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.

New Greeter Position

The club voted last night to add the job of “Greeter” to our list of weekly positions.
His/Her job is to meet and greet guests as they arrive.
Try and sit with the new guest and make them at home by explaining what is going on in the meeting.
If there is more than one guest, seat the extra guest next to a Toastmaster who is free to help out.

We encourage other Toastmasters to introduce themselves to new guests and make them welcome.

Here are some tips if you are assigned the “Greeter” position.

1. Arrive early - 6:40 p.m.

2. Have copies of the “Shortened Agenda” to hand out to all guests.(website)

3. Have the guests fill in our new “Guest Registration” binder.

4. Have copies of the Membership Application ready in case the guest wants to join that night.(website)

George Kiser’s Latest - Political Predictions

Learn to predict the election by following football games - George tells us how.

Holiday Schedule

Because of the upcoming holidays, the club voted to cancel some meetings.

Nov. 26, Dec. 24 and Dec. 31.

Remembering Participants’ Names

Thanks to Robert Graham (robert@grahamcomm.net) for these tips.

Few things can bond and establish a connection with a group like learning everyone’s name quickly.

I routinely do this with groups of up to 15, and the look on their faces, when 10 minutes into the workshop
I can call everyone by their first name, is priceless. Here’s how to do it:

1. Obtain a participant list ahead of time and read through the
list out loud several times.

2. During the beginning of your program (this works best in
small workshops), have each person share their name, what they
do, what they would like to learn from our session and any
other personal details they would like to include.

3. As each person is speaking, say their name (to yourself) a
few times and make any associations that are helpful. (I once
worked with a guy named Clark who looked a lot like Superman.)

4. In addition to listening to each person’s introduction,
silently recall the names of each person who has spoken
already.

5. As quickly as possible after the introductions, begin using
their names when calling on people.

6. For extra credit, as they reveal things about themselves
(personal details, passions, family information,
accomplishments, guilty pleasures), write them down. That way
at a break or lunch, you have an immediate conversation
starter about them: “So what was it like to grow up in Dubai?”
or, “When did you graduate from UCSB?”

==============================================

Note from Tom - I’ve seen the entertainer Kathy Griffin walk around with a yellow notebook before her
speaking gig talking to the audience and writing down notes about audience members.

You Might be a Toastmaster if…

Pat O’Shea shares her list of Toastmaster jokes.

Karen Busch-
You have been a Toastmaster too long if you’re calling the lectern a podium. On the other hand, you might have been a Toastmaster too long if you’re calling the podium a lectern.

Kathy Denton-
You might have been a Toastmaster too long if:

You pick your political candidates by the absence of filler words.

You mentally time and expect all discussions in your life to end in 5 - 7
minutes.

All of your friends complete their conversations in 5 - 7 minutes and you
are good with that.

You stop listening after 5 - 7 minutes and your spouse understands.

You get traffic tickets for running red lights and don’t understand why
because you stopped talking back at the intersection.

You applaud when the IRS tells you owe back taxes.

You know the difference between a lectern and a podium.

Mike Dobrich-
You have been in Toastmasters too long if you use vocal variation when you talk in your sleep.

Rick Favaloro
You may have been a Toastmaster too long if

You heard Howard Brandt give his icebreaker speech.

You know how to operate the video camera.

When your newborn baby barfed her Gerber’s turkey dinner all over your
best suit, you just couldn’t help yourself from thinking: “Thank you
for that great speech; here are some areas for improvement . . . .”

Rick Favaloro
The last time you came home, once again, late, with liquor on your
breath, instead of explaining it to your wife this time, you just said
“manual speech number 6″ and went to sleep on the couch. When you woke
up in the morning, you found her tiny folded evaluation sticking out
of your ear. But it wasn’t your ear.

The last time you got pulled over for running a red light, you
protested: “But, officer, I still had 30 seconds before I had to stop!”

As you’ve explained to your marriage counselor, your husband has no
right to be upset about your constant dagger staring, temper tantrum
dishes throwing hissy fits because you always use good eye contact,
effective body language, and good vocal variety.

Carl Hendrickson -
Why do Toastmaster drivers have so many accidents?  — They think they still have one minute after the light turns red.

What is the difference between a Toastmaster and a Bull Rider?  — A Toastmaster throws the bull and a Bull Rider is thrown by the bull.

