South Main Monthly

Vol. 1 No. 1 South Main Speakers, District 56, Club 8609 January 2007

The mission of the Toastmasters club is to provide a mutually

supportive and positive learning environment in which every
member has the opportunity to develop communication and
leadership skills, which in turn foster self-confidence and
personal growth.

IN THIS ISSUE:

*President's Corner President’s

*New Officers January-June 2007
Corner
*Anniversaries and Milestones
Biru Yang
Xiaodong Zhai Welcome Back!
Ashish Sinha By Annie M. Ballatore, CL

*New Member Spotlight

Jazon Samillano
*Calendar of Events
Magic Moments showing
Tall Tales and International Speech Contests
*Features
"How I Ended Up in Toastmasters" by Ashish Sinha
"What's in a Name?" by Renay Jacob
"Tax Corner" by Sam Tsen
*Ask the Master
What do the Toastmaster acronyms mean?
The South Main Monthly is a monthly publication of the South
Main Speakers Toastmasters club. We meet every Sunday at
1:30 p.m. in 10305 South Main Street (Houston Chinese
Church), Room 411. For more information, please visit our
website at: http://groups.msn.com/southmainspeakers
If you have any comments, contributions, or suggestions
concerning this or future issues, please send them to
floatingcomma@gmail.com. Thank you for reading!
Welcome to the first edition of the South Main Speakers
Newsletter, where the latest information, achievements, and goals
of our club can be shared with both our club members and the
community!
This past year, South Main Speakers has shown a fraction of the
enormous talent and potential it possesses. Over the course of
2006, our club grew to include 27 members, several of which
earned educational awards. This steady influx of new members to
our club has brought enthusiasm, new personalities, and an
impressive array of different skills. Our club also retained
seasoned members, including several DTMs as well as both area
and division governors. These members continue to bring
dedication, high educational levels, and invaluable knowledge of
the intricate world of Toastmasters International. All in all, our
club is now known throughout the district for its dynamism,
friendliness, and achievements!
With such a wonderful group, in 2007 South Main Speakers hopes
to continue to nurture our delightful club climate. Through more
educational sessions, contests, and exciting meetings, our club will
give each member the opportunity to develop his or her
communication and leadership skills while simultaneously making
wonderful friends and having loads of fun!

-Vivian Li, Editor South Main Speakers, best wishes for a marvelous New Year!
 New Officers January-June 2007

Congratulations to the following Toastmasters who were elected in

November to serve the January-June 2007 term:

President: Annie M. Ballatore, CL

Vice President Education: Vivek Rajan
Vice President Membership: Lu Yao
Vice President Public Relations: Vivian Li
Secretary: Brian Zhang
Treasurer: Biru Yang
Sergeant at Arms: Gary Chen

Anniversaries & Milestones

Milestones Calendar of Events

January 21: Showing of Magic Moments DVD

Learn what all great speakers know: the greatest

• Congratulations to Biru Yang for
earning her Competent Toastmaster
(CTM) award last month! To
achieve the CTM, the Toastmaster
must complete the ten speeches in
the Basic Manual.
• Xiaodong Zhai, CC, celebrates his
one year anniversary with South
Main Speakers this month.
• Goodbye and good luck to Ashish
Sinha, who joined South Main
Speakers in November last
year. He will be moving back to
India in early February. We'll miss
you!
speeches are built on a foundation of magic
moments. David Brooks, Toastmasters World
Champion of Public Speaking, studied speeches at the
previous Toastmasters World Championship looking
to capture the "magic moment" when a speech was
outstanding in some special way. He then compiled
them into a DVD with his commentaries. Watch and
learn from Toastmasters World Championship of
Public Speaking finalists who demonstrate dozens of
specialized speaking skills.
February: Tall Tales Contest and the Toastmasters
International Speech Contest
Brush up your tall tales and your best speech! Next
month, TM clubs all over our district will be
conducting contests for the Tall Tales Contest and the
Toastmasters International Speech Contest. Winners
from South Main Speakers will represent our club at
the district level. Stay tuned for more details!
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 New Member Spotlight

Please give a warm welcome to our newest member, Jazon

Samillano, who joined after visiting South Main Speakers last
week. In his own words to the club:

My heart broke when I had to leave my Toastmasters club back

in Fort Myers, Florida, but I had to pursue a greater job
opportunity here in Houston. It is so wonderful to find a club
here so welcoming and so devoted to achieving excellence in
public speaking. Thank you so much for this new opportunity!

that he has joined a Toastmasters Club in

order to improve it. Within a fraction of a
second I realized that this is also one of my
biggest weaknesses and wow – I have a
solution too. My next dot com on my
journey was Toastmasters.com.

