South Main Monthly

Vol. 3 No. 1 South Main Speakers, District 56, Club 8609 January 2008

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

• Milestones
Lu Yao
• Calendar of Events
Turn Your Accent into an Asset – Educational Session
Officer and new member induction ceremony
Get coached to speak! Champ Camp
• Features
“Christmas Traditions” by Erika Parrish
“Champions’ Lessons – part I” by Michael Plaks
“Holiday Messages Require Pen and Ink" by Renay Jacob
“Night at the Symphony” by Erika Parrish
• Ask the Master
How do you write a speech?
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
vrajan@gmail.com. Thank you for reading!
-Vivek Rajan, Editor
Corner
Happy New Years and Welcome Back!
By Vivian Li, CC
I hope you are as excited as me about a new year
with South Main Speakers!
In our second meeting of the year, January 13,
professional inspirational speaker and fellow Toastmaster
Ola Joseph will give an education session “Turn Your
Accent Into an Asset.” Find more information inside this
current issue. Please make sure to invite all your friends to
this informative and dynamic talk. Kudos to Judy Yan and
Grace Hu for their special efforts in publicizing this event
to the press.
Also this month, start preparing your best speech
because the spring contest season is just around the corner!
In February we will hold the Evaluation and International
Speech Contests. The winners will serve as our
representatives at the next level. Contests are the best way
to motivate yourself to improve quickly, so I really
encourage everybody to participate.
As our group New Years resolution for 2008, lets
all resolve to become even better speakers and leaders by
giving more speeches than is required of us, volunteering
for meeting roles to help motivate fellow South Main
Speakers, and finally attaining that communication and/or
leadership award.
 Milestones
• Congratulations to Lu Yao on
earning her Competent
Communicator award! She finished
her ten speech projects from the
CC manual last month to achieve
this award.
• Farewell and good luck to Lu Yao.
She recently took up a new job in
Chicago and has already moved to
the Windy City. We’ll miss you!
Come and visit us when you are in
town.
Did you miss the outstanding
presentation on Table Topics by Jim
Hamilton last month?
If you missed it, don’t worry, we got it all
on tape! You can download the video and
handout from:
http://www.atmajnana.org/SouthMainSpeaker
s/Videos/December16-2007/
January 13: Turn Your Accent into an Asset
An educational session by award-winning speaker -
Ola Joseph
Ola Joseph was born on a small fishing island village
in one of the poorest areas of Nigeria. He arrived in
the U.S. a few years ago with less than $100 in his
pocket, armed with the courage to succeed. He
captures audiences with his stories of courage,
perseverance and triumph over life's challenges. Ola's
moving, informative and entertaining presentations
help audiences set objectives and inspire them to
achieve. Every presentation uses a unique blend of
humor, examples and stories to inspire, motivate, and
educate the audience. Ola is a United States Navy
veteran, 2001 National Speakers Association Member
of the Year (NSA Houston Chapter) and an author of
three bestselling books and numerous audio and video
programs.
In this educational session, Ola will be educating us
on how to deliver a dynamic speech even if English is
not your first language, and how to make our accent
an asset as it makes us unique.
January 20: Officer and New Members Induction
Ceremony
January 26, 27: Get Coached to Speak!
A 2-day hands-on boot camp in Dallas organized by
two World Champions - Craig Valentine and Darren
LaCroix. You can sign up as an observer ($195) or as
a participant ($895). For more information visit
http://www.worldchampionspeakers.com/champcamp
-coach.htm.
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Christmas
Traditions
by Erika Parrish
My husband Jim and
I have had so much
fun over the years
making it as magical as we could for our
boys during the holiday season. Today I will
share with you our family’s Christmas
traditions.
Our Christmas traditions begin the first
week in November. We make our
reservations for our annual family picture
(everyone is in the picture, not just the kids)
and order our Christmas cards from the
Humane Society. As Christmas cards begin
to come in, Jim plays a game with me every
day after checking the mailbox. We play,
“guess the sender of the Christmas card.” He
tells me the address, excluding the city and
state, and I guess the sender. I’m pretty good
at this game.
Around the middle of December we go as a
family to pick out our tree. We wait till the
middle of the month because by then, prices
of trees have gone from $85 to $35! We
decorate the tree together while we listen to
our Christmas records. I love hearing Bing
Crosby, The Osmond Boys, and Alvin and
the Chipmunks sing Christmas songs! With
great music like that, how can you not get in
the Christmas spirit?
