Administrator D64 Blog

What’s in a name?

Originally published February 17, 2015 in the Winnipeg Free Press

For a Toastmasters Club, their name often tells a story. Some are easier to decipher than others. The Parliamentary Club deals with business procedures using Robert’s Rules of Order, Comedy Club, Eh? focuses on adding humour to presentations while le club francs parleurs has meetings in both official languages.

Some clubs are named after their location. Charleswood Club, Downtown Winnipeg Club, and Seven Oaks Club are all named after the part of the city where they meet. Out of town locations include Beausejour, Interlake or Thompson Toastmasters.

Some of our more creative names include the following corporate clubs, Licensed to Speak (MPIC), Toast of IG (Investors Group), and City Slickers (City of Winnipeg).

Whatever the name of the over 100 clubs in our District, which includes Manitoba and Northwestern Ontario, you will find the same format for the meetings. There are prepared speeches, impromptu speaking (known as Table Topics), evaluations of all parts of the meeting and a timer. People come from all walks of life, all skill levels and with different ambitions, but they all find a welcoming place to improve their communication and leadership skills. We call it – “a safe place to try.”

So whether you are working on that presentation at work, giving the toast to the bride, or want to improve your communication techniques, there is a Toastmasters club for you. There is no better time than now. The Province of Manitoba has declared the month of March as “Toastmasters Month in Manitoba”. Watch for information on Open Houses in your area.

To hear more comments about Toastmasters, please go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WStG9TnG0Gw

There are Toastmasters meetings every day of the week (day and evening) in Manitoba and North-West Ontario that would welcome you. Go to www.toastmasters.org/findaclub or call 204-338-7401 to find out more. No experience necessary.

Administrator D64 Blog

What’s in it for me?

Originally published February 3, 2015 in the Winnipeg Free Press

I am often asked , “Why join Toastmasters? I know how to make presentations and I talk to my staff all the time.”! What I have learned is that we don’t always perform the way we think we do, and no matter your skill level, there is always something new that the Toastmasters program can help with.

Our Toastmasters meetings are structured to be a safe place to try something new. Members start out at their own pace, developing the basic skills of communication and leadership. After that, there are many different paths to follow to take their skills to the next level.

Perhaps you have been promoted to a manager position (or would like to be). The five topics shown in the “Speeches by Management” manual provide ways to help with “The Briefing”, “Appraise with Praise”, “Persuade and Inspire”, “Communicating Change”, and “Delivering Bad News”, all situations a manager is sure to find. Having these tools at hand, and being able to practice the relevant techniques, will make the task much easier whenever the situation comes up.

Advanced Manuals vary from “Humorously Speaking”, to “Communicating on Video.” “Facilitating Discussion”, and “Interpretive Reading”. These are just a few of the advanced presentation skills you can develop from the more than fifteen manuals available.

When you consider the positive feedback given after each presentation, coupled with helpful growth points, it’s clear how easy it is to make each meeting interesting, informative and fun. You wouldn’t believe the variety of topics that members share at meetings and we always leave the meeting energized.

For more information about the Advanced Communication manuals, please go to www.toastmasters.org and search for Advanced Manuals. Drop in to a club near you and see for yourself. We’d love to see you.

To hear more comments about Toastmasters, please go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WStG9TnG0Gw

There are Toastmasters meetings every day of the week (day and evening) in Manitoba and North-West Ontario that would welcome you. Go to www.toastmasters.org/findaclub or call 204-338-7401 to find out more. No experience necessary.

Administrator D64 Blog

New Year’s Resolutions – have you broken yours already?

Originally published January 20, 2015 in the Winnipeg Free Press

Was it to lose weight, eat better, save money, be more assertive? All very good goals but hard to achieve without a support system. If one of your goals is (was) to be a better speaker, leader, communicator or simply to gain more confidence – your next step should
be to visit a Toastmasters Club. There you will find a friendly supportive atmosphere where people practice and develop their communication and leadership skills with the help of a great support system. You will find people having fun, talking about interesting things, giving positive feedback while demonstrating different levels of communication skills.