After a few more clicks, I was pretty much

How I Ended Up at Toastmasters – South
Main Speakers
Contributed by Ashish Sinha
Let me share with you the interesting
sequence of events that led me to
Toastmaster Club – South Main
Speakers. While filling out an application, I
was required to enter my three
weaknesses. This is a commonly asked and
dreaded question in interviews. I looked up
my friend in need – google.com. After few
clicks, I ended up reading message boards
on Monster.com. Most people on the forum
suggested stating a weakness which you are
working on improving. I scrolled down
further and found a gentleman commenting
that his weakness is "Public Speaking" and
convinced that this is what I
wanted. Thanks to the zip code and day of
week based search, I was quickly able to
narrow down the list of clubs; of course the
South Main Speakers came on top of the
list. Looking at the web pages and updated
website made me further interested in trying
it out. After attending the first meeting, I
did not feel like trying out anything else. I
think my wife and this Toastmasters club are
the two things that I fell in love with at first
sight.
Although I have only a few more meetings
left to attend in this club before I move on to
a branch in India, the valuable experiences I
gained here will be cherished throughout my
life. My best wishes remain with this club.
************

South Main Monthly 3


What's in a Name?
Contributed by Renay Jacob, ATMB
One of my favorite routines on Sunday
morning is tuning into Sunday Morning on
CBS (8:00 a.m. – 9:30 a.m.). I've enjoyed
the show for several years, and I like it
because of its low-key with highbrow news
stories. Each Sunday, a commentator
provides his/her opinion on a topic du jour
for 3-4 minutes. On December 17, 2006,
Mo Rocca provided this light-hearted
commentary on Barack Obama. I think you
will find his creative play on words rather
amusing, regardless of your political
affiliations:
Never mind Barack Obama's color. The real
challenge will be getting Americans to vote
for a guy whose name is Barack Obama. It's
just so foreign sounding. Strange, maybe
even dangerous. Ted Kennedy already
slipped up and last year called the golden
boy/junior Senator from Illinois
"Osama." And they're in the same party!
The first name isn't the problem. We've had
Rutherford, we've had Grover, we've had the
suspiciously-Muslim-sounding Abraham.
Besides, he can always just go with the first
initial followed by the middle name, like
former FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover. That
would make him B. Hussein Obama.
Hussein's his middle name?! He'd be better
off with Milhouse. Or, maybe he should just
go with J. Edgar Hoover.
But I digress. The last name, Obama, is the
tough part. It's not Adams or Coolidge. It's
not even an anagram for anything remotely
WASP-y sounding. Amoab? Too many
vowels.
Yes, some of this would be mitigated if he
were Caucasian, even Irish-Catholic. But
would candidate Barack O'Bama have a
much easier shot? Nope.
And yet the name presents such
possibility. There's just so much you can do
with it. A gathering of Obama lovers
becomes an Obamarama.
A triumph at the New Hampshire
primary? Obamatastic.
Mothers for Obama? Obama-mamas.
Star Wars fans will naturally call him
Obama-Wan Kenobi.
And followers of Emeril Lagasse who plan
on voting for the Senator will be shouting
"o-BAM-a!" (an example of what your
English teacher might call Obamatapoeia).
The mantra of his doo-wop supporters? I've
got a candidate named
Obamalamadingdong!
Of course not everyone is an Obamaniac,
marching behind their leader like some
Obamaton. Certain Democrats even are
probably downright scared. Just call it
Obamaphobia.
Mo Rocca continues to be one of my
favorite humorists on radio and television.
You can find a clip for the segment at
www.cbsnews.com.
************
South Main Monthly 4
 deadline to October 15th. If you owe taxes,
the extension to file does NOT change the
payment due date. For sure, any unpaid
taxes will accrue interest and penalties. If
you expect to receive a tax refund, you may
split it into up to three (3) accounts within
up to three (3) different institutions.

Tax Corner IRS prefers e-file (electronic filing) – it is

Contributed by Sam Tsen, CTM SAFER and FASTER. If your tax
declaration is simple, do it
yourself. Otherwise, seek advice from a
Hello Folks – professional – it will save you money in the
long run.
After you've enjoyed the holiday
celebrations and made the 2007 New Year More tax news, updates and advices will be
resolutions, now the inevitable realities of forthcoming in the next few
life including the compulsory date with the articles. Meanwhile, enjoy your New Year.
IRS requirements are around the
corner. Sure, there is plenty of time you
say … there is even another New Year's ************
celebration (Chinese) before the
deadline. Yet, this final moment inexorably
moves towards you daily until the midnight
bell, which in 2007, rings on Monday, April
16th.

Of course, typical of the IRS, there are

several changes for 2006 tax year and they
may affect you. First, there is a NEW tax
credit – the telephone excise tax
credit. Also, each exemption is $3,300 and
standard deduction has been increased:
single or married filing separately is $5,150,
head of household is $7,550 and married Ask the Master
filing jointly is $10,300.
Dear Master,
Several provisions earmarked for
elimination in 2006 appear to be resuscitated What does all of those acronyms in
by Congress and these may help you: Toastmasters mean? ATM, ATMB, CTM,
deductions for state and local sales tax, CL, etc...what do they all stand for and is
higher education tuition and fees credits, and there any order to them?
educator expenses.
-Confused New Member
If you need more time to prepare your taxes,
you may file an extension which moves the

South Main Monthly 5

Dear Confused,
The Toastmasters educational program is
divided into two tracks-- a communication
track and a leadership track. The core of
the communication track is the Competent
Communication manual, which is often
referred to as the "Basic Manual." It
contains 10 speech projects. The track
continues with three Advanced
Communicator awards.
The leadership track starts with attaining
the Competent Leader award, which focuses
on leading people as a club officer, and the
Advanced Leader, which focuses on leading
leaders in Toastmasters.
Most of the acronyms you mentioned refer to
the previous educational program that is
being fazed out and replaced by the new
educational program that new members
follow. The new program is very much
similar to the old one, though to better
distinguish the communication and
leadership tracks, the award names have
changed slightly and an additional level was
added to the leadership track. The left
diagram below outlines the old program and
the right diagram describes the new
program.
South Main Monthly 6