Step out of your "comfort zone"

Many of us live the majority of our lives in something known as our “comfort zone”.  We tend to do things that are very familiar and don’t require much extra effort. It’s like how water always travels the path of least resistance. 

This is natural, but it’s also beneficial to “step out” of our “comfort zone” from time to time. Doing so helps us gain knowledge and at the same time, build confidence. This is also true as a member of a Toastmasters club. 

During regular meetings, members give presentations on projects taken from various manuals. After every presentation, the speaker receives an evaluation from a fellow member. The evaluation highlights the good pieces of the speech and also provides examples of areas for improvement. This valuable information provided during the evaluation validates the good habits of the presenter and identifies items to improve upon.

Although a member’s first few speeches can prove challenging, members become much more comfortable as they continue presenting speech projects. They naturally become more confident and speeches can eventually become part of their “comfort zone”. 

Twice a year, clubs hold speech contests. They are speech competitions that allow members to “step out” of their “comfort zone” in a friendly, but competitive environment. Member speeches are judged with awards given for 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd place. The competition’s 1^st place winners move onto the Area contest where they compete against the 1^st place winners from other clubs.  

Challenge yourself to become your very best

These contests allow members the opportunity to challenge themselves by creating a presentation that may win at the club and possibly the area level.

At Cedar Hill Toastmasters, we held our fall speech contest on Thursday, September 21^st. Several great speeches were presented. Congratulations to all our contestants!

Our regular meetings will resume on Thursday, October 5^th.

We hope to see you there!

Paul Horvath

Cedar Hill Toastmasters Club

2017-2018 Vice President Membership

Help along your journey to becoming an accomplished Communicator and Leader

Most individuals would like to improve their communications and leadership skills. When speaking with people, we hear a number of reasons why they would like to sharpen these skills.

Many are moving into work positions that may require additional responsibilities including increased leadership. These positions usually require an individual to perform presentations at various levels within the company or organization.

Some people wish to become better speakers to feel more comfortable speaking at life events outside the workplace. For example, giving a toast at a wedding, speaking at a fundraising event, performing a eulogy for a deceased friend or relative,  just to name a few.

Whatever drives you to become a better communicator and leader, we can help.

When you decide to become a member of our club, you will not be alone. You will quickly realize that all our members support one another in order to achieve goals.

We also offer a mentor program for our members to help them along their individual Toastmasters journey. Just as a ship navigating on the sea uses lighthouses for guidance, a new or longtime Toastmasters member can take advantage of a mentor for guidance in order to achieve their goals.

Our mentors are club members who have been with Cedar Hill Toastmasters for many years. They have given numerous presentations and have held leadership roles within and in most cases outside our club environment.

The mentor program is provided on a voluntary basis. Whether you choose to have a mentor when becoming a member is your decision. You can also request a mentor at anytime during your membership.

Remember, it's all about you.

We want to make sure you have a strong and supportive environment for your journey to becoming a proficient communicator and leader.

Please feel free to visit us at one of our upcoming club meetings!

Meet our new Cedar Hill Toastmasters officers

Our new club officers for the 2017-2018 term were inducted during our last meeting.

From left to right:

Larry Wood - President,  Marie Jeudy - Vice President of Public Relations,  Eric Krausz - Secretary.

Kevin Finn- Treasurer,  Paula Zajac - Sergeant at Arms and Paul Horvath - Vice President of Membership.  Charmayne Harris - Vice President of Education (not present for photo) 

Congratulations to all newly elected officers !

Meeting Minutes - June 6

Cedar Hill Toastmasters rock! We had 21 people in attendance at this meeting, including several guests. 

Our Sergeant at Arms, Paul, began the meeting with a short introduction and gave the floor to Larry, the Toastmaster of the evening. Since there was a considerable number of guests, Larry explained all the roles throughout the meeting. Mohamed gave the word of the day "cajole." Several speakers met the challenge by using the word. Joanna delivered not only one but three jokes and she got everyone laughing. 

We had three speakers - Elizabeth, Joyce and Joel. Elizabeth gave a speech entitled "Family Ties" from the Entertaining Speaker manual as she spoke about her life situations, often funny but true, which helped her to strengthen the bond with her son. Next, Joyce delivered a speech from Communicating on Television manual. Her speech "To Toastmasters Clubs of America" was an invitation to use filming of Toastmasters meetings to help members improve their presentation skills. The final speech was Joel's travelogue of his latest trip to two notable tourists spots - Milan, Italy and Barcelona, Spain. 

Eliot as a Table Topics Master announced a summer theme for the table topics session. The participants were given a subtopic and their challenge was to create a question within this subcategory and then answer it. 

Lyn as General Evaluator led the Evaluation portion of the meeting. Martha evaluated Elizabeth's speech and John evaluated Joyce's speech. Ramon delivered the Timer's report and Kevin was the Grammarian. 

Larry concluded the meeting by getting some feedback from the guests and then turned the meeting to John, our club President. John reminded about the mentoring program available to all the members. Also, he expressed his gratitude to the club for serving the role of Cedar Hill club President during this Toastmaster year. 

