Editorial

This week I was scheduled to give an editorial talk and timing of this coincided with something that was very personal, near and dear to me. Here is what I spoke about: " The news of the Wisconsin Gurdwara (Sikh Temple) massacre has captured the attention of the local and international media and rightfully so. The notion that a gunman, let alone a reputed white supremacist, would have the audacity to walk into a house of worship and murder innocent people simply boogles the mind. In the days and weeks to follow many questions will no doubt be raised key among them, who was this gunman? What were his motivations? Did he act alone? All of these questions will of course no doubt be answered in time as law enforcement begins the methodic and painstaking task of investigating this heinous crime. What remains to been seen however is what will the response of our elected officials and communities throughout America be? There will no doubt be countless vigils, remembrances and calls for action. But until and unless this country and it's elected leadership take a firm stand and take concrete steps to root out hate in all it's forms, then this tragedy will have simply become just another footnote in the long history of gun violence in our country. While many great strides have been made post 9/11, more most be done. Schools must adopt lesson plans that incorporate accurate and meaningful depictions of Sikhs and Sikhism, media must do a better job at educating the broader public and not reinforce negative stereotypes. Lastly government officials must begin to do more than issue empty proclamations of support for the community. Our leaders need to ensure that census figures reflect religious diversity so that policy makers can make informed choices of where to direct resources. Finally our federal law enforcement officials must begin to track hate and bias motivated attacks against the Sikh Community instead of lumping us together with Muslims and Arabs. How can one expect to identify solutions, when there is no meaningful way to identify the problem? Hopefully the tragedy of Oak Creek will help bring about the changes that are long overdue. The sooner the better. The country and indeed the world, cannot simply afford to wait. " Upon delivering this I received very good feedback on how I could improve myself. I noticed the importance of rehearsing as well, you only get one chance on television!!!

Maile Collmer 7/17/12 speech

From Maile Collmer 7/17/12 One of the benefits of being in this Toastmasters’ group is that I can practice speaking on topics for my business. This week I spoke on Social Capital as it relates to Networking. I will be speaking about Networking at two chamber events this week so this was a great exercise in working out some of my topic ideas. Because I was working on completing my Competent Communication Award in Toastmasters, I formatted my speech to fit my last speech in that manual. Toastmasters is great at giving you many different ways to structure a speech, different aspects to work on your speaking skills, and a variety of strategies I might not thought of otherwise. I left this one for last, “Research Your Topic”. It was number seven out of ten. The cool thing is you don’t have to do the speeches in perfect order. With this speech I completed my Competent Communication Certificate, yay! Next I will be working on speeches from the Persuasive Speaking and Professional Speaker advanced manuals. Stay tuned!

Fate, Hope, and Love

A little over a year ago I wrote an original story for a project out of the “Entertaining Speaker” manual. I spent so much time on the writing of it that my speech date arrived before I had time to memorize and rehearse it. I ended up reading a lot of it and going over my time limit. However, the feedback on the little hand-written notes contained much praise for the story itself, along with strong encouragement to try it again when I’ve had time to prepare and rehearse the presentation.


That is what I did for today’s speech. I had it memorized, well-rehearsed, and I had the timing down. My evaluator poured on the kudos and noted that the audience was riveted. The little feedback notes confirmed this. I was so happy to be able to do the story justice. The main lesson here is that you can re-work and re-use any of your earlier projects, especially when you feel you weren’t quite finished with it, didn’t deliver it as you had wished, or didn’t have enough time to say all that you wanted to say. When you’re finally happy with it you can keep it in your portfolio of “back pocket” speeches, ready to deliver it whenever the need arises. Jim Morphy, Member Early Word Toastmasters

Project Planning!

This week I spoke about project planning at our Toastmaster meeting. The fun part is that I spoke off the cuff!!! I was thinking about it for a couple of minutes into the meeting and spoke for 5-7 minutes and got great feedback as well. The thing that I am happy about is that I remember the first time I spoke at Toastmasters, I could not peel my eyes off of the paper I was reading from... and a year and half later I collect my thoughts and am able to give a speech that is well received by an audience! This is the charm of being here every week. Gurpreet TM member at Early Words

Patriotic Duty

Today I had the honor of asking our club members to assist in getting 6 members in 12 days so we can get our Distinguished Club Award. I look forward to our members rallying together to reach this goal. If you have ever considered joining Toastmasters now is the time. Contact me a Gary@lwadvice.com if you are considering joining. You have until the 29th to take advantage of a special offer. Gary

LIving the Dream? or Feeding the Addiction?

What is golf? A hobby? A passion? or an Addiction? You be the judge:

Ken Smith's "Show What You Mean to Say"

Ken Smith presented the Toastmaster Better Speaking Series module "Body Language" at the May 29th 2012 meeting of Early Words Toastmasters.