Christmas Eve is such an action pack day in
our home. During the day we clean the
house. I trick the boys into thinking Santa
won’t come if the house is messy and dirty. I
call it Sanitizing for Santa! Later in the
evening we all attend the Candle Light
Service at our Church. After service is over,
we drive around looking at Christmas lights.
For supper that night we have Poo Poos,
that’s Hawaiian for hors-d’oeuvres. This
Parrish Tradition began in 1950 but wasn’t
called Poo Poos until the late 1970s after
Grandma Parrish took a trip to Hawaii and
thought it was fun that they called hors-
d’oeuvres, Poo Poos! There are three gifts
under the tree, one for each boy to open.
These gifts are all either a robe or Pajama.
We put out cookies and milk for Santa and
sprinkle magic reindeer food in the yard.
After the boys are all asleep, our home turns
into Santa’s work Shoppe! Jim and I get
busy and finish wrapping the remaining gifts.
Each year we have one roll of wrapping
paper designated for all the gifts that came
from Santa. I eat the cookies and drink the
milk, leaving crumbs and a half empty glass
of milk, as if Santa did it. Jim goes outside
and makes hoof and sleigh marks in the yard
so the kids know where Santa’s sleigh
landed. We place all the gifts under the tree
and put gifts in the stockings. On Christmas
morning, around 5:30a.m., we wake up the
boys and have them line up in the hall way.
Grandpa plays “Oh Come all ye Faithful”,
by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. The
music signals everyone to come to the tree
to open the gifts that Santa brought. This
tradition began on the Christmas of 1949.
Frank Parrish, told the kids not to come out
until they heard music. That year the gift to
the family was a record player. The first
record bought was “Oh Come All Ye
Faithful” by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
It has been a tradition every Christmas ever
since. The eldest male Parrish hands each
boy one gift and they can open it up at the
same time. We continue to open up gifts as
Christmas music plays softy in the
background. Later that day, to sneak in the
Spanish influence in our family, we eat
Tamales, rice and beans for lunch and
supper.
We wrap up the holidays by putting away all
the Christmas decoration on January 2nd and
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take our tree to the recycling center. I look
forward to continuing these traditions for a
long time even after the boys stop believing
in Santa.
Champions'
Lessons - part I
by Michael Plaks,
ATM-B
On November
16th, 2004, it hit
me. If some
Toastmasters went all the way to become
World Champions of Public Speaking - then
maybe, just maybe, they know a thing or
two that I don't. As it turned out, I was
wrong: they knew a whole lot more. Ever
since that memorable day, I study the
speaking craft from the Champions. And
now I want to share some of what I learned
from the Masters.
Today's lesson: Enter the darn contest!
Ok, the Champions did not say "darn." But
they did encourage every Toastmaster to
enter the club contest. If you noticed, they
said "every Toastmaster." They did not say
"experienced" or "talented" or not even
"ready." They said - every single
Toastmaster. Why? There are at least three
reasons.
Reason 1: it is fun! Why did we even join
Toastmasters? Was it to become more
comfortable and have more fun in front of
live audiences? Guess what - this is exactly
what contests are about. In fact, it is not
much different from a regular club speech.
The difference is that your audience may
include new faces, and that you have an
added challenge of competing against your
peers. In my book, both these factors are
fun.
Reason 2: you may win. Before a recent
club contest, one of my friends opted to
withdraw, despite my strong encouragement.
All because he felt he was not ready to
compete. After the contest, he came up to
me and said: you were right, I could have
competed and possibly even won. Exactly
my point! When I competed in my very first
Toastmasters contest, I did not try to win. I
was just going for my #8 speech to complete
the CTM program. I was rather surprised
that my speech won the club contest and
even won at higher levels. You just never
know. In our District 56 (which is all
Greater Houston and surrounding areas),
there are several District-level champions
who were 1st-time competitors.
Reason 3, however, is the most important of
all: competing pushes you to become better.
Let's face it: in the club, we don't really push
each other. For all the right reasons, we try
to encourage each other and give positive
evaluations. There is nothing wrong with
this. Peer support and encouragement are
essential, especially for new Toastmasters,
up to a point. The inevitable point when we
start coasting along, getting comfortable and
lazy. Let me ask those of you who
completed your 10 speeches - did you feel
the difference between "before" and "after"?