Paula took the roles for the next meeting to be held on Thursday, July 7. 

Respectfully submitted, 

Martha Danielewicz
Secretary 
Cedar Hill Toastmasters

Meeting Minutes - June 2

Another great night at Cedar Hill filled with learning and laughter! There was one guest in attendance that evening. 

The meeting was started by Paul, Sergeant at Arms, who commented on the weather and asked the audience for some gardening tips to grow the zebra grass. 
Elizabeth served the role of Toastmaster of the evening. Throughout the evening, she shared the tips she had learned from the featured speakers at the recent Toastmaster District 53 Spring Conference. 

Ramon presented the word of the day - "diction". Then, Paul, as a Joke Master entertained the audience with a couple of jokes. 

The prepared speeches were presented by Mohamed and Martha. Mohamed gave the Icebreaker speech about his childhood adventures in Sudan and later moved on to talk about his career choices that had challenged his communication skills. Martha presented a roast speech from the Special Occasions Speeches manual, a roast of our club member Joyce, filled with some good natured humor. 

Lyn led a creative and challenging Table Topic session. Each participant was tasked with creating a weather report to the undisclosed audience (only known to the Table Topic Master and the speaker). This task triggered a lot of laughs and the participants did their best to deliver an interesting weather forecast reports. 

Eliot was the General Evaluator, who was assisted by Kevin as Grammarian, Larry as Timer and two speech evaluators. Joyce evaluated Mohamed's speech and John evaluated Martha's speech. 

Elizabeth concluded with the thought from the Toastmaster conference about the importance of having a mentor in any undertaking and especially in Toastmasters. Next, John reinforced this thought by mentioning the mentoring program at the Cedar Hill Toastmasters. 

With the upcoming new Toastmaster year, the idea of voting in on the slate of new officers was brought up to John's attention. He called on Secretary to read the proposed slate of new officers. Since there were no other nominations from the floor, the voting took place and as a result the nominated officers were unanimously voted in for the new year starting July 1, 2016 through June 30, 2017.

Before concluding the meeting, John took roles for the next meeting scheduled for June 16. 

Respectfully submitted, 
Martha Danielewicz
Secretary 
Cedar Hill Toastmasters 

Meeting Minutes - May 19

Before the meeting begun, Joyce introduced some housekeeping items related to filming of our club'sToastmasters meeting. Paul, Sargent of Arms began the meeting with a moment of silence to honor those who lost their lives in the Egyptian plane crash. Paul served the role of Toastmaster of the evening and explained clearly the sections throughout the meeting since we had three honored guests in attendance. 

The word of the day " gaucherie" was presented by Joyce. Eliot put his humorous hat on and delivered some entreating jokes. We had two speakers - Larry and Lyn. Larry delivered a speech "Trains" from the Entertaining Speaker series, revealing his passion for watching trains. He gave some insight on this hobby and provided additional entertainment with the use of visual aids. Lyn presented a speech entitled "Inspiring Sustainability" from CC manual, Project 8 - Using Visual Aids. She introduced the inspiring sustainability ideas such as composting, permaculture, roof top gardens and vertical gardening just to name a few.

Table Topic session was shared by Elizabeth and Mohamed. Their questions challenged the imagination of the participants. It's not everyday question on what you would do if you were invisible or had the super powers. 

Martha was the General Evaluator. Kevin evaluated Larry's speech and Paul evaluated Lyn's speech. Joel delivered the Timer's report along with some helpful tips. John was the Grammarian who presented a thorough report and some helpful suggestions. 

Before closing the meeting, Paul inspired members to look into the mentoring program available at the club. Then, John, our President took the roles for the next meeting scheduled for June 2. 

Mentor program enables Success !

M any individuals hesitate joining a club like Toastmasters because they have a fear of public speaking. Some resist because they feel very intimidated as being labeled  “the new kid on the block”.

As a long time member of the Cedar Hills Toastmasters club, I can assure you that both of these apprehensions are easily remedied.

 

At Cedar Hills Toastmasters, it is our belief that every member is important. In support of this belief, we offer a voluntary mentor program. This program matches a new or existing member of Toastmasters with a more experienced club member. The mentor will provide information about our Cedar Hills Toastmasters Club as well as the entire Toastmasters organization. You will have the opportunity to meet the individual mentors and decide who would be the best match to help you achieve your goals. You can change your mentor or even stop your mentoring program at any time. It’s all up to you. 

  

The important thing to remember is that at Cedar Hills Toastmasters, you are not an island!

  

A mentor is an experienced club member who will assist you in the preparation and execution of your speech projects. Mentors provide ideas on how to overcome the apprehension of standing in front of a group when delivering your message. They will also assist in finding speech topics you feel most confortable with and guide you through the many techniques that will make you a better public speaker.

  

If becoming a better speaker in on your ”bucket list”, I hope you consider attending one of our club meetings in the near future to see what we're all about.

You will be glad you did!

Paul Horvath

Cedar Hill Toastmasters Club

Sergeant at Arms