Category: Training

Are You Suffering from Butterfly Effect?

You have been preparing for your speech for days. You rehearsed it many times over your head and you have been waiting for this moment, yet when the Toastmaster announces your name, all of sudden you feel gazillion butterflies swarming in your stomach making you very uncomfortable. You look around nervously. Out of nowhere, you have sweaty palms, your hands are shaking, your heart beats faster than normal, your mouth feels dry, and no word comes out of your mouth when you try to speak. All you want is to run away.

Does this sound familiar to you? I hope not.

However, if you are one of those people who gets nervous before presenting a speech and are suffering from the “butterfly effect,” there are things you can do to calm yourself before you begin to speak. Over time, I have gathered steps from many sources to help calm me when presenting a speech. I am going to share them with you.

Keep in mind sometimes nervous energy can be a good thing because it can be converted into an enthusiastic speech. Therefore, having a little bit of the butterfly effect helps you be more prepared and focused. On the other hand, if the butterfly effect stands in a way of your performance, you can try the steps to calm yourself before speaking.

Continue reading “Are You Suffering from Butterfly Effect?”

The Results of Officer Training Round 1: Is Your Team Fully Trained?

Between June 24 and August 31, District 83 conducted seventeen Officer Trainings. In total, approximately 640 officers out of 1,148, or around 56% of officers, have been trained in Round 1 for the current Toastmaster year.

Now, that total may be off. The total is based on all clubs having seven officers, but that is not necessarily true. Some clubs do not have seven officers. This could be good news because our results may be even greater than what I have presented at this time. On the other hand, when I say approximately 640 officers were trained, it is possible that some of our officers have been trained out of our District and the data has not been passed to our District yet or that some forms were not completed in a way that allows our district to identify club and officer’s position.

Officer Training is a determining factor in achieving your club success plan and meeting all your goals in the Distinguished Club Program. With that said, this is the time to review your club’s current Officer Training status. Please go to Toastmasters International Club Performance Reports for District 83 and check on the records for your club. If you find that you have not received all your officer’s trained numbers, please email me to identify who is missing in your club and then research to give your club the credit.

Continue reading “The Results of Officer Training Round 1: Is Your Team Fully Trained?”

Register for Upcoming Training Session: Mentors Mentor about Mentoring

Toastmasters is based upon the tenet of learning by doing and improvement via practice and evaluation. Throughout the Toastmasters journey we learn as we help others to learn. Nowhere is this more evident than in club sponsoring, mentoring, and coaching.

Please join District 83 on Saturday, September 23, 2017 at 1-2:30PM at the Clark Library, 303 Westfield Avenue, Clark NJ, for a session on:

  • How to Sponsor a Club and Help it Charter – Anne Gilson, Club Quality Chair
  • How to Mentor and Advise a New Club on Procedures— Manny Reyes, Program Quality Director
  • How to Coach a Club to Transform it From Struggling to Distinguished — Lynda Starr, Club Growth Director

    Please register on TM83.org before September 18.
    If you have any questions, please reach out to Lynda Starr by email at lbstarr@optonline.net or phone at 201-320-1752.

One Level Up- Module 1: Planning for Success

Our District 83 theme for this year is “New Beginnings”. This means a new way of acting to move at a much faster pace, a new vision to take our members to new educational heights exploring our resilience, to acquire new abilities no matter what obstacles or hurdles appears on the way, and find consistent  practices to overcome the distractions trying to disrupt our advancement.

For everyone to achieve my challenge to move “one level up” in your educational and/or leadership program, we need to come to the realization that if we don’t plan the year-end outcome, we cannot arrive there.  Or as Zig Ziglar used to say, “You can’t hit a target you cannot see, and you cannot see a target you do not have”.  

Continue reading “One Level Up- Module 1: Planning for Success”

D83 Introduces One Level Up Webinars

Starting next week, District 83 is going to embark on a new endeavor, which is to answer those impending questions. Sometimes you can’t find the answers to those questions easily, but, because of years of Toastmasters experience, some of our District leaders have the answers to or can at least to point in a way to solve certain types of challenges.

