Yay! I get to blog again!!!

I am pretty dang excited by this silly piece of acrylic.

When I typically give speeches, I prep them for anywhere from a week to a month, give it and then never really give it a second glance until its time to turn it in for a new certification.

Competition is such a great learning opportunity. My past wins have been with evaluation contests which are impromptu speeches. I love the flexibility and vitality of extemporaneous speeches.

This International Speech can be about anything. Educational, Humorous, Emotional, Inspirational, or Popular themed.

I wrote my speech and then gave it to my club. They gave me feedback where I could rewrite and add things that would make it better. I've given it four times (not to mention the countless times I've practiced in my closet).

I'm tempted to give a different speech at the next level on the 16th.

I am one speech away from my Advanced Communicator Silver certification, but the last speech, I have to use the Internet. Oy! We don't have meetings at Kid's Inc anymore where we can use their projection equipment and they don't have Wi-Fi. We meet at work, and they won't let us use the work system for fun. So I was thinking of doing screen prints and them print them off. It will be lame, but what other choice do I have?

We are having a garage sale on the morning of the 9th and we hope to raise enough money send three of us to Santa Fe Regional Conference. My VP of Membership, VP of Ed and the prez (moi). We are thrilled and I know this will be just what we need to give us the energy to make our club successful for yet another year.

We are desperate for members this year. We need at least 4 more members, but I know we really need more than that, cuz we've just had dues again and I don't know who has renewed. Things are tight, I know that. (BOY do I know that), but the long term rewards of Toastmasters make it worth it to me. Not just the break in the middle of my week, but to learn how to communicate effectively is a dieing art.

Miss Amarillo is our guest this coming Thursday. I'm excited about having a guest! We put on our best show for the meetings with guests. She wants to learn to communicate better and maybe she will join! (Wouldn't that be awesome!!!)

Please let any of your friends know about our club. You never know if they might be interested. We do Leadership training as well. Great for career development.