Area contest - A smart choice!

Contests. They are a smart choice. See...I could do Smart Technologies jokes all night long.

That said our Area 41 contest was held on October 3rd, 7-9pm at the Smart Technologies building, and most ably too I might add. Smart provided not just contestants, but chief judge, and other functionaries, so thank you Smart.

This being my first 'out of club' contest attended I shall put down my thoughts, which you are welcome to love, loathe, agree or disagree with as you please. :) And if you really disagree feel free to write a rebuttal.

5 clubs represented, namely Smart, CTI Techtalkers, Igniters, Sait Speakers, and U of C.

Firstly Table Topics: with the speakers being Shana, Simon, Jacob, Angela and Kendra.

The topic was "Are Calgary Drivers good drivers or bad drivers?"

I'll start with the winning placings:

1st   Jacob
2nd  Kendra
3rd  Simon

This was a great topic. I believe it was chosen by Darlene Davies who from experience always gives you something you can get your teeth into.

I led out with a comment on how bad the drivers were "excepting the natural born locals on account of my wife". One of the dangers in a topic like this is that you might alienate the judges with your comments, which is something I probably did mildly on this one.

One thing I like to do in situations like this is compare myself and try and guess where I will come. It is however VERY hard to judge yourself, because in the heat of the moment you can't always spot your own mistakes.

I felt I did really well in this contest and was hoping for 2nd place, although 3rd seemed reasonable. I was convinced that Jacob had won, because he spoke so fluently, quickly and had the audience laughing the whole way through. I got some laughs, but sensed his strength.

Ironically Jacob was a last minute ringer as his club colleague Ali never showed up. Stepping in and winning is a great job. Definitely deserving of victory, if he repeats the performance I could see Jacob going a long way.

I thought I might have edged Kendra but would have to see the tape. Mostly this was because she said Calgary drivers are good drivers, which made me think she was either sarcastic or deluded. :) I suspect the judges didn't share my opinion.

Calgary Drivers...

Humorous Speech Contest

with the speakers being Richard, Jacob, Simon, Nandini and Kendra.

Richard's speech was "Monster in Law?"
Jacob: "My life"
Simon: "My life as a teenager"
Nandini: 1st date from hell"
Kendra: "Am I lucky?"

The results were:

1st:  Nandini
2nd: Kendra
3rd: Richard

I didn't place in this one, but if I tell you I'm not surprised will you believe me?

The one thing I regret about contests, which makes me think they are way less useful than Toastmasters meetings, is that you don't get an evaluation back. Without feedback, you can speculate as to what you did badly, or needed to improve on, or what you did well, but you'll never really know.

They (the ubiquitous they, or senior toastmasters attendees) will always tell you contests are important for gaining confidence and honing your speaking. However...I think they might get you in front of new people, which is good for nerves, but without an independent evaluation you are left guessing. My advice: attend your club meetings.

My speech lacked a couple of things. Overworked and overwrought of late I didn't have enough time to practice. This slowed me down, added too many pauses, and disrupted my flow. I can't complain. The old adage of getting out what you put in is true.

That said, I'm funny. At least if feedback is true. Am I a Toastmaster speaker? Definitely not.And I say this with a mixture of pride and belligerence.

I think where my speech lost most in the contest is that it wasn't a "traditional speech". Beginning, body, conclusion, etc. Mine was more of a thematic monologue. I sense that this didn't fit the mold. Perhaps with a joke or two too close to the knuckle. Lack of connection to the judges, and a little irreverence about the Toastmaster process.

The podium places shocked me though. Taking myself out of the equation, so you don't think what I say comes from pure bias; I was shocked at the results. The speeches I thought were funniest by far, and certainly well put together, did not place as well as I expected.

I want to take nothing away from Nandini. She is an excellent Toastmaster. Spot on execution in "The Toastmasters way". Moving across the floor. Check. Eye contact with audience. Check. Beginning, Body, Conclusion. Check. Toastmasters bases covered. Check.

My issue. I think Richard was much funnier. I think Kendra had a natural goofish hilarity that came across well. Did they cover their Toastmaster checkmarks. Sure. My confusion was that the natural jokes and humour didn't win out.

I guess what I'm saying is: I got the Table Topics results perfectly. But for me, a humourous speech should be well presented. But also, dang funny. I suspect my humour and that of the judges differs wildly. I think it's a cultural thing and ne'er the twain shall meet.

Congratulations to all, and I certainly learned a lot! I highly recommend you all to attend the contests yourself to see them in action. Then join me in the pub to argue the subjectivity.

