May 2007
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South Main Monthly Vol. 1 No. 5
South Main Speakers, District 56, Club 8609
May 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 Wei Zhang Walter Caro, Biru Yang, Sam Tsen Vivek Rajan *Calendar of Events Education Session: Bill Gove’s Speech Spring Picnic & Officer Elections *Riddle Me This! by Renay Jacob *New Member Spotlight Ranjith Poduval *Features “Nerf Guns and Stress Relief” by Vivek Rajan “My Reflections on a Tall Tale Miracle" by Vivian Li “The Human Mind” by Ranjith Poduval *Ask the Master How do you get through the table topics?
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 If you have any comments, contributions, or suggestions concerning this or future issues, please send them to [email protected]. Thank you for reading! -Vivian Li, Editor
President’s Corner Fun and Games with the South Main Speakers! By Annie M. Ballatore, CTM Are you ready for a wonderful afternoon of great fun? Would you like to participate in the excitement of delicious food, excellent entertainment and fantastic company? Then mark your calendar! On May 20th, in steps with our traditions, we will host our spring picnic in Hermann Park. As always, we will have a stimulating meeting with inspiring speeches, motivating evaluations and a scintillating Table Topics session. Of course, we will have games: a great opportunity to laugh and bond together. Please invite your families, coworkers and friends to this delightful event. As it is also time to pass the baton, the club officer elections will be held at the picnic. Reflecting upon the past year, this thought of William Pollard comes to my mind: "It is the responsibility of leadership to provide opportunity, and the responsibility of individuals to contribute." The opportunity is here for all of you to seize. Please step forward and decide to contribute to the club leadership serving either as a club officer or as a support group for the elected officers. Together you will make your club shine.
Anniversaries & Milestones
May •
Fond farewell to Wei Zhang, who will be leaving to go back to Beijing near the end of the month. Goodbye and good luck!
•
Congratulations to Walter Caro, Biru Yang, CTM, and Sam Tsen, CTM, who celebrate their first year anniversary with South Main Speakers this month!
•
Happy birthday to Vivek Rajan, who will celebrate his birthday this month on the 23rd!
May 6: Education Session on Bill Gove Bill Gove (1912-2001) was known around the world as the father of professional speaking. Mr. Gove was the first President of the National Speakers Association and winner of every major speaking award in the industry, including Toastmaster Internationals Golden Gavel Award. The Golden Gavel Award is given annually at the TM International Convention. It honors a distinguished individual in the fields of communication and leadership. At this meeting we will view Bill Gove's Golden Gavel acceptance speech session followed by a related Table Topics session
Riddle Me This! Contributed by Renay Jacob, ATM-B Think of a five-letter word starting with T. It's plural. Add an S at the end, and you'll get a six-letter word that is also plural. What words are these? The answer can be found at the end.
May 20: Spring Picnic and Officer Elections Come enjoy the nice weather at our annual Spring Picnic from 1-4 p.m. and located at Hermann Park’s Bayou Parkland Pavilion, 6520 Almeda, Houston, TX 77021. Officer elections for the next term will also be held at the picnic, so get more involved by becoming an officer!
South Main Monthly
2
New Member Spotlight Please give a warm welcome to our newest member, Ranjith Poduval! Ranjith gave his ice breaker speech shortly after he joined last month and shared with us his early life in Delhi, then in Texas A&M where he pursued his masters degree in mechanical engineering, and now in Houston working. Ranjith has already proven to be a valued and active member of South Main Speakers!
.
Nerf Guns and Stress Relief by Vivek Rajan
started playing bullseye with the nerf gun. By the way, that is a nice way to take a break. After excessive use of the gun, the stickiness of the bullets started to fade off and the bullets refused to stick to the board. To get the stickiness back, one of my coworkers started licking the tips of the bullets. Yuck! Disgusting! It reminded me of Capt. JR’s speech on “Cold War” a few weeks back.
The package read: "Ages 8 & up." I fit into that category, so I picked up the package from Toys-R-Us. It was a nerf gun with bullets made out of foam, tipped with a rubber dart so that the bullets stuck to smooth surfaces. I bought the nerf gun and took it to work to have some fun, especially since everyone at work seemed a little stressed of late. I kept the nerf gun on my desk, and I would occasionally surprise my colleagues by shooting at them when they entered my office. Though the gun fired at pretty high speeds, it didn’t hurt anyone as the bullets were made out of foam. It was fun!