I am sure you did, just like I did. But what
happened after that? Are you as good today
as you can be? Have you achieved your
absolute best? I bet not. Not yet.
And I can understand. Because, once we
reach the "good enough" level, our
motivation naturally drops. Our fellow club
members will not help, because they will
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keep patting you on the back: good job,
buddy! When was the last time you heard a
club evaluator say something like: this was
ok, but not great - you could do so much
better than that! We don't do it in
Toastmasters. And this is when contests
come in. To beat your fellow club members,
you have to be at your best, push yourself
harder - and become a better speaker in the
process.
David Brooks, the 1990 World Champion,
says: “You do not compete because you are
the best. You become the best because you
compete.”
The Champions often repeat: whether or not
you win a trophy, you will emerge from the
contest a better speaker. Which means: you
will always WIN, but only if you enter the
(darn) contest.
Holiday
Messages
Require Pen
and Ink
by Renay Jacob,
ACS
I'm not a texter.
I'm a fast typist,
but my fingers
are not very nimble for those little bitty keys,
and I don't have the knack for abbreviating
words.
"LOL?" "U R 2 FNY?" Whaat?
The abbreviations save the typist time, but it
takes me twice as long to decipher and read.
I mean, it's nice that someone wants to send
you a little message immediately, and
texting sure can help in an emergency, but I
don't want my telephone writing me notes.
I can't handle BlackBerrys, either. I’ve
encountered several instances at the airport
when the person in the stall next to me types
away while he does his business. Can't it
wait? (The BlackBerry, not the bathroom.)
Text messages and e-mail. They're
thoughtful, but mindless. They’re intimate
and distant, both at once. As far as I'm
concerned, hearing the "ding" of an in-box
will never be the same as getting a letter.
Remember letters, and the excitement of
getting an actual letter in the mail, among a
sea of bills, catalogues and other junk?
When Jeanne was away in Utah, I loved
receiving cards from her. She sent cards for
no particular reasons at all.
What's inside? The excitement is
inexplicable -- the feel of envelope and
paper, the style of someone's handwriting,
the ink, a child's lettering, or the shaky lines
of an older correspondent. Good
penmanship is not one of Jeanne’s fortes,
but I love it when she hand writes me
something. Handwriting tells you something
about a person, yet these days I have friends
whose handwriting I've never seen!
A letter, not a downloaded e-mail, is
something special. I stopped receiving
birthday cards for a while until a couple of
years ago because people sent me e-cards. I
cherish the rare occasion when somebody
sends me an actual card.
And I'm still grateful for Christmas cards,
because even in this instant messaging world,
the holidays are the one time of the year
when you still get letters and cards. Whether
they're hokey, or Greenpeace-y, or
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populational, a card or a note is a precious
gift.
Hey, get a pen and write, even if your
fingers feel weird from scrawling something
longer than your signature. Because a
"Happy Hanukkah!" "Feliz Navidad!" text
or a "Joyful Kwanzaa!" e-card can be
deleted. Just like that.
Night at the
Symphony
by Erika Parrish
Words cannot express
how grateful I am to
have won tickets from South Main Speakers’
Membership Building Contest. Winning
these tickets meant so much to me. I’ve been
a Viola player for twenty years! If I wasn’t a
nurse, I would probably be performing with
the Houston Symphony myself! I knew if I
won, I would take my Father-in-Law with
me. He has a deep appreciation for the
Chorus since he was in various choirs and
Barber Shop groups throughout the years. I
also enjoy watching as he pretends to
conduct an orchestra with a baton as he
listens to his music. So I knew he would
appreciate going with me.
The entire performance was awesome.
Besides listening to the Symphony, we had
the pleasure of hearing the Houston
Symphony Chorus, vocalist, Will Maker
(finalist in season 5 of American Idol),
viewing dance performances and a special
appearance by Santa.
I sat at the edge of my seat the entire time. I
had fun watching the featured performers on
the big screen and then looking for them in
the sea of players on the stage. As the
Chorus powerfully sang O Holy Night a
feeling came over me. The same one I get
when I hear the National Anthem. Through
my peripheral vision I noticed tears just
streaming down my Father-in-Law’s cheek.
At that moment, I was so thankful he was
able to join me.
