November South Main Monthly

South Main Monthly Vol. 2 No. 5

South Main Speakers, District 56, Club 8609

November, 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 Vivian Li, Jian Wang Vivek Rajan, Jane Shen Alvin Chenier, Bob Hu Renay Jacob, Jeanne Button *Calendar of Events Nov 4: Fall Picnic Nov 10: District 56 Fall Conference Dec 2: Education Session *New Member Spotlight Helena Zhang Huifang Li Dawn R Anderson * South Main Speakers’ Fall Picnic *Features Champions’ Edge is for You! By Vivek Rajan, CC *Ask the Master What is a Roast & Toast?

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!

– Judy Yan, Editor

President’s Corner Fall Picnic & Membership Drive By Vivek Rajan, CC The surprise picnic for Jeanne and Renay was a great way to start off the month! We had lots of fun roasting and toasting the soon-to-be-wedded couple. Being a longtime member with our club, Renay got the major brunt of the roast. But don't worry Jeanne, we will have enough time to collect some ammo by your first anniversary. So be prepared! :) And thanks to everyone who made the picnic a big success. The enthusiasm that went into organizing this event was just phenomenal! It is truly my pleasure to be a part of such a fabulous team! Such leadership and team work does not go unnoticed. Among the many nominees in our Toastmasters' district, Vivian Li was selected to receive the Outstanding Vice President Public Relations award! Way to go, Vivian! We deeply appreciate your dedication and commitment to our club. You are not only a role model to all our club officers but also to all our members. The membership building contest, led by Jian Wang, is in full flow and the prizes for the contest are very exciting. The 1st prize is two tickets to the Houston Symphony's Very Merry Pops concert, the 2nd prize is two tickets to the Radio Music Theater, and 3rd prize is a Toastmaster t-shirt. So invite more guests, get them to join, and win these exciting prizes!

Anniversaries & Milestones •

Congratulations to Vivian Li for receiving the Outstanding Vice President Public Relations award for the January - June 2007 officer term!

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Congratulations to Jian Wang, who celebrates his first year anniversary with South Main Speakers!

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Congratulations to the following newly elected officers for January-June 2008: Vivian Li, President Jian Wang, VP Education Vivek Rajan, VP Public Relations Jane Shen, VP Membership Mary Teng, Treasurer Huifang Li, Secretary Alvin Chenier, Sergeant-at-Arms

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Congratulations to Renay Jacob and Jeanne Button on getting married this month!

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Happy Birthday to Bob Hu and Jeanne Button!

November 4 Fall Picnic & Club Officer Elections

November 10 District 56 Fall Conference

December 2 Education Session on Table Topics by Archie Faye Webster, an Award-winning Speaker

We are South Main Speakers, a local Toastmasters club located on South Main Street. It is a part of Toastmasters International, a nonprofit organization that helps people develop communication and leadership skills. South Main Speakers was interviewed by Houston Chronicle four years ago in recognizing its effort in helping local Chinese speakers improve their communication skills. Today the club has grown tremendously and set itself apart as a unique and culturally diversified group. The club has members from all over the world including U.S., China, South Main Monthly 2

France, India, Russia, Philippine, Iran, and Turkey. It has become such a unique venue to learn how to be sensitive to cultural differences and develop cross-cultural communication skills. The recent surge in membership has shown its increasing popularity among both native and non-native English speakers in the Houston area. The South Main Speakers club is a well-organized, friendly and fun group. The club hosts various education and social events throughout the year. Here are some recent events on the calendar: December 2 – Education Session: Learn from an award-winning speaker on how to give a Table Topics speech November 4 – Fall picnic with families & friends followed by a Roast & Toast in Hermann Park October 28 – Education Session: Learn from speech masters August 19 – Humorous Speech and Table Topics Contest: Learning, practicing & competing while having fun August 5 – Special Education Session: Best speech tips With its exemplary leadership and dedication, the South Main Speakers club has received the President’s Distinguished Club Award for the 4th year in a row. President's Distinguished Club is the highest award any Toastmasters club can attain, and it speaks to the strength of the club. You can find more information about the club by visiting its website: http://groups.msn.com/southmainspeakers/

New Member Spotlight

South

Main Speakers Toastmasters Club added another 3 new members this month, reaching a total of 41 active members! Please join me to welcome our newest members, Helena Zhang, Huifang Li, and Dawn R Anderson!

