What I Did on My Lunch Break

By Ms. Sara Brunner

On Monday, September 17^th, Carolina Little, Kathy Lu, and I took a trip to Audubon Engineering.  We checked in and took the elevator to the 7^th floor not knowing what to expect. We were greeted by one of the members at the elevator door and followed her to the room. To my surprise, the room was filled with people; in fact we had to sit to the side because all of the seats at the tables were taken. The meeting had already started and everyone was eating their Jason’s Deli- catered lunch. The first thought that came to my mind was, “Hey, how come they get free lunch during their Toastmasters’ meeting and we don’t? “

As the meeting progressed, we were all very impressed with the Toastmaster. She was very good about getting everyone involved and speaking.  During segues, she would select people in various rows to stand up and share what their pet peeves were. It got everyone excited and involved; and it was nice to see every individual in the room contribute to the meeting. It also gave us the opportunity to learn more about the group.There were two speeches given that day and they were both Ice Breaker speeches. I found this to be interesting, because I had never seen two individuals give their Ice Breaker speeches at the same meeting. Later on, I discovered this was only Audubon Engineering’s second meeting and realized that with a new club most of the speeches for a while would be Ice Breakers.  The first speaker shared  how she overcame her fear of public speaking; while the second speaker  discussed his experience with sky diving. Both speakers did a great job incorporating humor into their speeches and getting the audience interested in what they had to say.

Overall, I believe the Audubon Engineers’ second meeting was conducted very well. The only area I recommend they work on is recognizing guests during the meeting. As their guests, they had us participate in the “What is your pet peeve?” game; however, the Toastmaster did not fully introduce us to the group.  All and all, I think everyone did a great job at the meeting and it was very enjoyable. Not a bad way at all to spend a lunch break.

Editor's note: 

Thanks, Sara, for sharing your “What I Did on My Lunch Break” story. I highly recommended that every Mudslinger go and visit other clubs when you can. It is interesting to meet other people with similar goals. Not every club runs their meetings exactly the same, so you can get a lot of new ideas and energy from them or at the very least, a change of scenery.  Plus, if you want to, you can deliver a CC or specialty manual speech to an outside club and get credit for it. This helps you get out of your comfort zone by presenting to a whole different group of people and helps them by observing someone outside their club.

For an opportunity to visit Audon Engineering Toastmasters on Mondays during lunch, please contact Carolina Little, VP of Ed at Clittle03@slb.com or call extension 1359. 

Traveling Toastmaster

Welcome back, Patrick! Thanks for the awesome picture you took for our club with the TOASTMASTER magazine. I welcome all Toastmasters to do the same. It is a fun idea.

Mudslinger Patrick Tyczynski in Perth, Australia, September 2012

Using Nervous Energy Effectively and Planning To Create A Successful Presentation

This past Monday was the kids’ first day back at school.  While many parents, me included, dread this event, our kids tend to look at it from different point of views.  Some kids love it. Other kids hate it.  My son, Justin,   who started middle school this year, was both nervous and excited.  After going to his  new school’s orientation, he spent every spare moment he had not only meticulously planning his wardrobe, but mapping his daily schedule, memorizing his lunch PIN and locker combination, and setting and resetting his alarm clock. His also made sure to learn his bus schedule and bus number, too. Like I mentioned, he was excited.  

But, he was also nervous.

 The first thing that I asked him on Monday morning was how he felt. He smiled and responded that he had been too excited to sleep.  I asked him if he meant nervous. He replied, both: though, he believed he was more excited than nervous. Having felt this way myself, I told him that I could understand what he meant.  The two emotions can often feel the same and evoke the same energy.  Being nervous can help us become aware that we need more preparation for an event. Many times, being nervous can also make it seem as if we are excited, therefore optimistic, as we take on a new challenge; such as the first day of school, a much bigger school.

