Welcome!

The human brain starts working the moment you are born and never stops until you stand up to speak in public. ~George Jessel

Funny thing is that as we grow older, the fear of public speaking and communication starts becoming more intense. Maybe the stakes are higher, maybe we are afraid to make a fool out of ourselves. Whatever the reason(s) may be, it's a skill that will ALWAYS require polishing. Even the best speakers known to world need a little coaching. 

The idea of this blog is to share insights, interesting articles, videos, tips and tricks about public speaking, communication, and leadership. These three skills are of prime importance in anything and everything we do in this day and age. 

As I develop this blog, I will start to categorize the information into easily digestible segments, one of which would be a weekly attempt to summarize my Toastmasters club meeting experience.

Speech-a-palooza!

For the first time ever, Meridian Toastmasters hosted a Speech-a-palooza! Just in case one record wasn't enought, the 4 speeches today were all ice breakers. We had 3 new guest attend the meeting today. Karen opened the meeting with a lot of enthusiasm and talked about how excited she is to chairing this special meeting! She didn't waste any time and jumped straight into the speeches. Sundeep, Wendy, Sherry and Pam were the 4 speakers! I've always enjoyed Ice Breaker speeches and the chance to hear 4 of them in one sitting was not to be missed. The speeches were quite diverse. We found out about Sundeep's artisitic sensibilities when she talked about scrapbooking and her interest in making jewellery. Wendy shared a memorable travel experience to Tibet with her family. I was deeply moved by Sherry's speech on her fight with shyness and anxiety disorder. Pam ended the speech-a-palooza narrating her travel expedition around the world. All 4 speakers are off to a great start. I almost forgot that I was supposed to be an evaluator! We are looking forward to doing another one of these -paloozas, maybe with more advanced speakers this time!

Click on the names to see each of our member's Ice Breaker Speeches:
Sundeep
Wendy
Sherry
Pam

Remembering our Veterans

Today's meeting happen to fall on Remembrance Day. It was a full house with 2 new guests. The membership was grown in last 2 months, especially since our last Open House. We are excited to see new faces at our meetings.
The meeting starting with the Chair (Anil Lad) acknowledging the hard work of the soldiers with 1 min of silence. I was then invited to present the Thought of the Day and added my own spin to Rememberance Day by reminding everyone to also acknowledge the soldier within yourself and people around you. Geofferey's speech from the Advanced Communications Manual was aptly centered around Democracy. He talked in detail about the birth of democracy, about shared power, and about the importance of a strong legal system. Azura was a first time Table Topics Master. She conducted the session very well and posed questions to the members about their heroes, thoughts on army, veteran's day, etc. Our General Evaluator, Melrose, provided positive feedback for the meeting progress. Speech Evaluator, Christine Mirtsos, talked about conviction and speaking with conviction as part of her comments to Geofferey's speech. With so many new members this past month, we are looking into ice breaker speeches at the meeting next week!