Toastmasters for Reporters

It was a peaceful day in Bangalore, due to the bandh called for opposing the final verdict on the Cauvery River water dispute - no traffic on the roads, cool breeze coming, bright unadulterated sunlight and a noise free day, virtually. I had to be indoors to avoid any encounter with any sort of disturbance. The only two activities that I had was to enhance the look of my blog and to turn into a couch potato.

On the three Indian news channels that I surfed through - NDTV, CNN IBN, Times NOW, most of the news were either about the bandh, the selection of the Indian Cricket team for the upcoming World Cup, the acquisition of Hutch telecom by Vodafone and finally, the buyout of Novelis by the Birla Group.

Irrespective of the news and the source, all the channels sucked. None of the reporters were fluent enough to express the news properly. All of the reporters had a plethora of filler words and this spoiled the spirit of the news. Second, the choice of words were only from a selection of a few words and were almost repetitive. I'm not certain if these reporters had taken the Journalism 101 class. The way to report a news depends on how you express it and how you present it.

This brings me to say that Indians are at a loss to keep seeing these reporters ain't any other choice, inspite of the huge overflowing population. Why don't some one start a Toastmasters for reporters? - This will bring out better reporters and also make seeing the news channels more effective and interesting. 

Being a good reporter does not mean covering the news firsthand. It also has a lot more....
1. How you think and analyse the situation - your choice of words makes a large impact on how people perceive the news.
2. Lucid Presentation - clear thoughts, simple words that can express the situation ditto.
3. Body Language - being stoic while reporting does not add any value to the news. Being a good reporter who communicates through body gestures helps a lot to convey the news.
4. 'Thinking on the feet' - As reporters, it is necessary to think on a different line to present the news, so that the news is well received by the audience.
5. Fluent speech - Avoiding filler words while reporting adds more substance to the news - more effective words can fill the same time compared to that with filler words.

Dear Reporters, join Toastmasters to improve yourselves and make us feel that we see a great and good Indian News Channel!!!

86400 is all yours

Since I'm now virtually off from attending the regular weekly Toastmasters meetings, I feel bad about myself not being an active Toastmaster. Till I get anchored properly in my new job, I thought I'll keep posting a few Presidential speeches I had given during my term as President in my earlier Toastmasters Club.

This is the first speech I gave as a President - the theme: "86400 is all yours".

Dear Toastmasters,

"86400 is all yours" - can you comprehend this? 86400 is just a number. But see this number in terms of your life .. it is the number of seconds in a day of your life ... yes... everyday and every second is yours.

Seeing a day as a day may not mean much .. but seeing it from the level of a second means much. Yesterday, I was going through Robert Pirsig's book 'Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance'. There was this amazing short stuff where he talks about climbing mountains ....

Mountains should be climbed with as little effort as possible and without desire. The reality of your own nature should determine the speed. If you become restless, speedup. If you become winded, slow down. You climb the mountain in an equilibrium between restlessness and exhaustion.

And here comes the most pragmatic reasoning ....

Then, when you're no longer thinking ahead, each footstep isn't just a a means to end but a unique event in itself. This leaf has jagged edges. This rock looks loose. From this place the snow is less visible, even though closer. These are things you should notice anyway. To live for some future goal is shallow. It's the sides of the mountains which sustain life, not the top. Here's where things grow. But of course, without the top, you can't have the sides. Its the top that defines the sides. ....

If you correlate the mountains to your life and each of the steps to each second in your day, dear Toastmasters, you will feel that you need to live each and every second to reach to the top. As Pirsig says, once you reach the top, there is nothing, but it is the feel that you get through each and every step.

So, Dear TMs, there should be an aim to your life - like the peak of the mountains, but similarly to the mountains' sides, our life should have variety, liveliness and enthusiasm - which we need to enjoy and appreciate.