What my son did to prepare for his milestone moment exemplifies what we, as Toastmasters, can all do in undertaking our presentations. The first thing to do is plan, plan, and plan some more. My son is not obsessive-compulsive at all.  Sadly, he is somewhat scattered-brained like his mom. However again like his mother, he will plan well for something that he is particularly excited about. He even devised backup-plans for his big day.  For example, he set up two alarm clocks in case one did not go off. How often have we seen ill-prepared speakers waste time trying to get their slideshows to work at the onset of their scheduled presentations? A practice run or backup presentation would have saved the day and more importantly time and effectiveness.  A second thing to do is to use our nervous energy while we speak. Using nervous energy effectively makes us appear to our audience as peppy, confident, and excited about our topic.  Since, Justin was nervous, his adrenaline was high, his spirits were up, and he tackled the day ahead of him. He channeled his nervousness into excitement and made his first day seem like an adventure, not an obstacle course.  This allowed Justin to help many of his friends find their classes, work their lockers, and become more comfortable when around the worldly 7^th- and 8^th- graders. Using nervous energy can bring life not only to the presentation, but build the audience’s confidence in what the speaker is presenting, too.

Hopefully, Justin will be able to use his nervous energy during his first tackle football game this Saturday. It may not be pretty, but he is excited. 

submitted by Carolina Little, VP of Education

A Fun Post

I found this at  http://www.limelightpresentations.com/vocal-warmups.php. I thought it would be a good tool for many of us to use. Thanks, Marcia McGilley, for allowing this to be posted for free!

Vocal Warm-up's: Top 10 Voice Exercises to Try Before a Speech or Presentation 

(repeat each 5 times)

1. Good Blood, Bad Blood, Bad Blood, Good Blood
2. Around the Rugged Rock the Ragged Rascal Ran
3. Unique New York
   
   
4. A Real Rare Whale
5. Double bubble gum bubbles double
6. Eat fresh fried fish at the fish fry
7. Sixty-six sick chicks
8. Tie twine to the tree twigs
9. Which wily wizard wished wicked wishes forWilly?
10. Shy Sarah saw six Swiss wristwatches

Want to post this content on your web site, blog or include it in your newsletter? You are welcome to do so provided you leave the following signature line with live link to www.LimelightPresentations.com and the Copyright notice below in tact:

Copyright 2007, Denver, CO, Marcia McGilley, Presentation Skills Coach All rights reserved. Shareware: May reprint with footnote attached. www.LimelightPresentations.com 303.794.6760

Seven Overseas Dos and Don’ts

by Dr. Art Leuterman, ACB

Much of my career with M-I SWACO and its predecessor companies has involved formal presentations conducted overseas.  Three decades of traveling and talking has led me to develop a short list of “Dos and Don’ts” when speaking outside of the United States.

1.       Speak Clearly

First and foremost – determine the level of familiarity with your language that your audience has.  Many people can understand American English reasonably well but do not speak it confidently enough to respond in English.  Others have only a nodding acquaintance with English and can ‘get by’.  For example, I can read menus in nearly a dozen languages, say “please”, “thank you”, introduce myself and others and utter a few other pleasantries, count and argue with taxi drivers.  I do not however speak their language!

Remind yourself that you are speaking to people whose native language is not yours!!!!  Then remember the difficulties you encountered when you took a foreign language in school all those years ago.  First, you struggled to ‘find the word’, then you struggled to translate from the language being spoken into American English in order to define the word(s) you thought you heard.  Yikes, by the time you figured out the first few words of your teacher he or she had already uttered another dozen or more words which you totally missed.  Assume that this could be what a good portion of your current audience is experiencing.  Therefore, help them out by our word selection and pace - avoid jargon, contractions and buzz words.  For presentations, these should be removed from all of your verbal renditions regardless of the country in which you are speaking.  Everyday verbiage used at home, at the office and/or on the street here in the United States is often at times indecipherable by your audience overseas.   Additionally, work diligently to speak clearly in “word packages”, i.e. a set of words no longer than five to seven followed by a short pause, thus allowing those that can follow English to translate for themselves.  In situations where an ‘instantaneous translator” has been employed utilize a similar pattern of verbal presentation thereby allowing the translator a few additional seconds to find the ‘exactly correct’ word to bring full meaning to yours. 

