Toastmasters for the Next Generation

The infancy of Pathways has evoked an array of emotions from my fellow Toastmasters. Throughout the district, I have seen everything from enthusiasm, resulting in some of my fellow members becoming Pathways Guides before the launch to outright declarations of protest. As a Vice President of Membership, I have seen Toastmasters not renew their membership because of their claim that Pathways “has nothing to offer me.”

With a change as big as Pathways being rolled out to an organization of over 94 years, it is easy to see its flaws and even participate in regular debates around the subject as we learn more with each passing month. As we move forward with these changes, I want to challenge my fellow Toastmasters to be mindful of how we discuss both the growing pains and excitement— particularly, in front of newer Toastmasters who may have never been acquainted with the traditional educational program. From time to time, I have noticed newer members who attend a district workshop or conference with excitement over all of the new skills they will learn become deflated when they overhear occasional grumbles and complaints about the only program they have to pursue, Pathways.

It is our job as tenured Toastmasters to encourage our newer members, especially the more apprehensive ones, to lean in and attack their goals at meetings. The best way to do that is through leading by example, even when it means stepping out of our comfort zone. It all comes back to the Toastmasters core values when we look at the big picture. We should embrace Pathways for our newer members or, “Toastmasters of the next generation” as I like to call them, in order to:

  • Uphold the Integrity of Toastmasters. Our mission and member’s goal are still the same; there may just be more than one way to get there now.
  • Continue a culture of Respect for our fellow Toastmasters who are working hard to provide the resources we need to make Pathways a success in our district.
  • Be of Service to others. More knowledge leads to more opportunities to mentor, teach, and share what you know.
  • Claim our own Excellence. Starting a new learning path does not erase your hard work or skills you have claimed so far in your Toastmasters journey.

Maintain the Integrity of Our Mission to Become Better Leaders and Communicators

A newer member of my home club approached me one evening asking some questions about Pathways. Instead of stumbling through them, half-uncertain, I invited her to come with me to a Pathways workshop being held that Saturday.

Not only did this learning session help this new member get started with her first speech (she will give her second in the next few weeks!), but it also helped the Toastmasters hosting the session with their leadership development. It helped me become more familiar with the resources available to us through Pathways. It gave me more information I needed to lead with confidence, even if it is just in a low-key mentorship relationship for right now.

Toastmasters maintains its integrity by delivering what it promised to from the start, so I challenge you to consider what your goals are in being part of Toastmasters. Does it have to do with communication? Leadership? If so, you’re still in the right place. There is just more than one way to get there now.

Respect the Process of Change and Those Who Work Hard to Smooth the Transition

Everyone is entitled to their opinion on all of the changes going on around us. While we have these discussions and share those opinions, it is important to remember that we have new members to consider those who aren’t tainted by the memories of “how things used to be.” It is easy to play the critic when we have something to compare it to.

Our District 83 Pathways Guides, officers, and directors working hard to educate us on these changes and answer the endless stream of questions. While the changes may be difficult for us, it is important to show respect for those looking to smooth the way, especially with a transition period as long as two years between the rollout and the retirement of the traditional program. Would you complain loudly and proudly if your boss was leading you through a change at work with grace and strong leadership? Probably not. The best thing we can do is be grateful for the wealth of resources we have available to us and use them to our advantage.

Embrace Change Because it’s Showing Service to Others

The topic of change reminds me of my first job out of a graduate school. As a licensing specialist at a large software/hardware reseller, it was my job to learn about seemingly arbitrary licensing rules and relay that information to sales reps. Just as I was getting the hang of these licensing rules and felt confident in my skills, our software partner decided to change the entire licensing structure. We would have a grace period of about two years to smooth the transition for customers, which required a lot of extra knowledge around both licensing structures and how they would work together. Sounds familiar?

