What you wouldn’t have seen was the Hannah that I knew several months ago, part of a group of local junior and senior high school students that I was privileged and blessed with leading through the Toastmasters International Youth Leadership Program (YLP)(http://www.toastmasters.org/Members/MemberExperience/SatellitePrograms/YouthLeadership.aspx).

That was a different Hannah – one that seemed unsure about her own quiet voice and not comfortable speaking in public.   Over the course of the 16-week program Hannah discovered her voice and was provided an opportunity to lead  class meetings.  Turns out, not only can Hannah boldly speak about important topics such as injustice and responsibility, but her peers naturally look to her for leadership!

Hannah’s experience is one echoed by students and adults around the world who find the courage to join a Toastmasters International program to help them conquer public speaking fears, and soon discover that the fear has turned into a passion for communicating and leading.

How does this happen?  The YLP curriculum  is  designed to help our young people of today become our leaders for tomorrow.  It is based on the traditional Toastmasters International program for public speaking, a model for discovering and developing communication and leadership skills.  Through the program, Hannah and her classmates learned how to combat nervousness, organize their thoughts into a speech format with an opening/body/ending, make their speech content purposeful and focused, and incorporate gestures and visual aids.   They learned the difference between speaking to inform and speaking to persuade.  They practiced speaking at every meeting (builds innoculation to nervousness), learned to provide effective feedback, spoke  ’impromptu’, and organized and lead class meetings.  This is the same outline of the Toastmasters International club agenda that serves myself and my fellow club members of TASC Toastmasters (#3130).  I would also like to share my appreciation to the Executive Committee of TASC Toastmasters: not only did they encourage my desire to lead a Youth Leadership Program (YLP), but they also backed up that encouragement with the club’s financial support for all class materiatls.  The club’s support led to breakthrough moments for each student in the course! 

If you are a Toastmaster and are passionate about helping prepare our leaders of tomorrow, or are interested in Toastmasters and know some students who would benefit from learning how to speak in public, please consider the Youth Leadership Program.  Like Hannah told us that evening, there is a generation coming up that has much to contribute, a generation of visionaries, leaders, builders and artists, and it is our responsibility to help this new generation ‘find their voice’!

Open House Flyer

Click here to download the flyer

You are invited to join TASC Toastmasters on 2 June 2010 as we host our next Open House.  The event will be held 11:30AM - 12:30PM at the club’s regular meeting location in the Independence Center building (Rm W1213), 15036 Conference Center Drive, Chantilly, Virginia, 20151. 

The agenda includes the presentation and evaluation of prepared speeches by Toastmaster’ members working through the Toastmasters International (TI) curriculum, a challenging round of ‘Tabletopics’ to help participants discover and develop impomptu speaking skills and an explanation of how the world’s largest non-profit communication and leadership development program works.  

Lunch will be served; come spend your lunch time with us to find out how this program can help you meet your personal and professional goals!

For details, please contact Frank DiBartolomeo at 571.522.5037 or frank.dibartolomeojr@tasc.com.

Help us spread the word by posting a flyer! Download it by clicking this link.

Due to Spring Break weeks and other scheduling conflicts, The TASC Exec Comm meeting is postponed from Mon, 5 Apr 10 to Mon, 19 Apr 10. Please review the minutes and action items from the last meeting in Mar 10 and have agenda item inputs proviced to Frank DiBartolomeo NLT Fri, 16 Apr 10.

(The monthly TASC TM Exec Comm meeting is held to provide club officers an opportunity to coordinate club business and is always open to ALL members!)

Thanks to all who attended this week’s 2010 International Speech and Speech Evaluation club contests! We appreciate your support and participation. An announcement of the first place winners:

International Speech Contest 1st Place: Tanya Masiello
Speech Evaluation Contest 1st Place: Frank DiBartolomeo

Congratulations, Tanya and Frank! You can view these results and results from other club contests (i.e. our club winners’ competition at the Area level) by going to our District 27 web page.

The next contest level will be our Area I3 contest next Friday, March 26, down the street at 15000 Conference Center Drive (where we have held previous Area contests). Details can be found here.

Please attend the Area contest and support Tanya and Frank!

International Speech contestants need to have completed six projects from the basic manual (you have this week and next, and you can reuse a previous speech for the contest!) AND be a member in good standing.

Evaluation contestants need only be a member in good standing – everyone in the club is qualified for this contest.