A frequently asked question by our younger staff members is “Should I greet the audience with a sentence or two in their native tongue prior to delivering my presentation?”  My answer is always “That depends!”  I would never attempt some of the oriental languages because they are tonal and if I get the tone wrong I may well have insulted my audience rather than praising the beauty of the countryside that I enjoyed on the tour they provided yesterday!  If you are reasonably competent then write out what you wish to say in both your native tongue and the intended language and have one of the company’s local staff read and then listen to you several times.  The upside to this attempt at speaking the local tongue is the obvious attempt by yourself to demonstrate respect for your audience and their native land and can be quite successful on occasion.  The downside, which I have personally experienced, is that if you pull it off and manage to sound reasonably competent in the tongue of your hosts for a sentence or two they will either wonder why you did not continue in the local lingua or will begin all their questions in their native tongue leaving the speaker (at least in my case) sorely lost and waiting on the translator to work his/her magic in reverse to save me.

2.       Avoid Acronyms

Never ever use an acronym without first having utilized the full word, for example, instead of “all those UUA forms …”  say “all those United Underwriter Association forms …”, when speaking or writing.  Always define the acronym the first time!

3. Avoid Profanity

At all costs avoid the use of profanity in any form in your presentations.    If you listen you will be amazed at the foul language, ranging from mild to inexcusable, that you hear on the radio, television or see in print.  If you need to shock your audience to make a point, shock them with sound factual evidence based upon good science and solid research.

4. Have a Concise Introduction

If you are going to be formally introduced, develop a concise and humble introduction for yourself.  Leave the flowery, prosaic introductions to others.  If you are going to be introducing yourself, again do it concisely with pertinent information only.  An introduction is not a history of every job you have ever held.

5. Avoid Jokes

Although it is frequently a heavily recommended practice in the U.S. and Canada to use a humorous story/joke in order to ‘warm up’ your audience I recommend that this device not be employed elsewhere.  A joke/humorous story apparently loses a great deal upon translation and nearly always falls flat.  This is a horrific hole to have to dig one’s self out of as a speaker who is unable to communicate in the language of his/her hosts.

6. On Time

Be on time for your pickup ride and begin your presentation on time as per the agenda.  If you cannot be on time, then be early.  There really is no excuse for being late.  Instead, be prepared for any contingency.  Beginning on time is a demonstrable sign of respect for those in the audience that showed up on time. 

7. Dress Appropriately

Class and good taste never go out of style nor are either unaffordable.  Fashionable is not necessarily either classy or in good taste.  If you wish to be adjudged professional then act and dress so!  That includes your shoes – get them polished and keep them that way.  

Competent Leader: As Easy As 1, 2, 3

When I first joined Toastmasters in 2007, I confess that I did not open my CL book, not even once. I thought that it would be too much to work on top of everything else I had going on. As it was, I was lucky to complete my speeches and conduct roles at the meetings. After leaving the company for three years to stay at home with the kids, I decided to come back to work and to Toastmasters. Finally, I cracked open the Cl manual. Boy, was I feeling pretty silly (and then some) when I saw that I could have already completed at least 80% of my CL from conducting past roles. Since joining the Mudslingers I had been: time keeper, ah counter grammarian, TI event coordinator, Toastmaster, General Evaluator, speech evaluator, Table Topics speaker, Table Topics Master, and speaker. In fact, I had done most of those roles several times. Yes, you can imagine my disbelief when I realized that only I had1) cracked open the book and 2) had a member  evaluate my role, I could have received most of my CL credits. After discovering this simple enough fact, I started taking my CL book along with me to the meetings and scheduled my roles ahead of time.

