Club meeting turned into area award ceremony

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Tradition of Excellence
RDU Toastmasters continues its strong tradition of developing club members into leaders for Toastmasters International beyond the club level. Part of that tradition is using that achievement and experience to motivate and inspire members in the home club at RDU Toastmasters. One example is the meeting on Dec-15, 2009 which featured an award ceremony for the President Distinguished Area Award presented to Sue Breitsprecher, RDU Toastmasters Member, Toastmasters District 37, Area 52 Governor. Success continues to breed success at RDU Toastmasters, and represented areas.

Award presented by Kimberly Langley, RDU Toastmasters Member, Toastmasters District 37, Division E Governor

Comments from Sue in accepting award

“I enjoyed being an Area Governor for the 2008-2009 Toastmasters year. I learned a lot about the different clubs and met many interesting people while serving in that role. I organized Speech Contests and watched a number of superb Toastmasters compete in the Humorous and International Speech contests.
One of the requirements of AG is to visit the clubs and make sure they are following the Distinguished Club Plan. Attending other clubs’ meetings helped me learn new ways to conduct meetings and Table Topics that I have shared with our club to add some variety. I hope the things I have learned have not just benefited myself but also helped OUR club to learn and grow. Visiting clubs also gave me insight to ‘club personalities’ which are very unique. Some clubs are more serious, one club I had was funny. It seemed all their members delivered their table topics and speeches with a funny flair even the role of Toastmaster interjects a well timed zing or two.

The people that I met through my role as AG will be friends for a long time and was one of the best aspects of that position. Toastmasters is all about helping others and fellow AG’s and the Division Governor helped with achieve this award. Their support at different times during my service were invaluable to me. Reminds me of a saying that Frank Andrassy often refers to…’You can have everything you want, if you will just help enough other people get what they want.'”

Special thanks to Kevin for bringing in lunch, Jeannie for the chocolate treat, Sylvia’s son for the home-made cookies, Kimberly for presenting the award; and to all members who attended and helped organize the event.

Entertaining Table Topic Ideas to Try

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Contributed by VP of Public Relations, 2009

Table Topics Idea
This week’s Table Topics Idea focuses around Non Verbal Communication. Remember, non-verbal communication is 80% of all communication! Participants are expected to communicate the topic to the audience without speaking actual words. The purpose is to practice and focus on using effective body language, sounds, facial gestures and expressions. Participants will be given an option to speak on an alternative topic.

Instructions
You will be given a topic to express for 1-2 minutes. DO NOT read the topic aloud until you have finished your table topic.

1. Pretend you are Santa on Xmas Eve. Get dressed, ready the sled, and travel all the way down to North Carolina to the first house on your route. Land on the roof and go down the chimney to deliver some VERY large presents, and enjoy the cookies waiting for you.

2. Describe eating a holiday meal consisting of the following:
STEAMING HOT Pumpkin soup
SOFT dinner rolls
UNDER-COOKED turkey breast
SALTY Green Beans
SWEET cup cake
STRONG alcoholic beverage

3. Describe opening the following presents on Xmas morning and your reactions:
MEDIUM SOFT BOX wrapped in newspaper contains Socks
TINY BOX that makes no sound when shaking contains an iPod MP3 Player
LARGE COLORFUL BOX that makes loud clanging sounds when shaking contains a Tool Box
ENORMOUS BOX that cannot be lifted contains a 52 inch flat screen Sony Television
CLOTHING BOX that contains a Hot Pink Sweater 3 sizes too large.

4. You have been dropped off at the airport with two LARGE pieces of luggage that you need to check-in, and then catch a flight that you are late for.

5. Describe your morning routine to get ready for work after waking up.

6. Describe what you would be doing on your ideal vacation.

7. Give us a walking tour of your home.

8. You’re on your way home from work, and realize that you have forgotten your significant other’s birthday!!! Describe how you might make things right.

9. Describe waiting in line at the DMV for 4 hours to renew your driver’s license.

10. You are trying to convince a suicidal woman not to jump off a highway over pass onto I-40.

Summary
The session turned out to be a lot of fun; and participants were very animated in conveying each topic. This exercise is great practice for anyone working on non-verbal communication, which is a key part of the overall Toastmasters Education. If you try this exercise in your club, please drop a comment and share your experiences.