Around the same time, I was asked to train a new team member. In a situation that would normally leave me feeling in over my head, I found myself feeling grateful for the opportunity. Learning alongside my trainee and finding answers to questions that had not come yet were all rich learning opportunities for me. Furthermore, I mindfully kept any complaints about all of the changes away from his training to set a professional and positive tone for the work we had to get done.

Pathways aren’t very different! To embrace Pathways does not mean you have to quit the traditional path right away. You can work in both the traditional and Pathways curriculum at the same time during the grace period. It’s all about baby steps. Consider hosting an Icebreaker night for your club, dedicated to speakers knocking out the first speech in their path. A gesture like this could be just what your club needs to get some speakers started in their Toastmasters journey. By setting aside this time for your club, you could be providing a great service to speakers who haven’t been able to get a speaking slot since joining Toastmasters.

Excellence

Finally, being a Toastmaster means we exude excellence in everything we do. Doing an Icebreaker and starting a new learning curriculum, even after earning multiple advanced awards, will not undo the skills you have gained so far. If anything, going back to the basics is a chance to see how far you have come in your skills.

My very first Icebreaker two and a half years ago was a pretty standard one that consisted of me naming off a laundry list of things about myself for several minutes. My Icebreaker just a few months ago for Pathways consisted of me skipping around the room, wrapping a feather boa around a fellow Toastmaster, and handing out party noisemakers, delivering a speech about my independent spirit and how that fit into preparing for my upcoming marriage. The feedback I received and creative risks I took all made the Icebreaker a worthwhile (and fun!) project. We all have something to learn from any speech we deliver. Our excellence will remain the same as we do it.

I encourage you to revisit the core values of Toastmasters and consider what they mean to you as you examine your goals for 2019. Write them out. Ask your fellow Toastmasters how you can help them reach their goals. Pathways is an opportunity for all of us to embrace integrity, respect, service, and excellence in our speaking journey. Join me in leading the way for Toastmasters of the next generation.

My Pathways Journey

I am a firm believer that if we do not evolve and progress, we become stale and irrelevant. I have witnessed this in my business world, spiritual world, and other areas of my life.

When Pathways was introduced, my soul jumped with excitement. What was this new curriculum going to look like? How will it be an advantage over what is the current curriculum that many have used successfully to change their lives? Why were we going to be the last region to get it? Finding out I had to wait until May 15th made me feel like a kid waiting for my birthday to come around. As soon as the 15th of May came, I took the survey to discover what path was best suited for me. Of the three that were given to me, Dynamic Leadership spoke loudly. I jumped right in, took the webinars, and loved how easy everything was to navigate.

I am currently shadowing under my Pastor at Life Church to grow in leadership and what the Dynamic Leadership curriculum offers is exactly the skills I need to work on to grow not only at my church, but also at work. I quickly signed up to do the Ice Breaker speech, and am working on my research project speech. Having to redo my Ice Breaker was not a discouragement because there are new people in my club, and my first Ice Breaker did not explain everything there is to know about Kevin. I look forward to hearing other established members deliver their Ice Breakers for the same reason.

Toastmasters is fantastic because it helps everyone learn from one another.
If anyone is unsure of how to move forward with the Pathways program, my advice is to just jump in! Talk with you club officers for assistance if you need it. Toastmasters has always been an organization that ignites a person’s soul to grow and be the best they can be. We are all one big family in Toastmasters and celebrate with each other. Now Pathways offers an additional reason to celebrate.

Why would someone stay in Toastmasters for 15 years?

I never thought I’d be involved for 15 years! I have always had high goals and being a fantastic speaker is one of my top goals in life.

I was so afraid of public speaking, I would drop a class while going for my Bachelor’s, once I found out giving a speech was a requirement. That sounds crazy to me now. What I wouldn’t give to speak to an audience of 500! My record is 250 and I know someday I’ll break 1000.

If you’ve been counting, that’s 2 reasons I’ve stayed. Though I have my DTM, I’m not the best speaker I can be.