In April, I finally completed my Competent Leader manual. Today, after I logged into the Toastmasters International website, I was so excited to see the CL beside my name.  After working towards my CL for over a year,that was a reward in itself. It wasn’t difficult or burdensome to achieve.  In fact, I accomplished that recognition comfortably. On this journey, I was able to improve my team-building skills and become more involved in the club than I probably would have if I did not have goals to work towards, which is exactly what the CL projects become-goals.

This is what working towards my CL helped me to accomplish:

• To be more involved with the club
• To build confidence to conduct more roles
• To build confidence to accept more professional responsibilities
• To help the club achieve Distinguish Club Select status
• To experience the rewards of being a mentor to a new member (really awesome!)
• To experience the rewards of helping to coordinate a successful event
• To develop habits that belong to a "DO-ER"

According to MindTools.com, “By setting sharp, clearly defined goals, you can measure and take pride in the achievement of those goals, and you'll see forward progress in what might previously have seemed a long pointless grind.”  To me, this is exactly what the CL manual achieves; it sets sharp clearly defined goals to help a Toastmaster measure his or her progress that can spill over into daily life. The bonus is that the projects are fairly easy to complete and are effective at improving team-building and communication skills.  The CL manual can easily be worked on at the same time as working through the CC (Competent Communicator) manual. Trust me. I learned that the hard way.

Now, dust of those books, sign up for a role, give your book to a member to evaluate your role, and you are well on your way to obtaining your CL.

See? Super easy. 

10 Tips for Time Management In a Multi-Tasking World

written by Penelope Trunk 

Time management is one of those skills no one teaches you in school but you have to learn. It doesn’t matter how smart you are if you can’t organize information well enough to take it in. And it doesn’t matter how skilled you are if procrastination keeps you from getting your work done.

Younger workers understand this, and time management is becoming a topic of hipsters. One of the most popular blogs in the world is Lifehacker, edited by productivity guru Gina Trapani, and her forthcoming book by the same name is a bestseller on Amazon based so far on pre-orders.

In today’s workplace, you can differentiate yourself by your ability to handle information and manage your time. “Careers are made or broken by the soft skills that make you able to hand a very large workload,” says Merlin Mann, editor of the productivity blog 43 Folders.

So here are 10 tips to make you better at managing your work:

1. Don’t leave email sitting in your in box.
“The ability to quickly process and synthesize information and turn it into actions is one of the most emergent skills of the professional world today,” says Mann. Organize email in file folders. If the message needs more thought, move it to your to-do list. If it’s for reference, print it out. If it’s a meeting, move it to your calendar.

“One thing young people are really good at is only touching things once. You don’t see young people scrolling up and down their email pretending to work,” says Mann. Take action on an email as soon as you read it.

2. Admit multitasking is bad.For people who didn’t grow up watching TV, typing out instant messages and doing homework all at the same time, multitasking is deadly. But it decreases everyone’s productivity, no matter who they are. “A 20-year-old is less likely to feel overwhelmed by demands to multitask, but young people still have a loss of productivity from multitasking,” says Trapani.

So try to limit it. Kathy Sierra at Creating Passionate Users suggests practicing mindfulness as a way to break the multitasking habit.

3. Do the most important thing first.Trapani calls this “running a morning dash”. When she sits down to work in the morning, before she checks any email, she spends an hour on the most important thing on her to-do list. This is a great idea because even if you can’t get the whole thing done in an hour, you’ll be much more likely to go back to it once you’ve gotten it started. She points out that this dash works best if you organize the night before so when you sit down to work you already know what your most important task of the day is.

4. Check your email on a schedule.
“It’s not effective to read and answer every email as it arrives. Just because someone can contact you immediately does not mean that you have to respond to them immediately,” says Dan Markovitz, president of the productivity consulting firm TimeBack Management, “People want a predictable response, not an immediate response.” So as long as people know how long to expect an answer to take, and they know how to reach you in an emergency, you can answer most types of email just a few times a day.

5. Keep web site addresses organized.
Use book marking services like del.icio.us to keep track of web sites. Instead of having random notes about places you want to check out, places you want to keep as a reference, etc., you can save them all in one place, and you can search and share your list easily.