I really enjoyed a rare bassoon trio
performance. They played, “Bassoon it will
be Christmas”. A bassoon is one of those
instruments you’ve heard before, but
couldn’t identify it in a line up. If you ever
seen a Tom and Jerry Cartoon, a bassoon is
one of the instruments used when there is a
chase scene.
Last, but not least, the principal pops
conductor, Michael Krajewski was hilarious.
I loved how he tried to hock his home made
version of a Conductor Action Figure. The
word “Action” is used lightly. The doll
doesn’t do anything besides stand there
holding a baton! His straight face humor as
he explained how to use the Whip
instrument was genius!
It was a great night and one that I will never
forget. Again, thank you Jian for creating
this Membership Building Contest and
Vivian for donating the tickets.
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Ask the Master
Dear Master,
I give speeches without writing them, but
most of the public speaking experts advise
to write speeches. I don’t have any
experience writing a speech word for word,
so could you please give me some pointers
on how to write speeches?
— Terrible Speech Writer
Dear Terrible Speech Writer,
If it gives you any comfort, an old cliché
tells us that most people are more afraid of
public speaking than dying, yet as you’ll see
in this article, learning how to write a
speech is a simple process that you can
quickly master. Once you’ve written your
speech using the principles outlined below,
your fear of public speaking will be gone
forever, and Good Riddance to it!
Let’s start with seven basic steps. Please sit
up and pay close attention to this bit,
because you can’t really leave any of these
steps out. Below the basic steps are three
bonus ninja speaking tips I’ve picked up in
the course of writing, delivering and
listening to hundreds of speeches over the
years.
Step Zero: STOP! Did you see what I just
did? Please re-read that last paragraph
again, because it’s vitally important. In just
three simple sentences, I set your
expectations about what to expect in this
article, unobtrusively gave you some
information about me to add to my
credibility, and got you to sit up and pay
SPECIAL attention to my basic points. In
fact, just to leave you in no doubt at all, I
asked you to do that in as many words!
That’s really my first basic tip on how to
write a speech: everything you say in a
speech should be carefully planned,
thought out, written and rehearsed. NO
AD-LIBBING! With a prepared speech, your
greatest asset, and one that your audience
won’t even be aware of, is the luxury of
having time to prepare and hone your wise
words. So use it wisely, Grasshopper.
Here are the seven Basic Steps:
1. Carefully write, rewrite and if
necessary rewrite again your first three
to five sentences. You will utter these
words during the single most important
moment of your speech. Your audience
is getting to know you, and already
form opinions about you, your style and
how receptive they’ll be when you get
to the point. So include in your intro all
the elements you need to set the tone,
introduce yourself and make the exact
first impression that YOU want to give
them. Rehearse this using specific
words. Change them if they’re not
perfect. “Try on” various tones of
voice, tempos, volumes. Whisper.
Pause. Shout. Rehearse all this until
you can do it in the shower. In fact,
prove it by DOING it in the shower.
You can’t take your notes in there, so
this will give you the confidence you
need that you KNOW this bit. Feel free
to scrub up a little while you’re in
there!
2. OK, back to work. Now, write a crisp
summary of the points you made during
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 your speech and a smooth transition to
your closing remarks. I know you
haven’t written the speech yet, so for
now, use anything you want to
represent your points, like newspaper
headlines from this morning’s paper.
Your mission here is to capture the tone
you want to maximize the impact of
your closing. DON’T CHEAT – you’ll
only be cheating yourself. Your closing
words are just as important as your
opening. This and maybe one point you
talk about will be remembered. So make
it memorable. Shout if you have to.
Rehearse it like before.
REALLY IMPORTANT: Close with one
or two very carefully crafted sentences.
OK, practice time. Go back for another
shower. No notes this time!
3. You should now smell nice and have a
Hollywood blockbuster opening and
climax for your speech. If you’re at that
point, you can get dressed again, you
won’t need another shower till later.
Sorry about all the towels we’re using
in this lesson. Nothing I could have said
in the title to prepare you for it would
have kept your interest!
4. What you need now depends largely on
your speech’s purpose. So before you
start cutting facts out of newspapers, be
really clear about what you want to
achieve, and write another few
sentences, again using careful phrases,
to establish your purpose beyond any
doubt. Even if you don’t actually say
these words in your speech, just writing
it out concisely gets it straight in your
own head. Having a polished phrase or
two at your disposal can also be a life-
saver if you’re asked questions at the
end.
