Last Sunday my Pastor talked about what insurance companies consider an act of God versus what Christians consider an act of God. Insurance companies see hurricanes, floods, and lightning strikes as acts of God. They use these natural occurrences to explain why they are not going to pay a claim, even though they probably should. Those that believe in God consider a baby being born to a woman who was told she was barren, becoming cancer free after being told you have six months to live,  and graduating with a PhD after being told you have a learning disability as acts of God. “It is interesting to me” my Pastor said, “that the insurance companies see acts of God in the negative but those who believe only see acts of God in the positive.”

This sermon started me to thinking about how many outside of our Toastmasters organization view acts of Toastmasters versus how those who are members consider acts of Toastmasters. Non-members see fear of public speaking, making mistakes and looking foolish in front of people as acts of Toastmasters. They use these excuses to decide why they are not going to join a club even though they probably should. Those of us who are members of Toastmasters see speaking with confidence, becoming better leaders, better listeners, better writers and networking as acts of Toastmasters. It is interesting to me that those outside the organization see acts of Toastmasters in the negative but those who are members only see the positive.

Now, I am in no way comparing acts of God to acts of Toastmasters but you have to admit that people are people everywhere you go and those things we don’t know much about we instantly categorize them as negative.

How do we get those non-members to become members you may ask? By continuing to perform our acts of Toastmasters.

 

Assessing the likelihood that you will suffer from a preventable illness is in part done by knowing your health numbers. The health community has set up a pretty straight forward system to keep track of your health numbers. Those numbers are your blood pressure-the strongest marker for detecting heart disease; Cholesterol levels-know your bad cholesterol (LDL), and good cholesterol (HDL); blood sugar- the most common way to screen for diabetes; and your Body Mass Index (BMI)- used to determine if you are overweight. If you know your health numbers you can avoid many of the chronic health conditions that cause needless suffering for some.

Just like it is important to know your health numbers, for those of us in Toastmasters it is equally important to know your club’s numbers. Assessing the likelihood that your club will suffer from preventable membership loss, educational stagnation and administrative doldrums is all about knowing your club’s numbers. Toastmasters international has set up a pretty straight forward system to keep track of your club’s health numbers. This system is known as the Distinguished Club Program, (DCP).

Each active club in Toastmasters has a DCP tracker chart. Any member can, and probably should, access, know, and keep track of their club’s health numbers. You can see your club’s health tracker chart by navigating to the Toastmasters International website, clicking on leadership central, then clicking on distinguished performance reports, choosing your region (ours would be region 6), and choosing your district, (ours would be 40). Then at the top of the page, click the club performance tab, choose your division, then your area, then your club. When you look at the goals chart at the top of your club’s page it lists Toastmasters International achievement scores. Scores range from a minimum of 5-Distinguished to a maximum of 9-Presidents Distinguished. These achievement rankings determine whether your club is healthy. Super healthy clubs achieve 10 or more goals.

Achieving healthy club numbers is pretty simple to do. If each member contributes by completing speech projects, bringing in new members, paying dues on time and performing roles that allow others to do the same, you can’t help but have a healthy club.

The deadline to achieve healthy club numbers is June 30^thbut the time to start is NOW! So how about it? Do you know your club’s numbers?

Each round gets harder and harder, the competitor pool gets smaller and smaller and allegiances are formed. What is this thing that can pit some seemingly peaceful households against each other during this time of year? No, it isn’t the National Championship or the Super bowl, but if you said Toastmasters contest season then you would be right.

Toastmasters contest season is a very unique time. What’s so unique about it you might ask? Each winter thousands of members around the world compete at the club, area, division and district levels all to secure a spot in the  Championship round of the Toastmasters program, the International Speech Contest.  You won’t find Toastmasters Contest season listed on a conventional calendar, however, around Toastmasters circles contest season is definitely considered noteworthy. Next to Toastmasters Leadership Trainings, (TLIs) and the spring conference the contests are probably the best time to do networking. Due to the high number of members that come out to watch, judge, time, count and lead.

The contests definitely live up to all of the hype and advertising. The best of the best recite their finest 5-7 minute speech to give audiences in their clubs, areas, divisions, districts and world, a laugh, a cry or a moral to live by.

Unlike the Super bowl there are no losers in the Toastmasters speech contests. Because iron sharpens iron, each member emerges from competition a better communicator and leader as a result of the participation.

If you haven’t participated in, volunteered for or attended a speech contest I challenge you to make this your year to do so, you will only benefit from the experience.

TROPICAL January!

This past Thursday in our ENCORE Advanced Toastmasters Club our Toastmaster picked a theme of Tropical January. He didn’t just pick the theme and give random thoughts about how it would be nice to be in the tropics in January. He went way out and decorated the room in the tropics, he dressed in tropical clothing and he even got other members involved by bringing in items that they could wear as well.

A themed meeting makes the meeting fun and it allows other roles to get involved as well the timer, grammarian, topicsmaster can all fashion their content based on the theme. In some instances even the speakers can use the theme for their projects. When the entire meeting is centered around a common message it makes the meeting FUN for all involved.

If you find that your meetings are becoming a little stale consider having a themed meeting but not just in word really go all out with the theme because as our Toastmaster founder Ralph Smedley said “We learn best in moments of enjoyment”

Does your club use themes?