With increasing popularity of the gun, a colleague bought two more nerf guns. Now with three guns all of us were playing nerf war. Nerf wars were the most entertaining of all the games we played - hiding behind tables, chairs and cabinets to avoid getting killed. The wars didn’t last more than 3 to 4 minutes, and it was just a great way for everyone to release their stress. After all, it doesn’t hurt to go postal with nerf guns!
Soon enough the nerf gun started to get popular, and it attracted more people to come to my office and play with it. We even drew a dart board on the whiteboard and
************
South Main Monthly
3
creativity, and special “magic moments” in all of them.
My Reflections on a Tall Tale Miracle by Vivian Li
It was luck I tell you. Because of a certain President and VP-Education who refused to let me off the hook, I was expected to give a tall tale at our club’s contest in February. What have I got myself into!? Writing a tall tale is hard enough, much less having to deliver it. After racking my brain for days for a tall tale—watching TV, reading the papers, and eating ice-cream for inspiration/procrastination—I finally came up with a tall tale in the nick of time. Since tall tales are always based on a problem that is outrageously solved, I googled for answers to the age-old question: where do all the missing socks go? There were many different answers out there, but one of them caught my eye: Just blame it on the Communists! Communists and disappearing socks. Sounds silly, but I could always do worse. And then the rest is a blur. Somehow I fumbled my way through the club level, then area, then division, and finally last Friday found myself on the stage of district. And at each step I had the pleasure of hearing great speeches given by powerful speakers not only in tall tales, but also in international speeches. There were hilarious speeches, such as one about a shampoo that allows you to time travel, and inspirational speeches, such as one advising people to ‘go get a life.’ And I learned a lot from the passion,
What probably buoyed me all the way was my content. It’s just a fact, tall tales are hard to spin and I luckily spun a pretty good one. And the mismatched socks was a clever touch (Thanks Michael!). I practiced my speech on the drive to work, in the shower, and as I lied in bed to go to sleep till I could give it…well, in my sleep. Once I knew the speech so well, I could refine the plot, the props, and the gestures, and say it without any distracting ums and ahs. I never worked that much on any speech or presentation, and it didn’t get to be a chore as much as I thought, but a joy. Especially at district though, I realized that content doesn’t make the full package. The other tall tale speakers spun their tall tales perfectly, but also animated them superbly with skills we learn just from the basic manual, such as vocal variety and gestures. One speaker gestured grandly using almost the whole stage to paint his picture of a dusty Western town, while another one assumed the voices of her frightened boss and her conniving persona. It was gratifying to see the amazing results of speakers who expand and hone the skills taught in Toastmasters to create rich and memorable speeches. So like I said, it was luck that I got as far as I did. But was it the auspicious alignment of the stars? Or maybe it was my lucky white shirt and black pants that became my speech giving “uniform.” Quite frankly, it could have been a lot of things, but for sure it was the very generous support of my fellow South Main Speakers Toastmasters and the wonderful new people I met along the way who gave a strange girl in need of a new wardrobe warm advice and encouragement. I was also definitely lucky to have this
South Main Monthly
4
opportunity to hear a variety of speeches and to meet the larger Toastmasters family beyond South Main.
I encourage each and every one of you to participate in the contests when the next ones come. You might be pleasantly surprised too, have fun, and will definitely learn a lot from the experience.
