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.

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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]> Link to Del Mar race track: http://www.dmtc.com

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     Not everyone who joins Toastmasters has the gift of gab.  Many of us join not to have a captive audience for our sparking personality, but rather to overcome a deep-seated fear or even terror of speaking in public.  A Toastmasters meeting can be intimidating for those with "natural reserve."  Everyone else seems so eloquent, outgoing, and full of vivaciousness.  If those noisy, self-confident people get on your case about not speaking up enough, you may be surprised to learn that you are not alone.  The hero of the Indian independence movement, Mohandas K. "Mahatma" Gandhi, was extremely shy, as he related in the chapter "Shyness my Shield" in his book An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth (1927; Translation by Mahadev Desai; Boston: Beacon, 1957).
    When Gandhi was a young law student studying in England, he joined the executive council of a vegetarian society.  Although he regularly attended their meetings, he could never work up the courage to speak.  A friend invited him to address a promotional meeting, and although Gandhi knew he couldn't do it impromptu, he reasoned that he just might be able to deliver a speech if he wrote it down first.  With his speech written out and ready, he attended the meeting.  But stage fright hit him hard: "I stood up to read it, but could not.  My vision became blurred and I trembled, though the speech hardly covered a sheet."  His friend finally had to step in and read the speech for Gandhi while he sat there "ashamed of myself and sad at heart for my incapacity."

It was only later when he was practicing as a lawyer in South Africa that Gandhi got over his terror of public speaking, although he never fully mastered it.  "It was impossible for me to speak impromptu.  I hesitated whenever I had to face strange audiences and avoided making a speech whenever I could."  Just think what he could have accomplished if there had been Toastmasters back then.     Surprisingly, Gandhi considered his shyness as "no disadvantage whatever."  Being quiet motivated him to make the most out of the few words that he did deliver.  He wrote that shyness "has taught me the economy of words...a thoughtless word hardly ever escapes my tongue or pen."  Although he was not shy, President Abraham Lincoln mastered this principle in his short but extremely famous Gettysburg address.      Being reserved actually saved Gandhi from embarrassment.  "I do not recollect ever having had to regret anything in my speech or writing."  This statement recalls the proverb, "Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt."  Gandhi pointed out that "We find so many people impatient to talk...[such a speaker] generally exceeds the time limit, asks for more time, and keeps on talking without permission."      So the next time you feel yourself quaking with fear, afraid to speak out, remember one thing.  You are in good company.

Gandhi, 1946 (LIFE Magazine ((c) 1946, 1974 Time Warner Inc.))

TIME Person of the Century Runner-up: Mohandas Gandhi (web site)

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Saturday, July 7, 2001  San Diego City College
Staff/Faculty Lounge 1313 12th Street San Diego CA
8:45am Check-In/9am Program begins

Tuesday, July 10, 2001  County Office of Education
6401 Linda Vista Rd San Diego CA  (Thomas Guide 1268-H2)
6:45pm Check-In/7pm Program begins

Saturday, July 14, 2001 Tri-City Hospital
4002 Vista Way Oceanside CA (Thomas Guide 1107-B2)
8:45am Check-In/9am Program begins

Toastmasters Institute (TMI)
Saturday, July 28, 2001  Miramar College
10440 Black Mtn Road San Diego CA (Thomas Guide 1189-E4)
8:45am Check-In/9am Program begins

Points of Contact for Club Officer Training:
Marian Prokop, Club Officer Training Chair 619-294-2990 or [email protected]
Joyce Persichilli, LGET 858-450-7418/760-735-2986 or [email protected]

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      The club welcomes Lisa Perrecone.  She already gave her icebreaker on June 28!  Way to jump in there, Lisa.

      We also welcome Greg Miller, who says, "I have always known about Toastmasters. I heard about this club over the Internet. I decided to join because I botched a job interview and I need to improve my communication skills."  Greg is an adjunct instructor at a couple of community colleges.  He enjoys watching movies, going to the beach, and animals.  He says he wants everyone at the club to know that, "I am a really nifty person."

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    On May 24, Steve Scheibe gave his tenth speech at the club to win the coveted Competent Toastmaster (CTM) Award.  He joined the Encinitas/Solana Beach Toastmasters club in March, 1997.    He says, "Over the past four years, I have enjoyed meeting new people.  It has also been very interesting to see different individuals develop, improve and impress."  The most important lesson he has learned about public speaking since he joined has been to prepare well: "The more you prepare, the better your speech will be," he asserts.  He also advises members to "Respect your audience."  He is very thankful that he has had this Toastmasters experience and the opportunity to hone his public speaking skills.  "When I started, I thought I had them all.  Now I am more humble about how little I know."  He advises new members to "Have fun.  Don't take yourself or your speeches too seriously."

