Redland's Community Toastmaster Jeanne

 Growing  Contest day arrived bright and early on a Saturday morning.  The briefing for participants was at 8:15.  At 9:00 the call to assemble was given and the event was in full swing. A special test speaker spoke first and the test evaluators observed and listened intently as they had just minutes to prepare their evaluation speeches.  The 4 evaluation contestants impressed me with their ability to put their thoughts together in an instructive and meaningful way.  I  was motivated by their skill at such a challenging task.  Perhaps I'll attempt that contest in the future, after all I am interesting in growing . The meeting room was very cold .  I wasn't the only one that was chilled.  An extra layer was definitely needed!  My chills weren't nerve driven entirely.  During the briefing all of us being tested had been instructed to stand on a pink "X" marked on the carpet with tape just prior to being called to the front. ...

 Time to stick my neck out  I had been in the Redlands Toastmaster Club 8950 for about two years when I decided that is was time to stick my toastmaster neck out.  The District 12, Division D, Area contest for areas 1,2,3, and 4 was coming up and I volunteered to represent the club in the contest.    My speaking confidence had increased during the prior two years.  I didn't rock back and forth anymore.  That was a huge improvement! At my church I was able to tell "the children's story" without notes, without my voice quivering, and without the children running amok (their rapt attention gave me quite a boost).  The contest would be a great way to test the skills I'd learned.  Why not try presenting in front of larger group of people, unknown to me, in a new setting?    Several of my club members "weighed in" on what speech I should give.  Their help in this was hugely appreciated.  The fact that they could remember s...

 Feeling Chicken  I was very nervous presenting my "icebreaker" speech. "Feeling chicken" described me well.  The toastmaster that was assigned to evaluate my speech was struck by my odd rocking back and forth as I talked.  With a chuckle, he said that he had "never seen that before" .   What he didn't know was that rocking back and forth was a habit I had gotten into when I practiced my music (a sort of human metronome memory tool).  I had been a singer!  I MUCH preferred singing in front of people to speaking in front of them.  I had sung solos, duets and in a quartet many times.  The Inland Master Chorale was one of the local groups I sang with.  The evaluator was like my voice teacher. His job was to listen, observe and give me suggestions on how to improve the delivery of the presentation.  Gestures, vocal variety, tempo, facial expression, the very words and structure of the story all factored in to giving an engaging spe...

Feeling....Very....Relaxed.... During my visit my son had purchased a sectional sofa from someone who'd posted a Craigslist ad.  Together my son, my niece, and I loaded sections into the back of the SUV. In multiple trips we drove it "hopscotch" like to my niece's garage and then on to his new apartment. It was a dark and stormy night .  Actually, it WAS dark and rainy.  During one of the loading stages I bolted from the drivers seat to check on the progress of the very capable 30+ year olds. I thought, "they might need my help!"  Yeah, right. My toe caught on a rock edging the driveway and down I went, splat , onto the wet grass of my niece's front yard. My left arm instinctively landed first.  It was a wimpy, unimpressive fall but I knew right away that my wrist was broken.  The three of us piled into the SUV and off to the nearby ER we went with me holding my injured arm up and my niece driving slowly to avoid jarring my break. A broken bone HURTS. ...

The "Ice Breaker"  It wasn't a "wrist breaker" speech but, oddly, breaking my wrist helped me with my first speech, the "ice-breaker" .  I had gotten a little more comfortable with the club meetings.  At the beginning of a meeting the "timer" and the "ah-grammarian" explain their duties.  Near the end of the meeting a report is given.  Basically, the meeting is designed so that usually everyone gets a chance to speak. I could feel that the practice of being up front and speaking to an audience, with all eyes on me, was nibbling away slowly at my fear! Writing my speech was fairly easy.  I had 3 reasons for joining the club and I expounded on those reasons in my speech.  First, I had a close friend who'd casually mentioned that she'd like to join a club (that was about 20 years ago).  Secondly, my mother had passed away about 15 years ago.  While caring for her in her last few months of life she had mentioned to my sister and...

Time to Swim     I nervously took on different roles at the Toastmaster meetings.  Being the timer seemed like an easy role so I dove into that. Each role during a meeting is timed except for the role of Toastmaster of the evening and Table Topics master.  Using my Apple watch for timing I followed these guidelines: Table Topics speeches:  1-2 minutes Icebreaker speech (1st speech as a new club member): 4-6 minutes Speech evaluator: 2-3 minutes General evaluator (evaluates the meeting as a whole): 3-4 minutes Speeches: 5-7 minutes (unless more time has been requested ahead of time) 30 seconds over the time limit is allowed.  A GREEN card is held up when the beginning time has been reached.  A YELLOW card is held up halfway through the time and a RED card is held up when the end time is reached.   Sometimes I would get very involved in listening and I had to refocus fast.  I never let anyone talk longer than 10 minutes!  Just kiddin...

        I quickly learned that I was not going to be a silent observer in this toastmaster club for very long.  The goal is to speak in public, right?  One portion of the meeting is called "table topics".  This part is still my biggest challenge.   The "table topics" speaker asks random people attending the meeting to comment on a topic the speaker has chosen or to answer a specific question.  If called on you have just seconds to gather your thoughts and then speak, in front of everyone, for 1-2 minutes.  AARGH!  I am great at coming up with an awesome response, oh, about 30-60 minutes later.  Some people have the gift of free speech.  I should say the gift of speaking freely, about anything, anytime!  Not me.   It is common for visitors to be invited to speak to a topic during this time.  One can decline and that is completely O.K.  At the end of the meeting the Toastmaster for the meeting will...