Similarly, coming to a meeting, giving a speech and moving off is not great - I would term it shallow - because you don't live and enjoy the enthusiasm of other Toastmasters. But when in a meeting, you can give importance to the meeting and to each and every other Toastmaster and the guest and make the meeting a success, that is the real spirit as a Toastmaster. Dear Tms, our TM of the day is one such person, who brings in liveliness, brings in importance to meetings and brings out the best of all other Tms in the day. Please join me in welcoming our TM of the day, AM ......

A few thoughts on what a President should do to give a good kickstart to the meeting ...
1. Know the theme of the meeting.
2. Get some information about the Toastmaster of the day, how he/she views the theme.
3. Get some inspirational examples to substantiate the theme.
4. Connect the theme to the Toastmaster of the day, the Toastmasters and the meeting as such. 

Another one?

With me out of my earlier company and into another Tech major, I am feeling the miss of being part of a regular Toastmasters Club.

Specially, for me, the club at my company was a great one. Particularly for a few specific reasons....
1. Starting the club from scratch was challenging - think about selling the idea of public speaking and communication to engineers who are comfortable sitting before a system in their own cubicle.
2. Setting the standards needed for proper meetings and speeches.
3. Motivating members to attend meetings and persuading them to give speeches.
4. Keeping the club open - like most say, 'Opening a Toastmasters Club is not difficult, but keeping it open is!!!'

Inspite of the challenges, it was really a encouraging result for me, seen from my perspective.
- Improved my communication skills, especially tried to overcome the ahs and ums to a large extent, got a better understanding of how the administrative tasks in TM hierarchy go on, and finally more visibility in my company, better networking, etc.

Now, I have choice to repeat the same in my new work place or be a part of a community club.
Starting a new club would be great, but getting members would be challenge, given the fact that it might be a corporate club with restricted membership. In my earlier company, I had only about 2-3% of the total strength being part of the TM club. If I apply the same ratio, I can count the strength of the club at my new place using the fingers of one hand!!!

Being part of a community club would be nice given the general perspective that community clubs perform better than corporate clubs. But if I need to improve my skills, I must certainly be part of a club that has a strength around 30. Else, I might just be attending the meetings, but not improving my active communication skills.

I'm still keeping my fingers crossed till I take a decision!!!

Inspirational Speech

Recently listened to this speech by US Senator Barack Obama. It reminded me of the Inauguration Speech by JFK. With great inspiration, persuasion, this speech was delivered with great passion and enthusiasm. Leave out the target & the platform - politics & election time - but the value and the presentation was really great. Not seeing the speech from a political viewpoint, but seeing it from a speech value, I liked the way, Barack had chosen the words, used rhetorics,tried to portray things in a very diplomatic way rather than attacking in a direct manner.

I like to hear it more - not for the way he supported John Kerry, but for the great variety he had portrayed in delivering the speech.

From Guest to Member

Starting a Toastmasters Club is easy but keeping it with the spirit and the enthusiasm is very difficult and a real challenge. Toastmasters Clubs gain importance from the variety of the meetings and the cornucopia of members who tend to put in their efforts and energy to gain from the club. It is important that when a guest visits a club, they are taken through a proper path to get acquainted with other club members as well as made to convert into a regular club member in a way that has very smooth transitions.

As a new club, we faced this and here is the text of the mail that was sent over to the officers to make certain that each guest is treated properly and made into a club member...

What should we do when some guest converts into a club member?

This might be a simple protocol we might need to follow when someone joins our club - so that we do not miss out on any important tasks a new member should undergo....

1. VP-Membership:
- Fill the appln. form for the member.
- Include the sponsor member name - it will be beneficial to the individual member later.

2. Treasurer (Make Money !!!):
- Calculate the money the new member needs to pay.
- Pay the fees in TMI website.
- Update Club Roster at Twiki/Website.

