Timer: Hoover
Ah Counter: Open
Grammarian: Open
Word of the Day: Open
Humorist/Thought of the Day: Open
Speaker #1: Ryan Hoover, TM
Speaker #2: Open
Speaker #3: Open
Table Topics Master: Open

General Evaluator: Open

Evaluator #1: Open
Evaluator #2: Open
Evaluator #3: Open

Listener: Open

Wednesday, September 21, 2011 @ 11:30 AM

Fall is here so let’s fall in with our “A” game!

TASC Toastmasters will host the 2011 Humorous Speech and Table Topics Speaker Contests at the Independence Center Building, Chantilly, VA.

Join us to be inspired and entertained by some of the best speakers right here in your hometown!

Come out to support your friends and colleagues.  See how much fun we all have and how much we have benefited from the public speaking and leadership lessons offered by our Toastmasters club.

Compete…and Grow
Participating in contests is an exciting way to challenge yourself. While it’s always great to deliver a speech in front of your club, there’s something a little more electric about doing it in a competition. The stakes are higher and the audience knows it, so they’re particularly interested and engaged.

Chairing or competing in a contest is a way for Toastmasters to stretch themselves.

They inspire everyone, including the audience, and compel us to be better leaders and speakers.

We are here every Wednesday from 11:30 – 12:30 at the Independence Center Building, 15036 Conference Center Drive, Rm W1213, Chantilly, VA.

www.tasctoastmasters.org

Contact Us

We welcome your questions about our club and the Toastmasters program in general!  For more information, please contact one of our officers listed below:

• Ryan Hoover,VP Membership – 703.653.5960 or rkhoover@gmail.com
• Dorion Baker, VP Public Relations – 703.449.3258 or dorion.baker@tasc.com

Timer: Open
Ah Counter: Open
Grammarian: Open
Word of the Day: Open
Humorist/Thought of the Day: Open
Speaker #1: Ryan Hoover
Speaker #2: Open
Speaker #3: Open
Table Topics Master: Ryan Hoover, TM

General Evaluator: Dorion Baker, CC

Evaluator #1: Lisa Beatty, CC
Evaluator #2: Open
Evaluator #3: Open

Listener: Open

Timer: Tom Boggess, ACB CL
Ah Counter: Rachel Ayers, CC
Grammarian: Rachel Ayers, CC
Word of the Day: Kim Nussbaum, TM
Humorist/Thought of the Day: Dwight Dopilka, ACB, CL
Speaker #1: Stefanie Wall, TM
Speaker #2: Open
Speaker #3: Open
Table Topics Master: Kim Nussbaum, TM

General Evaluator: Wendy Daunheimer, ACS, CL

Evaluator #1: Dwight Dopilka, ACB, CL
Evaluator #2: Open
Evaluator #3: Open

Listener: Rachel Ayers, CC

Rich, we’re proud of your well deserved accomplishment of making it to District after only six months of membership! We will be proud to cheer you on in future contests!

I hadn’t given much thought to the use of these patterns within my speeches, though I do make an effort to eliminate them in my written communication.  Somehow, during a speech I concentrate more on the message I intend to give and wether it was received than if I split an infinitive in my choice of words.  I read an article this morning on Copyblogger, one of my favorite websites for giving solid advice to and providing inspiration for those of us who strive to communicate better.

The article pointed out several reasons why the grammatical errors listed above might actually be rules that SHOULD be broken on occassion.  How often have you paused in your speech in order to add drama, then started off with a “But” or an “And” to add emphasis?  Do you find yourself crafting expressions during your speech such as “to completely immerse yourself” to grab the interest of your audience?  And how awkward would you find it, as an audience member, if you listened to a Storytelling speech and heard ”into which we all walked” rather than “that we all walked into”?  (And yes, I purposefully did just break a rule in this paragraph, just to try it out – did you notice?).

While all of us ought to be aware of the rules of grammar in order to appear polished when we speak, it is the mark of an expert to be able to discern when to follow a rule and when to break it on purpose.  A good photographer knows the rule of thirds and also knows when breaking that rule will add more dramatic interest to a photo (see this article on http://sixminutes.dlugan.com for fantastic tips on breaking this rule).  A good project manager knows when to follow the initiation to closure methodology during a project and when to break the rules by fast-tracking an effort in order to make quick progress.  And a good speaker ought to know the rules of grammer and when it is adventageous to defy them in order to make an impact.

As far as the question of ignoring your grammarian, my opinion is this: If a speaker already knows they have broken the rule, they should have no problem with having attention called to it.  However, if they are surprised that they unintentionally made a grammer mistake or, worse, are surprised that the rule exists at all … well, that is why we appreciate the role of grammarian in our Toastmasters meetings!

Several members in today’s meeting asked for a copy of the PPT file that Frank used to illustrate his points, and here is a link to the file:  areyoulistless.  I don’t know if you need to be a registered member to access that link or not, so if any of you try it out and discover that you can’t get to it please let me know.

We didn’t have a chance to do table topics today since two of the speeches were advanced speeches and took more time than normal, but we’ll make up for it (hopefully!) next week.  Come join us!  Oh, and we had two new guests visiting us today – Roland and Kimberly.  I can’t remember their last names, but they did sign the guest log and we hope they will return and join!

Have a terrific week!

I hadn’t experienced a backwards meeting before, though I had heard of them, and was surprised to find it so much fun … and challenging!  Those of us who thought we knew our meetings backwards and forwards were surprised, I think, at how getting out of the routine threw us off. 

We also had a guest in our midst, Rich Rosenthal, who is thinking of joining us to earn PMP credit.  Who knows what he thought of all the chaos, but I did invite him to visit us again during one of our regular meetings before he makes his decision. 

We often describe our meetings as a “learning laboratory” environment, and today’s meeting was strong evidence of that!  Sonya and Steve worked on building their evaluation skills, and Phyllise entertained us as General Evaluator by playing the
name game (inside joke for those who attended).