It's MOAN-DAY!

Whose woods these are I think I know...

Hi, Mudslingers!

It is Monday for sure. It is cold and windy outside. Don't you wish you were back in bed?
I know I do. We could all be under our covers sleeping or watching movies. 
But, here we are at work. The one good thing we can do today is help fill out the roster for Thursday's meeting. Remember, we are also having lunch brought in, so bring your co-workers who forgot their food! They will be most appreciative.

The demo role for this week's meeting will be the General Evaluator role, a.k.a. the G.E. role.  I will do my best to demonstate how to effectively conduct this role. Yeah, no pressure there. Let's hope I am having a good day.

I thank you so much for your membership and for your participation. It is defenitely the fuel that keeps the fire in the club going. That counts for alot, especially when it is this cold outside.

Keep staying warm, safe, and improving!

Be Our Guest!

M-I SWACO Mudslingers Toastmasters  Cordially Invites You To Simply Be Our Guest!

During the months of February through June 1, if you come and visit, we will have a free lunch waiting for you! Just email the club at mudslingers5950@gmail.com. and let us know you are coming one (1) day in advance. We meet every Thursday at 12:00 p.m. in the Knowledge Center. You must be an employee of M-I SWACO or Schlumberger. As a member, if you bring a guest both you and your first-time guest will receive a lunch. This only applies to first-time guests and to our employees.  Come and see how Toastmasters can be a fun way to help your professional development!

Please let us know any food allergies or preferences you have, so that we can provide you with an enjoyable lunch option.


Hope to see you soon,

M-I Mudslingers Toastmasters

Time for Another Post

Hi, Fellow Mudslingers:

It has been a while since this site has been updated. That is about to change!
I am excited to re-introduce you to our club's personal website. All ours. Here we can all contribute that one item of item of inspiration we want to share. For example, the officers who attended the Toastmasters Learning Institute Training Institute really were excited to share tips we learned to invigorate our club! I do not mean to sound hokey, but it is true. We came back with some great ideas to incorporate into our club. And we will highlight those ideas here.

Once again, I want to thank all of our fellow Toastmasters for keeping the faith, not only in themselves, but in our club. We are a very specialized club and we are about to re-brand ourselves. We are not only going to talk the talk, but walk the walk. I am talking major overhaul here. We will be fun, successful, and elite.

In the meantime,  here is an article for all ages to read.

This is YOUR club, so leave comments on how you want it to be. We listen AND act. How often do you see that anymore?

President's Distinguished, here we come!

Please feel free to  contribute an article or post to this site.


Sincerely,

Carolina and Officers

Welcome Back, Mudslingers!

Happy New Year, fellow Toastmasters!

I am really excited and nervous to be heading into the new year. Yes, I admit it, nervous. There is something hopeful about having a new slate and something a little overwhelming about it too. However, it is with excitement that I would like to welcome you all back in 2014.

 First, I am very happy to be your president this term. It means a lot to me. As many of you know, I helped bring Toastmasters to the North Course campus almost 7 years ago. It was M-I SWACO's first time chartering a corporate Toastmaster club.  Over this 7 years, the club  has gone through many growth spurts and growing pains. In fact, you could see the events of the company in the reflection of the club. When the company is in good times, the club has the same energy. When the company is going through a rough spell, well our club has carried that energy, too. Strong leadership has helped to sustain the club over the past few years and I hope to help continue that trend as I follow in James Stark's successful presidency. 

Secondly, I am very excited to be apart of the club again! When you look around our group,you see a beautiful array of different nationalities being represented.  I have said it before and I will state it here again: We put the International in Toastmasters International. It is this diversity that keeps us interesting, not just in regard of nationality, but of gender, personalities, backgrounds, and experiences as well. Week after week, we realize as a club that no two speeches are the same, and neither are the speakers. How awesome is that? I look foward to our fellowship and seeing all the members grow  from speech or role number one to speech or role number five. The transition of each members is  wonderful to see.