3. VP - Membership:
-Add name to mailing list alias.
- Send welcome mail to the member cc-ing alias.

4. VP-Education:
- setup a mentor for the member.
- fix a date for the ice-breaker speech, preferably in the 2nd/3rd week after joining.
- provide a copy of the icebreaker speech.
- as the new member to do some roles assisting GE in the first 3-4 meetings. No major roles till then.

5. Secretary:
- Get details of email, phone number, birthday, anniversary, etc. from the new member.

6. President/Seargent-At-Arms:
- Introduces the new member to the club in the next meeting.

Hope this helps us in getting the new members on track with our club proceedings and we, ourselves have specific responsibilities by which we don't forget / do multiple times a specific task.

Leadership

 Being a leader is very difficult. Many prepare so for being a leader. But when it comes to the ultimate - they being a leader - their preparation starts to show of - only a few, who have the natural skills embedded in their blood seem to come out of the dark and emerge as true leaders. Irrespective of what they lead, a leader needs some qualities - there are a lot of nice articles, nice books, etc. about leadership, but this one was nice and sweet summarising the important qualities a leader needs to have.

For me, currently leadership is something that I practice as a form of being my Toastmasters Club's President - well, this is really something that I admire to a lot great extent - a lot of factors in me have improved after becoming as a President - the art of communication, teamspirit, motivation, goal setting, etc.

Pepping up the club ....

When starting a Toastmasters Club, there is a lot of enthusiasm. But on the run, people tend to move off because of personal reasons, professional overload and more often people really find it challenging. Only few of the members strive to overcome the challenge. Especially with a new club, there is none who is experienced and like what companies complain about, attrition starts to take the hold.

Moreover, like any startup, a new club also needs to define what it expects out of its members. For many giving 10 speeches would mean getting a CTM/CC. But apart from the 10 speeches, there is a lot of meaning to a CTM certification. Similarly, when someone comes and says that they have got a Ph.D., it implies a lot - a mind for striving to get a solution to the problem, ways to reserach, ways to propse a problem, means to identify the latest technologies for the problem, ability to write and present their research topic, patience, etc.

In a new club, even after a few successful meetings, there are lot of misunderstandings in picture and some take giving speeches/evaluations to be for the namesake. I have seen members not coming back when they were suggested to repeat the speech and this had been evaluated based on the speech objectives suggested by TMI. This clearly shows an incapable mind to take a feedback.

Even after 40 meetings, as VP-Ed., I faced quite similar problems in my club. Being a corporate club, had its own unique pros and cons. I wanted to express the same and hence penned the following ....

It has been 40 weeks of interaction among us in terms of a platform called "Toastmasters". I think it is time that we revisit the thought why we meet every week for about 90 minutes and find out where we have improved and where we need improvement. The audience of this mail includes everyone on the alias and so I'm also the target of the subject!!!

(Toastmasters should not apologize!!! ... but I apologize for this long mail flooding your inboxes ...)


Let us follow the Sandwich approach of feedback on the club (one great lesson from Toastmasters)....

There has been a significant increase in the variety of the topics selected - both for the speeches and the topics sessions. Some Toastmasters bring in humour wherever and whenever necessary and correlate the topic of the day to the Toastmasters event - this brings in more enthusiasm and liveliness for the meetings. The choice of questions in the topics sessions have improved a lot. This enables us to think on our feet and our urge to fit in the word of the day in our impromptu talk gives more work to our brains.

Protocols are an important feature in the TM meetings. The handshake protocol as well as addressing a person with their appropriate roles (during that meeting) and calling them appropriately (as Mr., Madam, etc.) have given the importance to the need for a formal mode of addressing during the meetings. All these protocols show how well we adhere to a formal meeting - great job and we have to keep up this work!!!

