Speak Easy
Official Newsletter
Encinitas/Solana Beach Toastmasters
Club 1532 (Area 18/District 5)
March-May 2001 (Volume 19, Issue 2)
Published May 16, 2001
| The mission of Toastmasters is to provide a mutually supportive and
positive learning environment in which every member has the opportunity
to develop communication and leadership skills, which in turn foster self-confidence
and personal growth.
|
Copyright 2001 Toastmasters International
|
The Encinitas /Solana Beach Toastmasters club meets every Thursday
at 7:00 PM at Villa Encinitas, Second Floor, 504 S. El Camino Real, Encinitas,
California.
Guest are always welcome. Please stop by! |
| For more information, please see: Toastmasters
International (www.toastmasters.org) or District
Five (www.d5toastmasters.addr.com/index.html) homepages. |
|
For more information, call our President Mark Rivest (760) 944-3671,
or visit our web site at www.esbtoast.com. |
Contents
President Elect's Message by
Leonard Reese
New Officers Elected by Doug McGetchin
Club Speech and Evaluation Contests by Sorel
Norlin
Joint Meeting With Oceanside Toastmasters
Club by Sorel Norlin
Youth Leadership at Torrey Pines High School
by Doug McGetchin
The Importance of Listening by Paula Silverfarb
Off to the Races with Casey by Casey
Krawiec
Meet Our New Members
Awards and Milestones
Calendar Of Events
From the Editor
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Index)
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home page)
"You miss one hundred percent of the shots you never take.”
—Wayne Gretsky
President Elect's
Message
By Leonard Reese, CTM
Let me start by saying that I am very proud and
excited about being President of our wonderful club for a second time.
I am also very excited about the officers I have helping me. They are all
very talented and motivating people. I see great growth for our club. I
hope to jump in and take over the great pace Mark has set for our club.
I congratulate him on the job he has done.
The following items are some of the goals I have
for our club:
1. Continue to add new members--at least one a month!
2. Get all members speaking again and on a regular
basis.
3. Get the long standing members excited and motivated
again. We have such a strong core of "old-timers" including myself, and
we need to remember and feel
excited again about learning and improving all aspects of our speaking
and leadership abilities!
I look forward to your comments and suggestions
for our club. And REMEMBER...YOU JOINED THIS CLUB FOR A REASON! DON'T FORGET
YOUR MOTIVATION FOR BEING HERE. LET'S GROW TOGETHER!
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New Officers Elected
By Doug McGetchin, CL, ATM-G, Club Vice President
of Public Relations
On April 26, 2001, the Encinitas/Solana Beach
Toastmasters club held elections to select a new team of officers to lead
it next term. This new group of officers takes over on July 1, 2001
and their term runs out on December 31, 2001. The club selected these
members for the following officer positions:
Leonard Reese - President
Susan Cowan - Vice President of Education
Belle DuCharme - Vice President of Membership
Doug McGetchin - Vice President of Public Relations
T. Kalei Awana - Secretary
Patsy Evans - Treasurer
Sorel Norlin - Sergeant at Arms
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Club Speech and Evaluation Contests
By Sorel Norlin, Club Vice President of Education
This spring the Encinitas/Solana Beach Toastmasters
Club held its speech and evaluation contests. On February 15th two
veteran members (Leonard Reese and Mark Rivest) and one new member (Belle
DuCharme) took the podium to present their best competitive effort in five-to-seven
minute speeches. All three speeches were a resounding success and
the decision was a hard one for the club members. Leonard was chosen
as the winner and went on to the area contest, where his speech outperformed
all other area competitors!! Sadly, the area judges did not see the
light of this truth and Leonard did not win. However, he came in
third overall - an excellent showing for our Club!
On February 22nd the club then held its Evaluation
Contest. A member from an Oceanside club presented a speech on the
book she has recently published on her dog. Four members--Susan Volsky,
Vickie Stone, Joanne Moran and Mark Rivest--vied for the chance to compete
in the area contest. Again, a difficult decision, but Vickie Stone
placed first with Susan Volsky named as runner up. Due to a change
in the timing of the area contest, Vickie was unable to compete.
However, Susan stepped up to the plate and did an outstanding job of evaluating
the speech presented at the area contest. Again, contrary to expectations,
Susan did not win with an overwhelming majority and also placed third overall.
Great job, Susan. Actually congratulations go to all our club contestants
and winners--all efforts were valiant and in every case provided exemplary
examples of the superior quality of our Toastmasters club.
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Joint Meeting
With Oceanside Toastmasters Club
By Sorel Norlin, Club Vice President of Education
On March 14th a special event occurred for our club.
A very exciting joint meeting took place between the Oceanside Toastmasters
and our club! Spearheaded by the President of our club, Mark Rivest,
members congregated at the Oceanside club's meeting place at Tri-City Hospital.
