In a survey of worst fears, public speaking was second only to death. Many years ago, Dr. Ralph C. Smedley recognized the need to overcome this fear. In October 1924, a group of men led by Dr. Smedley met in the basement of the YMCA in Santa
Ana, California. Their purpose? To form an association “to afford practice and training in the art of public speaking and in presiding over meetings, and to promote sociability and good fellowship among its members.” They called themselves “Toastmasters.”The innovative group was onto something. Soon, men in other communities asked for assistance in forming Toastmasters chapters of their own. By 1930, a federation was necessary to coordinate activities of the many clubs and provide a standard program. When a speaking club in New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada, expressed interest in forming a Toastmasters club, the group became known as Toastmasters International.Growing StrongFor many years, Toastmasters International met in rented office spaces. In 1962, the Toastmasters International staff moved to its first World Headquarters building in Santa Ana, California, not far from where the first club began. By the late 1980s, however, this building could no longer adequately house the growing staff needed to provide services to the growing number of Toastmasters. In 1990, World Headquarters relocated to a new building in Rancho Santa Margarita. The building is designed to accommodate Toastmasters International’s expected growth well into the 21st century. On A RollToastmasters International’s success and growth is due to the continued development of educational programs. The organization has come a long way since the first speech manual, Basic Training, was developed more than 50 years ago. The current manual, called the “Communication and Leadership Program,” was updated in 1996. Upon completing all 10 speeches, members may apply for their Competent Toastmaster (CTM) award and choose from any combination of 15 advanced manuals. Options For Learning
My Fellow Toastmasters . . . Public Speaking
5 Great Celebrity Gossip Blogs
Which Celebrity Gossip Blogs to Go for All the Dirt on Brangelina, Tomkat, and Nick & JessicaCan’t wait for US Weekly Wednesday every week? Do you need a celebrity news fix daily? The blogosphere has answered your prayers. Everywhere you look there are new celebrity gossip blogs popping up. One might think all these options at your fingertips is wonderful news, but it’s not.
Imagine you’re in your cubicle at work and have just have a few minutes to troll the web for pictures of baby Suri or an update on the Jessica-Nick battle – where do you turn? Here is your guide to some great celebrity gossip blogs.Pink Is The New BlogPink Is The New Blog is perhaps the best-known celebrity gossip blog. Run by Trent Vanegas, now of Los Angeles (until just recently though, Detroit of all places), Pink has been written up in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, and Blender Magazine. A typical daily post includes the bigger celebrity news of the day accompanied by photographs. These are not regular photographs, however. Vanegas writes captions over them in pink font. The captions aren’t particularly funny and I often wonder if their purpose is just to keep other bloggers from using them (which is ironic because Vanegas doesn’t hold the copyright to most of them). At the end of the daily Pink Is the New Blog post there are links to plenty of entertainment news. This is where I believe this site really excels. While other bloggers may post just five links a day, Pink Is the New Blog often posts ten to twenty links that touch upon fun tabloid fodder. If I have one main criticism of this celebrity gossip blog it would be the unbelievable amount of spelling and grammatical errors. This is pretty much written at a fourth grade reading level, but I assume most people don’t care about that. All in all, if you don’t mind waiting until the middle of the afternoon for your news (posts post come in mid-day), this is a very comprehensive site that is worth reading.PerezHilton (aka Page 666)
Gossip at the Work Place
Avoiding Gossip Could Leave You More Focused on the JobWork at any place for even a short period of time and you are guaranteed to be exposed to gossip. It is unavoidable. Co-workers talk about each other, juniors talk about their bosses and bosses talk about the CEO. Justification; the information is just too juicy to keep quiet about!Let’s begin with a basic understanding of gossip. Gossip is simply discrediting talk about someone who is not present. There are several reasons that make people engage n this kind of talk of the workplace. What
reasons?An obvious one is to seek revenge on the co-worker we feel wronged by him/her and rather than directly confront or ridicule this person, we elect to malign him/her and to spread rumours about him/her behind his/her back.Second, gossip bonds the people who engage in it. Talking about a common enemy or problem tend to bring colleagues closer.And thirdly, gossip is intended at knocking someone down a few notches so that we may feel superior to the person. We try to enhance our image at the expense of someone else, and to many cases we do not consciously realize that this is why we are gossiping; bolstering our own image by denigrating the lives and actions of others.Negative gossip includes untruths accusations or taking credit for someone else’s idea and it harms people. Whether the harm is intentional or not, it can cause great hurt to both the victim and rumormongers’ reputation. No beating around the bush here, gossip is to be avoided.First draw a clear line between work and personal lives. Do not give detailed answers about income, sexuality, politics and relationships. It may be fun to talk about who is being forced to resign, who is sleeping with who, and who is next in line for promotion-but is this what you were hired for?Second if you become the subject of damaging gossip, confront it. Get to find the source of the gossip and privately seek to set the record straight. Ask the person to refrain from spreading rumors. They may deny it, but they will know they are caught and will stop.
Public Speaking with Pizzazz!
Learn to Speak with Confidence!IN THE BEGINNING…..In the beginning was the spoken word. And the spoken word was and is the means of communicating ideas to our fellow man. The more effectively we speak, the greater the understanding of our audience.Before beginning any endeavor, we need to be in a good mental state of mind. Take time to relax. Pamper yourself a bit with soft music, a quiet dinner, or a round of golf….whatever works for you.
Ready? Then let’s begin. So you’ve been asked to speak, but what topic do you choose? Either you feel there is just so much to choose from, or you’re having trouble coming up with an idea. For most, it’s the latter. Ask yourself: ‘What are the interests of my audience?’ Jot down a few ideas that come to mind. Next, ask yourself: ‘What are my interests?’ Jot down a few of these ideas. Now you have a list to choose from. Once you make that choice, the battle has begun!CAPTURING THE AUDIENCE!Your speech actually begins with your introduction. If possible, try to write your own for each speaking occasion to ‘set the stage’ for your speech. Write it with enthusiasm! You never get a second chance to make a good first impression. Make the audience eager to hear what you have to say. You can let the audience know what your topic is and why it is relevant. For example, if your topic is ‘How to Make Millions,’ a typical introduction could be: The Optimist Club is delighted to have a speaker who is a self-made man. He has found a way to create wealth from a very small investment in time and money. Tonight, he will show us how we can accumulate a small fortune as he has done. Please welcome to the stage, Mr. John Q. Public!You may find that writing your introduction is easier once you’ve written your speech. However, writing a tentative introduction in the beginning may be helpful. However you decide to do it, be sure it meets the criteria of grabbing your audience.