Getting over the fear of public speaking is not easy. It is arguably the hardest fear you’ll conqueror in your life. According to Lominger, Presentation Skills have a development difficulty level of “Moderate” (Political Savvy and Conflict Management are examples of “Hardest”), which means it takes years to be proficient. How quickly you get better depends on many variables, about yours skills, your fear level and your dedication to self learning. I set 2 goals for myself:

    1. Speak at every meeting. Grab a role if I can and ask my mentor how to do it (or look it up). In the “old days,” there was a cute booklet called “A Toastmaster Wears Many Hats” that I could quickly skim in the meeting if I role like I wasn’t comfortable yet. I also volunteered to speak in Table Topics, even if I didn’t know what I was going to say. To me, “winning” was not yet what I said and how I did it, it was just getting up in front of everyone and saying something.
    2. Schedule a speech a month. This ensured I kept working on my skillset by giving a speech a month. Side Benefit: I advanced a Communication Track Award level every year. (Yes, that means now I have more CC’s, ACB, ACS and ACG’s than I can count!).I found myself surprised at the other skills I developed without realizing it!

  1. Listening
    – A 360 peer review assessment about 2 years into joining Toastmasters revealed that my top skill was now listening! I was shocked! It took me a few weeks to figure out that it was because of Toastmasters and trying to listen to speeches while at the same time being Timer, Evaluator, etc. that built this skill.

Leadership – A year after that, about 3 years in, I found myself as a manager of first one person, and then, as a result of people moving out of my area after a re-organization, a manager of 9. With no management experience, just my Toastmaster Officer training and my intuition, I lead that team to have the one of the company’s highest Gallup Engagement scores and the Top Supply Department US Engagement Score for 2 sessions in a row! My team and I were famous for a brief time in our careers, doing interviews with real reporters for our company’s, (Mars Wrigley Confectionary) internal home page. I also was nominated by a direct report for the “Make the Difference Award” and made it to the Regional Competition. All this I attribute to Toastmasters. Being an officer and networking with great leaders like Irene and Arnold Card and Paula & Willy Markert at Conferences gave me a foundation for being a Visionary, Motivational Speaker, and the ability to handle conflict.

I started 2 clubs. I co-started “Skylands Community Club” with Jen O’Hagen when BASF left the International Trade Zone. When my job moved over to the “chocolate-side” of the business in Hackettstown, I started a new company club called “Mars Sweet Talkers”. While Skylands disbanded due to a re-organization at the Mount Olive location where the entire leadership team left the business, “Sweet Talkers” still exists with 35-40 people strong. Mars Wrigley Confectionary strongly supports the group, which has been a key to it’s success. It’s given our Leadership Team valuable visibility to President’s and Vice President’s, that still exists today.

Mars Sweet Talkers is currently working on building-out their mentor program. We’re going from assigning everyone a mentor to giving mentors and mentee guidance and gathering feedback to assess areas of opportunities.

Our biggest challenge has been getting volunteers to take on the President’s role. This year, we were able to successfully transition to a new President and we’ve gone a lot stronger because of it! Our fearless leader, Patti Snyder, focuses on attendance while the club benefits from her passions as a Trainer and Education Leader.

I still can’t do “humor”. It alludes me. I won’t give up, even if it takes me another 15 years!

Mary Verrone, DTM
· 2007 Toastmaster of the Year
· 2011 Area Humorous Speech Contest, 2nd Place
· 2011 Area Speech Contest, 2nd Place
· 2012 Area International Speech Contest, 1st Place
· 2012 Area Evaluation Contest, 2nd Place
· 2014 Area Evaluation Contest, 2nd Place
· 2015-2016 District Administrative Manager

Joyce’s Ice Breaker Speech – Insights of a New Toastmaster

At a recent Carpe Diem Toastmasters club meeting, I had the honor of hearing Joyce Quinn’s “Ice Breaker” speech entitled “My Career”.  It was interesting to learn about her youth and the decisions she made and the experiences she had that led her to a career as a Speech Pathologist.