Set up so that there were two speakers from each club, each speaker was
then evaluated by a member of the other club. It was a great opportunity
to meet members of another club, see how they managed their overall meeting
and for two members of our club to be evaluated by new people. The
overall response was tremendous! Everyone enjoyed the whole event....including
the ridiculous amount of yummy desserts brought for a dessert pot luck
in honor of the special occasion. We look forward to having a joint
meeting with the Oceanside club visiting us at our home
base soon.
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Youth Leadership
program at Torrey Pines High School
By Doug McGetchin, CL, ATM-G, Club Vice President
of Public Relations
"What would the perfect prom night be for like for
you?" the Table-Topics Master Susan Volsky
asked the assembled small group of curious but nervous parents and teenagers.
Several declined to answer until one brave twelve-year old boy stood up.
He was about as tall as the parents were sitting down.
"Well, I've never been on a date before, but I imagine
since I'm only five-foot-two, my prom date would have to be short."
The laughter of the crowd and the charm of his answer
warmed the room.
On Monday, March 19, Mark Rivest,
Susan
Volsky, and Doug McGetchin went
to the first meeting of a Toastmasters Youth Leadership demonstration meeting
at Torrey Pines High School. There were about a half dozen adults
and a dozen teenagers there. Doug Evans,
District Five Youth Leadership Chair provided guidance. The chair
of the meeting and main parent behind the formation of the group is Dr.
Tom
Farrell ([email protected]).
Mark Rivest gave an inspirational speech, telling the teenagers that he
wished he had Toastmasters when he was their age. "This is a night
that will change your life."
Tom, his wife Debra, and two other parents of teenagers
at Torrey Pines had visited the Encinitas/Solana Beach Toastmasters club
on January 25, and had found mutual interest in getting their kids involved,
perhaps by starting some sort of youth club.
One needs to be at least eighteen years old to join
Toastmasters, but there are a number of special youth programs available
for high school, secondary school, and even primary school children.
On April 5 Tom stopped by to thank the club for
supporting the initial meeting of the Youth Leadership group in March.
It is meeting weekly, and the teenagers have taken off, increasing their
confidence and speaking skills, as well as stepping forward into leadership
positions to lead their group. Our club is happy we were there to
help and look forward to sharing more good news with the Torrey Pines High
School Toastmasters Youth Leadership group.
If you are interested in helping out with this or
other Toastmasters Youth Leadership programs, please contact the club officers
and Doug Evans,
the District Five Youth Leadership Chair.
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The Importance of Listening
by Paula Silverfarb
Throughout our Toastmaster experience,
we learn and practice various skills to improve our speaking and communicating.
Emphasis is placed on verbal and non-verbal tools such as voice projection
and inflection, eye contact, and body movements. Perhaps nearly as important
is the skill of listening. While hearing only takes our ears and nervous
system to do, listening is in fact often difficult to master and requires
thought and concentration. A trained listener realizes that listening is
a full time job. With keen listening skills, communication between people
is purposeful, engaging, and allows better understanding.
The importance of listening well is
two-fold in Toastmasters. It enhances our communication skills when interacting
with others as well as enables us to evaluate our peers with precise and
valuable feedback. This feedback, as you know, is critical in aiding an
individual's progress and therefore lets them excel in their his/her speaking
ability and skill.
While participating in the joint
meeting with the Carlsbad club in March, I was impressed by the accuracy
and detail which the functionaries and evaluators possessed. I was shocked
and surprised when the “Ah Counter” reported at least 60 infractions!
At the same time, I realized the value of her report. While excellent speakers,
those that spoke during the evening were truly aware of how often they
used filler words and sounds to bridge their speech. I don’t think she
missed a thing, including the infractions our club members incurred! She
did her subjects a great justice, giving them the feedback necessary to
improve this aspect of their speech. It is human nature for us to dismiss
a few of our errors and not feel the need to improve this area, especially
if our infractions remain small over time. In fact, through active listening
on the part of the functionary and the reporting of a truly accurate assessment,
a speaker is motivated to work on this part of his/her speech through this
awareness.
As a functionary in a meeting, it is extremely
important and valuable to the members to listen as skillfully as possible.
Even as a timer, you may not get to know the subject matter that is being
presented, but rather must focus on using the clock to insure accuracy.
For the ah counter and grammarian this is even more crucial, as you must
actually listen to the voice and words and not necessarily to the story.
The evaluations provided by these task leaders is critical to the improvement
of our members speaking ability and so we are obliged to employ the best
listening we can muster each and every time.
Communication is a two-way process. While
one speaks, another listens. Sharpening your listening skills improves
your ability to interact correctly, precisely, attentively, and effectively.
Through effective listening, you can provide your peers with valuable feedback
with which we can use to do what we came here to do--speak and communicate
well with others.
