Rhetoracles
Toastmasters
Club 5092
July 2013 to Dec 2013
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
Message from the President
Club Goals, Events and
Achievements
Welcome New Members
Member Spotlights
Intra Club Articles
Club Leadership
2013- 2014
President
Ketaki Kulkarni, CC
Immediate Past President
Jennifer Rauch, CC, CL
VP Education
Chan Lee, CC (July to Dec ‘13)
Morena Sanidad (Jan 2014)
VP Membership
Paul Hoefling, ATMS, CL
VP Public Relations
Arun Chokkalingam, CC
Treasurer & Secretary
Dottie Delaney, CC
Sergeant-at-Arms
Paul Hoefling, ATMS, CL
Message from the Club President
Ketaki Kulkarni, CC
Being a relatively junior member of the club, assuming the President’s role in an established
and elite Toastmasters club such as the Rhetoracles Toastmasters club seemed a bit
overwhelming at first.
But the friendly support and feedback mechanism of this club provided me the confidence
required to fulfill this job. That is the USP (Unique Selling Proposition) of our club.
This is how we develop leadership and communication skills, which are the driving
objectives of the Toastmasters’ initiative. The eclectic nature of the club members and the
range of experience make the weekly meetings a fun environment.
From my experience, I would strongly encourage the new members to actively participate,
not just in the weekly meetings, but also in leadership roles and inter- and intra-club level
activities. The benefits are multi-fold. Personal and professional growth of each member in
turn contributes to the growth of a club.
I am confident that our collective efforts will help the club accomplish these goals in the
coming year.
CLUB 5092
AREA 64
DIVISION F
DISTRICT 2
REGION 1
Club Goals
1.
2.
3.
4.
MEETINGS
Every Tuesday
6:00 pm to 7:30 pm
at the Master Builders
Association of King &
Snohomish Counties
335 – 116th Avenue NE
Bellevue, WA 98006
USA
Guests and future members
can walk in.
NEWSLETTER
Increase club representation in contests and area/district level activities
Encourage more members to pursue the leadership track.
Add new members and sustain the active membership to at least 25
Achieve the ‘President’s Distinguished Club’ status.
Club Events from July 2013 to Dec 2013
1. Weekly Meetings that focus on Prepared Speeches, Evaluation and Impromptu
Table Topics
2.
Intra-Club Speech Contest Held in Bellevue Downtown Park on Aug 13
3.
Holiday Potluck Meeting on Dec 1
Club and Member Achievements from July to Dec 2013
1. Three Members attained Competent Communicator (CC) (Serge Codreanu,
Ketaki Kulkarni, Arun Chokkalingam) and 2 Members attained Competent
Leadership (CL) (Melanie DePaoli, Chan Lee)
2.
Member Dennis Armstrong placed 2nd in the District Humorous Speech
Contest
Welcome New Members
Marlene Meyer
Marley Lunt
Tyler Tidd
Teresa Hall
David Friedman
Prakash Moorthy
Member Spotlight – Emory Gleason
Q: What made you join Rhetoracles and how long you have been a member?
I used to listen to a syndicated radio program, Our Changing World, by a famous motivational speaker,
Earl Nightingale, who also co-founded the Nightingale-Conant organization that produces audio and video
collections of many motivational and inspirational speakers. Although he was a world-famous public
speaker, he discussed being an active member of his local Toastmaster Club for decades, because his local
club provided him with informed feedback on his professional presentations that he assembled from his
five-minute Toastmaster speeches. In 1994, I was browsing my local library and checked out his
audio/video of "The Strangest Secret" which had sold more than a million copies. The following week, I
started shopping for a local Toastmaster club, and preferred the club culture at Rhetoracles.
RHETORACLES July 2013 To Dec 2013
NEWSLETTER
Q: How has Rhetoracles helped you?
The Toastmaster instructional process of learning by doing through weekly practice, a coherent progressive
multiple-manual public- speaking curriculum, and the supportive club culture populated by interesting role
models makes Rhetoracles a weekly habit of self-improvement. One of Earl Nightingale's favorite quotes
was "We become what we think about." Rhetoracles has helped my listening, speaking and writing skills
in my professional and personal life.
Q: What keeps you coming back?
The people and the process keeps me coming back. I joined with the expectation of getting my CTM within
12 months and moving on. I achieved my CTM is less than 12 months, but realized that I could not join a
physical fitness gym to become physically fit for 12 months and then expect sustainned physically fitness,
if I stopped going to the gym. Rhetoracles became my weekly communication gym habit where I practice
my communication skills.
Q: What is your recommendation to someone who wants to take their public speaking skills to the
next level?
Each person has different personal/professional goals and how to achieve them. If a person wants to
leverage their time at Rhetoracles, choose a professional speaking goal and a personal speaking goal
outside of Toastmasters, and apply the Toastmaster manual experience to those external speaking goals.
For example, develop a 15-minute TED Talk, 15-minute presentation, from three related Toastmaster
presentations, that demonstrates your content and/or process expertise on some aspect of your
profession. Practice until you are prepared to deliver it flawlessly without notes, and with or without audio
visual aids, on a moment's notice. This is a professional extemporaneous speech that looks like a
superb impromptu speech that can be quickly shortened or expanded as needed.
