HalloWEen Mudslingers Event

Hi, Mudslingers!

What a great time we had this past Monday hosting the company to Halloween fun with hot dogs, costumes, and camaraderie. It was great to pick up the tradition from past years of throwing  a Halloween shin dig including good times, good food, and good people. We even got to showcase our club.

It was awesome to see how we all pulled together to pull off the event. It had a rocky start, with no electricity to heat up the dogs and other what-nots, but we managed  to get  started in the nick of time. A lot of Toastmasters leadership training shone through from planning and implementation to organizing and delegation with public relations and time management thrown in.  As busy as we all are, we made time to successfully throw an event and kept smiling through it all! That is what we are all about.

I would like to give  special shout outs to:

• Sara Brunner who headed up the decorations committee  and made sure to decorate even though she was sick and working on a priority project that day! True grit. 
• I would also like to specially thank Stacy Franks who came in on her day off to help. Now, that is dedication. 
• Thanks to Kathy Leu  from getting away from her pressing end of the month work to set up and serve the food and drink station. She was quick to help head up the hospitality committee when asked knowing that would be a crazy time for her. We had a good time shopping for the food!
•  Thanks to Patrick Tyczynski and Martina Chambliss for being awesome and buying much needed extras for the event in their limited spare time. 
•  A HUGE thanks to Art Leuterman for all his help setting up and breaking down. 
• James Stark and Nathan Rife were instrumental in helping Sara start decorating early for the event. This was a big undertaking considering how hard it is to get away from work.
• Stella Zepeda, Autumn Lewis, Rosemary Mayo, Tamesha Wells, and Carol Lowry  significantly helped out with last minute details in order to help our club have a successful event. They are not even members but wanted to help out any way. Thanks so much, ladies! 
• Facilities was reliable and responsive in helping us out in a pinch and making sure we had plenty of tables and chairs for our guests and setups.
• Eric Ngo you rocked the camera! Thanks for taking on the task when asked last minute :-)
• A big thanks to all who helped bring in coolers and slow cookers for the event; Min Liu, Stacy Franks, LaShaunda Johnson, Stacy Franks, and Sara Brunner. 
• Thanks to our sponsors who contributed generous gift certificates to award as prizes: Tracy with Double Daves, Karen with Houston Adventure Boot Camp, and Antonio with Corporate Retreat  Car Spa.

Thanks to everyone for helping in whatever way they could from attending to passing on by word of mouth to pitching in some elbow grease at the event or taking down signs afterwards. We had a wonderful time and I  look forward to next year's main event.

Rocktober

Hi, Mudslingers,

We  had another good meeting yesterday with a full agenda and roster. A HUGE thanks to all those who stepped in last minute to fill roles and did so with a big smile.

I would like to give a shout-out to the new members who did a great job filling in for their “first-time” roles:

Meghan Riley delivered a very thorough report as ah counter, grammarian, and WOD . She was no-holds- barred in her evaluation, even with the guest speaker. Way to go!

Tor Palmgren was very calm, laid-back, and precise with his time keeping. He is always the gentleman even with  a stopwatch in his hands.

Eric Ngo gave a very solid first evaluation of Nathan Rife's speech, So You Chose Not to Listen To Me. Eric remembered to select things to share with the speaker to improve upon, as well as, what was good.

James Stark made us all laugh. As humorist, he really helped to start the meeting off on the right note.  Not many first-timers fall to the ground to prove a point.

Not to be outdone, the seasoned-members shone yesterday, too. Our brilliant and elegant, Sara Hinkley, delivered a strong evaluation of our guest speakers’,  Lt Governor of Education and Training, Andre Romeo, inspiring speech, The Prescription. Sarah  proved  once again that she belongs among the best. Sashi Mettath,CC, also had the honor of evaluating our star of the day, Kathy Leu, who earned her Advanced Communicator Bronze with the speech, Life Can Be Funny. Sashi echoed our sentiments as a club on just how much we appreciate and have enjoyed Kathy as a speaker.

And how wonderful was it to see our very special guest, Glenda, yesterday? She is a Mudslinger Alum who brings smiles to everyone’s faces when she walks into a room.  She is iridescent - our WOD. 

We had almost half of our membership absent yesterday and we missed them, BUT the encouraging part was that the show still went on AND goals were reached.  Not many clubs can accomplish that. We have been on a roll!

Yesterday, we as a club earned a newly-branded banner! But as a Distinguished Club looking to go Select and even Presidential this year, that is just the first of many accomplishments our group will see come to pass.

