Carole Embree – Poem – I Dont Know About You

I don’t know about you,
But I have this entourage
Of highly paid professionals
Taking care of me.

I have an Internist,
We all do.
And a dentist, too.

Then there is the gynecologist,
Ophthalmologist, psychologist,
Endocrinologist, dermatologist,
Urologist

Let’s not forget the podiatrist for my big toe
And the ear guy, whatever he is called,
And the endodontist who did my root canal,
And the dietitian who tells me what I already know.

Now, not only does each part  have its own specialist,
It has its own special conditioning cream,
Not to be shared by any other body part.

There is the face cream, under eye cream, upper eye cream, lip cream,
Neck cream, body cream, hand cream, cuticle cream,
Heal cream, toe nail cream.
And of course, corresponding cleansing elixirs.

With all these doctors to advise and direct me,
And all this high priced stuff to spread all over and perfect me,
I cannot begin to reach the elegance and beauty of my mother,
Who had only one doctor and one dentist,
And her entire life used – Ponds Cold Cream.

Health Benefits of Nuts – Brent Stewart

Speaking Without Notes

In Front of the Lectern

Carl H. Hendrickson, DTM

The ancient Greeks and Romans would speak for hour after hour without notes. But many Toastmasters, novice and veteran alike, cannot leave the comfort zone of the lectern or do away with their crutch – their notes. But, by knowing a few memory “tricks,” each of us can give flawless speeches in front of the lectern without notes.

Early Greeks and Romans used the Loci System, memorization by association. Each item in the forum where they spoke would be a memory tool. This will work for South County Toastmasters. Each speech should contain no more than five parts, several less. We have the opening, up to three main points, and the closing.

Using the Loci System, identify a constant item in the meeting room to associate with each part of the speech. An easel always is present, as is the presiding officer of the meeting, the evening’s Toastmaster, the lectern, and the flag and flagpole. Your opening thus is the easel, points one, two and three are respectively the presiding officer, the Toastmaster, and the lectern, and the flag and flag pole represent the closing.

In a recent humorous speech, I spoke of my wife’s unmentionables, meaning four letter words that I could not use around her, such as bake, cook, iron, and wash. However, “unmentionables” also could be undergarments. If this is your opening, think of the easel with undergarments draped over them. Another recent speech by a club member was on cleaning up the environment – going green. Assuming this is point one of your presentation, picture the presiding officer sitting with a green face. If you want to conclude by motivating the members to go out and purchase an item or a book, you could picture the flag waving “bye bye.” Using the Loci System, the speech is easily broken down into no more than five parts and each part is associated with an item in the meeting room used in a ridiculous manner for ease of remembering.

Once the five speech parts have been determined, you link one to the other. Nothing ruins a good speech like having the presenter move from the opening to point three and missing points one and two. There must be a logical progression. As an example of linking, here are five words or phrases that can be linked by last word to first word of the next: (1) egg, (2) eggshell, (3) shell macaroni (4) macaroni and cheese, and (5) cheese pizza. (1) Egg makes one think of (2) eggshell, which leads to (3) shell macaroni, then to (4) macaroni and cheese, and then to (5) cheese pizza.

Memory aids are helpful. Picture five homes sitting along a sandy beach. You have the five great lakes: Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, and Superior. Picture a handsome hulk of a man, no, not Carl Hendrickson, but Roy G Biv. You now have a memory aid for the seven primary colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.

Each can step out of his/her comfort zone, to the front of the lectern, and speak without notes by utilizing the Loci System and memory aids. Try it!

Marketing Committee

Members so far:
* Barb Sapienza
* Carl Hendrickson
* Gina Willard
* Tom Terrific
* Kristy Cyganowicz
* Bill Collier
* Other club members are encouraged to participate.
Bill was elected chairperson.

Committee’s purpose: “Marketing and communication to current, former and potential members.”

We propose for this to be a standing committee, with the current VP PR and VP Membership always holding membership and actively involved in the committee.

Meetings: First Wed. of each month, at 6:30 PM – in cafeteria of MetLife building. Next meeting 12/3.

Committee Goals for current TM year (08/09):

1. 8 New members
2. 85% or greater member retention

Marketing Activities

We identified many marketing opportunities and chose to focus on the following ones for the immediate future:
* Website
* Testimonials and member success stories: Tom will head up the effort to capture testimonials to post on our site. These may be text and/or video.
* Speaking opportunities at service organizations: Rotary clubs, churches, chambers of commerce and Business Persons Between Jobs are all places with many potential members and where we can send individual speakers or even conduct mock meetings. We need to come up with a plan to identify and reach out to good potential places for this activity. If a committee member has good contacts in such groups or wants to head up this effort, please step up.
* Upgrade our guest book: Bill will design pages to put into a binder for capturing guests’ full contact info including email address.
* Member survey: We need to get the results from the member survey Steve Flick conducted a year or so ago. We may elect to conduct a new one to gauge members’ satisfaction and likelihood of staying with the club.