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Off to the Races with
Casey
By Casey Krawiec
Casey Krawiec invites everyone
to the Del Mar racetrack on July 21st. The fee is $10 per person
for admission, program, and brunch (inclusive of mint juleps) at his place
(1730 Reed Avenue, Pacific Beach). Directions: 1 1/2 blocks from
the intersection of Ingraham and Grand Avenue. Casey says, "I'll
also give a horse-related seminar on something like how to bet on horses
or how to dress horses or something. Country ham too. My house
at 11:00am. Post time is 2:00pm. Gambling is required, whining
(or whinnying) is not. Big winnah. Chicken dinnah." (858)
270-3727 <[email protected]>
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Meet Our New Members
Mary Barron heard about
Toastmasters a year before and visited a daytime meeting of another club.
She decided to join after her friend Belle DuCharme
invited her to one of our meetings. Mary wants to learn to
be more comfortable in groups and learn to focus on what she's saying in
front of people. She does "relationship marketing" in the health
and wellness industry, sharing information with those who want to change
their level of health, or want to create an extra stream of income doing
that. For fun, Mary likes to "walk and talk." She says, "I
have learned over the past couple of years, that I have fun meeting people
and finding out about them. That isn't how I've come across, is it?
It must be the group thing." She wants us all to know, "I like everybody
there, and I need to be taught when to break the rules." The club
welcomes Mary aboard.
Tony Hilgers joined
Toastmasters while in college, but never used the organization to its full
benefit. After hearing his CEO speak at one of his meetings he decided
that he wanted to further develop my communication skills. He located
the chapter on the Internet and showed up at the meeting. He writes:
"I am Manager of Customer Development for
Wingcast. It is a joint venture between Ford Motor Company and Qualcomm.
We will start providing Telematics services to several different OEMs [Original
Equipment Manufacturers = car makers] in 2002 and 2003. I am responsible
for developing and managing programs and relationships for two of our customers.
Being that it is a new company this also includes putting processes and
procedures in place to ensure success of programs.
Before this I spent six years working
for Maytag Corporation and one year with Frigidaire. I grew up in
a small farm town in Minnesota. Since graduating from college I have
lived in Des Moines, IA, New Orleans, LA, Monroe, LA, Redlands,
CA, Detroit, MI, Augusta, GA, and now in Encinitas, CA."
In his free time Tony enjoys running,
mountain biking, skiing, reading and spending time with his wife and two
dogs.
Greetings Tony, and welcome!
The club also welcomes Kim
Libin (perhaps we’ll get to hear more about her in the next
issue).
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Awards and Milestones
In Memorium: Vanusa Christiani
By Steve Scheibe
Vanusa Christiani, 49, a former member of the Encinitas
Solana Beach Toastmaster Club, died of cancer on Easter Sunday, 2001.
Vanusa was a club
member for three years and had completed seven speeches. During
her tenure with the club, she participated in many events, served as club
secretary,
and had made many friends.
Vanusa will be remembered by our club members for
her dedication, her love of nature and her infectious joy of spirit.
Vanusa's family and friends greatly appreciated
the manifestations of support and solidarity received from club members.
Open House: On May 10, our club
had a special open house meeting. Susan Cowan,
Larry
Knight and Doug McGetchin gave a
speaking workshop. Susan spoke on filler words, Larry on speech introductions,
and Doug on speakers from history. The Area 18 Governor Debra
Simpson, club alumni Tom Lazarus
and Ernie Dubnicoff, and several guests enjoyed
the evening.
Doug gave his
fiftieth
Toastmasters speech, allowing him to win the Advanced Toastmaster Gold
(ATM-G) award. Sponsoring or Mentoring a new club is the only step
he has left before the highest award Toastmasters gives, Distinguished
Toastmaster (DTM). The club gave him a briefcase as a special gift.
He says, "I really appreciate the support, encouragement, and enthusiasm
this club has continually showered upon me. I know I'm not the only
one to experience this good fortune, as I see so many others blossom in
the fertile ground that our club provides for cultivating excellent public
speaking skills. It is the dynamite speakers in our club, the willingness
to provide really insightful and critical evaluations, and the intellectual
and emotional challenge of keeping oneself together through the fast-paced
meetings that inspires me to keep coming from La Jolla to our meetings.
I've seen plenty of other clubs in the San Diego area, but ours is certainly
the best for me. I thank everyone in it for making the club such
a warm, nurturing place to grow." Doug joined our club in June,
1995, and has served as its Sgt of Arms, Vice President of Education, and
President. He is currently the Vice President of Public Relations
and edits the club
newsletter.
Do you have a success story or other news to
share? Send it to the Speak Easy editor: [email protected].
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Calendar of Events
May 26 District
Five Spring Conference
June and July Club Officer Training
July 21 Off to the Races with Casey
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From the Editor
Please contact the editor Doug McGetchin,
Club VP Public Relations ([email protected];
(858) 558-3717) if you would like to make any contribution at all to future
issues of this newsletter. Speak Easy accepts stories, news, upcoming
events, photos, and more. You send it, it'll go to press (most likely--this
is a family outfit).
Also, if you notice newspaper calendars or "things
to do" columns to advertise our club, please let us know about them. Finally,
if you see any local newspaper articles or media about Toastmasters, please
forward them as well.
Thank you!
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