     On June 21, Mark Rivest gave his fifty-fifth Toastmasters speech to win the highest award in the communications track of Toastmasters: Advanced Toastmaster (ATM) Gold.  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 joined our club in 1993, and has served as its Sergeant at Arms, Vice President of Membership, Vice President of Education, and President (in 1996 and 2001).  He was Area Governor of the Year in 1996/1997: the best Area Governor out of twenty-six Area Governors in all of District Five (San Diego and neighboring regions).  He was Division Governor of the Year in 1997/1998 when he was the Northern Division Governor and he served as the District Five Lt. Governor of Marketing in 1998.  The club appreciates Mark's dedication and benefits from his vast experience.

    On June 28, Belle DuCharme completed the tenth speech in the basic manual to win the Competent Toastmaster (CTM) award.  She may have set a
club record in getting there in the amazingly short time of ten months.  Belle is the club Vice President of Membership for the next six months.

    Also on June 28, JoAnne Moran completed the requirements for the Competent Leader (CL) award, showing distinction in club leadership.  By serving as a club officer, attending officer training, earning her CTM, and giving two speeches from the better club (or better speaker) series, she was able to win this distinction.

    June 28 was a big meeting.  Mary Barron gave her icebreaker and let us know she would be leaving Toastmasters for a while because she has "a lot on my plate."  She gave the first interactive icebreaker in club history, eliciting and answering questions from the audience as part of her presentation.  We hope to see her back in the future when things settle down.

     Do you have a success story or other news to share? Send it to the Speak Easy editor: [email protected].

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July 7 (Sat) 8:45 AM Club Officers Training
July 10 (Tue) 6:45 PM Club Officers Training
July 14 (Sat) 8:45 AM Club Officers Training
July 21 (Sat) Off to the Races with Casey
July 22 (Sun) District Five Recognition and Awards and District Officer Installation Luncheon
                    Location: Tom Ham's Lighthouse, 2150 Harbor Island Drive, San Diego, CA 92101
                    Time: 12:30 - 3:30 PM; 12:30 PM registration; 1:00 call to order; 1:10 buffet luncheon; 1:45 awards, installation
                    Cost: $20 if received by July 7, otherwise $23 by July 18.
                    Make check payable to "District Five Toastmasters" and send to Julie Kyker, ATM, District 5 Treasurer, 3214 Beech Street, San Diego, CA 92102
                    Dress: Hawaiian Casual
                    Questions: Marian Prokop, (619) 294-2990 or [email protected]
July 28 (Sat) 8:45 AM Club Officers Training/Toastmasters Institute (TMI)
August 4 (Sat) District Five Tailgate Training and Padres Baseball Game (Padres vs. Cincinnati Reds)
                    3:05 PM Officer training; 4:35 PM Potluck Tailgate; 7:05 PM Game Time
                    RSVP by July 22 to Marian Prokop, (619) 294-2990 or [email protected]
                    Cost: $24/person; make check payable to "District Five Toastmasters" and send to Marian Prokop, 4521 Park Blvd. #B, San Diego, CA 92116
August 22-25 International Convention, Anaheim, CA

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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.  I accept stories, news, upcoming events, photos, and more.  You send it, I'll print it (most likely--this is a family outfit).
    Also, if you notice newspaper calendars or "things to do" columns in which I can advertise our club, please let me know about them. Finally, if you see any local newspaper articles or media about Toastmasters, please forward them to me as well.
    At least one member has expressed the desire to see this newsletter also printed out on paper as well as in this electronic version.  There are six main reasons why I prefer electronic over paper newsletters:
    1. The quality is better.  Web-based newsletters can incorporate graphics, animations, and hot links.  Furthermore, having the newsletters on line makes them very easy to correct and update.  This may seem Orwellian to some, as the newsletter could be altered to rewrite history depending on current needs, as Winston Smith did at the Ministry of Truth in George Orwell's 1984.  For practical purposes, this corrective feature means that all those typos, grammatical errors, and other oversights that we miss the first time we can correct later.
    2. It reaches a wider audience.  The world wide web is open to millions of people all over the world.  A press run of two dozen paper newsletters gets read at a meeting and generally thrown away.  Only very rarely would the newsletter actually be passed on to a potential new member.  Of course, that is a critical function.  However, the same purpose can be done even easier by a forwarding email.
    3. It has greater longevity.  A growing archive of newsletter copies are available on-line and will continue to be available, backed up on several members computers and a server.   Only my eye towards preservation (i.e. my pack-rat habits) have preserved older copies of the newsletter in an "old Toastmasters newsletters" file.  You can now access your club newsletter from anywhere in the world that has internet access.
    4. It saves trees.
    5. The hard copy takes a lot of time.  Printing it in a decent format requires a good deal of time laying out all the stories with Microsoft Publisher or other comperable software.  Someday there may be software that allows easy transfer between web and print, or I may learn how to use the software better.  Until then, I have limited time for all this publishing, and would like to stick to one or the other.  I think the web has greater potential, so it is worth going with it.
    6. Computer-based communication is the way of the future.  It's here, it's now, it's hip, baby.  Toastmasters is about communication, and that's what the internet is all about.
    If you have an opinion one way or the other, please let me know.
    Thank you to all the contributors and readers!

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