Having a small break before giving out the evaluations is a small step. But speakers and evaluators utilising that short break to understand the speech better and its correspondence to the speech objectives is a great task that needs appreciation. Giving an evaluation that is too critical / giving a plain vanilla evaluation is not good for the speaker as well as the evaluator and the club as a whole. Rather than providing such an evaluation, if ALL the evaluators discuss with the speaker before giving an evaluation and also provide an evaluation that is in line with the objectives of the speech, it will be a great bonus for everyone in the meeting to know how the speech corresponded with the objectives of the project. PLEASE never say that everything is perfect. As an evaluator if you can give any suggestion to the speaker by making the good speech into a better one, you are doing justice to your role.

Coming to the speeches, many of us lack the preparation and the enthusiasm to give a speech. Many speakers have given wonderful speeches earlier but have faltered in their later speeches. There may be many reasons for providing not such a wonderful speech, but with proper preparation and rehearsal, any speech can be delivered with more zeal and enthusiasm during the meetings. This will make the meetings as well as the club a very lively place to be in.

Next is the important feature of keeping our club going - members and their attendance. Many members turn in only to give their speeches and disappear before they are ready for their next speech. This is strictly not a welcome feature. We are in a club to help each other grow and Toastmasters is not about giving speeches alone - but a potpourri of various other skills like Leadership, Time Management, Evaluations, etc. Also, with a club roster strength of 25, only the regular faces of 15 or so turn for the meetings. Remember TM is not like other communication/leadership programs - you improve only if you participate and provide enthusiasm during the meetings. Each speaker - whether he/she gives a prepared speech/impromptu talk, it is the responsibility of everyone of our members to be present during that time, analyse the speaker and the speech and provide constructive feedback. This is how we can improve individually and as a club.

Taking up roles is also another area where we lack enthusiasm. Please DO NOT consider taking roles as a burden. This is a chance to improve yourself in that role. You can learn swimming only if you are in water - similarly you can benchmark yourself only if you take a role. Try to take big roles - like TM of the day, Topics master of the day, General Evaluator - these give you more opportunity to talk before an audience as well as give you a platform to put across your thoughts and ideas to the audience.

A skill that TM meetings teach us is Time Management. Hardly have we seen meetings start and end on time, especially recently. We need to improve on this and make certain that we do not miss out on an important skill that TM adds to our skills portfolio. If there is a feeling about changing the timings during the meeting, please contact the VP-ed so that it can be accommodated, if applicable.

Finally to conclude, at 40, we are young as a club, but we have the great potential to be a great club in the near future. To make it to that level, we need to raise the bar - give interesting and lively speeches, provide better constructive evaluations, bring in more enthusiasm in the meetings, take different and challenging roles but have variety and the formalness of the meetings. I'm certain that we can make this club achieve great success if WE, as a team, do our club and every other member justice to their being a Toastmaster.

Worth the title

When a new Toastmasters Club is in place, there are usual errs and mistakes. All the  new members are in the same boat - they need to improve their communication skills.

But, the new members might not know the efforts needed to be put in to achieve success. For some of the members, it seems that if they get a CTM (or CC) it is a great successful step. But personally I feel that getting any degree, not only in Toastmasters, but any degree - education-wise, sports, arts, etc, the person should demonstrate that the degree is worth being conferred on the person. Getting a degree  just by passing exams and reading books is not worth a penny. Demonstrate your abilities that you have achieved after obtaining the degree and this is the true worth of the qualification.

Also, on various occasions, people are shy to come forward to know what is really in store for them. To encourage such members to give their speeches and also to show them a roadmap of how the prepared speeches in Toastmasters ought to be, I decided to play on the logisitics used in getting the members come forward and deliver their speeches. This is what I wanted to say to my fellow club members as VP-Education...

Hello all,

 Most of the members have completed their 2nd speech (read project) and some are ready to give their next. In this regard, i'll be going ahead and doing the allotment of project slots on a random basis. I would like to bring to your  attention some of the factors that will be important regarding the projects...

1. Selecting a topic will become difficult if you are going to give your  project at a later time - probably one of the other members would have delivered a project on the same and you have to present it in a better manner to attract the audience attention - So, rush up to book your slots. If you are ready, you can even finish all your remaining projects in consecutive weeks!!!

