Latin Leaders - Toastmasters Club #583774

The election this year has sparked quite a lot of interest and it is no wonder many Toastmasters clubs are including many discussions about Barack Obama. Tonight, Michelle gave a speech entitled, “Quien es Barack Obama?” in mostly Spanish. Her Spanish is really progressing very well. Thanks to all of the members who are helping her towards her goal.

Delfino was the Toastmaster today, his first time in that role. Most first timers are a little unsure exactly what to do but everyone helped out a lot and I think Delfino did a great job, even speaking English. I suspect that he’ll have no more problems in the future.

Julio could not make it today but will be back again next week with his ice Breaker speech, and Michelle will also be back again with another speech in Spanish before leaving on her trip. Make sure you come for that. Visiting again today was Pat Gary who helped out as the timer. Thanks Pat. I hope to see you back again filling out that membership application. We need people like you.

Officer elections are coming up and I have designated December 9 for our elections. We need a majority of members to show up and vote. We will not have any speakers on December 9 but instead we will conduct a “Moments of Truth” session. This will be the first time this club is conducting this important module and we will need all of our members to participate and help evaluate the club. Put this on your calendar and make every effort to attend.

Our theme today was about a future for our children, a topic I think that is so important to us and deserves continuous discussion. I was very impressed that everyone was so willing to talk about what’s on their mind. This is very helpful as Toastmasters to have something to talk about that everyone has a passion for. We’re grateful for Marian for bringing us such great table topics questions that we could all talk about. Michelle is so passionate about such important issues it is thrilling to hear her speak. We had two speakers today. Jorge repeated a previous speech he did in English but this time he spoke in Spanish. His speech was a very interested educational about LA gangs. But our best speaker award today went to Martha, giving only her second speech. She talked about the interesting history and background behind some of the Spanish names we find in our cities and communities here in California. Some of us have lived here all of our lives but we never knew the origin of these names.

We had two guests today, Rolando and Carlos, who also participated in our table topics session. We hope you enjoyed our meeting and come back to visit us again. Next week our speakers will be Julio, giving his Ice Breaker speech, and Michelle attempting another speech in Spanish. You don’t want to miss that.

Hello friends,

As the VP Education for Latin Leaders, I am really focused on making sure you get the most out of the club and that you are meeting your own educational goals. I can only provide the tools and opportunities. It is up to you to take advantage of every opportunity. For this reason I have created a web site to help you in tracking your progress in the club. Are you getting out of it what you thought you would? Here’s a way to see what you’ve done and where you are going.

Recently I added a Progress Chart to the site. The Progress Chart shows which projects you have completed in your communication and leadership manuals and helps you to visualize the progress you are making towards your goal. You can also see how the club is doing as a whole. Your profile page allows you to enter each manual project as you complete it so that your progress can be tracked.

Now I have made it even easier to see how you are doing. When you visit the Latin Leaders web site, there is a new menu button titled “Member Activity”. Click on that button and you will see a chart showing our member list and meeting roles. The numbers in each column are the percentage of times the member has performed that meeting role in the last 6 months. This gives you a good idea which meeting roles you have been spending more time doing, and which meeting roles you need to spend more time doing. The table is sorted by most active members at the top and the least active members at the bottom. If you’ve only joined recently, you will appear at the bottom until you attend enough meetings to match those who have been around longer.

If you click on any member name, you will see a table showing all of the recent activity of that member. Click on your own name to see which meeting roles you have been performing. Compare this list with your Leadership manual and see if you’ve been missing opportunities to get your leadership projects evaluated. The more often you perform a leadership role and get evaluated on that role, the more improvement you will see in your listening, time management, and other leadership skills.

If you click on any meeting role, you will see a table showing all of the members who have performed that meeting role recently. Is everyone getting a chance to serve as the Toastmaster, the General Evaluator, or Table Topics Master? This table will tell the story of who is doing what in our club.

I hope that you will find this information helpful in giving you a good picture of your progress and participation in the club. The Toastmasters program is the best method you can find to help you improve your public speaking skills, social experience, overall confidence, as well as teamwork and management aptitude. But only if you actively participate and take advantage of the opportunities given to you. A successful Toastmasters club is one where all of the members participate and work together. This is Latin Leaders.

Today’s meeting was special in a couple of ways. First, we were very pleasantly surprised to have a visit from our long time friend, Pat Gary. She has not been around for a while and it was so nice to see her back, even if just for a visit. She had not changed a bit, same jovial mood. She participated in our table topics and performed wonderfully, talking about her experience as a single mother.

My favorite part of the meeting was Marian’s speech. She is working on her advanced communicator manual on storytelling. Marian gave a 6 to 8 minute recitation of a story she wrote herself. Her story was about her own childhood experience living in LA just after WWII during one particular Christmas. Not only is she a fabulous writer, she is also a gifted story teller. She seemed to have everyone in the room fully engaged in her story. What a treat it was for us because this is something you do not usually see at a typical Toastmasters meeting. Michelle’s evaluation said exactly what everyone in the room was feeling. Thank you Marian.