Joyce is an active member of our club.  She is always willing to perform various and multiple meeting roles.  She is also very agreeable to fill these roles even “on the fly” right at the start of a meeting when last minute help is needed.  I recall that, from her earliest days with the club, she would even volunteer to be a Table Topics speaker.  However, it took Joyce a few months after joining to schedule her first speech, despite encouragement from club members. 

I was curious about her hesitancy and asked for some insight about what led her to Toastmasters and about the preparation efforts for and the presentation of her first speech, in the hope that she could enlighten others who have also newly joined a club and could be feeling some hesitancy about speaking. 

When considering joining Toastmasters, Joyce believed that the noncompetitive and encouraging environment would help her to improve her overall communication and presentation skills and help her to become more outgoing.  She felt that becoming more proficient in these skills would give her more confidence professionally.   When asked about her hesitancy to schedule the “Ice Breaker” speech, Joyce mentioned that she first wanted to become acclimated to the club members and the club environment.  Basically, she wanted to build up her courage.

Joyce outlined for me the preparation process she used for her speech.  She gave lots of thought to what she wanted to say and what people would want to hear.  She read her Competent Communicator manual, looked on the web for sample speeches, and even met with her mentor; who happens to be me.  When her thoughts were sorted about her intent, she wrote out her speech and practiced it a couple of times in the days beforehand.

I asked Joyce about the appropriateness of the evaluation she received.  She felt that her evaluator’s feedback was positive, constructive and that the specific insightful points mentioned were helpful.  She believes that the overall experience, preparation through presentation and evaluation, was positive and is looking forward to her next speech.

Joyce offered these recommendations to others who are thinking of presenting their “Ice Breaker” speech:

    • Think about your club’s warm reception and friendly environment to overcome any apprehension that you might have.
    • Keep your momentum going… as soon as you start making speeches always be planning your next one.
    • Don’t let your fears stop you!!!

What great advice for all of us!

Why I am Thankful for Toastmasters?

If you love public speaking and have a commitment to become a talented speaker; I can assure you that Toastmasters can be a great investment in yourself.  Well, I would like to elucidate my predilection by three important aspects of this organization: positiveness, leadership and opportunity. 

Toastmasters is an organization where people come to learn and to share inspiring stories.  Members are encouraged to always be positive toward every member of the club.  Ever since I became a member of the Sunset Toastmasters at Pearl River, NY and every time I attend a meeting there; I always feel inspired to continue following a positive path.

Another aspect of Toastmasters is leadership.  In a world where leaders are in charge of the direction of society, it is imperative that young leaders associate with people who can help them becoming great leaders.  Toastmasters is an organization that can help create effective leaders with integrity by encouraging them to be responsible and to be positive.

Last, there are many opportunities to increase our knowledge and skills. We have the advantage to master our craft by giving speeches and listening to free speeches to become talented speakers and effective leaders.

Joel Osteen once said “You need to associate with people who inspire you, people that challenge you to raise higher, people that make you better. Don’t waste your valuable time with people that are not adding to your growth.  Your destiny is too important.”

Toastmasters offers that opportunity to be around people that will support and help you improve in all aspects of your life.  Thus, I am very thankful to be a member of Toastmasters.

Toasting to the Leadership Journey

Featuring Elizabeth Mancuso CC, ALB

The Toastmasters education program is an amazing opportunity to develop into an effective leader and communicator. I sensed this as a guest and joined Red Bank Toastmasters to work on those skills. At first, my goal was to give my Ice Breaker speech and keep on giving speeches until I finished the CC manual. To this day, I believe my Ice Breaker speech was the hardest because of how nervous I felt as a new member in the front of the room. I didn’t think too much about the projects in the CL manual, however my mentor was the VPE and she made sure I was also signing up for leadership roles. After a while, I started taking on roles, like “Mentor a New Member” and “Help Organize a Club Speech Contest”, that expanded my Toastmasters

Congratulating Red Bank Toastmasters member, John Connors on receiving his DTM

horizon. Soon I shifted my focus from participating at meetings to further my own journey to helping others work on their journey. Taking leadership roles gave me an opportunity to better know our members and understand how the club works. Eventually, I was asked to be a Mentor Coordinator, and I gladly accepted the challenge of supporting members on an ongoing basis.

