Name: Thomas Somers
Position: Webmaster
Club(s): Old Bridge Toastmasters, Jim Friend Toastmasters, and ACES
Other positions: Past District Governor
How long have you been in Toastmasters? 13 Years
What are your plans for the district? Maintain the district’s website to help promote district events and continue to develop the website so that it can be transferred to a future webmaster.
At the D83 Blog, we love hearing what our clubs are doing. One way clubs share their stories is through a club newsletter.
For the entire newsletter, please click here.
If you would like your newsletter featured on the District 83 blog, please email Allison Lips at amichelelips@gmail.com.
Last Thursday, a group of Toastmasters gathered to support Mike Carlo at the 4th Thursday Networking group. The following videos feature Mike’s speech on public speaking.
The year ahead of us will be filled with new beginnings. We are off to a grand start. We are expanding our public relations efforts through the introduction of District 83’s Blog along with increasing our usage of Facebook and Twitter. We will continue to expand our promotion of Toastmasters on trains and buses throughout the year.
Training, contests, and conferences are important training opportunities for each of our members. In the area of Training, we will be offering 4 sessions around 4 Ps: Plan, Prepare, Practice and Perform. Each will touch upon important elements of becoming better communicators and leaders. We are offering training to members who want to be Chief Judges and Judges for contests. For our Club Officers, there will be two training sessions, one now and one in the winter. We offer an incentive to our clubs when 7 officers are trained in both sessions.
I grew up in a family that values volunteering. I carried the orange UNICEF box to collect change on Halloween as a girl, watched my parents actively engage in the community through the Jaycees, and joined my grandmother in delivering mail to patients in the hospital as a candy striper.
The foundation of service to others was firmly established in my upbringing. I continued to volunteer throughout college, career and kids when time permitted. In 2010 service switched from being a pastime to a priority. I was invited to join the local chapter of a global organization focused on literacy.
Room to Read began in 2000 on the belief that World Change Starts with Educated Children. Room to Read operates in 14 countries and has an extensive volunteer network worldwide. I read the book by the founder, Leaving Microsoft to Change the World, and was immediately hooked.
For most people, the seasons are Summer, Fall, Winter, and Spring. For Toastmasters, the seasons are Officer Training, Contest Season, Officer Training, and Contest Season. For Fall 2017, District 83 is holding two contests: Tall Tales and Table Topics. Club contests are traditionally run in August. Winners move on to Area contests in September and Division contests in October, eventually culminating in the District contest at our Fall Conference on November 18.
But why hold a club contest at all? Here are four great reasons:
Name: Manuel A. Reyes, ACG, ALB
Position: Program Quality Director
Club(s): Impact 21, What Exit?, Brunswick Advanced, and Brunswick Toastmasters
Other positions: At the club level, I have been Club President, VP of Education, VP Public Relations, Secretary, and Sergeant-at-Arms . I have also served as Area 42 Director 2015 – 2016 and Division D Director 2016 – 2017.
How long have you been in Toastmasters? Since April 01, 2014.
What are your plans for the district/area/division?
The theme for this Toastmaster Year is “New Beginnings”. And I like to think of this theme as the start to great things. In the year ahead, I want to see our members grow in their communications and leadership skills. I want to ask everyone to set a goal to complete a personal milestone, like to move up or add one communication or leadership award. For example, leveling up from CC (Competent Communicator) to ACB (Advance Communication Bronze) and so on.
We all have a new opportunity to reassess where we are today and where we want to be a year from now. As long as everyone keeps sight of where they are headed, we should be on the right track.
For a starting point, let me remind you of Lao Tzu quote. “The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” And if you are on your path today, then take the next step.
Conference Chair Dave Chapman talks about the Fall Conference, which will take place on November 18, 2017.
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”
Twitter is an invaluable tool for Toastmasters today. It lets you interact with other Toastmasters all over the world, sharing ideas that make the organization as a whole stronger. However, for non-digital natives, once you create an account, it’s easy to get lost in a sea of hashtags, @ signs, and 140 character-long thoughts.
Hashtags are used on both Twitter and Facebook and are used the same way for both. They are used to highlight key words. Don’t hashtag minor words. #the is meaningless. What words do you want followers and potential followers to find your content under? In the Toastmasters Twitterverse, the most popular are #toastmasters, #leadership, and #publicspeaking.
A lesson from @google: When it comes to Powerpoint slides, less is more. #toastmasters #publicspeaking https://t.co/rummL5dMjD
— Freehold Phrasers (@FreeholdToast) June 4, 2017
