October 2017 Newsletter- Wolfville Toastmasters

TIP OF THE MONTH
Advice From Members
6 Rules of Humour
From an article by Graham Honaker, ACS, taken from the September 2017 Toastmasters Magazine

1. Find Humour in Everyday Life. Some of the best speeches are inspired by everyday occurrences. Think about your everyday life and things that may have a humourous twist to them.
2. Know Your Audience. Knowing your audience is important when trying to land a punchline.
3. It’s a Humourous Speech Contest: Be Funny! The best speeches are funny throughout. Launch into a joke right off the bat to get the audience warmed up and kick-start your energy level.
4. Use Props. Think about effective props that can enhance your humour.
5. Don’t Step on Your Laughter. One of the greatest challenges a humourous speaker faces is to avoid stepping on the audience’s response. It takes practice, but you can allow your audience the time to laugh and soak in the humour. You can kill a joke entirely by rushing to tell your next one. Use effective pauses to enhance those jokes.
6. Consult with Others. Always run your speech by a mentor or trusted advisor.

Wise Words on Leading Others:

“True leadership stems from invidulaity that is honestly and sometimes imperfectly expressed…Leaders should strive for authenticity over perfection.” ~Sheryl Sandberg,  COO, Facebook

“You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing you think you cannot do.” ~James Humes, Former Presidential Speechwriter

“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.” ~Antoine de Saint-Exupery, French Writer

“A leader takes people where they would never go on their own.” ~Hans Finzel, Author, Speaker and Leadership Mentor

“If I have seen further [than others], it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” ~Isaac Newton, Mathematician, Astronomer and Physicist

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” ~Maya Angelou, Poet, Performer and Activist

Feedback and Submissions Welcomed
Any feedback, comments, ideas and/or submissions please contact:
Kathleen Jagoe, Vice President Public Relations at vp.public.relations@wolfvilletoastmasters.com

September 2017 Newsletter- Wolfville Toastmasters

New Members
I am happy to report that we have gained two new members in the past couple weeks. Michael Embree was inducted into our club in August and Rosalind Cross was inducted at our last meeting.

They both will be excellent additions to the Wolfville Toastmasters Club. We look forward to learning more about them and helping them grow as public speakers.

TIP OF THE MONTH
Advice From Members
How to Master the Stage  – 9 Theatrical Tips for delivering Award Winning Stories
From an article by Karen Banfield, ACB, CL,  taken from the August 2017 Toastmasters Magazine

1. Block your speech as you write it. To block means to move to a specific area on the stage at a specific time for a specific reason. You move to achieve a dramatic effect, to ensure sightlines, or to take advantage of lighting.
2. Never move without motivation. Many speakers try to add interest by pacing back and forth. But pacing by definition is a result of impatience, anxiety or annoyance. It doesn’t engage the audience. If you don’t have a reason to move, don’t move.
3. Learn character voices. If your speech has different characters, try to learn their voices. Go to YouTube and listen to different dialects and practice speaking them. You don’t need to have the accent down perfectly, but a few well-spoken lines with snap your audience to attention.
4. Make different characters occupy different spaces. When you become another character during a dialogue, physically step out of the main character’s position. Give each person in your story their own real estate. It doesn’t need to be a big move, but it needs to happen.
5. Be in the moment. Interested people are interesting people. If you are reading a newspaper as part of your talk, don’t hold it and pretend to read. The audience will know. Actually read from a newspaper prompt. The audience will feel the difference, Make your props real.
6. Show the detail. Bringing the arc of a story (the narrative) down to a minute detail will nail the moment.
7. Being tender is better than being theatrical. Aim for the heart. An example of this is showing how receiving just one heartfelt letter made a difference in your life.
8. Kill your little darlings. This means that if anything in your story is not clear or focused, or prevents the story from moving along, then you should take it out. No matter how much you love it.
9. Deliver from your body, not from your head. Feel it! No message will be effectively delivered to your audience unless you feel it.

UPCOMING EVENTS

September 11
Wolfville Toastmasters Club Speech Contest

September 30
Area 21 and 9 Speech Contest

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Feedback and Submissions Welcomed
Any feedback, comments, ideas and/or submissions please contact:
Kathleen Jagoe, Vice President Public Relations at vp.public.relations@wolfvilletoastmasters.com

August 2017 Newsletter- Wolfville Toastmasters

TIP OF THE MONTH
Advice From Members
10 Tips for Terrific Table Topics
From an article by Christopher Cox, DTM, taken from the July 2017 Toastmasters Magazine

1. Don’t Panic. Remember everyone in the audience has been in your position and wants you to do well.
2. Buy Time. Give yourself time for your nerves to calm down and for you to think of something to say.
3. Go with the first idea that comes into your head. Sooner or later, an idea will pop into your head.
4. Express an opinion, right at the start. Unless you’re a beginner, try not to give a long introduction. Answer the question or express an opinion instead.
5. Remember the rule of three. You can put some structure into your speech by breaking it down into three main points that justify your opinion or reinforce it.
6. Remember the six honest serving men. You can develop your arguments by using British writer Rudyard Kipling’s “six honest serving men” (what, why, when, how, where and who) to trigger ideas in your mind.
7. Know when to stop. Try not to ramble your way through a long conclusion. Recap your answer, and main points of your speech, finish with a punchy ending and hand it back to the Table Topics Master.
8. Prepare something in advance. Use the theme of the topic or meeting to suggest a framework for your speech, a style of delivery or a direction to take it in.
9. Draw on your own experiences. When you’re given a Table Topic ask yourself if there’s anything in your own experiences that will answer the question or illustrate your argument.
10. Be Eccentric. The best table Topics responses are often those where the speaker avoids a serious or conventional answer, and instead tries something unusual or entertaining.

BONUS TIP:

Keep doing Table Topics. Finally, keep practicing. The more you do it the less nervous you’ll become!

UPCOMING EVENTS

August 23-26, 2017
Toastmasters International 2017 Convention
Vancouver, British Columbia

Feedback and Submissions Welcomed
Any feedback, comments, ideas and/or submissions please contact:
Kathleen Jagoe, Vice President Public Relations at vp.public.relations@wolfvilletoastmasters.com