“Hello, my name is Sui Teng Aseltine, but close friends known me as Mary. I just accomplished my bachelor’s degree in Finance. Now I am looking forward to testing my learned skill in the real world. I do enjoy simple fun in life, like playing sports, jigsaw puzzle and hanging out with my dogs. My objective of joining the Toastmasters is to overcome my speech fright and make a quicker response.” – Mary Teng (joined last month)

“I am a PhD student in Applied Mathematics at the University of Houston. Having been in United States for 3 years, I heard of the Toastmasters club a long time ago. So when my friend Lu Yao talked about how great South Main Speaker is, I didn't hesitate to visit. I found it’s just the kind of club I was looking for - friendly, relaxing, and dedicated to learning. With so many people having the same goal, I am sure I will achieve my aim to be an influential speaker sooner.” – Huifang Li South Main Monthly 3

South Main Speakers’ Fall Picnic It’s that time of the year again! On Nov 4, South Main Speakers gathered at Hermann Park to celebrate its annual fall picnic in a friends & family style. Food was delicious with a mix of Texas BBQ and international flavors, weather was ordered, speeches were excellent, games were fun and creative, and most of all, everyone had a good time. This year, the fall picnic had a wellplanned hidden theme -a surprise Roast & Toast for a special club-made couple, Renay and Jeanne who are getting married in November. The roast and toast turned out to be a great fun. Celebrated in part of the Chinese tradition, the couple accepted a red envelope along with best wishes from the club.

Art roasting Renay

Special thanks to our dedicated organizers of the event: Erika, Alvin, Judy, Jian, Jane, Vivian, and Vivek. Photos courtesy of Vivian. For more pictures, log on http://groups.msn.com/SouthMainSpeake rs/shoebox.msnw

Crowned roastees

An unsuspecting victim of the picnic roast

Picnicking in style, courtesy of Alvin South Main Monthly 4

Games with Erika: gotta get to that donut!

Water gun game

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Champions’ Edge is for You! By Vivek Rajan , CC1

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I recently joined the Champions’ Edge program after hearing Michael Plaks rave about it. I was a little skeptical about joining at first as I had already listened to a lot of audio material from these world champs, and I had my doubts if this program would offer anything really new. I was wrong. After two months of listening to the program, I should say that the content of the program is really topnotch quality with valuable suggestions and practical tips to become a better speaker! Champions’ Edge is a program that is designed by five world champions of public speaking plus the hall of fame speaker - Patricia Fripp. The highlight of the program is the excellent 10-15 minute weekly audio program put together by a one of the world champs. To name a few things that I learnt from the program are great ways to open a presentation, qualities of an effective speaker, and building a rapport with your audience before your presentation. You might think that you already know all these aspects of speaking by reading books and toastmaster manuals. While that’s a good start, the contents of these audio programs provide specific ways to improve your skills in a very practical manner! Moreover, this weekly audio program is not limited to the viewpoints of the champions. They also interview other renowned speakers, and in doing so, the ideas and views of how to become a better speaker is vastly widened! The other major attraction of the program is the monthly world-wide “Ask-theChamps” conference call with the champions. This conference call is based on a theme, and you can ask the champs questions related to the theme and get live coaching from them. Besides listening in

CC – Competent Communicator

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to the one of the conference calls, I haven’t really taken advantage of this, but I fully intend to in the future. While the content of the program is outstanding, the media through which it’s made available is not the very best. The weekly audio programs are made available through online audio postcards and they don’t have a fast-forward or a rewind button! I would rather prefer it made available as podcasts, so I can listen to it on my iPod while driving to work. In their defense, they do make the content available on a monthly audio CD, but you have to wait for a month to get the CD. Also, their website is a little hard to navigate around to find what you are looking for. These are a few minor issues with the program, but they aren’t issues that you can’t live with. I think this program is well worth $29.95/month as you are receiving the insights of the world’s best speakers! If you sign up, I can guarantee that you won’t be disappointed!

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Dear Master, I am invited to a Roast & Toast but I have no clue what it is. Could you explain it to me? —Special Occasion Dear Special Occasion2, You may know what a toast is, but do you know whenever you raise your glass and drink a toast, you are participating in a custom that dates back to the times when citizens of ancient Rome and Greece drank to honor their gods? The concept of the “toast”, in fact, originated with the Romans who were accustomed to browning their bread in the fire. When the bread became too hard to chew, it was placed at the bottom of win kegs and tankards to collect sediments. The “toast” concept eventually expanded to include the drink in which the bread had been soaked and even the person in whose honor the drink was about to be consumed. Toasts generally make reference to the occasion and/or to the person being honored and offer some thought or perspective on the occasion. The nicest toasts are the ones personalized by the giver. Such toasts often include personal stories about the recipient or the occasion. The word “roast” implies that heat is being applied to someone. That someone is being “cooked” or embarrassed in some way. Actually a roast can be considered a positive recognition, in which an individual and his/her achievements are honored. Anyone who

Ask the Master 2

Modified based on the Toastmasters advanced communication manual

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is honored in such a way is said to have been "roasted". A roast relies on wit, humor and satire to convey the message. A typical roast consists of jokes and anecdotes about the honored person. The jokes and anecdotes are good natured, not mean-spirited. They may not even be true but they are funny. And, best of all, at the end of the roast the recipient is given an opportunity to respond. The honored person must be willing to participate and capable of handling the verbal abuse with grace and cheerfulness. All other participants must know the person well enough, or the roast simply won’t be funny. When preparing a roast or a toast, remember it is a speech. So prepare it with what you have learned about public speaking skills in Toastmasters. For more information about how to prepare a roast and a toast, you can read the Toastmasters advanced communication manual on Special Occasion Speeches.

Cheers!

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