:)

Humorous Speech Contest

Meeting, Wednesday 26th August 2012:   

A Horse walks into a bar......

In attendance: Darlene, Simon, Geetha, Chris, Kyle, Janet, David, JF, Rueben, Kathy, Rob, Julie, Kevin, Val, and about 7000 other people who did judging and stuff....

Speeches are fun, and they can be funny. Today saw the event of CTI Techtalkers Humorous Speech Contest.

Despite the fact that we have many fun members, just two took part in the contest today. Val "The Beast" Erickson, and Simon "Teenage Brat" Jackson.

Val led off with a funny story about her husbands crappy beater of a truck, nicknamed 'The Beast" and it's role in her son's summer job debacle. Listeners were entertained and surely somewhat sympathetic of the parental plight of paying a fortune for ones offsprings failed work attempts.

Which led neatly into Simon Jackson's speech "My life as a teenager" in which Simon, with very little effort, behaved and parodied the actions of a teenage brat.

The judges, clearly convinced that Simon was a viable teenager in every way, sent him on to the next round.

Results were:
1st Place - Simon Jackson - My life as a teenager
2nd Place - Val Erickson - The Beast Slayer

Photo's to follow :)

Table Topics Contest!!

Meeting, Wednesday 19th August 2012:   

On the spot and hot to trot......Gotta be Glib to Ad Lib...

In attendance: Darlene, Simon, Geetha, Chris, Kyle, Janet, David, JF, Rueben, Kathy, Rob, Julie, Kevin, Val, and about 7000 other people who did judging and stuff....

The formal stuff out of the way, 4 people competed for the CTI Techtalkers Club. Namely Chris Hecker, Julie Wright, Rueben McIntyre, and Simon Jackson.

The question for the participants was "Which is more important, Intelligence or Common Sense?"

As a contestant myself I can't say much about the content of the speeches, because I didn't hear them. For myself I argued that 'there is no such thing as common sense, because sense seems a rare commodity'. Citing drivers on the Deerfoot among other things, I clearly convinced the judges, and thank them for sending me on to the Area contest on October 3rd, held in the SMART Technologies building!

I can ascertain  that all of our club members are great speakers and did us proud! Go CTI Techtalkers!

2nd Place in the Club Contest -Julie Wright (receiving from Contest Chair Kyle Wilson)

1st Place in the Club Contest - Simon Jackson

10 - Years, Speeches, Club - Anniversary

Ten. Ten, Ten Ten, Ten Ten Tennnnnn.


Yes. We turned 10 and had a big feast to celebrate.


In attendance: Many of our core club members (see earlier meeting for a typical list), plus family members, friends and notable Toastmaster Dignitaries: District 42 Governor Chuck LeBlanc (I never did get chance to ask if he was related to Matt); Division J Governor Doris "I get it done" Henn, Lt. Governor Marketing Keith Lee.

District 42 Governor Chuck Le Blanc declares CTI Techtalkers the greatest club in the history of Toastmasters*

 (*not actually what he said but we're sure that's what he meant)

The highlights of the feast were many and included:

DTM's
Plaques awarded to our newest DTM's (Distinguished Toastmasters), Geetha Nicodemus and Roasario Talavera, along with a special mention for Val Erickson who also becomes a DTM at Midnight on July 1st (as soon as her term as Area Governor is up).
This takes our number of DTM's at CTI Techtalkers to 4. By way of understanding how amazing this is, Chuck pointed out that less than 1% of Toastmasters achieve the DTM designation. By my calculations with new member Janet taking us to 22 members, we have 18% of our club with the DTM designation.


I'm willing to bet no other club boasts so many. Congratulations CTI Techtalkers and the ladies in question.

Speech Contest Winner District 42

Darlene "I sweep the board" Davies, was presented with the District 42 trophy for winning the speech contest, taking her to the World Semi-Finals in Orlando. This trophy was so gigantic I suspect we'll need to hire her some porters to carry it around.

(Now that we have 4 DTM's we can finally move the Ark of the Covenant back to it's sacred resting place...)

Darlene receives the world's largest trophy for her district 42 victory 

Paving my own road - Mahdia's 10th Speech

Her 10th Competent Communication Speech, which coincidentally earned CTI Techtalkers the 10th and final point in achieving Presidents Distinguished Club status.
Mahdia raised extreme emotions and applause from the group as she described growing up in Sudan, and having the bravery and confidence not only to leave and pursue her dreams, but to learn to communicate confidently and clearly through Toastmasters.