Consider creating a similar project for a hobby or cause that is meaningful to you, but not related to your
employment or profession. Consider a similar storytelling project, for the entertainment of others, using an
original story or adapting a classic story. Seek out opportunities to make these presentations outside of
Toastmaster's.
Q: Anything else you want to share?
We are what we do and have done. We become what we think about and repeatedly do. If effective
communication and leadership are important in your personal and professional life, make Rhetoracles a
regular habit, the Toastmaster manual curriculum a sustained progression of self-improvement, and apply
the Toastmaster experiences into your personal and professional life to reap the benefits sooner.
Member Spotlight – 2013 New Member: Tyler Tidd
Q: What made you join Rhetoracles and how long you have been a member?
I joined because I've always been "The quiet one." In college I rarely spoke up in class. Even in
work today I'm hesitant to voice my opinion in a large group. I decided this needed to change
and the only way was through practice. Toastmasters was the best forum for me to
accomplish this. I've been a member since March 2013.
Q: How has Rhetoracles helped you?
I find myself slowly but surely becoming more confident interacting with large groups of
people.
Q: What is your recommendation to someone who wants to take their public speaking skills to the
next level?
For every speech you need to closely follow the manual and follow its suggestions. And
practice, practice, practice. Also, finding a mentor would be invaluable. A good mentor should
be able to identify the weaknesses of your speech and prioritize your effort.
Member Spotlight – 2013 New Member: Marlene Meyer
Q: What made you join Rhetoracles and how long you have been a member?
I joined because I am searching for a new career. I know I like to speak in front of people. I
joined Toastmasters many years ago, but stop attending. I thought I would start with
Toastmasters again to see if it could help me decide a new career that might involve speaking.
Q: How has Rhetoracles helped you?
It is helping me to look at how to improve the organization of what I say and to improve my
voice projection.
Q: What is your recommendation to someone who wants to take their public
speaking skills to the next level?
Make sure they know their weak points. Then see how to improve them. Challenge
themselves in those areas of weakness.
Q: Anything else you want to share.
Enjoy the club and the people, and worry more about improvements and not about winning
ribbons.
Intra-Club Article: Tribal Knowledge of Rhetoracles that will
help in Development of Communication Skills – Dennis
Armstrong
Movement:
We at Rhetoracles advise people to move about while speaking rather
than standing transfixed in a single location. In the military there are two
positions while standing in formation, attention and parade rest. The
position of attention, as I remember it, is to stand straight and tall, you
feet at a 45 degree angle, your arms hanging from your shoulders and
your thumbs along the seams of your pants. Your eyes were looking
forward, or as the person in charge would say, eyes front. We were
cautioned not to lock our knees, because in hot weather, blood drains
from the brain which will cause the individual to pass out. On parade day
there would be one or two individuals who would be hauled off of the
parade ground.
Parade Rest on the other hand was a more relaxed stance. (Oh sure it
was.) Your feet were at shoulder width with your hands clasped behind
your back at the top of your hips and eyes forward at all times. In a few
club meetings I have seen presenters standing at attention while
delivering their speech. This could be a cultural thing, or taught in school
or by observation - I am not sure which.
My philosophy is that a speech is a one-sided conversation, in which you
have the control of the situation. Now, when you are conversing with
your friends and coworkers you tend to move either with hand gestures,
facial gestures or even moving your body. I would suggest that you take
note the next time that you are talking with your friends… how you move
your hands, body, and face. The question that I would leave you with is
could you incorporate some of the same movements in front of an
audience?
When moving about the stage be aware that you can fatigue the
audience when you constantly move about. To this end I would suggest
begin in the position of power (center stage) and deliver your opening
statement and your main points. Then move to one side or another and
hold that place while you make and support your point. Then move
again to the other side of the stage, casually or while holding a
conversation and make your second point or support you first point, and
the same movement for your third point. Then move to the position of
power the center of the stage to close your presentation. These ideas
can be incorporated as you feel comfortable using them.
Eye Contact
Eye contact must be a cultural thing. I have been told by people from the
Mid-East that the eyes are the pathway to the soul. Therefore they tend
to not look into one’s eyes. One method that I have seen to avoid eye
contact is to wear mirrored sunglasses. Now, how do you think wearing
mirrored sunglasses would go over at a speaking engagement? Eye
contact is effective in personal conversation; however, in an audience
situation, direct eye contact could have a detrimental effect on a member
of the audience. I remember sitting in an auditorium for a class where
the professor would come down and mingle with the audience. That was
frightening enough… then he would ask questions of the students in front
of him and completely terrify the audience. He happened to be a speech
and communication professor. I find that direct eye contact must be a
part of Western culture. It must stem from primitive times when
individuals were judging the fight-or-flight reaction. Eye contact can be
simulated-- rather than focus on the eye of the person to whom you are
talking, focus in the middle of the forehead or the third eye. This
technique may be a little obvious so switch your gaze to the bridge of the
nose. This will give the person that you are talking to the sense that you
are making eye contact.