************
The Human Mind by Ranjith Poduval Have you ever paused for a minute and wondered what actually distinguishes us from our evolutionary cousins, what prompted us to leave the evolutionary habitats of our predecessors to move out of their innate habitats to greener pastures? Why the human race is so different from any other known species in the known world? The answer to all these questions has to be one—the human mind. It’s not just that we are capable to have superior and inquisitive
thoughts and that we are capable of not just asking the questions, and also finding the answers. But another concept of awareness which distinguishes us from our peers in the animal kingdom is that we are not just capable of thinking, but also are capable of thinking about what we are thinking and recognize if it is wrong and correct it, or in simpler words become aware of it. There is something evolution has built in our brains called consciousness, which is not just external but in a deep sense internal too. We are conscious of not just our surroundings but also our thoughts which is what enables us to label our thoughts as good or bad, and why we can instantly realize if a thought is unethical or wrong. It is this deep rooted algorithm which is called awareness, consciousness, or in some religions human soul. This is a very powerful tool for human development because it enables us to put the spotlight onto ourselves. Many of us who are reading this are here because we " realized " we need to better ourselves in many ways, public speaking being one. Is it not wonderful that we don’t need anyone to point out our flaws because we "know" them somehow and the realization of this natural awesome mechanism can do wonders for personal development. All the answers we are searching for comes from inside of us somewhere when we become aware of this magnificent gift nature has bestowed on us. So if any of you think you are just your thoughts or your personality, think again. You are much more and wake up to this fact. Go deep within, there is infinity there. Amen. ************
South Main Monthly
5
can be challenging, but there is a good deal of pleasure and satisfaction in rising to a challenge and succeeding. Some advice on getting started:
Ask the Master Dear Master, I dread Table Topics. And I don’t think I’m alone. I never felt a minute that lasted so long until I was asked to give my first table topic speech ever in Toastmasters. Do you have any tips on how to ease the table topics jitters and make the butterflies in my stomach fly away with the time? —Table Topics Sufferer
Dear Table Topics, Table topics is a part of the Toastmasters meeting that fills some members, like yourself, with fear; other people come to the meeting just to participate in table topics. Extemporaneous speaking. It happens all day long. Chat at the water cooler. Meet a friend while standing in line. Answer the boss' unexpected question about your project. All of these are just practice for table topics and the beneficiaries of table topic practice. There's nothing to fear from these chance daily discussions and there's nothing to fear from table topics either. Guests are usually given their first exposure to Toastmasters by delivering a table topics speech. Back before I joined Toastmasters and I was visiting a club I occasionally was called on to do table topics. Yes, table topics
1. Smile! It will make you feel good, more confident and more relaxed. It also pleases the audience. 2. Remember the word of the day and use it in the first sentence you say. If you postpone it you may well forget to use it at all. If you use it in the first sentence, even if it's a sentence you planned before you heard the topic, everyone will be so impressed that they will respect the rest of the topic response no matter what you say. And once you have the first sentence out you will have something to build on and momentum to keep you going. 3. If your mind is blank at the beginning of table topics then ask the topic master to repeat the question. Use this time to think of an answer or at least an opening line to two. This will let you appear careful and precise to your audience. 4. If you have nothing to say then say nothing. If you're not done then be silent and think. This will appear to be a dramatic pause. It appears sage as you let your audience digest what you've already said. And it keeps from offending the Ah-Counter, better silence (except in radio) than Ahs! 5. If you need a little more time to think of a reply then greet your audience: "Mr/Ms Topic master, fellow toastmasters, and guests." There, you've politely introduced yourself and bought yourself another 10 seconds to think. Just make sure this is a Toastmasters meeting before
South Main Monthly
6
using the exact wording described, it would not go over well if you are addressing the U.N. General Assembly! 6. Now we're down to the emergency techniques. o If you can't talk about the topic, maybe you can talk about how hard it is to talk about the topic! It's better to address the topic, but if you can't then go off on a tangent: tell a story related to it, describe how it affects you, tell a joke that relates (if you know a clean one that is appropriate to the topic). o You may be able to request a different topic. Some clubs and topic masters (most actually) will have no objection to giving an alternate. Remember they've been on the receiving end of hard topics too. o Finally, if all else fails: Talk about something else. This is to be avoided unless the topic is really impossible. You can just announce that you've decided that you really must address someone else's topic because it is so pertinent to you. Or say you have something important to you that you want tell the group. Some topic masters will threaten to give you the same topic next meeting (so you should work out a response before then, but that gives you plenty of time to work out a response). You might even be able to use this to your advantage: Say that you once failed to respond to a topic,
you've been bothered by it since then, and NOW you want to respond to it. Do not fear the Toastmaster club as an audience. Unlike most audiences, every member has been the speaker at some time, and expects to be again. This is one of the most receptive audiences you can find. Any comments will be constructive advice on how to do better next time.