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Bryan Shares His Toastmasters Experience

About a year ago a colleague gave advice while I typed notes on my cellphone as fast as I could, “Join Toastmasters.”

That day I made a digital note and a mental commitment. The next week, at 7:00 pm, I walked into a classroom at the Raritan Valley Community College building in Somerville and sat down in my first Toastmasters meeting. I wanted to improve my communication skills. I wanted to get better at public speaking.

I’ve gone to almost every meeting since and I’m working on my fifth speech now. With every speech, I’ve gained more confidence and become more relaxed. Yet for me, it’s been the incredible people that I’ve met along the way that have made the experience.

There’s been inspiration. It never ceases to amaze me how calm and confident Toastmasters can be. It doesn’t matter how many strangers are in the crowd or what topic they’ve chosen that evening. I can only describe the way they choose their words, vary their tone, and gesture, as craftsmanship. Even when given about the most wrenching topics.

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Unexpected Benefits of Toastmasters

A question that I love to ask fellow Toastmasters is, “What are the unexpected benefits you have gotten by being a member?” All of us joined to improve our communication skills with a focus on making speeches. The Toastmasters program does offer great and low cost training on how to present in front of an audience but the program offers so much more! The additional benefits are the reason that I have been a member for 20+ plus years.

Some of the unexpected benefits I have received are:

  1. Self Confidence
  2. The ability to give and to accept and receive constructive criticism
  3. Networking opportunities and new friends from diverse backgrounds

As a child I was shy and awkward. I also do not have an athletic bone in my body and I still remember the awful feeling of always being picked last for a team—the player that no one wanted!

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The Founding of NJIT Toastmasters

Before starting at NJIT, a mentor of mine had emphasized to me the importance of “soft skills” and encouraged me to join Toastmasters International–a non-profit organization that helps its members to develop their communication and leadership skills. I immediately joined NJIT’s Toastmasters club in my first semester. Unfortunately, the club was not well attended nor officially chartered with the organization-it did not provide the enthusiastic and supportive learning environment that my mentor had talked about. At the end of the year the club’s leadership wanted to disband the club.  

I saw a clear need for Toastmasters at NJIT. Our institute has brilliant analytical thinkers with a strong focus on science, engineering, and math. However, soft skills were overlooked at the student’s expense. Their extraordinary capabilities would go unnoticed if they could not communicate or lead effectively. To address this issue, I became club president and decided to reinvigorate it, chartering with Toastmasters International so that students could benefit.

I knew it would be challenging to establish the club and fill this niche in our community. I had no membership base, resources, or leadership team to begin with. I was not sure how I would persuade students to realize the importance of and make time for personal development and to become due-paying members. I did, however, have a strong vision and purpose for the club and the belief that I could create it.

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Who Do You Let Influence Your Life?

Would you continue to ride your car despite having a flat in your car?
 
Would you drive your brand new car with 3 great tires and one flat tire? You’re probably thinking, “Of course not.” But guess what, we all do that figuratively. Not once, not twice, but many times in our life.
 
Let me ask you this: Do you drive with your emergency break on? It’s another way to ask “are you striving to win while you have someone or something pulling you down”?
 
Napoleon Hill constantly reiterates this point and is the source of the aforementioned powerful examples.  He believes we are the average of the 5 people we associate with or are influenced by on a daily basis.
 
Who are your 5 best buddies? How do they influence you? Do you choose your friends or does it happen at random? Do you let others come into your life and make an impact or do you choose who impacts your thoughts?