Sap Toastmasters

SAP Toastmasters D I S T R I C T

DISTRICT 4 SOCIAL MEDIA:

A R E A

INSIDE THIS ISSUE: 1

C 3 ,

C L U B

5 9 6 0 6 9

N O V .

2 0 0 9

“Can You Tell a Good Story?” - A Testimonial by David Brutman

Facebook Linked In Twitter YouTube

“Can You Tell a Good Story?” A Testimonial

4 ,

“You have an impressive resume with all the ingredients to be accepted to this honored institute, but do you know how to tell a good story?” thought the admissions officer for one of the top-ranked business schools in the country. He saw many excellent resumes, but beyond the academics, social service, hobbies, etc., he wondered: do these

people have the most basic, yet crucial, skill - to communicate in a clear, interesting and inspiring way? A friend told me this story which to me encapsulates the essence of Toastmasters. I joined Toastmasters as I believe that many aspects of success depend on communication skills. I have witnessed, on many different occasions, how miscommunication between parties leads to negative outcomes. I was impressed by the professional, comprehensive and unique techniques taught by Toastmasters to address the topic of communication. I also became instantly comfortable with the members of the SAP Toastmasters club. It is the perfect place to improve your speaking skills with solid guidance and true role models in a very supportive environment.

I thought I would find Toastmasters useful in my professional life. However, recently I used my skills in a very special speaking opportunity. I volunteered to make a presentation at my son’s class about a famous composer. I thought about the audience and simplified the topic for their level, structured the session to make it easy to follow, started with a story to get the kids’ attention and had plenty of visual aids. The kids responded very well, were highly engaged, learned a lot and seemed to have fun. I believe that the tools of Toastmasters and the effective preparation were the main reasons for the success of this presentation. I am looking forward to getting more experience in Toastmasters as well as finding new ways in my professional and personal life to use these skills. I want to answer the question: ” .. but can you tell a good story?” with a solid answer: “Yes”.

Division ‘C’ Con- 1 test—A Report Member News

2

Club Calendar

2

Club Information

2

Division ‘C’ Contest— A Report By Donna “DJ” Vigil, CC, CL

Over 100 Toastmasters and guests attended a very well organized Division C Fall Speech Contest on Friday, October 23rd. The event was hosted by the Area C5 club Securely Speaking in VeriSign’s Mountain View headquarters. It featured enticing raffle prizes, excellent Indian food and entertaining evaluations and humorous speeches. District 4 Governor, Henry Miller (DTM) was the contest’s guest of honor; SAP Toastmasters may

remember Henry as a guest at the club’s summer DCP celebration. From ProToasties Toastmasters in Foster City, Pat Obuchowski, a certified life and professional coach, gave a rousing test speech for the evaluation contest on the importance of “Playing Your Bigger Game”. While there were no members of SAP Toastmasters competing in the contest, several members had key contest roles. Bill Copeland (ACS and Area C3 Gov-

Bill Copeland, member, SAP Toastmasters Club and C3 Area Governor, opens the Div. C contest (Photo: Courtesy Robert Tang, District 4 Photographer & Videographer)

ernor) was the SAA who got the contest started and kept things

under control – Toastmasters can be a rowdy bunch on a Friday night! Donna “DJ” Vigil (CC, CL and club President) was a gracious, smooth (and modest) Evaluation Contest Toastmaster. At her 4th Division Contest of the season, Birgit Starmanns (ACB, ALB and District PR Officer) helped present awards to the contest winners. John Mackey filled the important role as one of the contest judges. The contest winners were both from Lee Emerson Bassett Club in Palo Alto - David Kohls (Evaluation Contest) and Sean Arthur (Humorous Contest). Pallavi Padala of

Toasters R Us came in second place in the Evaluation Contest which took place exactly one month before the due date of her first child. Gopinath “Gopi” Neelambaran Kallayil, a past guest speaker at SAP Toastmasters and member of the “I am Feeling Chatty” club, was the second place winner of the Humorous Contest. Contestants from sister clubs in Area C3 took third place in the evaluation (Brett Cottle, HP Hilltop Toastmasters) and humorous (Dennis Hussey, Electric Toasters) contests. Club members are strongly encouraged to see the winners

Birgit Starmanns, member, SAP Toastmasters Club & District PR Officer, with the Evaluation Contest winner, David Kohls ((Photo: Courtesy Robert Tang, District 4 Photographer & Videographer)

of the Division C Contest

move on to compete in the District Contest in Santa Clara on November 20th and 21st. Details on this event can be found at http://www.d4tm.org/.

Member News Have an idea for a contribution? Send it to us, this is YOUR newsletter!

Two new members joined SAP Toastmasters in October: Devendra Saxena and Alin Jula. Welcome to the team, Devendra and Alin! A letter from our member Birgit Starmanns appeared in the “Letters to the Editor” section of this month’s issue of Toastmaster magazine. Well done, Birgit!

Nov. 11: Joint Meeting w/ VMWare’s Virtual Speak Club — This meeting will be

more information.

held at the VMWare campus. Contact Rahul Kabra for more information.

Dec. 09: Joint Meeting with EPRI’s Electric Toasters — This meeting will

Club Calendar

be held at the VMWare campus. Contact Rahul Kabra for

Club Information Toastmasters International http://www.toastmasters.org

Officers

Newsletter Editor:

District 4 http://www.d4tm.org

President: Donna “DJ” Vigil, CC, CL

Amitabh Mishra, ACS [email protected]

SAP Toastmasters

VP Membership: Sri Govindarajan

Newsletter Committee:

http://saptm.freetoasthost.net

VP PR: Amitabh Mishra, ACS

Club Meetings

Secretary: Mohini Wettasinghe, CC

Wednesdays, 12:00-1:00 pm

Treasurer: Mario Herger, ACB

Niyati Bedekar Birgit Starmanns, ACB, ALB Donna (DJ) Vigil, CC

SAP, Building 2

Sergeant-at-Arms: Fariya Ali

3412 Hillview Avenue

Video Officer (honorary role): Ingo Sauerzapf

Room: Lombard (2nd floor) Palo Alto, CA 94304

VP Education: Rahul Kabra, CC

Page 1 photos: David Brutman, Robert Tang Page II photos: Robert Tang, Birgit Starmanns