June 2007

South Main Monthly Vol. 1 No. 6

South Main Speakers, District 56, Club 8609

June 2007

The mission of the Toastmasters club 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.

IN THIS ISSUE: *President's Corner *Anniversaries and Milestones Art Casiraghi Grace Hu Bob Hu Jian Shen *Calendar of Events Toastmasters Leadership Institute Chance to Hear Jim Hamilton Region III Conference *Note from the Editor *New Officers July-December 2007 *New Member Spotlight Raghuram Arakalgud *Features “South Main Spring Picnic” “Toastmasters Picnic: Wow!” by Mark F. Smith “My Favorite Newspaper" by Jian Wang “My Top Five Memories…” by Renay Jacob *Ask the Master Is there any Toastmasters etiquette?

The South Main Monthly is a monthly publication of the South Main Speakers Toastmasters club. We meet every Sunday at 1:30 p.m. in 10305 South Main Street (Houston Chinese Church), Room 411. For more information, please visit our website at: http://groups.msn.com/southmainspeakers

President’s Corner Membership, Educational Awards and Leadership! By Annie M. Ballatore, CTM Can you believe it? It's almost the end of the Toastmasters year! Let's see where we stand. We have a vibrant club with twenty-five active members and we are still growing. If we enroll five more members by the end of June, we will be eligible for the Beat the Clock Award. Let's invite a few friends, inspire them to become members and voilà! Our membership base grows, we decorate our banner with another beautiful ribbon and we reap the benefits of having new members who will bring fresh ideas, exciting topics and intriguing stories to our meetings. Our club members have worked hard to achieve their educational goals. We are already distinguished and we are aiming to be 10 out of 10 by the end of June. Congratulations to everyone! A big thank you to the officers who have served during the past six months; you are a wonderful team, working hard toward the success of our club. Congratulations to the incoming officers! You are starting on a challenging and rewarding leadership journey. Let's all pledge our support to the new leadership team and our contribution to our club's continuing success. Together we will ensure that the South Main Speakers Club continues to be the best club in Houston!

Anniversaries & Milestones

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Congratulations to Art Casiraghi, DTM, Grace Hu, ATM-B, Robert Hu, ATM-B, who celebrate their 11th-year anniversary with South Main Speakers this month! Congratulations to Jian Shen, who celebrates her first year anniversary with South Main this month!

Note from the Editor As this Toastmasters term closes, I would like to thank all of the readers and contributors to the South Main Monthly. Truly, without you, this newsletter would not have been possible. Special thanks to Renay Jacob, who generously contributed to every issue without fail, and Annie Ballatore, who helped set the tone each month with her wonderful president’s messages. Please welcome the dedicated new editor, Judy Yan, and continue contributing and reading! :) Vivian Li

Saturday, June 2: Toastmasters Leadership Institute Kudos to our new officers for the July-December 2007 term, because ALL of them attended the officer training (TLI) on Saturday! Their strong commitment to the club ensures another great year at South Main Speakers! Sunday, June 3: Jim Hamilton Jim Hamilton, who will represent District 56 at the upcoming International Speech Contest at the Region III Conference, will be giving his speech at the Master Evaluators TM meeting at 4 p.m. at Amazon Grill Westchase (9600 Westheimer, Entrance on Gessner, Houston, Texas 77063, Ph: 713.933.0980) Come out to support our district representative and get a chance to hear his great speech! June 8-9: Celebrate America, Texas Style! The 2007 Region III Conference will be held in Irving, TX. Come for awesome educational sessions, networking on a regional scale, the International Speech Contest, and much more! Visit http://www.txtoastmasters.org for more details.

Welcome New Officers for July-December 2007!

President Vivek Rajan

VP-Education Vivian Li

VP-Membership Jian Wang

VP-PR Judy Yan

Secretary Trevor Gor

Treasurer Jian Jane Shen

Sergeant-at-Arms Ranjith Poduval

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New Member Spotlight My name is Raghuram Arakalgud. Well, honestly, many people find it difficult to say my name, so to keep it short it's Raghu :). I was born & brought up in Bangalore, India. After completing engineering, I joined the software industry. Right now I'm working for Sysco Food Corp. My work is implementing & supporting the supply chain order management package for Sysco. Houston is my first city in the U.S. .

South Main Speakers’ Annual

Spring Picnic On May 20th, South Main Speakers went to its favorite outdoor stomping grounds at Hermann Park’s Bayou Parkland Pavilion to celebrate its annual spring picnic. Much delicious food was consumed, excellent speeches were heard, fun games were played, and many new friends were made! Our fearless Toastmaster for the picnic, Jian

Dig in! (Renay, Wei, Raghu, Gary, Brian and Jane) Ranjith trying to figure out the game

Bob making room for seconds Smile!

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Toastmasters Picnic: Wow! by Mark F. Smith, ATM-G/CL At Dancing Toastmasters (a unique advanced club with food, talks, and dancing), I was invited to the South Main Picnic. I did not know what to expect. Food, talks: strange. Actually it was more than that. Everyone was very friendly, cordial, and professional. The food and variety was outstanding. All three speakers (Renay, Vivian, and Judy) were fabulous. The enthusiasm of the table topics and evaluations kept everyone interested. After the meeting, I was amused by the energetic table tennis running game. Some toastmasters had a certain advantage. I plan to come back for more fun and enjoyment!