Everything in Toastmasters is designed to help us members gain confidence and skills in communication and leadership, and speech contests are part of that design: participating in a speech contest is a great way throw your skill development into overdrive. Although you will be competing in front of much of the same audience that you see on a weekly basis, the contest is carefully conducted in compliance to an international rule set – this formal environment seems to kick in an effect similar to speaking in front of a larger audience. As you win, you move up the tiers of contest through the organization – each level provides a bigger stage (pun intended) to compete and develop – and further increase your skills.

If you are not planning on competing (we hold two speech contests a year) then please plan on attending. The contest has an agenda and meeting roles – your presence will not only greatly help the Contest Chair (Toastmaster of the Day), but the contestants will really appreciate your support and encouragement. See the related article on our website (http://www.tasctoastmasters.org) for more details!

It seems that there is some early St. Patrick’s Irish magic afoot: our March 17 Open House has been mysteriously turned into a club speech and evaluation contest!

While we investigate this trickery, we are left with no choice but to announce that TASC Toastmasters will host the 2010 Spring International Speech & Evaluation Contest on Wednesday, 17 March 2010, 1130-1300.

Contests are fun, entertaining and provide a friendly competitive environment, and are a significant piece of the Toastmasters educational program for several reasons, including:

• presents an opportunity for speakers to build contest experience;
• provides an informative demonstration to visitors;
• affords members who aren’t participating an opportunity to learn from competitors.

As the title indicates, there are actually two separate contests on the same day:

The event will start at 5:00pm on 22 October 2009 and will be held at 4801 Stonecroft Blvd, Chantilly, Virginia in the Northrop Grumman/TASC Westfields Cafeteria.  Attendees are asked to use the side entrance (flyers will be posted at the main lobby).

The agenda includes experienced speakers, a challenging round of impromptu ‘table topics’ and a multi-club panel of experts to explain the Toastmasters program and club mechanics.

Refreshments (drinks, sandwiches, snacks) will be served at 5:00pm with speeches beginning at 5:30pm.

This is a great opportunity to present the Toastmasters program to the public and for Area members to get to know each other.

To lean more, please contact Wendy Daunheimer at 703.961.8065 or wendydaunheimer@yahoo.com. 

Hope to see you there!

Area I3 Open House Agenda – 22 OCT 2009 – Final

Area I3 Open House Flyer – 22 OCT 2009 – Final

All members are welcome to attend!

Agenda will include current club activities, Distinguished Club Program/Club Success Plan, status of dues, reports from ExComm officers, and other club business.

(Officers, please confirm attendance with Frank prior to the meeting (leave comments here if desired!))

Please congratulate Wendy Daunheimer. She placed first in the Table Topics Contest and second in the Humorous Speech Contest! Wendy will compete in the Division I Table Topics Contest on Sat, 10 Oct 09, 8:30 – 11:30 a.m., 21345 Ridgetop Circle, Dulles VA 20166. Please come out and support Wendy in her quest. With her sterling performance at the Division I-3 Table Topics Contest, she has an excellent chance of taking first place at the Division I Contest.

(From Frank DiBartolomeo, President, TASC Toastmasters)

The occasion of the 10th and final speech from the Competent Communicator (CC) manual can be likened to graduating from college.  Now what is the word used to refer to a college graduation?  It’s “Commencement,” isn’t it.  Commencement means beginning not ending.  Presenting your 10th speech is a call for celebration for sure, but what are you going to do from here.  There is a subtle expectation, but an expectation just the same, when you become a CC, that in addition to giving speeches from the advanced manuals, you will also take on some of the more challenging meeting roles.  One of those roles is TOTD.

In my 19+ years in Toastmasters, I have seen TOTD duties fulfilled in a variety of ways.  However, just as in learning to play basketball you need to learn the fundamentals of how to shoot, dribble and rebound in a certain way rather than performing those parts of the game the way your favorite NBA player does it, there are some simple guidelines you should follow as TOTD.  The watchword is to not get fancy off the bat.  You will get many opportunities to improvise and “spice things up” in your Toastmasters career.  For right now, just knowing the steps to follow will provide you a tremendous “leg up” and a satisfying and fulfilling experience.  So what are the steps to being the TOTD?  Read on.