6. Know when you work best.
Industrial designer Jeff Beene does consulting work, so he can do it any time of day. But, he says, “I try to schedule things so that I work in the morning, when I am the most productive.” Each person has a best time. You can discover yours by monitoring your productivity over a period of time. Then you need to manage your schedule to keep your best time free for your most important work.

7. Think about keystrokes.If you’re on a computer all day, keystrokes matter because efficiency matters. “On any given day, an information worker will do a dozen Google searchers,” says Trapani. “How many keystrokes does it take? Can you reduce it to three? You might save 10 seconds, but over time, that builds up.”

8. Make it easy to get started.We don’t have problems finishing projects, we have problems starting them,” says Mann. He recommends you “make a shallow on-ramp.” Beene knows the key creating this on ramp: “I try to break own my projects into chunks, so I am not overwhelmed by them.”

9. Organize your to-do list every day.
If you don’t know what you should be doing, how can you manage your time to do it? Some people like writing this list out by hand because it shows commitment to each item if you are willing to rewrite it each day until it gets done. Other people like software that can slice and dice their to-do list into manageable, relevant chunks. For example, Beene uses tasktoy because when he goes to a client site tasktoy shows him only his to do items for that client, and not all his other projects. (Get tasktoy here.)

10. Dare to be slow.
Remember that a good time manager actually responds to some things more slowly than a bad time manager would. For example, someone who is doing the highest priority task is probably not answering incoming email while they’re doing it. As Markovitz writes: “Obviously there are more important tasks than processing email. Intuitively, we all know this. What we need to do now is recognize that processing one’s work (evaluating what’s come in and how to handle it) and planning one’s work are also mission-critical tasks.”

Remembering Coach Avezzano

Coach Joe Avezzano taking the time for a Little Fan at Dallas Cowboy Training Camp 2012

Last year on a whim I decided to take my son, Justin, to Dallas Cowboy training camp in San Antonio, Texas. On a Saturday morning, we dressed in our Cowboys gear and with only my purse and a full tank of gas we headed out to the Alamo City to see America's Team. It was that spur-of-the-moment.

On the way, I had told my son not to expect too much from training camp. Since I had been to training camps before in Wichita Falls, I knew more than likely we would only see the players from far off and see more practice than scrimmage play. I also told him that things would be over-priced so not to ask me to buy anything. I did not know that my whimsical road trip would turn out to be one of the greatest days of 2011, if not our lives. Coach Joe helped contribute to that in a big way.

Since we arrived at training camp earlier than practice began, I decided to take Justin to Coach Joe's Chalk Talk. It was an opportunity to have a buffet lunch with the coach and hear him speak about being a part of the NFL and the Cowboys organization. It was also an opportunity to get out of the sun and win some VIP tickets close to the field where players were known to generously give autographs.  While we sat waiting for Coach Joe, I looked around the room and saw a variety of fans munching on burgers, holding onto memorabilia, and scanning the room for a glimpse of the stray superstar athlete who might come along with the elite coach. In the end, it was only a small group of assistants who set up a video camera and helped prep the coach onto the stage in order to introduce him to present his Chalk Talk. The crowd graciously clapped to hear the coach speak. We clapped not knowing just how great of a speaker we were about to hear.

Coach Joe Avezzano looked gruffy. If you did not know him, you probably thought he would be a crotchety old fart, but he was totally opposite of that. He was very loud, funny, and down-to-earth. As soon as he began to talk, you knew that he knew how to get a crowds' attention and keep it. I guess you don't win Super Bowl Rings and Special Teams Coach of the year three times each by not holding onto a crowds' attention. He shared with us a variety of anecdotes and kept us laughing and entertained throughout his entire speech. My son never fidgeted in his seat once. Now that is the sign of a good speaker.