And, speaking of bull, what do Carl Hendrickson and Brad Pitt have in common?  — Nothing, absolutely nothing, but you know you have been a Toastmaster too longer when you believe Carl’s B S that they have something in common.

You know you have been a Toastmaster too long, when you think B S stands for Barb Sapienza or Brent Stewart.

You know you have been a Toastmaster too long when, as Ah Counter, you ding the Invocator for saying “ah men.”

You know you have been a Toastmaster too long when you volunteer to be Ah Counter because you consider it an “ah some” job.

You know you have been in Toastmaster too long when the highlight of your week is hearing Howard Brandt explain the difference between lectern and podium.

Finally, you have been in Toastmasters too long when you laugh at the foregoing stupid jokes.

George Kiser -
You might be a Toastmaster if you think that the General Evaluator is a cabinet post.

Mary Menke-
“You’ve been a Toastmaster too long if you write an evaluation of the sermon and hand it to the pastor as you’re leaving church Sunday morning.”

You might be a Toastmaster if “you shout ‘ding, ding, ding’ every time a political candidate says ‘uh’ or ‘um’ during a speech.

Georgia O’Bryan
You might be a Toastmaster if you have learned to say madam/mister Toastmaster, fellow Toastmaster and honored guests.

You might be a Toastmaster too long if — your pauses are too long, your pace too slow and your speech is too short.

Pat O’Shea -
You may have been a Toastmaster too long if:

- You have to resist the temptation, while explaining a new procedure at work, to say, “Well, if Steve Winheim can do it, anyone can do it.”

- Your total concentration during the convention acceptance speeches was completely blown by the announcer calling the lectern a podium.

- While your boss is delivering news of impending lay offs at an all staff company meeting, you think your boss should get out from behind the lectern and lose the notes.

- You hold up Distinguished Toastmasters as role models for your children.

- You think the world would be a better place if everyone wore name tags

You might be a Toastmaster in need of therapy if, after the Olympics, you started wearing your ATM Gold name tag in public.

Dick Shields -
You might be a Toastmaster if you have a Tom Terrific statue on your dashboard.

You might be a Toastmaster if you are a millionaire and your financial advisor is Howard Brandt.

You might be a Toastmaster if Howard aspires to be a cheap as you are.

You might be a Toastmaster if you turn down Cardinals World Series tickets to attend a meeting at the Met Life building on Wednesday night.

You might be a Toastmaster if you are speaking to 500 people, cool as a cucumber, not sweating or shaking in your boots, and deliver your message confidently.

Tom Terrific -
1. Your wife tells you to take out the trash and you can talk for exactly 2 1/2 minutes giving her excuses as to why you can’t.

2. You bring your “ah” bell” home to ding all of the political speeches.

3. You go to a pot luck dinner and give everyone a written evaluation for all their dishes.

4. The regular meeting is canceled, so you go out in the yard and give your speech to the roses.

5. You wear a stopwatch around your neck and are known as Mr. /Ms. Punctuality.

6. You start quoting Howard Brandt in your conversations, “As Howard Brandt would say, ‘Who needs those filthy dogs?’”

Division A Humorous Contest Oct. 18th - Howard moves on.

Congratulation to both Howard on winning the Humorous Speech Contest at the Area level and Georgia OBryan on coming in 3rd in Tabletopics. Howard will move on to the Division A Contest - details below.

Sat, Oct 18,  9:30 am
Jefferson College
1687 Missouri State Road
Arnold Missouri 63010
Room 304

New Contest Winners and Area Contest Details

Congratulations to our latest contest winners.
Tabletopics - 1st Georgia O’Bryan, 2nd Bill Collier
Humorous Speech - 1st Howard Brandt - 2nd Carl Hendrickson
The Area Contest will be held September 6, 2008 at Mineral Area College.
9:30 am – 12:00 pm
North College Center, 5270 Flat River Road, Park Hills, MO - Main Campus

Contest Winners

Speakers Bureau Information - 2008

I’ve just put online our brand new Speakers Bureau information for 2008.
It’s a pdf and is easy to download and share with friends, organizations and businesses.
Thanks to Carl and Barb for all their work.
http://www.southcountytoastmasters.org/documents/speakers-forum-Aug-2008.pdf