Answer to riddle: These and Theses
South Main Monthly
7
South Main Speakers, District 56, Club 8609
May 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 Wei Zhang Walter Caro, Biru Yang, Sam Tsen Vivek Rajan *Calendar of Events Education Session: Bill Gove’s Speech Spring Picnic & Officer Elections *Riddle Me This! by Renay Jacob *New Member Spotlight Ranjith Poduval *Features “Nerf Guns and Stress Relief” by Vivek Rajan “My Reflections on a Tall Tale Miracle" by Vivian Li “The Human Mind” by Ranjith Poduval *Ask the Master How do you get through the table topics?
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 If you have any comments, contributions, or suggestions concerning this or future issues, please send them to [email protected]. Thank you for reading! -Vivian Li, Editor
President’s Corner Fun and Games with the South Main Speakers! By Annie M. Ballatore, CTM Are you ready for a wonderful afternoon of great fun? Would you like to participate in the excitement of delicious food, excellent entertainment and fantastic company? Then mark your calendar! On May 20th, in steps with our traditions, we will host our spring picnic in Hermann Park. As always, we will have a stimulating meeting with inspiring speeches, motivating evaluations and a scintillating Table Topics session. Of course, we will have games: a great opportunity to laugh and bond together. Please invite your families, coworkers and friends to this delightful event. As it is also time to pass the baton, the club officer elections will be held at the picnic. Reflecting upon the past year, this thought of William Pollard comes to my mind: "It is the responsibility of leadership to provide opportunity, and the responsibility of individuals to contribute." The opportunity is here for all of you to seize. Please step forward and decide to contribute to the club leadership serving either as a club officer or as a support group for the elected officers. Together you will make your club shine.
Anniversaries & Milestones
May •
Fond farewell to Wei Zhang, who will be leaving to go back to Beijing near the end of the month. Goodbye and good luck!
•
Congratulations to Walter Caro, Biru Yang, CTM, and Sam Tsen, CTM, who celebrate their first year anniversary with South Main Speakers this month!
•
Happy birthday to Vivek Rajan, who will celebrate his birthday this month on the 23rd!
May 6: Education Session on Bill Gove Bill Gove (1912-2001) was known around the world as the father of professional speaking. Mr. Gove was the first President of the National Speakers Association and winner of every major speaking award in the industry, including Toastmaster Internationals Golden Gavel Award. The Golden Gavel Award is given annually at the TM International Convention. It honors a distinguished individual in the fields of communication and leadership. At this meeting we will view Bill Gove's Golden Gavel acceptance speech session followed by a related Table Topics session
Riddle Me This! Contributed by Renay Jacob, ATM-B Think of a five-letter word starting with T. It's plural. Add an S at the end, and you'll get a six-letter word that is also plural. What words are these? The answer can be found at the end.
May 20: Spring Picnic and Officer Elections Come enjoy the nice weather at our annual Spring Picnic from 1-4 p.m. and located at Hermann Park’s Bayou Parkland Pavilion, 6520 Almeda, Houston, TX 77021. Officer elections for the next term will also be held at the picnic, so get more involved by becoming an officer!
South Main Monthly
2
New Member Spotlight Please give a warm welcome to our newest member, Ranjith Poduval! Ranjith gave his ice breaker speech shortly after he joined last month and shared with us his early life in Delhi, then in Texas A&M where he pursued his masters degree in mechanical engineering, and now in Houston working. Ranjith has already proven to be a valued and active member of South Main Speakers!
.
Nerf Guns and Stress Relief by Vivek Rajan
started playing bullseye with the nerf gun. By the way, that is a nice way to take a break. After excessive use of the gun, the stickiness of the bullets started to fade off and the bullets refused to stick to the board. To get the stickiness back, one of my coworkers started licking the tips of the bullets. Yuck! Disgusting! It reminded me of Capt. JR’s speech on “Cold War” a few weeks back.
The package read: "Ages 8 & up." I fit into that category, so I picked up the package from Toys-R-Us. It was a nerf gun with bullets made out of foam, tipped with a rubber dart so that the bullets stuck to smooth surfaces. I bought the nerf gun and took it to work to have some fun, especially since everyone at work seemed a little stressed of late. I kept the nerf gun on my desk, and I would occasionally surprise my colleagues by shooting at them when they entered my office. Though the gun fired at pretty high speeds, it didn’t hurt anyone as the bullets were made out of foam. It was fun!
