Eccentricty made the difference

I was in cloud nine when abraham ringed me offering the TM of the day.TM of the day is one of the most important roles in our meetings.The whole meeting depends on him. You can find his responsibilities here(http://www.tuesdaytoasters.org/roles/Toastmaster.html).

I am glad that I am being trusted and thrusted such a responsible even though I am just a 3 months old as a toastmaster.I had spent almost three hours planning for the event and I was almost 80% satisfactory with my planning efforts. I gave a questionnaire to collect personal details about the members ;my intention behind it was to take a same theme and refer to it in every introductions I make,so that the variety in people will be show cased.

Eccentricity was my word for the day and “Let’s make a difference” was the word for the day. Since I had no pressing commitments at work I started around 5:45 from my new office and it took me almost forty minutes to reach NM road.

It was 6:20 when I entered the hall.Thanks to president Ramesh,Sastha and abraham;they have done half my job in putting things in their places. I was bit clumsy in my behaviour; I believe that toastmasters will help me shun that and become more gregarious.

The word of the day was already written and I requested president for a change in the word explaining my plan for the day.They were all ears for that; I wrote the word and theme of the day.Nina has a great memory-She recollected my last word eclectic and asked my passion for words with e.

I gave away the questionnaire(I would like to prepare it more user friendly next time!) I should try to be more pleasing while making requests to people. Sastha was the sergeant at arms and he started the meeting as per the protocols.

President introduced me as an enterprising and humourous person(Do you accept it??). I didnt start quite well.I am not sure whether my audience found the connection between “Earth is round” proclamation . I should also avoid having lot of papers in hand; I should have reached their earlier and consolidated all the details in a single sheet. At times I missed the track searching for introductions.

I was happy with the introduction I gave for the general evaluator;This evaluation can be done by looking at their faces. Senior toastmasters like Ravi would have received hundreds of introductions and pleasing them is not as easy game; I did that!

This is my second time as TM of the day and by now I have designed a template for this role. I must make sure that I should prepare atleast 10 different scripts from this template.Vivek was the first speaker and I missed his questionnaire while introducing him. He was very confident but to my surprise he stopped his speech half the way.

Abraham and Nina gave advanced projects.This man has a very contagious enthusiasm.I admire lot of his qualities and his humour and enthusiasm is something I would like to emulate.Abraham has humour and enthusiasm attached to each and every move of his,adding a little bit moral value to his speeches will make a better speaker.

Nina is walking tall among us serving as a beacon light for all the young toastmasters like me. I didn’t expect an offer from table topics master and it came in as a surprise. I didn t make most out of the chance.

I didn’t quite handle the transition from table topics to general evaluation well. Ravi took the center stage for a very long time.Shintos smiling face and his ah counting stands in my memory. Ananth the silent observer had donned the role of the timer. OOPS I forgot to mention this I failed to fix up grammarian and ah counter, the very able general evaluator had done it on the feet. Hats off to him. Our grammarian is a master in that art -TM CT Thomas. He was pointing towards a sentence in-completion , and giggles were out when he pointed to abraham’s “All my mothers”..

My closing summary could have been better. On the whole when i handed it back to the president I felt that i have done an average job;

1.I am more comfortable with this role now.Repeating it two or three more times will make me a master of MC.

2.I am able to make instantaneous comments after every speech.

To try in future.

1.The pep talk should be engrossing.

2.I floundered when I tried to bring new sentences out of the hints in the paper.

My fellow toastmasters appreciated my idea of giving questionnaire and it was evident that I made some difference to the way the role has been played. I am happy about that and my dear friend when you come to know what toastmaster’s can do from my blog “SECRETS OF MY SUCCESS” (Scheduled to be written on June 20 2067:)) you would be too old and you would have missed a lot.

Everything has a price associated with it, so as toastmasters. You have an affordable financial and attitudinal cost attached to i. If you are ready to pay it may be you would be making the best business deal of your life.

If you ever spot me giving a presentation and find it to be eccentric, I would attribute that to toastmasters- which is having a good share of the difference i am piling up for my peerless life! Thank you toastmasters!