When we look back on the past year, we see just how many members we said goodbye to, but at the same time we see new faces among us. The First Term 2014 officers reflect the integration of long-standing members with new ones, as can be evidenced by the list below:

President                            Carolina Little

VP of  Education               Kathy Leu

VP of Membership         Sandeep Kodakkattumana

VP of Public Relations    Ingrid Velasco

Secretary/ Treasurer     Meghan Riley

Sergeant of Arms            Ken Slater

 

 

What a strong  officership! They are going to do very well,  because it is in each of these  individuals nature to do their best. We are a fortunate club.

 Lastly, for me (and many of you) being apart of something like Toastmasters puts a spring in my step and inspires good things to happen, especially when taken on with enthusiasm and dedication. I would like for you to know that I really enjoy coming to our meetings on Thursdays. It is hard to beat our fellowship and the entertainment provided during that one lunch hour. I really hope you all feel this way too. It is proof positive that we can have fun while working on our communication and leadership skills.  However,  the officers and I have an open-door policy and want to welcome any suggestions or comments that will help make Toastmasters a positive experience for each member.

 The best of luck to everyone this year. Together, we all make a very close-knit and unique group ready to take another 7 years of  corporate Toastmastering on!

Toastmaster Your Outside Meetings Up

by Carolina Little, CL


Yesterday, I was in a meeting which started late because the meeting before us ended late. Very late. The group inside the reserved conference room knew they were running over their allotted time and kept asking us to wait patiently as they finished up. We were asked to do so several times. In short, we were held up from our meeting by 20 minutes. This in turn made us run over in our meeting. We apologized to the group meeting after us because we wrapped up almost 10 minutes late, therefore making them begin their meeting late. Considering the weight of our business meeting, I think we did a pretty good job keeping close within that time frame, since we had a lot of action items that needed immediate attention and discussion on our agenda. After the meeting was over, I made the comment that this is why Toastmasters was beneficial: Toastmasters 101, start and end a meeting on time. To which one of the attendees stated: why do you need Toastmasters? You do these things all the time? I replied: To keep in practice. Good practice.

When people do not train themselves to conduct timely meetings, they risk the following:

• interrupting the attendees schedules and of  those waiting for the room
• not providing a concise and productive meeting
• perpetuating bad habits that promote negative feelings towards meetings

This is why  being timely with your speeches, roles, and evaluations is so important not only in Toastmasters Meetings, but in the outside meetings you participate in as well. Simply put;You going OVER on time COSTS others their time, which does not generate anything positive. Whether you are the organizer or attendee, you can help faciliate the meeting to keep things focused and on time! This will help others and be much appreciated by all. By setting the example, you can help meetings be productive, timely, and effective.

So go ahead and flaunt your Toastmasters skills off. In the end, it will help more than hurt!

Evaluation Tips from Toastmasters International with Additional Tips from Carolina Little

Keep Your Evaluations on Target

To many novice speakers, the word “evaluation” brings back painful memories. Images of brutal remarks from schoolteachers and smirks from fellow students can pull a potentially great speaker away from the lectern. Yet, give that speaker one experience with a helpful, positive and motivating evaluation…and you’ll see the speaker work, progress and grow to realize that potential. Effective evaluations benefit the speaker by:

• Providing immediate feedback. Supportive commentary and helpful suggestions can reinforce positive speaking behaviors and point toward areas that need work.
• Offering methods for improvement. It helps the speaker recognize and then solve any difficulties that may have been encountered during a presentation.
• Building and maintaining self-esteem. Learn how to play up your strong points and correct speaking flaws and you can’t help but feel better about yourself.

It stands to reason that the more effective we are in evaluating each other, the more each one of us will profit from the experience, whether we are delivering a speech, evaluating or sitting in the audience. How can you give a helpful and encouraging evaluation immediately after hearing a speech? There are several techniques available to help you master the art of evaluations.
First, it’s important to select your manner of delivering the evaluation. Though some evaluators use discussion as their process, the “tell and sell” approach is the most popular method of delivering evaluations in Toastmasters meetings, because it is the most efficient. This requires the evaluator to do all the talking while the speaker listens. An opinion is given in a few minutes, avoiding conversational digressions, and then the meeting continues. Not having to worry about carrying a conversation with the evaluator also frees the speaker to focus directly on the advice being offered. This method works best when the evaluator has more speaking experience than the speaker.
Once you’ve chosen the method you’ll be using, use these guidelines to help:

• Show that you’re interested. Focus on the speaker’s needs.
• Consider the speaker’s objectives. Contact the speaker in advance to discuss the manual objectives as well as the speaker’s personal goals and concerns.
• Personalize your language. Avoid using advice that starts with, “You…” Instead, focus on the word, “I…” So that you give your personal reactions, rather than attempting to speak for the entire audience.
• Evaluate the speech – not the person! Do not impose your values on someone else’s speech. Focus on helping the speaker communicate those thoughts in a more effective manner.
• Promote self-esteem. Encourage and inspire the speaker to participate again by offering honest and sincere praise along with criticisms.

