Thank you Laurie!

Cottonwood Toastmasters recently held a three week long Speech Craft. We would like to thank Laurie and her committee for doing a magnificent job. We all had a lot of fun! 

 Taken from the Toastmasters International site:

Speechcraft in Brief

Build your Toastmasters team

What is it?

• A short, seminar-style presentation that teaches basic Toastmasters skills: speaking and evaluating

Why do it?

• Toastmasters members build their meeting management skills by leading the seminar.
• It’s a great way to attract members to an existing club or begin forming a new club.

        Participants:

• Get a chance to see what Toastmasters is all about
• Enjoy the camaraderie of a Toastmasters group
• Gain confidence and training in their communication skills
How it works:
You can choose how you want to do the presentation!
• Do sessions in four, six or eight weeks
• 1-2 hours per session
Speechcraft may be:
Presented as part of the Toastmasters meeting which makes it easer for participants to become members at the conclusion of the presentation.
• Invite 5-10 people
• Devote 30 minutes of each meeting to presenting Speechcraft
Presented as a seminar-style presentation (outside of club meeting):
• You can invite more people
• Can be tailored to any group or company
• A great way to form a new club

Cottonwood Toastmasters meets every Monday 12:00 to 1:15 at the Cottonwood Village, 201 E Mingus Ave. Guests are welcome. For more information call Laina Lloyd at 928-300-8638 or Dave Ellison at 634-6540

Bravery

For the month of January our Cottonwood Toastmasters Club has been holding a Speech Craft with the theme and goal of teaching valuable interview skills. This past week we had a volunteer, not a member of Toastmasters,  bravely stand before us and give a speech, terrified as she was. We would like to congratulate her on doing a marvelous job! She incorporated interesting information about herself, reasons why someone would benefit from her services and skills, asked valuable questions, and stood confident in her desire to learn and grow.

We learned that she was trained by a Shaman named Blue Cloud and does a Reiki type of healing. We also learned that she has a CD available and offered to share it with her future employer. Her name is Reverend Linda Page associated with Liberating Perspectives. Our applause is for you! You did a great job and we thank you for sharing.

Cottonwood Toastmasters meets every Monday 12:00 to 1:15 at the Cottonwood Village, 201 E Mingus Ave. Guests are welcome. For more information call Laina Lloyd at 928-300-8638 or Dave Ellison at 634-6540

Learning From Your Mistakes

Yesterday I gave a speech in our Cottonwood Toastmasters Club. It was probably one of the most difficult speeches I have ever given. That's a good thing! I learned the most from this speech because of the topic difficulty and the mistakes I made. The topic was "Interview Skills". This topic was assigned to me for the Speech Craft Series we are doing during the next three weeks. To make it more challenging, I wanted to give a speech out of my Entertaining Speaker Manual to assist me in my goal of Advanced Communicator. Whew, I tumbled thoughts around in my head for days, all the while asking myself "How can I make this speech informative and entertaining?" It wasn't until the night before my speech was to be given that I got a FLASH of an idea! 


I had recently read an article from Pine Tree Consulting Service "Things Not to Say at a Job Interview". They surveyed top personnel executives of 100 major American corporations and asked for stories of unusual behavior by job applicants. It is from this article that I chose to be the person of the "DO NOT DO'S" at an interview. It was a lot of fun being the wacky one, wearing the bold jewelry, kicking off my shoes, making insulting comments, talking on my phone, etc... The difficult part came when I realized I'd forgotten to pass out the hand out and had to do it during my speech, oops. And I ran out of time and didn't tie up my ending very well, which is something I pride myself on doing. Okay, so maybe it was a lesson in humility. I can take it!


How are you going to learn if you don't make mistakes, if you don't get up in front of an audience and speak? There are some club members I have not heard from in the year I have been in our club. I would like to extend this challenge to you of speaking at least ONCE each month. It is good for you, even though it hurts! I still get anxious before my speeches and often ask myself  "Now remind me why you are doing this Laina?" and the response is always the same, "It's good for you girl!" 

So how about it? Are YOU up to the challenge?

Cottonwood Toastmasters meets every Monday 12:00 to 1:15 at the Cottonwood Village, 201 E Mingus Ave. Guests are welcome. For more information call Laina Lloyd at 928-300-8638 or Dave Ellison at 634-6540

Speech Craft

Cottonwood Toastmasters is hosting a Speech Craft, which is a short, seminar-style presentation that teaches basic Toastmasters skills: speaking and evaluating, with a focus on interviewing skills. 

Please join us in this mutually supportive and positive learning environment, where every member and guest will have the opportunity to develop valuable communication and leadership skills necessary in seeking employment.

Where: Cottonwood Village

             201 E Mingus Avenue

             Cottonwood, AZ 86326

When:  January 16^th, 23^rd and 30^th  2012

          

Time:   12:00 to 1:00 pm 

Cottonwood Toastmasters:

Meets every Monday 12:00 to 1:15 at the Cottonwood Village, 201 E Mingus Ave. Guests are welcome. For more information call Laina Lloyd at 928-300-8638 or Dave Ellison at 634-6540