With increasing popularity of the gun, a colleague bought two more nerf guns. Now with three guns all of us were playing nerf war. Nerf wars were the most entertaining of all the games we played - hiding behind tables, chairs and cabinets to avoid getting killed. The wars didn’t last more than 3 to 4 minutes, and it was just a great way for everyone to release their stress. After all, it doesn’t hurt to go postal with nerf guns!
Soon enough the nerf gun started to get popular, and it attracted more people to come to my office and play with it. We even drew a dart board on the whiteboard and
************
South Main Monthly
3
creativity, and special “magic moments” in all of them.
My Reflections on a Tall Tale Miracle by Vivian Li
It was luck I tell you. Because of a certain President and VP-Education who refused to let me off the hook, I was expected to give a tall tale at our club’s contest in February. What have I got myself into!? Writing a tall tale is hard enough, much less having to deliver it. After racking my brain for days for a tall tale—watching TV, reading the papers, and eating ice-cream for inspiration/procrastination—I finally came up with a tall tale in the nick of time. Since tall tales are always based on a problem that is outrageously solved, I googled for answers to the age-old question: where do all the missing socks go? There were many different answers out there, but one of them caught my eye: Just blame it on the Communists! Communists and disappearing socks. Sounds silly, but I could always do worse. And then the rest is a blur. Somehow I fumbled my way through the club level, then area, then division, and finally last Friday found myself on the stage of district. And at each step I had the pleasure of hearing great speeches given by powerful speakers not only in tall tales, but also in international speeches. There were hilarious speeches, such as one about a shampoo that allows you to time travel, and inspirational speeches, such as one advising people to ‘go get a life.’ And I learned a lot from the passion,
What probably buoyed me all the way was my content. It’s just a fact, tall tales are hard to spin and I luckily spun a pretty good one. And the mismatched socks was a clever touch (Thanks Michael!). I practiced my speech on the drive to work, in the shower, and as I lied in bed to go to sleep till I could give it…well, in my sleep. Once I knew the speech so well, I could refine the plot, the props, and the gestures, and say it without any distracting ums and ahs. I never worked that much on any speech or presentation, and it didn’t get to be a chore as much as I thought, but a joy. Especially at district though, I realized that content doesn’t make the full package. The other tall tale speakers spun their tall tales perfectly, but also animated them superbly with skills we learn just from the basic manual, such as vocal variety and gestures. One speaker gestured grandly using almost the whole stage to paint his picture of a dusty Western town, while another one assumed the voices of her frightened boss and her conniving persona. It was gratifying to see the amazing results of speakers who expand and hone the skills taught in Toastmasters to create rich and memorable speeches. So like I said, it was luck that I got as far as I did. But was it the auspicious alignment of the stars? Or maybe it was my lucky white shirt and black pants that became my speech giving “uniform.” Quite frankly, it could have been a lot of things, but for sure it was the very generous support of my fellow South Main Speakers Toastmasters and the wonderful new people I met along the way who gave a strange girl in need of a new wardrobe warm advice and encouragement. I was also definitely lucky to have this
South Main Monthly
4
opportunity to hear a variety of speeches and to meet the larger Toastmasters family beyond South Main.
I encourage each and every one of you to participate in the contests when the next ones come. You might be pleasantly surprised too, have fun, and will definitely learn a lot from the experience.