D83 One Level Up webinars are not going to take you from zero to sixty in six seconds flat. Our goal is to help you reach 100 percent of your goals, even if it takes a little more time than driving at maximum speed on the NJ Turnpike. Remember is not how fast you come to a solution, but how robust and permanent your solution is to your club.

The webinars will cover different topics and will be tailored to your needs. They will be a roadmap to what is happening in District 83 at any given time as well as the tasks that your club should be working on, if you have elected to follow the Toastmasters International calendar and are working on meeting the necessary points to become Distinguished, Select Distinguished, or President’s Distinguished.

Continue reading “D83 Introduces One Level Up Webinars”

Toastmasters Leadership Institute Training: District Officer Training (Part 2)

The afternoon session featured District officer training. Janice invited officers to “consider taking on High Performance Leadership (HPL) projects for your role for this year.” She reviewed the structure of the District, how it is comprised of nine Divisions and 36 Areas and that clubs belong to Areas. There are four Areas in each Division and that District 83 is part of Region 9 in Toastmasters International.

She discussed expectations and that we hope to become a Distinguished District with Distinguished Clubs, Areas, and Divisions. Focus on members.

She added that the group will be working on their Division Success Plans this afternoon and that incentives at end of year are awarded at the Hail and Farewell event.

Our Region (9) will be one of the last to begin the Pathways program. We will be notified six months before it will roll out for Ambassadors and Guides. Ambassadors will work with Guides who will work with Clubs. The District still needs Ambassadors and Guides.

Manny began discussing Club officer training, held twice a year. In the summer, officers should ask, “What can I learn from this experience this year?”

Continue reading “Toastmasters Leadership Institute Training: District Officer Training (Part 2)”

Toastmasters Leadership Institute kicks off Summer Officer Training (Part 1)

TLI took place on Saturday, June 24, 2017 in Cedar Knolls, NJ. Our District Trio comprised of District Director Janice Buffalow, DTM; Program Quality Director Manny Reyes, ACG, ALB; and Club Growth Director Lynda Starr, DTM, welcomed us. Our leaders provided a series of presentations with general information of interest to Club Officers in the morning prior to the breakout sessions for each of the seven club officer positions.

District Director Janice Buffalow

Janice discussed the importance of Club Success Plans and the Moments of Truth educational module.

Manny informed us that the contests at the District

conference are Tall Tales and Table Topics this fall. He encouraged participation in the contests.

“We need to communicate better and start now. It’s about you being better than you were before,” he remarked. “If you want something you have to work for it.”

Perpetual Progress is the theme for the conference, which will take place November 18 at the DoubleTree by Hilton in Somerset, NJ, the location of the District’s previous two conferences.

Program Quality Director Manny Reyes

Manny introduced Emilia Volyand, DTM, who will serve as District Chief Judge for 2017-2018. Emilia stated, “It starts with serving as an evaluator at the club level. If you pick the right judges, they will pick the right winners.” She will train people to be judges in August. “It is challenging to judge without judges’ training,” she concluded.

Continue reading “Toastmasters Leadership Institute kicks off Summer Officer Training (Part 1)”

Officer Training in Tinton Falls

Were you unable to make it to Toastmasters Leadership Institute training? Don’t worry! Our second club officer training will take place on July 5, 2017 at the Tinton Falls Municipal Center. If you would like to attend, please register on the District 83 website.
 
Tinton Falls will also have some special guests. Our District Director Janice Buffalow will be training new Presidents. Program Quality Director Manny Reyes will train Vice Presidents of Education. Public Relations Manager Allison Lips will train Vice Presidents of Public Relations.
 
The other trainers are:
 
Annie O’Rourke  for Vice Presidents of Membership
John Connors for Secretaries
John Steinhilber for Treasurers
Frank Schuck for Sergeant at Arms