This morning in Toastmasters I did the following “speech” on the subject of collecting dues (I’m no longer Area Governor–am now club Treasurer). I put “speech” in quotes because it was more like a skit, super fun to do! The primary technique was body language, and I got into it.

Start out with a Treasurer’s type table - table, no lectern, banker’s lamp, banker’s visor, pencil and ledger. Tapping my teeth with pencil, looking off into the distance, thinking hard.

Alter between sitting at table “thinking” and stepping away as narrator of my thoughts.

thoughtful look on face
I’ve been voted treasurer of my toastmasters club–a very important position. I want to do a good job managing the club’s finances.

sitting up straight, accepting myself in the role
It’s a big responsibility. I’m in charge of keeping track of the budget, reconciling the bank account, and keeping the club apprised of our financial situation. This month, September, is the most important month of my career, dues are due. (hold up calendar)

dreamy look on face
I’m going to quickly and efficiently collect everyone’s money with a smile, I’ll hand write thank you notes. I’ll call all the past members. With charm and grace, I’ll convince them to rejoin–I’ll be a Star!

smug and self-satisfied
I have until September 30 to send in the dues to Toastmasters International. Piece of cake. I could do this job in my sleep.

doubt begins to creep over
What if people forget to bring their checkbooks? “oops!”

doubt creeps into fear
What if they’ve been pretending to like me this whole time–”sucker! we’ll sign her up as Area Governor!” What if they don’t bring their checkbooks on purpose! They want to see me squirm! they want to see me fail! (go still with understanding) They want to see me beg. “Katie, please bring your checkbook to pay your dues!!! please!!!”

confusion
They all seemed to like Chuck. How did he do it? He just made a few announcements, “Dues Wacka due”

conspiracy theory
“Dues Wacka due”?! What was that all about? Knowing Chuck, I’ll bet it was some kind of non-sensical spell that works on the unconscious level. (wiggle fingers) “Dues Wacka due” “Hmm (dopey grin) I have an overwhelming desire to write a check to Toastmasters!”

revenge
I know how I’ll deal with them… I’ll volunteer to lead Table Topics. The word of the day will be “procrastinator”. I’ll ask questions like, “Why I haven’t paid my dues…, Stacy!”

thoughtful again
Hmmm, may lead to bad karma.

encouraged
I can’t understand why any of them wouldn’t want to stay in this wonderful group of intelligent, interesting, and inspiring people. I’ll give it one more week before doing anything drastic…

I mentioned in an earlier post that my one year term as Toastmasters Area 64 Governor has come to a close. It officially ended June 30th, but I volunteered to help with the coordination of the recent Officer Training because I remembered how quickly the responsibility fell on me at the beginning of my term last year.

The training was last Saturday, July 29th, and I considered that to be my last official duty as the Gov.

On Tuesday, at our regular club meeting, I received a most unexpected and kind honor from fellow Toastmaster and former President Cheryl Domnitch.

Cheryl presented me with roses and fresh tomatoes from her garden as a show of appreciation for my volunteer work for the Area clubs. How sweet!

You know, just meeting and connecting with so many wonderful people and learning what I did was awesome. And the opportunity came at a good time–having a year-long commitment to coordinate several events in one area was good discipline for me (haven’t been in the same area for more than 3 or 4 years since high school). I still considered myself new to the area and appreciated the opportunity to meet people in a leadership role. I think about how much I gained from the experience and am filled with gratitude. To be honored in front of my club was icing on the cake!!

[btw: the title, Running Before Walking, referred to the fact that I volunteered for this District office before holding a club office. I had been in the club for about 3 months.]

We had a club Toastmasters Board Meeting this morning. (Brief update: my term as Area 64 Governor has peacefully come to an end. Wanting to stay in the leadership loop of my club AND keep more time open for Project Simplify growth, I volunteered for the Treasurer position–easiest officer position available in my opinion.)

One of the issues that came up was the subject of announcements, which one board member felt was getting out of hand. “This is Toastmasters! Why are people making announcements about their yard sales and movies about Cuba?”

We tossed around some possibilities–one person suggested this, another person suggested that, some ideas were Totalitarian, some not–we were brainstorming! It was like the creative juices just started flowing at that early morning hour! Finally, one of the other board members asked, “Are these solutions appropriate for the situation?”

Brake! The entire discussion fell back to earth and rushed back to perspective. I found it funny how quickly we picked up the ball and RAN, and how quickly we went into solve-problem-in-any-manner-possible.