While I may not remember everything the Coach said, I do remember how he left us feeling; uplifted, happy, joyous, and apart of the Cowboys tradition.  I also remember how he made the time to make it a special occasion for my son, Justin, who would go on to win Cowboys VIP tickets to the sideline of the field. After he signed Justin’s Dallas Cowboys book, he took him aside and told him where the best place would be on the sidelines to get autographs from the players.  While Justin proudly remembers this, he  is prouder of the moment during the Chalk Talk when he asked Coach Joe his favorite question during the Q&A session of the speech ( I will confess here that I fed him the question). After being asked a series of Cowboys prospects, new league rules, and draft questions by several of the male fans in the audience, Justin asked him one question that played to the heart and passion of the eccentric coach; who is your favorite special teams player of all time? Coach Joe enthusiastically answered Bill Bates. The answer lasted for ten minutes or so and his enthusiasm upon answering it never waned. In the end, he thanked my son for asking him that question.  It was a really nice moment.

While reading about Coach Joe’s passing, I came across this Dallas Cowboys report in which Coach Joe’ s favorite player, Bill Bates,  said this about his former coach and lifelong friend and mentor:

“Joe had that ability to have everyone’s attention,” Bates said. “Not only have their attention, but they wanted to play for him, wanted to succeed for him, wanted to give their best for the coach. “

In that sentiment it is obvious how strong communication skills can build and promote success AND successful relationships. Coach Joe had mastered both.

God speed, Coach Joe. It was an honor having you walk among us.

Coach Joe Avezzano
Nov. 17, 1943- April 5, 2012

M-I SWACO MUDSLINGERS Member Spotlight: Mario Bouguetta

Mario Bougeutta  (center) with the new members in 2011

This is the second installment of our M-I Mudslingers Member Spotlight.  This time, Mario Bouguetta was selected as our featured member. Mario was recently promoted as Manager of Technical Service Engineers. He has worked for M-I SWACO for 9 years. He joined M-I SWACO Mudslingers in September 2011.  Since then, he has delivered his Ice Breaker Speech, participated in several roles, and has baked us a mean bread pudding (which he kindly gave me the recipe for). Please welcome Mario Bouguetta to the Spotlight.

Carolina: Hi, Mario. Good Morning. Thanks for meeting with me so early in the morning.  First things first, why Toastmasters?

Mario: Well, that is Carolina’s fault (chuckles). (Yes, I did a good job of pestering him into it!)  Also, I wanted to network and communicate in English better.

Carolina: All very admirable reasons to join Toastmasters.  I always say we get to learn a lot about our coworkers in Toastmasters. A long that line, please give us a thumbnail sketch of yourself.

Mario: Well, I am multi-lingual (Mario speaks 5 languages), multi-cultural. I was born to an Algerian mom and an Italian dad. I moved to Canada.  I also met my wife, Mary, while in Mud School.  I was married in Canada. My wife absolutely hated the cold (in Canada) and she was homesick. We moved back to Houston in 2007. My wife just received her nursing degree and I was just recently promoted.

Carolina: Yes, I remember you telling us about her graduation. I also remember how proud you were of her accomplishment. A lot of good things have happened to you this year. My next question is what is your favorite part of Toastmasters?

Mario: I really like the Table Topics portion of the meeting. It is very funny.

Carolina: Here is the part where I ask you several questions about your favorite things. Ready?

Mario: Yes.

Carolina: Ok. Here we go.  What is your favorite color?

Mario: Hhhhhmmmm. I don’t really have one (ponders).  I guess I would have to say blue if I had to pick.

Carolina: What is your favorite childhood memory?

Mario: Sitting and looking at the Mediterranean Sea, walking along the peaceful beach. I also like to remember my grandma cooking traditional dishes and me being her backup singer. 

Carolina:  How cute! Those are both really nice memories. What is your favorite recent memory?

Mario: Witnessing Mary’s graduation ceremony. I loved seeing her wear her cap and gown. She made such a big career change. She went from being an investment banker to being a nurse to care for her family as they age.

Carolina: What is your favorite saying?

Mario: Don’t have one of those either. Hmmmm (ponders again). “May the force be with you.”