2. Some members are ready with their next proejct and are waiting to deliver their project - so if you are not ready to give your project at the alloted date, pl. let me know in advance so that I can get in speakers who have their projects ready.

3. Each of the projects should meet the objectives given in the CTM manual. Only some topics will be relevant to some projects. Below are the  objectives of each of the projects and I would suggest that you choose your topic in a manner that it achieves a maximum correlation with the objectives of the project you would be delivering.

Speakers who can be backup speakers, pl. mail me INDIVIDUALLY so that I can suggest your name to the TM of the day, in case of a dropout of a speaker.


Speech number 1 - The ice breaker (timed at 4-6 minutes)
* To begin speaking before an audience
* To discover speaking skills you already have and skills that need some attention

Speech number 2- Organize your speech (timed at 5-7 minutes)
* To select an appropriate outline which allows listeners to easily follow and understand your speech
* Make your message clear, with supporting material directly contributing to that message
* Use appropriate transitions when moving from one idea to another
* Create a strong opening and conclusion

Speech number 3 - Get to the point (timed at 5-7minutes)
* Select a speech topic and determine its general and specific purposes
* Organise the speech in a manner that best achieves those purposes
* Project sincerity and conviction and control any nervousness you may feel
* Strive not to use notes

Speech number 4 - How to say it (timed at 5-7 minutes)
* Select the right words and sentence structure to communicate your ideas clearly, accurately and vividly
* Use rhetorical devices to enhance and emphasise ideas
* Eliminate jargon and unnecessary words and use correct grammar

Speech number 5 - Your body speaks (timed at 5-7 minutes)
* Use stance, movement, gestures, facial expressions and eye contact to express your message and achieve your speech's purpose
* Make your body language smooth and natural

Speech number 6 - Vocal variety (timed at 5-7 minutes)
* Use voice volume, pitch, rate and quality to reflect and add meaning and interest to your message
* Use pauses to enhance your message
* Use vocal variety smoothly and naturally

Speech number 7 - Research your topic (timed at 5-7 minutes)
* Collect information about your topic from numerous sources
* Carefully support your points and opinions with specific facts, examples and illustrates gathered through research

Speech number 8 - Get comfortable with visual aids (timed at 5-7 minutes)
* Select visual aids that are appropriate for your message and the audience
* Use visual aids correctly with ease and confidence

Speech number 9 - Persuade with power (timed at 5-7 minutes)
* Persuade listeners to adopt your viewpoint or ideas or to take some action
* Appeal to the audience's interest
* Use logic and emotion to support your position
* Avoid using notes

Speech number 10 - Inspire your audience (timed at 8 to 10 minutes)
* To inspire the audience by appealing to noble motives and challenging the audience to achieve a higher level of beliefs or achievement
* Appeal to the the audience's needs and emotions, using stories,
anecdotes and quotes to add drama

Meetings Quality

When a TM club is started, there is great enthusiasm, but if the spirit is not kept steaming, members will wane, meetings will loose life and the club will start to go into doom. When the club started at my company, there were a lot of people who came forward. But as usual, with the corporate deadlines hanging over our head like a Damocles' Sword, and the challenge posed by Toastmasters, people started to drop out.
A few even thought that being of part of TM is like being part of a class, where you get automatically promoted. Seems they got the message wrong ... Sorry guys, there is no free lunch!!! You practise to improve in Toastmasters - that is why I like it very much. For people who are not greatly motivated, attending a class / course on public speaking for a few days/ weeks really does not prove good unless and until you practise it - well, here is where Toastmasters kicks in ... you improve yourself, even if it is in small steps, by continuously getting exposed to the TM meetings and getting the small tidbits of feedback you get from various members. There is continuous evaluation from the moment a TM meeting starts till it ends.

To make people understand the nature of Toastmasters and to get them to know how they can thrive in Toastmasters, I penned this following mail ...

