Princeton Toastmasters

Congratulations Abhoy & Ingo!

Barbara Suarez — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 04:21:36 +0000

Good news! Last evening was the first ever Area 29 International Speech and Evaluation Contest (that's because our district was re-designed last year and we're in a brand new area) and Princeton Toastmasters stole the show, as you can see by the results.

INTERNATIONAL SPEECH CONTEST

First Place: Abhoy Sircar, Princeton Toastmasters!

Second Place: Deborah Giles, LWD Toastmasters

EVALUATION CONTEST

First Place: Ingo Schmuecking, Princeton Toastmasters!

Second Place: Nancy Dowd, State Street Speakers

Both Abhoy and Ingo put on a brilliant performance. They made us all proud. You can ask any of the 17 (yes, that's 17!) wildly cheering PTM members in the audience — our club was close to half the crowd in the room. Be sure to check out their smiling faces and shiny trophies in the attachment.

So what happens next? Well, the show must go on. Our heroes move on to the next level, which is the Division F Contest. It will be held on Saturday, April 17 at the Horsham Public Library, 435 Babylon Road, Horsham, PA 19044-1244 from 10:30 am to 1:00 pm. Please come out and support our club.

Congratulations to Abhoy and Ingo — we're behind you 100%!

Keep striving!

George Philip

President

Princeton Toastmasters!!

PayPal comes to Princeton Toastmasters

Ed Andriessen — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 22:43:20 +0000

If you've ever bought anything on Ebay, you're familiar with PayPal. Even if you haven't, you're probably still familiar with PayPal.

Millions of people have used this safe and secure form of internet payment. Now you take advantage of this convenient form of payment with the upcoming semi-annual memberrship dues renewal.

Click this link to go to the dues page, select the PayPal button, follow the instructions (it's the same as buying almost anything online) and your done. Fast, convenient, secure.

If you have any comments or questions, please give Ed Andriessen – webmaster or Lauren Tait – Treasurer a call or use the contact form on the site to email.

Princeton Toastmasters Explores Web 2.0 with Evaluation Webinar

Ed Andriessen — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 20:44:04 +0000

Monday March 1, 2010 was a first in more than number. Jack Levitt, DTM hosted the first Princeton Toastmasters webinar titled, "The Do's and Don'ts of Evaluation".

With so many new communication channels available today, web video, email, web conference, it's inevitable that Toastmaster projects will begin to move "online".

For the benefit of the club and potential evaluators, click on either the picture or the link above to enjoy the presentation.

District 38 Fall Conference 11/13 (Fri) & 11/14 (Sat)

Barbara Suarez — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 10:19:50 +0000

Have you heard the news? Our very own Princeton Toastmasters Club President, George Philip, captivated the audience with his oh-so-very Humorous speech at the Club, Area, and Division Contest Levels and is on his way to the District 38 Fall Conference this coming weekend to take the entire district by storm! Laughs – and some tears – are sure to be had by all!

The conference will be held at the lovely Woodlands Inn and Resort in Wilkes-Barre, PA, and is packed with educational programs and great fun. The 'Some Enchanted Evening' Black-and-White Affair/Dinner Friday is said to include lively entertainment with Ballroom Dancers. Saturday's Parade of Banners will be a sight to behold, and the District-Level Table Topics and Humorous Speech contests hold the promise of masterful communicators and spirited laughter. Surely this is one district conference you don't want to miss!

To register for the conference, make hotel reservations, or see more details about the conference, go to http://www.tmdistrict38.org/Conference/Fall09/index.html

Join us on October 15, 2009

Barbara Suarez — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 02:31:26 +0000

Princeton Toastmasters

“Communicating Across Cultures”

October 15, 2009

Join us for an extraordinary ‘global meeting’ featuring extended Table Topics with an International Communication theme, International panelists, and cultural finger food and beverages.

Getting Past The Fear

Ed Andriessen — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 21:50:17 +0000

There are many reasons people come to Toastmasters — improve communication, build leadership skills, get encouragement from a supportive group. The number one reason though is to get past the fear of public speaking. Here’s a real life testimonial from someone who got past the fear. Most people do, you can too.

Welcome to Toastmasters Video

Ed Andriessen — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 13:20:00 +0000

While working on my personal YouTube account, I discovered several professionally produced videos about Toastmasters. Here is one I liked very much. Thank you Toastmasters.

30th Anniversary Celebration!

JoeJ — Wed, 13 May 2009 00:37:34 +0000

Princeton Toastmasters will be celebrating our 30th anniversary on May 21st. This special event will not be held at our usual meeting location. We will not be conducting a meeting at the Church on this date.

Please come visit us at our next regular meeting on June 4th. We look forward to meeting you.

Table Topics Strategies: How to create a speech in 5 seconds

Ed Andriessen — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 13:09:41 +0000

Recently, one of the people I have been mentoring asked me to prepare for their first Table Topics. They asked what I did to become more comfortable with Table Topics and I shared some strategies that have helped me become more comfortable both at the club and in the boardroom. Here’s the e-mail I sent. If you have any strategies of your own, please share them for the good and benefit of the club.

Dear Fellow Toastmaster,

I’m really pleased to hear you are practicing for table topics. I find table topics very challenging because I have a strong preference for control. Table topics does not offer a lot of control, which I guess is how life really is.

However, I have developed some strategies that are useful for table topics that I call frameworks. Frameworks allow you to place any type of content into a frame so it has some logical organization. This helps reduce the thinking needed to plan what to say and helps increase confidence.

Here are some of the frameworks:

- Past, present future
– Why, what, how
– Situation, action, result
– Accomplishments, obstacles, next actions
– I believed this before, but I don’t think that way anymore because
– What I like and don’t like about this
– Dreamer, realist, critic

If you apply the frameworks to any topic, you can quickly communicate for 1 to 3 minutes about that topic without having to give much thought.

For example, using past, present and future if someone were to ask me what I think about grass (lawn grass) I could say:

In the past, I hated grass because my Mother made me mow a huge front lawn every week.
Presently, I watch the people I pay mow the grass for me, and enjoy the fact that I’m not mowing it.
In the future, I look forward to lying in the grass and enjoying the sun while not caring if it is mowed or not.

I just typed in quickly what came to mind because I used the past, present, future framework.

Give it a try. Just select some random words or subjects. Write them in index cards and then select (or have someone else select) a random card. Then practice using some of the frameworks and see how it works for you.

Again, thanks for your support and I’ll talk to you soon.

Kind regards,

A New Skill: Learning to Blog with Toastmasters

Ed Andriessen — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 13:18:31 +0000

As Toastmasters moves further into the 21st century, technology offers new ways to communicate and lead. The upside is with information and communication channels increasing, people can share experiences with others faster and easier than ever. The downside is taking the time needed to learn these new technologies.

To support the easy transfer of learning for these new channels and technologies, the Princeton Toastmasters Executive Board is providing free tutorials for Blogging Basics. The Board will provide brief videos that walk participants through the basics of adding, editing and changing content to the Princeton Toastmasters site/blog.

If you are interested in learning basic blogging, please visit the Resources > Tutorials section of the site to access the instructional videos (or click here). If you wish to add content to the site, please send an e-mail to ed at edamail dot com (change mail to fit e-mail client).