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The Official Newsletter of the LC-39 Toastmaster Club District # 47, Space Coast Division, Area # 11, Club # 9620 Volume # 2002/03 Issue # 10 April 2003 |
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The TM year is coming to a close. Be sure to finish off those requirements for your educational objectives before June 30th. Finish off that CTM or ATM and help the club achieve its goals. We also need some new members. Do your part and bring along a guest to each meeting for the remainder of the year. President - Jack Jamba
We have room for new members! Let’s get busy! VP Membership - Bill Clever
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Sky
Diving:
I was a member of the Fort Leavenworth sky-diving club and one windy day made a perfect three-point landing -- on two toes and my head. Taken to the base hospital with a slight concussion, I was released the next morning. A few days later, I received a call from a personnel officer who asked what in the world had happened. He had been reading the medical report, where, under the section marked "Reason for accident," the doctor had stated: "Fell out of airplane." Quote of the Month:
Unexpected
Cold Snaps One warm April day Dad was wheeling the tree out into the yard, and stopped to give our dog a drink from the garden hose. A neighbor watched the scene with amusement. "Frank," he finally commented, "you're the only man I know who walks his tree and waters his dog!" |
Web Surfer
Liemails.com Anyone with an e-mail address receives e-mails with warnings, instructions to delete certain files that are reported viruses, rumors and gossip about prominent persons, even offers of large sums of money available for the asking. There are several sites in operation to check out the validity of these e-mails. Now, there is a portal that will give you access to the more reputable 'validation' sites. Liemails.com is just what its name indicates, a portal to help you determine which e-mails should be taken seriously and which are lies, a portal that directs you to several sites so that if one has not been updated with the current hoax or truth, you will have access to additional resources, one of which should have the latest information. As the instructions state, "When YOU receive a suspicious e-mail, use the resources we've provided, and find out whether there's anything to it. Don't be responsible for spreading a lie!" Happy surfing! Humor Corner: Soon after our last child left home for college, my husband was resting next to me on the couch with his head in my lap. I carefully removed his glasses. “You know honey” I said sweetly, “without your glasses you look like the same handsome man I married.” “Honey,” he replied with a grin, “without my glasses, you still look pretty good too!” |
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Growing Collectively and ConnectedlyBy Carla MedlenkaIt’s springtime and everything is growing, including you and me! I’m not referring to the extra pounds that may still be hanging on after the holidays or those stubborn hairs that seem to sprout up as we age. These types of alterations in our outer appearances do remind us that we are in a state of constant change. When we are very young, growth is easy to measure. Most of us probably had some sort of tool that assessed our steady increase in height and weight – maybe red lines on the garage wall or some more sophisticated method. Throughout our formative years we are preoccupied with efforts to crawl, reach the cookies on the counter top, graduate from school and celebrate many milestones that represent our growth. But when our physical growth tapers off and we become adults, development becomes less quantifiable. Numbers are replaced by thoughts and emotions as we shift toward the maturity of our understanding skills, relationships and attitudes about life. How do we gage this type of growth? Nature has equipped us with an internal barometer that, when acknowledged, gives us intuitive measurements. It worked for me the other morning when I visited a local Master Gardner spring plant sale. After carefully selecting my tomato plants, I took my place in the long line of other gardeners waiting to pay. An elderly woman in front of me dropped her money on the ground. We both had our hands full, but I immediately bent over to pick up her dollars. When I handed her cash back to her she looked deeply into my eyes as if in amazement and shared a gentle and gracious smile with me. For a moment I saw Mother Teresa in her face and was surprised at her genuine gratitude. I was so deeply touched by this woman’s sincerity that an instantaneous warmth and contentment spread through me. I had experienced an increment of growth. No one could see or measure it; it had occurred silently within and between two people. We experienced our connectedness. Like aspen trees that appear as individuals on the surface, all people are connected by one root system. |
We are all growing as individuals and as a collective whole. Our individuality is inherent, like bulbs that a gardener throws into his basket. To the casual observer they all look alike, but growth reveals tremendous differences. One may be a rose and add brightness and sweetness to some dark corner of the world; one may be a climbing vine, reaching higher toward the sun along some perilous path; one may be a great oak whose boughs provide nesting for baby birds and squirrels. Every bulb can grow to be something worthy, something rare, something perfect. Our individual development can also bring splendor to humanity when we bring forth the blossoming of our full potential. We determine what fruits our labors will yield. Planting seeds of love, laughter, caring, compassion and understanding wherever we go will sweeten our harvest. Nurturing ourselves with other people who do the same will help ensure that a bumper crop of goodness springs forth for the enjoyment of all. Surrounding ourselves with angry, fearful people can cultivate weeds that diminish our own growth and choke out the full budding