Congratulations, Mudslingers! You ROCK!!! NOW, let’s keep it going.  Please remember to sign up for roles today for next week’s meeting.

Happy Weekend!

Keep The Date:

Monday, October 31, 2011 - Toastmasters International Mudslingers Halloween Event

Change It Up!

Happy Monday, Mudslingers!

Last Thursday we had another full meeting filled with a lot of good stuff. The word of the day was languid and the theme of the meeting was CHANGE.  Certainly, our club has not been languid in our attempts to move forward in the midst of change. Here are some examples: 

 1) James Stark, our new member, made his debut as the Table Topics Master this past Thursday and did a great job! The topics were really creative and  interesting which made for a very entertaining Table Topics session. In the end, there can only be one Table Topics winner  and the trophy traveled to Eric Ngo’s office.

2) Nathan Rife,  Sara Brunner, and Eric Ngo were recognized for delivering their 8^th (9^th in manual), 1rst (Ice Breaker), and 2nd speeches respectively. 

Eric Ngo (left), Nathan Rife (center), and Sara Brunner (right)

3) While Doug Graves presented the Distinguished Club ribbon sent from Toastmasters International recognizing the Mudslingers’ accomplishments over the past year.

Past President, Doug Graves, and Past Vice President of Education, Kathy Leu

4) The new members have also brought in new energy that have helped to add zest to our meetings and they have really taken the bull by its horns and have jumped right in.   

I would also like to thanks every member for stepping up and making the meetings successful, not only by volunteering for roles, but by being an engaging audience.   I would also like to thank everyone for being on top of their CL and CC manuals.  It is great to see goals being met.

Don’t forget to sign up for roles today. We have a guest speaker this week and two members delivering speeches. Therefore, we  may not be able to do Table Topics, but will have them in our back pocket just in case. The theme is ROCKTOBER. Let ‘s have fun with it!

See you, Thursday!

Quick On Your Feet

Photo provided courtesy of VietnamFreeLancer.Info

Table Topics™ can be fun. For most of us, they are even more fun when others are taking them on.  Usually, there is an awkward silence that follows the Table Topics Master (TTM) when he or she asks for someone to come up to the front for a topic. Then, there are the members who are willing to bail the TTM out and go up to the front. We all appreciate those members! 

But, if we only listen and enjoy as spectators and not participants, then we are not reaping the full benefits of conducting Table Topics in our meetings.  The Table Topics segment was designed to keep us in practice for thinking and speaking quickly on our feet. According to Toastmasters International, 

That’s why the “Table Topics” portion of the Toastmasters club meeting was developed. Table Topics provides you with the opportunity to practice impromptu speaking. By answering brief Table Topics questions, you learn how to present your thoughts clearly and convincingly, with no more than a few seconds of preparation. You also learn to listen constructively, and to think flexibly.

 We can even think of Table Topics as exercise for the mind. The more repetitions we do, the stronger we become at delivering them.  By achieving this goal, we also gain more confidence which helps us when we are put on the spot or know we may be asked to field questions during a meeting or presentation. 

However we push ourselves into participating in Table Topics, we are moving ourselves in the right direction. By taking on Table Topics, we are well on our way to becoming better thinkers, listeners, communicators, and Toastmasters. As Toastmasters we know that no one in the audience is waiting to throw a tomato at us, at least not in the meeting. We also know that we are wishing success for each other, especially at impromptu speaking. More importantly, we have all been there. Yes, at one time or another, we have all been asked something out of the blue or had to wing it. 

At the next Table Topics segment in our meeting, let’s go ahead and take the plunge.  Let's raise our hands and go to the front and prove to ourselves and to the world (cue Chariots of Fire to play in the background) that we can do it!  We can answer the topic:

What was your strangest date ever?

And everyone would love to hear it.

Plus, rumor has it; there is a pretty nifty award we can win for being the best. 

From Toastmasters International Site: Completing Your CC

Completing Your CC

A Practical Guide to Getting it Done

For many new Toastmasters, the first compelling goal of the educational program is the Competent Communicator award. It’s clearly defined in the Competent Communication manual that’s included in the New Member Kit, and it’s a requirement for most of the advanced awards that Toastmasters offers. But what’s the best way to earn your CC? How can you harness your initial enthusiasm and complete those ten speech projects with a minimum of hassle and procrastination?

Schedule It
One very important step is to give yourself a set of deadlines—one for the completion of the entire manual, and one for each of the 10 projects. Without deadlines, tasks of this scope usually move to the bottom of the priority list, where they have a tendency to stay for a long time.