Carolina Little added to the above:

• Do not summarize the speech, also known as, the book report summary
• Site specific portions of the speech to use as examples
• Site improvements since last speech- if applicable
• Ask an experienced Toastmaster to help you prepare for this role before you do it
• Use organzition in your notes to lead you through evaluation
• Use the full time allotted for your evaluation (3 minutes with 30 second grace)
• It is okay if you aren't perfect. This is a learning experience
• If you forget to say something, you can always tell or email the person later
• Be tactful BUT honest. No one can improve if you aren't honest
• Remember the sandwich method: start with something good, add in the middle something to work on, end with something good.

What I Did on My Lunch Break

by Carolina Little

Today, I visited the Audubon Engineering Toastmasters Club. As their club mentor, I felt very guilty for not attending a meeting for two months now (It may have been even longer than this). As with everything, my initial zeal for this responsibility began to wane as time went by and my own daily schedule became more hectic. Besides, I felt the last time I visited them, they had become a well-oiled machine, running efficiently and effectively.

However, when the last invitation came via email, I decided it was time to make time to attend another one of their meetings to see how they had progressed over the holidays and the New Year.  When I walked in, I realized like most clubs, theirs too had succumbed to low attendance. It happens to the best of clubs. All clubs start fast and furious, with an impressive audience. Then months later, the infatuation begins to die down like with most things we have seen before:  new exercise regimes, new projects, new relationships, and new philosophies.  However, most clubs (like ours) see members rotating in and out at each meeting and have at least 12 members in attendance. This is typical of the national clubs and that is encouraging.  Why is it encouraging? It is encouraging because people are still making time to work on themselves and help others around them do the same thing too. A meeting with zero attendance is the meeting we never want to see.

It is also encouraging because as I attended this last meeting, I noticed that the Audubon Toastmasters, while smaller in attendance, were bigger in message. They remain a strong and influential group. Their participation was enthusiastic and reflected the theme the Toastmaster had set; ENTHUSIASM.  While I was there I learned a lot of new tools that the Mudslingers can incorporate into our own meetings, in addition to learning self-improvement materials that the Toastmaster shared with the group regarding enthusiasm in the workplace.  

 First, I learned interactive works! The Toastmaster started off with a very interactive “tug-of-war” demonstration designed to show that Motivation won over Encouragement every time. I will explain that message later one day. Then, the Toastmaster incorporated a Power Point presentation to help transition the meeting a long. It was in this presentation that she shared tidbits of knowledge and statistics to prove her theme.  She also engaged the audience to read excerpts out loud, a creative way to have someone practice speaking in public.  However, all my learning did not come just from the Toastmaster, but from other role takers as well. I saw an effective way for the Table Topics Master to get people to step up to the task by speaking in front of a crowd: She (another she) starting counting down from 5 until someone volunteered to speak OR she chose someone from the group.  It was fun seeing people randomly picked to do impromptu speaking.

However, the thing I learned (again) was how much I gain from attending another club’s meeting. It is a different experience every time you listen, speak, or participate in front of a different audience, even if the audience is changed by only one new face. What you learn from other clubs depends on your ever-evolving skills as an evaluator and team member in Toastmasters. Besides being given a free lunch and a fresh experience, I was also given the opportunity today to meet other oilfield professionals. In one lunch break, I was able to network, learn, and fellowship. Not a bad way to spend a lunch break.

My message: Get out and visit other Toastmasters Clubs AND invite new faces to ours.

WELCOME COMPUTER APPLICATIONS! Thanks for joining our Toastmasters Club! We are so happy to have you as fellow Mudslingers.