************
The Human Mind by Ranjith Poduval Have you ever paused for a minute and wondered what actually distinguishes us from our evolutionary cousins, what prompted us to leave the evolutionary habitats of our predecessors to move out of their innate habitats to greener pastures? Why the human race is so different from any other known species in the known world? The answer to all these questions has to be one—the human mind. It’s not just that we are capable to have superior and inquisitive
thoughts and that we are capable of not just asking the questions, and also finding the answers. But another concept of awareness which distinguishes us from our peers in the animal kingdom is that we are not just capable of thinking, but also are capable of thinking about what we are thinking and recognize if it is wrong and correct it, or in simpler words become aware of it. There is something evolution has built in our brains called consciousness, which is not just external but in a deep sense internal too. We are conscious of not just our surroundings but also our thoughts which is what enables us to label our thoughts as good or bad, and why we can instantly realize if a thought is unethical or wrong. It is this deep rooted algorithm which is called awareness, consciousness, or in some religions human soul. This is a very powerful tool for human development because it enables us to put the spotlight onto ourselves. Many of us who are reading this are here because we " realized " we need to better ourselves in many ways, public speaking being one. Is it not wonderful that we don’t need anyone to point out our flaws because we "know" them somehow and the realization of this natural awesome mechanism can do wonders for personal development. All the answers we are searching for comes from inside of us somewhere when we become aware of this magnificent gift nature has bestowed on us. So if any of you think you are just your thoughts or your personality, think again. You are much more and wake up to this fact. Go deep within, there is infinity there. Amen. ************
South Main Monthly
5
can be challenging, but there is a good deal of pleasure and satisfaction in rising to a challenge and succeeding. Some advice on getting started:
Ask the Master Dear Master, I dread Table Topics. And I don’t think I’m alone. I never felt a minute that lasted so long until I was asked to give my first table topic speech ever in Toastmasters. Do you have any tips on how to ease the table topics jitters and make the butterflies in my stomach fly away with the time? —Table Topics Sufferer
Dear Table Topics, Table topics is a part of the Toastmasters meeting that fills some members, like yourself, with fear; other people come to the meeting just to participate in table topics. Extemporaneous speaking. It happens all day long. Chat at the water cooler. Meet a friend while standing in line. Answer the boss' unexpected question about your project. All of these are just practice for table topics and the beneficiaries of table topic practice. There's nothing to fear from these chance daily discussions and there's nothing to fear from table topics either. Guests are usually given their first exposure to Toastmasters by delivering a table topics speech. Back before I joined Toastmasters and I was visiting a club I occasionally was called on to do table topics. Yes, table topics
1. Smile! It will make you feel good, more confident and more relaxed. It also pleases the audience. 2. Remember the word of the day and use it in the first sentence you say. If you postpone it you may well forget to use it at all. If you use it in the first sentence, even if it's a sentence you planned before you heard the topic, everyone will be so impressed that they will respect the rest of the topic response no matter what you say. And once you have the first sentence out you will have something to build on and momentum to keep you going. 3. If your mind is blank at the beginning of table topics then ask the topic master to repeat the question. Use this time to think of an answer or at least an opening line to two. This will let you appear careful and precise to your audience. 4. If you have nothing to say then say nothing. If you're not done then be silent and think. This will appear to be a dramatic pause. It appears sage as you let your audience digest what you've already said. And it keeps from offending the Ah-Counter, better silence (except in radio) than Ahs! 5. If you need a little more time to think of a reply then greet your audience: "Mr/Ms Topic master, fellow toastmasters, and guests." There, you've politely introduced yourself and bought yourself another 10 seconds to think. Just make sure this is a Toastmasters meeting before
South Main Monthly
6
using the exact wording described, it would not go over well if you are addressing the U.N. General Assembly! 6. Now we're down to the emergency techniques. o If you can't talk about the topic, maybe you can talk about how hard it is to talk about the topic! It's better to address the topic, but if you can't then go off on a tangent: tell a story related to it, describe how it affects you, tell a joke that relates (if you know a clean one that is appropriate to the topic). o You may be able to request a different topic. Some clubs and topic masters (most actually) will have no objection to giving an alternate. Remember they've been on the receiving end of hard topics too. o Finally, if all else fails: Talk about something else. This is to be avoided unless the topic is really impossible. You can just announce that you've decided that you really must address someone else's topic because it is so pertinent to you. Or say you have something important to you that you want tell the group. Some topic masters will threaten to give you the same topic next meeting (so you should work out a response before then, but that gives you plenty of time to work out a response). You might even be able to use this to your advantage: Say that you once failed to respond to a topic,
you've been bothered by it since then, and NOW you want to respond to it. Do not fear the Toastmaster club as an audience. Unlike most audiences, every member has been the speaker at some time, and expects to be again. This is one of the most receptive audiences you can find. Any comments will be constructive advice on how to do better next time.
Answer to riddle: These and Theses
South Main Monthly
7