Hi all,
It is around two months since we started the Toastmasters Club here.It is a great step taken by all
of us towards improving our communication skills. With great enthusiasm put in by every member, we could see the improvement  in the speeches and soft skills of the speakers.

But I suppose that we have taken just the first few steps towards achieving to be a better speaker. Toastmasters is __NOT__ about getting a certficate (CTM/ATM/etc.) but it is about improving our skills over time and Toastmasters club provide the board neccessary for our improvement. Hence it is neccessary that we produce good quality speeches and good evaluations.

Over the time frame of our club, there has been a large variation in the quality of speeches. Some speeches were impeccable and others were not that interesting. It is time that we focus on our speeches. Getting a CTM without even getting atleast 2-3 best speakers award is not worth
mentioning. We should focus on speeches that utilise the time alloted effectively and efficiently to deliver the message to the audience.

Few things that we need to keep in mind while delivering/ preparing a speech are:

1. Focus on a good opening to capture the audience attention.
2. Have a nice structured body for the speech - have only 3-4 strong points that will make the audience remembers what you talked about in your speech.
3. For each of the points in your speech body, add additional material to get the point stronger into the audience' mind.
4. Have a nice closing to put emphasis on what your have talked about in your speech for the past few minutes.
5. In the body of the speech, don't try to jump back and forth from one point to another.
6. Do seamless transitions from one part of your speech to another.
7. Put in tonal variety and appropriate body language.
8. __PREPARE AND REHEARSE YOUR SPEECH__
9. Put up a smile before you start your speech.
10. Concentrate on your grammar.

As important as speeches are to Toastmasters meeting, so are evaluations.

Only if we give crisp, neat and to-the point evaluations, the quality of the speaker and the club will improve.

Here are a few links to giving effective evaluation, I would like all of you to go through them and try to provide better evalautions.

http://tritt.bizland.com/tc_berne/evaluate/index.htm
http://www.d26toastmasters.org/better-evaluations.php
http://www.parramattatm.org.au/pdfs/elizeval.PDF
http://www.toastmasters-sa.org.za/beth/downloads/eval0001.ppt
http://www.studentgroups.ucla.edu/toastmaster/EVALUATE.pdf

Bottomline, give evaluations that are effective that make the speaker bring him to the podium for a better speech.

Note to evaluators: You __MUST__ use your 2-3 minutes alloted time to give your effective evaluation.

To bring into effect the quality of speeches and the evaluations, once the icebreaker speeches are over, all the speeches and evaluations will be strictly monitored for their quality and speeches may be required to be repeated if they are not upto their level.

I would also like to put emphasis on the point that whoever gives a speech/evalaution/ does a role in a TM meeting, please do come prepared and do not commit mistakes on your part during the meeting.

I would also encourage everyone of you to attend other Toastmaster Clubs' meetings - this is a great oppurtunity to see how the clubs function and know about the quality of speeches they deliver.

As I mentioned earlier, we have taken just the first few steps. I would encourage everyone of you to put in your efforts to deliver quality speeches and evaluations and make each one of us and the club a great success.

Toastmasters

• Toastmasters

Robert's Rules

Here is the next post I sent to my club members about the need and importance of using good parliamentary procedures during the club meetings .....

Hi all,
The TM meetings follow the Robert's Rule of parlimentary procedures.These  set of rules lay forward the ettiquettes that have to be followed in the meeting - which results in the meeting being a formal and a professional one. Some of the rules are related to how you vote, how you interrupt a speaker, how you give your feedback, how you adjourn the meetings, etc. It is really imporatnt that we follow these rules (atleast start implementing the rules in a step-by-step fashion) and make certain that the meetings are formal and enthusisastic.

The online version for the rules are available at:

http://www.rulesonline.com/start.html

Toastmasters

• Toastmasters

First Mail .....