5. Finally, you need to research the heck
out of a small number of points you
want to get across. Gather all the
material you can on your topic. Don’t
judge yet, just gather. You have no
excuse for lack of relevant and
memorable material, or unchecked
facts with the Internet at your disposal.
When you’ve done this, organize your
material into sub-topics – very broadly,
this isn’t your speech.
6. Now comes the only hard part of the
whole exercise. Out of your vast
collection of web and print clippings,
photos, audio clips, statistical tables,
government reports, dictionaries of
quotations, historical documents,
DVDS…, select RELEVANT
supporting material for NO MORE
THAN THREE main points you’d like
to make in your speech, and put the rest
away for another time. Be brutal, you
don’t need it all just now. Organize
each of your sub-topics for maximum
impact. The most important one should
come first, then the others in
INCREASING order of importance.
There are various theories on why this
order has the most impact, like catching
people before they’ve had a chance to
glaze over. That’s WAY too cynical for
me. Your speech is already a dazzler, so
just trust that this is the case and try it
out. So just to reiterate that, if you had
5 points to make (and you don’t
because I’ve said stick to 3!), numbered
from least to most important, you
should deliver them in this order: 5, 1,
2, 3, 4. If you see signs of glazing eyes,
or hear any snores any time between 5
and 4, skip straight to your last point,
do your well-polished closing and sit
down. I’ll repeat that point about
cutting out material. I know It’s
tempting to find a place in your speech
for some great anecdote or fact you
want to share, even if it’s slightly off-
topic and takes 3 minutes to deliver.
Less is definitely more when learning
how to write a speech. You really,
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 really, must keep your speech to three
points. Don’t cheat: you need three
(two is better) clearly distinguishable
points. Otherwise you’ll dilute your
excellent content and lose some of your
audience.
7. Practice, Practice, and Practice. I can’t
emphasize this enough. Knowing how
to write a speech and delivering that
speech effectively are two different
things. I once gave the performance of
my life and won a regional
Toastmasters humorous speech contest,
having never had the courage to even
enter a contest before. How did I do it?
I rehearsed in front of an audience. A
real audience, made up of several
stuffed toys animals belonging to my
son who was then a year old! Believe
me, it’s quite scary trying to make
Paddington Bear laugh, for all his
renowned comic escapades.
Ninja Bonus Tips
We’re near the end of your attention span –
I know. Never say I’m not paying attention
to my audience! But I promised some bonus
material, and after all the washing I made
you do earlier, I think you’re due some good
stuff, so here goes.
My first bonus tip is really just Step 7 in
disguise. You have to practice. It takes away
the fear. Don’t cheat, really – don’t. I
thought this particular piece of advice was
just patronizing waffle, until my humorous
speech contest incident. I was so terrified of
being complete rubbish that I rehearsed that
speech until I was sick of it, and ended up
winning not just once, but three times, at
progressively higher levels in the
tournament. And I had no fear, because I
knew every word, whisper, pause, gesture
and smile of that speech. I could probably
deliver it now, 10 years later. Maybe I’ll
have a shower after I finish writing this and
do just that.
My second bonus tip for ninja speakers.
One more after this, then we’re done. Don’t
stop at writing just your speech. Think big-
picture. Unless you trust your host to
introduce you really well and set the scene
like Jay Leno’s warm-up act, you should
really write your OWN introduction. Most
hosts will be delighted if you hand them an
index card to read, and you’ll be assured
that the audience is properly prepared for
you AND your speech before you get up. A
good intro should include your name, one or
two sentences about your background or
expertise, and it should end with the title of
your speech.
And that nicely brings us to my final ninja
bonus tip. Ironically, this is the FIRST thing
your audience will notice. Your speech
NEEDS a great title. Your title is like your
press agent – it goes ahead of you, and
appears in any printed materials about the
event. It sets expectations. Put as much
effort into picking a doozie title as you did
rehearsing your opening, and all will be
hunky dory. Again - don’t cheat on this step
– you’ll spoil the GREAT speech you’ve put
together. Many a decent speech has been
killed by poor pre-conceived ideas the
audience got from a rubbish or absent
speech title.
So that’s it. If you follow these basic steps,
there’s really no need to be afraid of public
speaking. Don’t confuse nerves with fear.
Nerves under control will turn your new
understanding of how to write a speech into
a memorable event for you and your
audience.
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