“Speech has power. Words do not fade.
What starts out as a sound, ends in a deed.”
— Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907-1972), rabbi, theologian & philosopher

Among the dismal voids of the so-called information age is the paucity of published speeches.

Twitter and TV cover public addresses using bite (or byte)-sized dictums. At best, newspapers weave a phrase from a news conference into a pithy headline. Websites stitch together patchworks of a speaker's themes.

FreeToastHost is a club website and agenda management tool available to all Toastmasters club for free. If you do not have a FTH website check out this page on Toastmasters International to get started.

1. Head to the main page

District 96 covers a lot of territory and it's important to let our members know what is happening.  If you are a member of District 96 you can submit an event for your club, area, division or district.  It's easy and this article will give you steps on how to submit and event and edit just in case you make a mistake.

Step 1: Log in or create an account.

2 simple rules for consistently delivering better speech evaluations

Originally published by Ian Cunliffe, DTM 

As Toastmasters, we have a very important job to do. We are entrusted with the responsibility of empowering others to become more effective communicators and leaders.

Yikes! Did we really sign up for that? And if so, how do we do it?

We accomplish this, in large part, through evaluations. Effective evaluations are the beating heart of any successful toastmasters program. Yet many toastmasters find evaluations to be daunting.

The district has three meetup groups available for clubs to promote upcoming open houses and competitions. A great way to get your club in the presence of hundreds of people. We know that not all clubs have their own meetup group and thus these groups function as communal meetup groups for clubs that do not have the resources to operate one. The groups that district clubs can post in are based on the geography of the club:

“Endurance is not just the ability to bear a hard thing, but to turn it into glory.”
— William Barclay (1907–1978), Scottish author, professor & minister

In the midst of making a speech, there are few things more distressing than running out of steam. It might be on account of nervousness, lack of preparation, or a shortage of inspiration. Whatever the cause, the result is usually the same: panic, hesitation, and a scramble to reach an inevitably apologetic conclusion.

“The measure of intelligence is the ability to change.”
— Albert Einstein (1879–1955), German-born theoretical physicist

One of the most-rehearsed forms of performance art is musical theatre, particularly on Broadway or London's West End. At the time of the COVID interruption, The Phantom of the Opera had played 13,370 times—the longest-running song-and-dance show in history.

“Nothing great in the world has ever been accomplished without passion.”
— Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831), German philosopher

Communication is weightless—but it has gravity.

On journeys by plane, ship, train or bus, it shows in the manner that staff interact with passengers. Aboard flights, rote repetition by cabin attendants ("Pretzels or biscuits?") reveals a dispiriting, cookie-cutter approach to customer relations. Dispensing juice in a plastic cup as solemnly as the Eucharist only exposes the thinness of such hospitality.

Slack is a tool for chatting with your fellow toastmasters, much like texting or using WhatsApp.

Join here: http://bit.ly/D96Slack

“What people call serendipity sometimes is just having your eyes open.”
— José Manuel Barroso (1956–), Portuguese politician & university teacher

One of the reasons I joined Toastmasters was to confront crippling perfectionism. I think everyone is prone to this trait, some more than others.

After all, would life be as sweet if there weren't achievements whose excellence we pursued with abject devotion?

Great storytelling sets a club apart from others and motivates members and attracts people to join. For example, behind the scenes, video & photos revealing the club culture and how the meetings are conducted creates a connection. This puts a face to the club. People can see the interior of the meeting rooms, who attends, how they dress and how people interact with each other. 

It was Shirley Daley, International Director Candidate from Region 8 who reminded me in a Zoom call recently, “Just because we’ve done something or heard something before, doesn’t mean we don’t need to hear it again!” I wrote her quote down word-for-word because I have often thought, early in my Toastmasters ‘career’ about training twice a year and why are we doing this again.