Carolina: (laughing): That is a good one! Ok, now the final question: You are stranded on an island for one year. What five items do you take with you?

Mario: Wow. For one year? Hmmm. I guess I would take my Wilson volleyball (get it? Castaway), fishing net, shaving tools (why???), picture of my dog Rico, and (with some prodding from me) my wife, Mary.

While we as Toastmasters get to learn a little more about our coworkers at each meeting through manual speeches, Table Topic speeches, and casual conversation, by also conducting The Spotlight we get to learn even more about them and share it on our website. This way, people interested in joining Toastmasters can see just who is joining the club. Mario was once one of those people. Now, he is a Mudslinger.

What I really like about this interview is I was able to see a side of management that is often overlooked, the human side.  From talking to Mario, it was obvious he adores his wife and regards his dog as man’s best friend. He even had a picture of Rico on his book shelf, which he proudly showed me. More than that even with his promotion he still continues to be humble enough to want to work on his communication skills through Toastmasters. 

In the words of John F. Kennedy,” Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other. “There is no doubt that Mario Bouguetta has this mantra working for him and maybe, just maybe, this will be a new favorite quote of his.

Mudslingers Who's Who

Here is a hodge podge of accolades from our past meetings. Thanks to our club photographer, Glenda Munguia, for making sure to capture our Kodak moments.

Matt Morey, our Area Governor, visited us and presented James Stark with his 100% Toastmaster award.

Matt Morey also presented Meghan Riley with her 3rd speech  ribbon.

Matt Morey also had the honor of presenting Kathy Leu with her AC pen.  This means she completed her CC manual 's ten speeches and  10 more for specialty manuals! Wow!

Stacy Franks made these adorable treats to share with the group. We often get spoiled like that in Toastmasters!

Matt also presented Tor Palmgren with his Ice Breaker Speech ribbon. This is the first speech a  Toastmaster delivers to the club.The Ice Breaker is a get-to-know- a-little-more-about-me speech which we all love to hear from our members!

There will be more pics to come. Please be sure to visit the page as often as you can and comments are always welcomed from our members and guests.

Recent Accolades:

• Ingrid Woikey, a very new member,  conducted her first role as Time Keeper
• Ingrid Woikey also delivered her Ice Breaker Speech
• Yvette Silva, our newest member, conducted her first role as a Mudslinger being our Time Keeper. She did it last minute when we needed a stand-in! Thanks, Yvette!
• Sara Brunner is only one role away now from earning her 100% Toastmaster goal and pin after conducting her first speech evaluation. 
• Carolina Little is one away from earning her CL! 
• The club now has another new member, Mrs. Tonya Burrell! YAY! We are all so excited and happy to have her. 
• The club is also ONE new member away from earning District recognition for gaining 5 new members between April and March. 
• Art Leuterman is getting dangerously close to earning his ACS. 

Upcoming Events:

• M-I SWACO Mudslingers 5-year anniversary! We have something very special in mind! 
• Mudslinger Spotlight will  be posted

Recent Mudslinger Accomplishments

It has been a really hopping couple of months so far. Mudslingers have been receiving accolades like crazy and we are really CRAZY close to earning  Presidential Distinguished Club! How cool is that? Here are some highlights from February.

Treats in honor of Valentine's Day for the role takers at the February 9th meeting!

 Valentine 's day treats for the Mudslingers that also were a visual aid for Carolina 's 6th speech. 

John Candler, Carolina Little  P. Balakrishnan
earned ribbons for their 2nd, 6th, and Icebreaker speech, respectively. 

P. Balakrishnan sharing his Ice Breaker speech with the club on February 16th. It was a very endearing speech!  Bala really gave us a nice view into his life and the Indian culture. 

John Candler delivered a second IMPROMPTU speech. on February 9th. Great delivery especially considering it was done last minute! He stepped up when our scheduled speakers had to step down.

