using many methods, is an essential trait for success. Keep learning, growing and adapting. Your journey of connecting with others begins now.”

This is the closing paragraph from Gary’s Connecting in the 21st Century editorial where he points out that the skills learned in Toastmasters transcend changes in technology no matter how technology will evolve.

Yes, this week’s theme will be “Census 2010″, so come ready with your brain ready to count.  April 1 is the Census day every ten years in the United States, though the count goes on for a while before and after that date for various reasons.  The Census has been done every ten years since 1790 and is in the Constitution.  So come to the meeting on April 8 and lets talk about the 2010 US Census!

I began to experiment with some of wife’s herbs, and before I knew it, I came up with a recipe that improves a person’s common sense by 1,000%. The only trouble is I tried to market it in pill form in Washington DC, but couldn’t find anyone smart enough to take it!

That type of joke is a staple of late night television, but it’s funny because people everywhere struggle with choices and outcomes. Wouldn’t it be nice to have the common sense of a person like Mark Twain pictured here?

Come prepared to make choices and live with the outcome as we determine if you have or lack – common sense.

What’s the best way to have a lot of fun early in the morning? Share the Toastmaster experience! Everyone was treated to a message from our special guest speaker, Hutchinson Police Chief Dan Hatten. Chief Hatten explained how an officer’s appearance, body language, tone and confidence affected the quality of communication in a law enforcement situation.

Bill Haas, working on project #4 of the CC manual, elaborated his obsession with tomatoes in a speech called, “Confessions of a Tomatophile”. He further confessed to Chief Hatten that the eerie glow coming from his basement window was from lamps over his tomato seedlings – not medicinal herbs. The meeting was great fun and our members and guests enjoyed it. Special thanks to Chief Hatten for his insightful and entertaining message.

What kind of car does St. Patrick drive? A Prius… because it’s “green.”

What is out on the lawn all summer and is Irish? Paddy O’Furniture

***
A man stumbles up to the only other patron in a bar and asks if he could buy him a drink.

“Why of course,” comes the reply.

The first man then asks, “Where are you from?”

“I’m from Ireland,” replies the second man.

The first man responds: “You don’t say, I’m from Ireland too! Let’s have another round to Ireland.”

“Of course,” replies the second man.

Curious, the first man then asks: “Where in Ireland are you from?”

“Dublin,” comes the reply.

“I can’t believe it,” says the first man.

“I’m from Dublin too! Let’s have another drink to Dublin.”

“Of course,” replies the second man.

Curiosity again strikes and the first man asks:
“What school did you go to?”
“Saint Mary’s,” replies the second man.
“I graduated in ‘62.”

“This is unbelievable!” The first man says.
“I went to St. Mary’s and I graduated in ‘62 too!”

About that time in comes one of the regulars and sits down at the bar.
“What’s been going on?” he asks the bartender.
“Nothing much,” replies the bartender. “The O’Malley twins are drunk again.”