I so appreciate this wonderful group of people. One woman said, “Whoa, there!” and the others immediately switched gears. A simple solution popped right up, and we moved on.

Solution: it’s really less than a handful of people who are using “announcements” as an opportunity to share just about any subject. Talk with them individually, ask them to be monitor themselves (and then use the gavel if that doesn’t work–just kidding!!).

Wow. Quite exciting stuff. On my way to writing about this morning’s Toastmaster speech, I found out about Kyle MacDonald’s oneredpaperclip.com adventure. Within half an hour I’d caught up on the basics via his blog: in one year he made 14 trades, starting with a red paper clip, ending with the deed to a house.

Kyle’s goal was a house. He had fun with the adventure. Supporters and unsolicited media tracked his progress and cheered him on. He wasn’t going for major glory, he was doing his thing and having a good time.

Which leads me to what I wanted to report back re: my speech this morning. In anticipation of the upcoming workshop next Wednesday (Parents, let it be easy!) I presented the first eight minutes of my presentation to the club for feedback and suggestions.

After my last two speeches, which went extraordinarily well–I felt comfortable and connected with the audience–I was a little freaked out to see straight faces that smiled only occasionally this morning. “Are they bored? I’m not connecting with them! What’s happening?!” were the panicked thoughts going through my head.

Afterwards, Life Coach Lori came up to me and gave me the low down. She said I could do away with the intro part that I had included as way of “establishing myself as qualified to be in front of them.” She said, “once you jumped into the content, which you know so well and are excited about, I perked up.”

What failed: talking about what I thought people would want to hear.
What worked: talking about what I know and love. (sounds pretty obvious when stated like that, eh?)

How many times do I need to be reminded that the most important thing that I can do today, tomorrow, whenever is to do what I love. That’s what reaches people, that’s what fuels me, that’s where the fun is.

I’m going to rewrite my workshop intro and have some fun with it!

In Toastmasters we use a clicker. The person in the role of Grammarian listens for the “um” “aaaannnndddd” “uh” words that insidiously sneak into our impromptu speaking (guests and prepared speeches are spared the obnoxious clicker that is disguised as a harmless little toy frog).

When speaking, I find it incredibly distracting to hear this “CLICK!” which is, of course the point. Usually, we don’t realize how many ahs, ums, & aaannnnddds we utter. It forces me to pay more attention to my word choice, and even more importantly, it calls attention to the space between my words. If I don’t know what word to say, say nothing. Nothing can be quite loud.

Just as I become more intentional with the words I speak, I can be more intentional with the actions in my day, more intentional with the stuff put in my space.

It reminds me that the canvas on which I create my life can be beautifully silent and spacious. What I place on it and in it can and should be that which makes me, or others, smile. I can choose to leave out fillers. Fillers are for Twinkies.

Lance was right.

He said, in response to my commitment to blog posting every other day, that every other day stretches to every three days, four days… He said, “you’ll post less and less often!”

Between a loose posting commitment, focusing on writing articles and tips for the newsletter, and writing speeches, I did, in fact, find I was posting on the website less and less often.

“Post every day!” was Lance’s solution. Nike’s “just do it” comes to mind (with a heavy Ben Stiller accent from… what was it from? the remade Starsky and Hutch movie?)

“Big things, little things, just post! and you’ll find your rhythm.” Just like speeches in Toastmasters, the more you do, the easier they get. Watering a houseplant once a month doesn’t a happy plant make (mine anyways).

Which is all to say, you may wonder at some of the posts popping up on the site as I continue to find my posting rhythm. Adventures in blogging! Good stuff ’tis…

I just got back from Toastmasters. Writing speeches is getting easier–I’m starting to imagine how the delivery will sound while I’m writing. The spoken presentation is so different than the written!

My current goal for delivering speeches at Toastmasters is one a month. Today’s went well (and I won for best speaker of the day, yay!) I was a bit concerned last night seeing as I was on the phone with Linksys tech support until 11:30pm and our meeting begins at 6:30am.

The speech was entitled, “Tell Your Story!” The premise being that through hearing other people’s stories(modern day heroes, really) we are inspired and encouraged to accomplish our own dreams.

The speech was told in a storytelling format in which I related three stories I had heard over the course of last Tuesday.

• Megan Smith (daughter of a fellow Toastmaster) who made it all the way to Machu Picchu, despite being wheelchair bound.
• Tania Carlone who taught future educators in Russia’s far east through the Peace Corps.
• Reinette Senum (entry #90 on The Independent Eye has an audio track) who skied and canoed across Alaska.

Rock on, girls!