Moments of truth



Hello,

This was the title, “Moments of truth”, of the educational session given by Dima at the meeting of the 19th April 2011. The title is inspiring, seems to drive ourselves in a travel through our own identity and purpose of life. But it was quite more practical, about the Club Quality Standards Evaluation under the criteria given by Toastmasters International. Great job by Dima, organizing people in groups, going each of the groups through a different topic, making group conclusions, and finally Dima putting together the full job: most things are running quite satisfactory, some other could improve!

Claudia, the Toastmaster of the day, drove the meeting in a perfect and smooth way despite the many changes in the agenda she had to take care. The word of the day, “outlier”, (difficult to find in a dictionary!), defined those people who are able to open new ways and opportunities and can improvise and take the best of themselves to push situations ahead.

We had 8 guests, 7 of them long term guests, (people that have attended several meetings and are interested in becoming members), and one new guest. The one word to describe what they felt at the meeting: “surprised”, “outlining”, rich”, “challenging”, “awesome”, and ”organized”. For the new guest, it was “great entertainment”.

Josefine made her speech from the Competent Communication Manual #5 – “Your Body Speaks”, with the title “The language of the body”, about the dialogue between the body and the mind of the runners when preparing challenges (Josefin prepared and run a half marathon!)

Ricardo made his speech from the Competent Communication Manual #6 – “Vocal Variety”, with the title “TONES”, showing in a very practical way how the knowledge and practice about how to say, module and pronounce sentences can give them either one sense, or the contrary.

Changing the usual order of the agenda, Veronika, the Table Topic master, invited Marie, Alvaro, Ivan and Edith to build together, one after each other, a history about the Easter eggs.

Tulia, within the Club business section, informed about the elections to take place for the roles of officers for the next period July 2011 / June 2012. As a signal of the good health of the club (identified with the “Moments of true” section and with the guests’ list), Ricardo, head of the election committee, explained that there are more candidates than roles, and this is fantastic!

Till the next,

Alvaro http://blog.prestigiousspeakers.com

Upcoming conferences

Dear fellow Toastmasters,

As spring warms our hearts and we soak up the lovely Barcelona sun,
it's also time to start warming engines for the next two
Iberian/European Toastmasters venues:

* Division H Conference (all 4 Iberia areas represented, included our
cherished H1 winners Claudia Cano, Diane Oakley, Djanira Cortesao and
Dale Blagrove)
Friday 6th to Sunday 8th May in Madrid
http://www.madridconference2011.com/

* District 59 Conference (all Continental Europe)
Friday 20th to Sunday 22nd May in Lisbon
http://www.toastmasters.org.pt/conference/

Several club members are already attending both conferences so book your spot!

Last but not least, if you are interested in competing in the
Spanish-speaking contest, also to be held in Madrid on May 7th, please
contact BCN TM Club Committee. They are the only chartered Club in
Barcelona able to send representatives to this Contest.

Have a great week!http://blog.prestigiousspeakers.com

Do you want to be the Toastmaster of the day?



I wanted, and I accepted the suggestion to be the Toastmaster of the day (TMOD) at the Prestigious Speakers meeting the Tuesday 29/3/2011.

This post tries to explain my personal experience. It was my first time in this role, and I tried to strictly following the recommendations of the check list. The most important: to be aware that the TMOD is the central role of the meeting, and preparation is very important. The TMOD is the meeting chair, and all what happens there goes through his/her role.

The TMOD opens his role with a short introduction, called “The word of the day”, with the purpose of sharing experiences or personal thoughts.

I explained to the audience my view about the 3 barriers, and the corresponding bridges, that any can suffer when facing the public:

FIRST, the nerves: I feel just nervous, frozen, collapsed. It’s very easy to identify.

It´s a physical experience; no need to any reason. It can happen in other situations and scenarios, as delivering a test, at a police control, with a new girl friend …

The bridge: You can work it with physical exercises, breathing, relaxing …, as it’s a very physical feeling, everybody can find their own way

SECOND, the audience: I am afraid, what this entire people in front of me will think of me?

It´s a physiological experience; the fear to what the others can think of us.

The brigde: figure out that the audience doesn’t exist. Of course exist, but not as something in front of me. The audience is myself; the audience is part of my own internal dialog. Therefore when talking to me, I am talking to the audience.

THIRD, the content of the speech: what I am going to tell? Is it enough prepared?

It´s a physical experience.

The bridge: It’s a matter of preparation. Writing it all what you want to say before, practicing and rehearsing with a recorder, a web cam, may be with friends and family, and after practicing it, you practice and rehearse it again …

Meeting the barriers and finding the bridges is something that we can manage, I can, you can …

The word of the day was YOU CAN.

The Toastmaster of the day introduces afterwards the General evaluator (Rose), the Table Topic  master (Anne) and the speakers.

The first speaker was Mattew, with his Competent Communication Manual #1 (Ice Breaker) speech `'Obsession is the route to Success'.

The second speaker was Bettina, with her Competent Communication Manual #1 (Ice Breaker) speech `DISCOBALL.

The third speaker was Nizami with his Competent Communication Manual #2 (“Organise Your Speech) “Heroes Every Day”

And the fourth speaker of the session was Ricardo with his speech from the Competent Communication Manual #5  (Your Body Speaks),`“Be young forever”

After the speakers comes the evaluators:  Florian evaluated Mathew’s speech,  Ignasi evaluated Bettina’s speech, Marie evaluated evaluate Nizami’s speech and Josefin evaluated Ricardo’s speech

After the evaluators, the General Evaluator took the stage, presented her report and her team as well: the Ah counter Arthur), the Timer (Antonio) and the Grammarian (Carol).

It was the end of the role, and it had been a positive and challenging experience. I´ll try again.

Till the next,

Alvarohttp://blog.prestigiousspeakers.com

Area Contest Results & Photos!

Congratulations to the contestants and thank yous to all the
volunteers of the Areal Level International & Evaluation Speech
Contests held April 2nd 2001 in Casa Orlandai.
Winners of the Evaluation Contest: 1st place: Dale Blagrove, 2nd
place: Djanira Cortesao, 3rd Dima Uralov.
Winners of the Speech Contest: 1st place Diane Oakley, 2nd place: Claudia Cano.

Carol
Contest Chair

See the full gallery on Posterous

http://blog.prestigiousspeakers.com