This was my first major posting to the club members ... making certain that the club has a good quality in its members & meetings is a pivotal point of any TM meetings. .... And in a TM Club, the VP-Education is the person who makes certain that the meetings are great. Meetings are the place to showcase the talent the club has!

Just go through the mail ...

Hi all,
As a VP(Ed.) it is my duty to make sure that the Toastmasters meetings run properly and that every member has oppurtunities to develop his/her communication skills, time management, evaluation skills, etc.

In this regard, I would like to know your feedback / suggestions on how the meetings can be run - if there are any improvements required etc.

I would like your answer for these following questions:

1. Do you like the current format of the meetings conducted?

2. Is there any specific area you want to focus on to improve any of your skills?

3. Do you get enough oppurtunity to talk during meetings?

4. What other resources do you need to improve your skills?

5. Any other factors on how we can improve our meetings and also our softskills.


FYI, there is an idea to form subcomittees for each of the roles that we have during the meetings. We will have 3 members in each of the subcommittees and they form the ground rules on how that role helper has to present himself / herself during the meetings.
After forming the ground rules, any member who is new to that role can get the help from the sub committee members on how to do that role in a much satisfying manner during the meetings.
By having these subcomittees in place, we can avoid repeating any mistakes and also get to know more on what a role helper's responsibility is.

I would encourage all of you to be part of atleast one subcommittee.

The various roles we need to focus are:

1. Toastmaster of the day.
2. Table Topics master of the day.
3. General Evaluator
4. Timer
5. Speech Evaluator
6. Ah-Counter/Posture Bell operator
7. PLG
8. Ballot Counter/Listener's Question
9. Jokemaster of the day.

If you are interested in being part of a sub committee, pl. let VP - Memb. know about that.

Reg the feedback, pl. send your replies only to me and don't flood others' inboxes.

Feedbacks are an important part of any Toastmasters meeting and this is what I personally liked in the Toastmasters. Whenever I see management people, I hate them to the core ... because whatever feedback you give to them goes into trash - but still they need feedback. In TM meetings, most of the feedback obtained are implemented and I think that is also due to the organisation of the club - no one is forced - it is a voluntary and non-profit organisation. People join there to improve their skills.

Toastmasters

• Toastmasters

Toastmasters

Here's what I wanted to write more about - Toastmasters. I know that this is a very famous and worthy organisation to be in if you want to improve your communication skills. I had been involved with TM for sometime - about two years - but, as many say, "Opening a Toastmasters Club is easy but keeping it open is tough". I had been feeling the challenge day by day with the Club I'm in. Atleast for a few more posts, I'll keep talking about the various mails I had been posting to my club on keeping the club moving ....

..... A few more stuff about my link with TM .... I started attending a TM club when I was in my last semester of MS program. I found it very needed as I had fumbled and feared about presenting a paper and my thesis earlier. Believe me, I had worried more about these presentations compared to my thesis report / the writing of the paper.

After a short six month stint there, I moved back to India and joined the ocean of IT professionals in Bangalore. But still I thought I wanted to get the TM movement going in me. I didn't have an idea about the community clubs in Bangalore and hence I started to work on opening a Toastmasters Club in my company.

Being a corporate environment, the TM club has its own challenges .... this is where my mails come in .... let me start with a few of them from my next posting .....

Toastmasters

• Toastmasters

startup

I had been taking quite sometime to get into this blogging arena - some procastination and some fear to xpose myself!!! Anyhow, after all the trepidations, I'm here. Yet another blogger (YAB) right? - might be - but I'll also try to contribute to some diskspace, some bandwidth, some discussions, etc. on the net - why should I be silent when I can make some slight moves here & there? - After all, it is a free world right?

About me ... I'm an engineer, working on some system level stuff ... wait, this is no place for tech stuff unless it is very important - well, my new passion is Toastmasters and public speaking as well as trying hands at photography with my recent Olympus evolt-500 DSLR.

Toastmasters