of our blooms. Much like a pebble that is dropped into the stillness of a pond, our individual actions send out small but important waves that ripple throughout the world. Our awareness of our connectedness, and of the influence that we have upon one another’s growth, should encourage us to create lives that are positive, joyful and in alignment with the greater good of our families, our communities and the entire world. Each of us is a spark of living consciousness, capable of igniting an awareness that will burn brightly in the lives of others, bringing forth new inspiration as the sun warms the earth to bring forth new life. Observing this magnificence as springtime unfolds effortlessly around us, we can infuse its magic into our own lives, reflect upon our individual development and determine what the world will harvest from our personal growing season. We can make it our mission to grow big, to grow bold and to spread the seeds of change that will sprout goodness wherever they take hold. |
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For a more powerful performance, say it short and well
By Stephen D. Boyd Centuries ago great orators often spoke for several hours at a time. But today, when sound bites on television news are the status quo and complex sociological problems are solved in an hour on a television drama, audiences are most interested in speakers who get their points across in a short period of time. Today, great speakers are noted for their brevity. The Rev. Billy Graham, in a recent city-wide campaign in Cincinnati, spoke for about 20 minutes each night. In Theodore Sorensen's book, Kennedy, the author reports the guidelines by which President John F. Kennedy prepared speeches. No speech was more than 20 to 30 minutes long. He wasted no words and his delivery wasted no time. He rarely used words he considered hackneyed or unnecessary. Accomplished speakers know that their message is most powerful when it delivers good material in a short amount of time. Here are some guidelines to make brevity a key foundation in your next speech.
Once upon. . . Try to keep stories under two minutes in length. In preparing a story for a presentation, continue to ask the question, "How can I say this in less time and in fewer words?" Script out the story and then try to condense it. To ensure the story stays under two minutes, include only information that answers who, what, when, where and why. If the information doesn't address one of these questions, leave it out. Also make sure you have a sense of direction in the story. Each part should move toward the conclusion. The listener should always feel you are going somewhere in developing your story and that it will all make sense when you get there. |
Start with less
Time yourself
The power of segment
Then, spend the bulk of your time in the body of the speech. This is where you make your points and give support or evidence for each point. The final two minutes should be your summary and move-to-action statement. Some speakers have a hard time concluding. When you say you are going to conclude, do so. As a wise person once said, "Don't dawdle at the finish line of the speech." |
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One way to keep a speech brief is to have no more than three points in the body. With a maximum of three points, you will have the self-discipline to condense rather than expand. When organizing the material, accept the fact that there will always be more material than you can cover, and make sure you include only material that relates to the three points you plan to make. When in doubt, follow the speaking axiom: Have a
powerful, captivating opening and a strong, memorable close, and put the
two of them as close together as possible.
So the engineer reports to the gates of hell and is let in. Pretty soon, the engineer gets dissatisfied with the level of comfort in hell, and starts designing and building improvements. After a while, they've got air conditioning and flush toilets and escalators, and the engineer is a pretty popular guy. One day, God calls Satan up on the telephone and says with a sneer, "So, how's it going down there in hell?" Satan replies, "Hey, things are going great. We've got air conditioning and flush toilets and escalators, and there's no telling what this engineer is going to come up with next." God replies, "What??? You've got an engineer? That's a mistake - he should never have gotten down there; send him up here." Satan says, "No way. I like having an engineer on the staff, and I'm keeping him." God says, "Send him back up here or I'll sue." Satan laughs uproariously and answers, "Yeah, right. And just where are YOU going to get a lawyer?" |
The Year's Best Actual News Headlines: Include Your Children when Baking Cookies |
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You Think A Gallon of Gas
Is Expensive? |
1. Two CTMs – None 2. Two more CTMs - None 3. One ATM – None 4. One more ATM – None 5. One CL, AL, or DTM – None 6. One more CL, AL, or DTM – None 7. Four new members – None 8. Four more new members – None 9A. Four officers trained August 2002– Completed 9B. Four officers trained February 2003 – Completed 10A. Percaps on time October 2002 - Completed 10B. Percaps on time April 2003 - Completed
Secretary- Paul Gratsch |
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This newsletter is brought to you by the VP of Public Relations. As a challenge to the membership, 20 grammar and spelling errors are included in each issue for you to find. Think of it as a challenging puzzle. Here is a ranking to score yourself on the number of errors found in this issue:
Less than 5 errors – You are probably not reading the
newsletter. Submit newsletter articles to Mike Schnoke at mschnoke@cfl.rr.com |
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Treasurer’s
Report:
Call for Articles:
President’s Message
New Members:
Best
Launch Team in the Universe 
An engineer dies and reports to the pearly gates. St. Peter checks his
dossier and says, "Ah, you're an engineer -- you're in the wrong place."