For speaking skills development, there are a set of manuals to work through at your own pace starting with the Competent Communicator Manual – a set of 10 speech guidelines that get you started speaking in front of the club. They include the Icebreaker (speaking about yourself), and end with Inspire your Audience. Some of the others are Your Body Speaks, Organize your Speech, and Get Comfortable with Visual Aids. Michael Bayer CSP, says “everything you ever wanted to know about public speaking is in these manuals.”
If better leadership skills are your goal, there is The Competent Communicator manual which identifies how being part of a Toastmaster meeting can improve skills such as Critical Thinking, Giving Feedback, Time Management and Team Building among others.

For more information on any of these topics or manuals, go to www.toastmasters.org. For general information on better communication techniques, I invite you to visit http://www.toastmasters.org/Resources/Video-Library.

Let this be the year you take the step forward to better listening, thinking and speaking and make your New Year’s resolution a reality. To hear more comments about Toastmasters, please go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WStG9TnG0Gw

There are Toastmasters meetings every day of the week (day and evening) in Manitoba and North-West Ontario that would welcome you. Go to www.toastmasters.org/findaclub or call 204-338-7401 to find out more. No experience necessary.

Administrator D64 Blog

Winnipeg aura un club Toastmasters les matins en français! (French Professional Toastmasters Club)

The World Trade Centre Winnipeg and the Chambre de commerce francophone de Saint-Boniface are starting a Club to deliver the world-class toastmasters program in French!

Demonstration Meeting:

When: Friday, May 15th, 2015, from 7:30 to 8:45am

Where: World Trade Centre Winnipeg, 219 Provencher Blvd., 2nd floor (the Old St. Boniface City Hall building)

Please RSVP by May 13th to Alberto Velasco at avelasco@wtcwinnipeg.com or by phone 204.289.4099

You can also pass on the attached information sheet to your Francophone friends and colleagues.

CCFSB-ReunionDemo

Administrator D64 Blog

Perfect until life changes us…

Originally published January 6, 2015 in the Winnipeg Free Press

Welcome to Toastmasters! Those are the happy words you will hear when you visit one of our clubs. If joining Toastmasters has been one of your goals, or even a New Year´s resolution, there is no better time to visit a club than now.

What you can expect is a friendly, supportive group that will introduce you to what Toastmasters can offer. Need to give a presentation at work? We have a program
for that. Want to meet friendly, interesting people? We have them. Looking for ways to communicate better with friends and family? We can show you how. Long business meetings getting you down? We have the tools to keep them on time. Toastmasters can help you with these items and more.

For a practical example, let me share the story of Dananjaya Hettiarachchi from Sri Lanka who is the 2014 World Champion of Public Speaking with his speech “I see something in you”. It had a basic plot. A young man finds himself in trouble with the law. Through the pain in his mother´s tearful eyes and with the help of a mentor he is given another chance. With the help of Toastmasters and other programs, he finds his voice and wins the ultimate prize, a new life filled with self-confidence, excitement and promise.

The tools he used for his speech covered all of the basics for a good speech. Using gestures, he opened with a beautiful red rose and said that this represented all of us, perfect until life changes us. He then tore petals off the rose. Using vocal Variety, he called out to the audience, ¨How many of you have a mother who would cry for seeing her son behind bars”? He then included us all by saying “My mother is like all of yours put together!” Repeating the phrase, “I see something in you but I don´t know what it is”. This was woven through his story first by his mentor, then by his future wife, and lastly by a Toastmasters member. Humour, he pointed to a spot on the stage that represented his wife and commented that he was so fortunate to find his beautiful wife. Even though she also said “I see something in you, but I don´t know what it is”. Then he said “I couldn’t find a job, but I found a wife”. Picture this with dramatic pauses, exaggerated facial expressions and a shy smile. Using drama, after sharing his journey from delinquent to successful speaker, he paused for a long moment, reached into the bucket on stage and pulled out the perfect red rose. The audience exploded as he ended his speech. I invite you to check it out this speech on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbz2boNSeL0 and I look forward to hearing about you visiting us at a Toastmasters meeting in the near future.

To hear more comments about Toastmasters, please go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WStG9TnG0Gw There are Toastmasters meetings every day of the week (day and evening) in Manitoba and North-West Ontario that would welcome you. Go to www.toastmasters. org/findaclub or call 204-338-7401 to find out more. No experience necessary.