Strict deadlines aren’t for everyone. As Douglas Adams, author of theHitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series, puts it: “I love deadlines. I like the whooshing noise they make as they fly by.” But the important lesson here is to decide how much time you want to give yourself to complete the manual, and monitor your progress as you go.

Break it Down Feel like you’re too busy to work on your speech projects? It may help to think of each project as a series of small, discrete tasks, and devote whatever time you have to completing those tasks whenever you can. You don’t have to complete all of the preparation for a speech in one sitting; often, five or ten minutes are enough to make significant progress on an upcoming speech.

• Taking a break at work? Jot down a few ideas and then send them to your home email address.
• Practice your speech in the car on the way to work.
• As soon as you finish a speech, immediately begin writing down ideas for the next one.

Ask for Help 
Ask your mentor for advice. Seek out other club members who have completed several Toastmasters awards, and find out how they got the job done. Also, the club’s vice president education will be particularly interested in helping you complete your educational goals. Other club officers also have a stake in your success, so be sure to ask them for help if you need it, too.

Have Fun!
Membership in Toastmasters reaps many rewards, not the least of which is the pure enjoyment of sharing your ideas, making connections and improving your speaking skills. So remember to have a good time planning and delivering your speeches, and before you know it you’ll have that CC award you’ve been dreaming about, and be well on your way to the next goal.

Team Mudslingers Rolling On!

What another great meeting we had yesterday! We had another great turn out and all of us showed up ready to participate and cheer on our club members as they continue to chip away at their goals. We really lived up to our ongoing theme of Teamwork and learned a new word of the day, parergon. Parergon is the work that is undertaken in addition to one's principal work. It was a hard word to remember yesterday, but an easy word to apply to our lives especially as Toastmasters!

What is not easy to forget is seeing guests at our meeting and we had 5 yesterday!  I hope the guests know how much we appreciate new faces in the crowd.

A few of our guests! 

And we could never forget the many accomplishments of our members.  Up for recognition yesterday were our President, Beth Prasek, and Sashi Metthath for achieving their Competent Communicator certifications; Stephen Rabke earned his 1st and 2nd speech ribbons AND his 100% Toastmaster badge; V.P of P.R, Nathan Rife, earned his 4th and 5th speech ribbons; and Eric Ngo, a very new member, earned his Ice Breaker speech ribbon! Congratulations!  We are all very proud of you.

Stephen Rabke, President Prasek, Sashi Mettath, Eric Ngo, and VP of PR  Nathan  Rife
(from left to right)

Other noteworthy appearances were that of Mario Bouguetta who doubled up on first-time roles as humorist and Table Topics presenter (uh, wow!),  Secretary Treasuere Matina Chambliss delivered a great evaluation of Nathan Rife's speech, and Sergeant of Arms Patrick Tycznski delivered a solid performance as Ah Counter/Grammarian.  As always a very special thanks to all who conduct roles. It really helps makes the meetings more successful and enjoyable.

Have a great weekend, Toastmasters! You deserve it.

SAVE THE DATES:

Nov. 17th – nominations will be held for Jan-July 2012 officers

Dec. 1rst- election will be held for Jan-July 2012 officers

Dec 8^th- Incentive Deadline

Dec 15^th-TI Mudslingers Holiday Party

Dec 17^th-Present and Past officers dinner with Incentive Members

It's All About Teamwork

We had a great meeting yesterday with a great turn out. We got to see Sashi Mettath achieve his CC and Eric Ngo conduct his first role! 

Sashi Mettath, CC, 9/8/2011
Speech was to inspire people to appreciate the little things in life.Hope this is one of them, Sashi! 

 The theme of the meeting was teamwork and the WOD was camaraderie. There was a lot of both going on yesterday and it really was a nice time.

I would like to especially thank all those who conducted roles and delivered speeches yesterday.  When all the roles are filled, it really adds enthusiasm and energy to our meetings.  Thank you, thank you, thank you.  You are beautiful!

Yesterday, Art presented the newly revised 100% Toastmaster chart.  Please help him update the chart by sending him your roles with dates that are not recorded.  I have attached the chart with this email. Art worked over three hours to reconcile roles with members from past agendas and the Ah counter book. Quite the feat and accomplishment. Thanks, Art.

SAVE THE DATES:

Nov. 17th – nominations will be held for Jan-July 2012 officers

Dec. 1rst- election will be held for Jan-July 2012 officers

Dec 8^th- Incentive Deadline

Dec 15^th-TI Mudslingers Holiday Party

Dec 17^th-Present and Past officers dinner with Incentive Members

Striving Forward Strong and True!