A few more pictures will be added to this e-dition later. Other events to be highlighted soon are:

• Officer Training at Sugarland TLI  group photo
• Mudslinger Spotlight edition
• March Open House announcement and event
• 5th year   TI Charter  Anniversary
• Recent member accomplishments and accolades 

Don't forget to sign up for roles for this week's upcoming meeting. Please bring your CL book so that you can have your role evaluated for CL credit. 

Way to go, Mudslingers! We are really looking good so far! 

New Year, New Banner, New Baby

 Hi, Mudslingers! We are doing very well in the New Year. So far, so good. Agendas have been full. Meetings have kept their energy. We  continue to learn and grow.

Aundrae Romeo, our District 56 Lt. Governor of Education and Training, helped us ring in the new by delivering our  new banner. We all earned this banner by supporting the club in earning it's DCP  by October of last year.

Aundrae Romeo, Lt. Gov. Ed and Training (Left) and Stacy Franks, VP of Ed (Right)

Here is our group photo with the banner. Our course, several members were missing, but we will be sure to update our group photo for our new website soon.

Top Row (left to right): Patrick Tyczynski, Natalia Collins, Paulo Pauferro, Carolina Little, Martina Chambliss, Meghan Riley, Kathy Leu, and Glenda Munguia
Bottom Row (left to right): Stacy Franks, P.S. Balakrishnan, Eric Ngo, and James Stark

Announcements:

We also have a happy announcement to make on behalf of our fellow Mudslinger, Sashi Mettath. He and his lovely wife welcomed a beautiful baby boy into the world last week. Welcome, baby Nikhil! The name means complete. Congratulations to Sashi and his family on such a special occasion. We are very happy for you. 

Accolades:

Carolina Little received recognition for completing her 5 th speech of her CC manual. 

Meghan Riley received recognition for completing her 2 nd speech of her CC manual. 

Glenda Munguia received recognition for completing her 3 rd speech of her CC manual. 

James Stark conducted his first Toastmaster role! 

Paulo Pauferro conducted his first role with the club as time keeper! 
Glenda Muguia is our new club photographer. Thanks for volunteering for this much needed role! 

Business:

Please contact any of the club officers or Kim Ballew (website administrator) to learn how to use our new FreeToastHost website. The new site is very user-friendly and is important to use to sign up for roles and speeches.  You can also find links to all of the club's social networking sites there, too. Here is the link to our new website: http://mudslingers.toastmastersclubs.org/

We are also linked in to our Career Development and Training Site on our M-I SWACO intranet home page. Please feel free to promote this link to your peers as well. 

Don't forget to sign up for next week's meeting and to plan ahead for your speeches. You may contact Stacy Franks, VP of Education, to help assist you with your planning and also to place you on the roster. 

Happy Weekend, Mudslingers!

Happy New Year, Mudslingers!

Past and Present Officers Meeting to Discuss The New Year!

Happy, New Year, Mudslingers! We have had a lot going on and we are not done with January yet.  We had our first officers' meeting two weeks ago and had a smooth changing of the guards. Everyone shared goals and  objective and game plans that are sure to keep the energy flowing for our group. Here is the updated list for the new officers. 

President - Art Leuterman

Vice President of Education- Stacy Franks

Vice President of Membership- Kathy Leu

Vice President of P.R.-  Carolina Little

Secretary-Treasurer- Meghan Riley

Sergeant of Arms- James Stark

Thanks again to the outgoing officers.  It was a great term with great results!  We saw our membership grow from 23 to 30 members. It was exciting to see our new members begin to tackle their goals by delivering speeches and conducting roles or by attending meetings and being an active audience. We had several members gain CC's and CL awards. Each individual accomplishment helped us earn, once again, Distinguished Club status. We are well on our way to earning the Select Club status. 

Our next meeting will be this Thursday in the Knowledge Center at 12:05 p.m. It is going to be another good meeting. Please be sure to sign up for roles and remember to starting planning your speaking schedule and having your CL books signed. 

All of us will help each other keep our New Year Resolutions of becoming our better selves.