First, you must realize that time is your best friend and your worst enemy.  If you have time to plan, you will do well.  If left until the last minute, even the most seasoned Toastmaster will be “quaking in their boots” and will have a tough time “pulling off” this meeting role.  So here goes.  Below are the steps that I have used repeatedly over many years.  They work and right now when you are starting out, that is all you need.  Below are the guidelines to prepare for a meeting.

a.  One day before the meeting before you are going to be TOTD, confirm the speakers, evaluators, general evaluator, and table topics master.  So why do you do this at the meeting before your meeting?  There’s a simple answer.  Some of the roles will be vacant and you will need to fill them.   Also, if anyone drops out of a role, you can ask for volunteers at this previous meeting.  There is no faster way to fill roles for your meeting than at the previous meeting.  Inevitably. there will be members at the meeting who are not assigned a role at the meeting where you will be the TOTD.  However, even asking for volunteers at the previous meeting does not assure you all the roles will be filled.  What it does do is greatly increase the chances of the major roles being filled.

b.  So the previous meeting has been held and you still don’t have all the roles filled.  What do you do?  Number one, don’t panic.  You are still way ahead of schedule.  It is time to break out the old TASC Toastmasters contact list with phone numbers and e-mail addresses.  You don’t have one?  Just see any club officer and we will get you one ASAP.  ASAP means the same day, because as the TOTD for the next meeting, you really cannot wait.  Given you have the club contact list, you start contacting others to fill the roles.  Give some thought to this.  If you are missing a Table Topics Master, don’t call someone new in the club.  Call an experienced TASC Toastmaster.  Experienced is defined as anyone in the club who is a CC or possibly someone who has 7 – 9 speeches done.  It is very important you “flesh out” the role lineup before the weekend is out.  The reason this is important is people are hard to find on the weekend.  When Monday comes, you only have two days to finalize everything.  This is not much time.

c.  So you have the lineup set.  You ask yourself, “Is there anything else to do?”  You would be mistaken if you answered “No” to your question.  What you have done so far is the bare minimum.  You have the lineup, but you know nothing about the speakers.  You all have seen emcees introduce speakers.  Some do a fair job.  Others do a poor job.  Very few do a great job.  For speech introduction purposes, there are a few things you should find out about the speakers.  They are:

(1) Speech Information:  (a)  Manual, (b) Project # and Title, (c) Project timing, (d) Project Objectives, (e) Speech Title, and (f) any special things you need to say to set up the speech.  Advanced manual speeches usually require this.

(2) Speaker Background:  (a) speaker’s occupation and who they work for, (b) how long the speaker has been a Toastmaster,  (c) what goals the speaker is working to achieve and how this speech will help them achieve their goals, (d) speaker’s hobbies, and (e) any family information the speaker wishes to share.

d.  So what have you done so far?  You have filled in the lineup, you have a draft agenda, and you have some background information on your speakers.  You are in pretty good shape.  The final preparation steps are to print out 15 – 20 copies of the agenda on Tuesday night and show up to the meeting place at least 10 minutes before the start time.  Before the meeting starts, distribute the agenda at people’s places and be ready to start at the meeting start time exactly.

You have prepared for the meeting and all you need to do right now is to hold the meeting.  There are guidelines during the meeting you need to observe.  First of all, the purpose of the meeting is to highlight the prepared and table topics speakers.  These speakers plus the speech evaluators have exact time constraints on their time.  Everyone else does not.  Be careful that you or someone else does not give a speech or several speeches during the meeting.  It is amazing how we fall in love with the sound of our voice once we get up there and get positive feedback from the audience.  Keep your comments and everyone else’s except the speakers and evaluators to the bare minimum.  This is tough sometimes because you don’t want to cut off someone from speaking.  If a non-speaker/non-evaluator is a little long winded, stand up to the side.  They will get the message.  This is not a bad idea either for prepared speakers and evaluators who are way over time.

Nominally, speeches should be done around the 30 minute mark in the meeting.  Table Topics must be done absolutely no later than the 45 minute meeting mark.  With three speakers, it takes at least 15 min for the evaluation portion of the meeting.  In some ways, the evaluation session of the meeting is the most important.  This is where the learning comes in for us to improve.  We must strive as TOTDs to allow the maximum time for evaluations.

Well, that’s it.  As a wise person once said, “That’s all I know.”  If you follow the preceding preparation and during meeting guidelines you can’t go wrong.  There will be plenty of opportunities to modify what I have said above, but, if you are starting out, I would follow these guidelines.

Over my 19 years in Toastmasters, I have seen many a meeting where the TOTD was unprepared, or, believe or not, did not show up.  On a scale from 1 to 10, I would say TASC Toastmasters’ TOTDs are an 8+.  Preparation counts.  Don’t let anyone tell you differently.  If you have never been the TOTD before, don’t despair.

So when the VPE asks for a TOTD, raise your hand.  You’ll be glad you did!