Pave your own road, then follow it...it can be Yellow, or even "So Yellow"

Our Toastmasters special guests gave speeches, along with our club sponsor Dave McKillop, and former charter member Terry Ross.

We learned about the beauty and power that being a member of this club can bring, and hope for another 10 successful years!

Toastmaster Leadership Institute News

Six members of CTI braved the elements to attend the Toastmasters Leadership Institute (TLI) on January 26. They report that it was an "awesome" experience where they learned more about their club officer roles, met Toastmasters from all across the city, and had the opportunity to attend workshops.

Kyle was so pumped that he did a whole speech on the topic at a CTI meeting afterwards. Kyle says that the thing that he took from the one session on Evaluations was that there is more than just the sandwich method for evaluating. There are several other methods that he thinks would work better for several situations. We look forward to seeing Kyle use some of those methods over the next few weeks!

Mary Jane says, "I have gone several times to the TLI and I have always enjoyed it. It is great to meet other Toastmasters. People were interested in the Advanced Boot Camp that Rosario is planning. Mona gave the membership session and it was great, and of course lively! It was fun to report that CTI is doing well with membership! Our club had a great turn out at the TLI. I believe there are 75 clubs in Calgary, there were 100 people at the TLI and we had 6 people from CTI."

Our club President, Val went too. She had this message for everyone, "As you no doubt noticed, the TLI provides excellent opportunities to learn what you’re doing right and what can be improved upon. It’s a chance for networking and practicing your speaking and listening skills - all while in a positive atmosphere. The educational sessions this year were superb and I look forward to hearing about what CTI attendees learned.

CTI members who attended helped Rosario promote her Boot Camp scheduled for Feb 26. I’m certain that with Rosario’s enthusiastic leadership and the support of our club members, her Boot Camp will be a success.
I’m proud of you all and proud of our club."

Geetha couldn't stress enough how important these sessions (TLI) are.  "Not only are they very well thought out and presented with so much effort by the trainers to provide a great training experience, they are absolutely free!!! Thanks to my mentor Mary Jane's gentle persuasion, I got to attend the TLI on Jan 26. To me it was a great opportunity to relive the glorious days of a toastmasters experience once again.

The packed 6 hour training session had some great speakers who entertained as they trained and educated the 100 odd attendees on Roles of Executive Committee, Judging, Evaluation for beginners and for advanced speakers, Speech Preparation to name some.

The special evaluation session ''Solutions for Non-native English Speakers Evaluation' in my view was well researched and a much needed entry into the toastmasters curriculum. According to the presenter TM Yvea Zaels, a majority of toastmaster members are non-native english speakers. Her tips on how to evaluate (by consent) on pronunciation, right usage of words, sentence formation while following the general rules of evaluation tied with techniques developed and used by speech therapists will indeed be of great help for members who want to move up to the next level as speakers.

Other two sessions I attended and thoroughly enjoyed were the Judges Workshop conducted by Chief Judge Marvin Henry and the Art of Advanced Evaluation packed with tips on various evaluation techniques from District 42 2010 Evaluation Champion  Nandini Venkatesan, DTM, and past Evaluation Champion Christina Kruis, DTM ."

Editor's Challenge: Thank you to all the contributors who told us about their experience at TLI. In the next few weeks, I challenge each of you to post one more specific tip that you learned that our members can take away and use.

Division J Rocks at District Contests

Nine entertaining, hilarious contestants had the audience laughing for two hours at the District 42 Humorous Speech contest on Nov 13, 2010 in Canmore. Garrett Ulmer, from Division J, came first with his funny story about childhood pranks, titled "Why are Kids so Bad? Jody Fireman, from Division G, came second.

On Friday night, Nov 12, the nine Table Topics contestants entertained us with stories around the question "If you had three wishes, what would you wish for and why?" Audience members said afterwards that the table topics contest was like a bonus mini-humorous speech contest. Kelly Kaur, from Division G, won first place and Nandini Venkatesan, from Division J, came second.

Division J Contest Results Are In!

The hall was so full they had to bring in more chairs at the Division J Contest on Friday evening, Oct 29, at the Thornhill Baptist Church. They came to cheer on their champions. They left laughing and smiling. It was a great evening with 5 humorous speakers and 6 table topics contestants. Garret Ulmer came first in Humorous Speech, representing Igniters, and Nandini Venkatesan came first in Table Topics, representing Calgary Advanced. They will go on to compete in the District Speech Contests in Canmore on Nov 12 and 13.