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My Favorite Newspaper by Jian Wang, CTM

Back to 3 years ago, I attended a seminar given by a lawyer about how he practiced to improve his writing skills. He mentioned the newspaper the New York Times. He believed that the articles in the New York Times were very well written. He usually read an editorial first. Then he would try to replicate the story in the editorial in his own words. By comparing what he wrote with the editorial, he identified the differences and learned ways to improve his written skills. Being an international student spending most of my earlier life in China, I also felt the tremendous need to improve my English, including the written aspect. Therefore, this story intrigued my interest in checking out the New York Times to see how well the articles in this newspaper are written. Initially I thought I might need to pay a subscription fee in order to access the newspaper. After I checked out its website, http://www.nytimes.com, however, I was surprised to see that the subscription is completely free. All you need to do is to complete a simple registration and you’ll have access to all of the articles. The free access was a big bonus considering I was still a graduate student. As I gradually read more and more articles in the New York Times, I started to like its writing styles, which are both easy to read and rich in word usage. I’ve compared its writing with other newspapers and I do believe the articles in the New York Times are much better written. I did not follow the experience of that lawyer to mimic writing

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the editorials. Instead, I wrote down the words that I am unfamiliar with into my learning word list. What has helped me very much to learn these new words is an online utility of the newspaper that provides you with each word’s dictionary entry by simply double-clicking on that word. This has helped me tremendously to expand my vocabulary and also has improved my reading skills. What’s more, I found I was really attracted by the variety of stories it tells. Depending on your interest, you can find the articles that fit into your favorite categories very easily on the website. You can learn of all of the latest news development in the nation and in the world. If you are interested in politics, you can find every new development happening in the White House or in Congress. If you are interested in business, you can learn of the latest business development. If you are a sports fan, you can easily follow the latest scores on basketball, baseball, tennis and etc. You can almost find anything you are interested in the classifieds. Not only does the New York Times provide you with news developments, it also contains some educational series, such as cancer prevention and healthy diet tips. Those educational articles about science and technology are written in such a way that not only people who are not in the field can easily understand them, but specialists such as scientists and engineers are not bored. As a matter of fact, I have used those stories as the source of my prepared speeches at South Main Toastmasters. Besides those educational series on science and technology, it also provides articles in other areas such as finance and entrepreneurship.

have been reading the New York Times for almost 3 years. Although I did not really follow what he did to mimic writing the editorial, I have found my own ways to significantly expand my English vocabulary and also improve my reading skills. This is the most useful English newspaper I have ever read. It is so friendly to those people who are still learning English. Its stories cover such a wide variety that I am sure you will find the areas you are interested in. What’s more, it’s completely free. Given these benefits, why not give it a try? It’s available online at: http://www.nytimes.com. ************

My Top 5 Memories from My Recent Trip to Paris and Amsterdam (in no particular order) by Renay Jacob, ATM-B

1. Biking in the gardens at Versailles for only 6 Euros and getting away from the crowds.

Since I attended that seminar given by the lawyer about improving writing skills, I

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2. Biking in Amsterdam’s Vondelpark (twice) and drinking cappuccino.

5. Not paying 11 Euros to climb the Eiffel Tower but choosing the hill at the Sacre Coeur Basilica (free) for a panorama of Paris. (Paris is hazy like New York City.)

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3. Allowing ourselves to get lost in the city and almost falling into the bay to eventually find the most idyllic modern-day apartments in Amsterdam.

Ask the Master Dear Master,

4. Arriving at the train station at Paris to find the train service to the airport had been suspended, catching a local bus, and making it to the airport with only 5 minutes remaining for check-in.

I notice that lately at some meetings, we forget to applause and I myself am not sure about other etiquette conventions we as the audience or speaker should follow. Can you give me any guidelines? —Miss Manners

Dear Miss Manners, A revered veteran lecturer once told me, “As a speaker you must be responsible to your audience, but you needn’t be responsible for your audience.” As the speaker, you have an obligation to be on time, to be prepared and to deliver to this audience what you

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promised to deliver. That’s your responsibility to them. However, the audience also has a responsibility to the speaker. At one speakers’ convention, the keynoter began by saying, “We have 1,500 speakers gathered here this year. I hope we have a few listeners too.” As an orator who respects the audience, you should also be a listener who respects the person on the podium. Following are a few rules of decorum that speakers and listeners should follow in Toastmasters and beyond: Opening and Closing a Speech Properly After you are introduced and have taken control of the lectern, thank the person who introduced you. Then, before you begin speaking, address the audience, such as with "Fellow Toastmasters and Honored Guests…" When you have finished speaking, call on the person who is taking control of the lectern, such as "Mister Toastmaster," "Madam President," "Mister Table Topics Master," etc. And remember to shake his/her hand!

lectern until someone has “tagged” you with a handshake. Step back from the lectern to allow the approaching person to step in front of you. This doesn’t mean that you can’t move away from the lectern while you are in control. Many speakers set the lectern aside while they are “performing.” When finished, however, stay put until the next person to resume control arrives and shakes your hand. Don’t Lean on the Lectern The lectern is there to hold your notes. Period. Lead the Applause When you are at the lectern to introduce someone or to return control of the meeting to someone else, lead the applause as that person comes to the lectern. EVERYBODY should applause a speaker as he or she is coming up to the lectern to speak.

Never Leave the Lectern Unattended In comedy skits (like Saturday Night Live), sometimes the camera opens on “the naked lectern.” It stands alone. There is no person behind it. It just looks...silly. Why? It sends the message that no one is in control. Many people do not recognize good lectern etiquette--consciously, that is. However, when it is absent, the unconscious message conveyed is a lack of professionalism and control. When lectern etiquette is present, the opposite is conveyed. Stay at the lectern until the person you call arrives and shakes your hand. Think of it as playing “tag.” You don’t move from the

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