No table of contents entries found.

LessonsFrom

Five Years

District:41Club Number:01141787Club Name:

Toastmasters Club ofPune (TMCP)

February/2013

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

1 Presidents Musings

2 Lessons from five years

3 Multiple Intelligence- DTM Mohan Karambelkar

4 How to tackle TableTopics? - DTM PrasadSovani

5 News from the Club

How to completeALB?

6 Contributors

TOASTMASTERS INTERNATIONAL

NEWSLETTER

President’s Musings

Dear TMCP Members,

Congratulations to the editorial team for bringing out yet another issue ofthe monthly e-newsletter. Your commitment and dedication to thisresponsibility is commendable.

It is indeed a privilege and an honor to be the President of this amazingclub for this year. We are proud members of a beautiful club. I know that Ican count on each of you to continue the stellar tradition of TMCP.

Toastmasters is about becoming effective human beings, thetransformation of an individual's potential into tangible skills and enhancedself-confidence. By this process we become more effective in ourworkplace, community and family. Although toastmaster is associated withthe learning the art of public speaking, we learn much more than that.Through the experience of regular meetings that are soundly structuredaround parliamentary guidelines we also learn to lead meetings, helpothers through evaluations and most importantly, listen.

We also give life to the leader in each one of us by executing our roles andresponsibilities as officers of the club. Our club has a caring and supportiveenvironment where we come together to practice our skills. Not only isToastmasters where leaders are made, it is also a place where enduringfriendships are forged while taking the Toastmasters journey together.

ToastmastersClub of Pune

(TMCP)

Executive Committee

President:Deepa Das

Vice PresidentEducation:Umesh Agashe

Vice PresidentMembership:Vaibhav Mehra

Vice PresidentPublic Relations:P L Nagappan

Hon. Treasurer:Alok Vij

Hon. Secretary:Mohit Gaur

Seargent-at-Arms:Prasad Sovani

This year is more than half done and TMCP is doing great. We have already achieved all ten goals of theDistinguished Club Program and Golden Gavel. But we are not resting on our laurels; we have anenthusiastic and capable executive team with a strong core club membership. Together we have set someambitious goals, which include 25 Competent Communicators, Advanced Communicators and CompetentLeaders from amongst us. I am looking forward to a rewarding year for TMCP.

We are not denying ourselves having fun in the process of doing all this. So how about our ambitioustargets you may ask? The answer is by doing more: sign up for more roles, attend meetings moreregularly, participate more in contests, take on more leadership roles, mentor more new members,volunteer more.

To this end, I challenge each of you to set one personal and one professional goal that you wish to achieveduring the remaining Toastmasters year: This is your journey and the TMCP family is here to walk withyou. We are united in our quest to become the best we can be and help our fellow members to do thesame. Each of us must strive to make ourselves better after each meeting .As the President of the clublooking forward to seeing you at the club regularly and doing more...

Lessons from Five Years

We talked to past Presidents of Toastmasters Club of Pune, & asked them toshare key Lessons as a President of TMCP for the benefit of future leaders.

Charter President ofToastmasters Club of Pune. Avisionary man who initiatedthe journey, & today hundredsare benefiting fromToastmasters Clubs acrossPune.

Distinguished ToastmastersPrasad Sovani is currentlyholding the position ofLieutenant Governor forEducation and Training,Toastmasters International,District 41.

He is a communicationevangelist. By profession he isa corporate trainer and hassuccessfully trained manystudents to their satisfaction inIndia, Singapore, Brazil,Turkey, China, Mongolia &Macau

"50 Ideas are less than 1 Implementation"

Pune is a city of intelligent people. If you walk across a road on a typicalday, you will meet 50 people who are super-intelligent; each of them cangive you 100 brilliant ideas on how to run a Toastmasters Club in abetter manner.

But, alas, these ideas are of no use unless someone implements them!Hence I say that Ideas mean nothing, we can get several of those....What we need for a successful club is that someone ought to go out andwork on them.

These brilliant people can also tell you how the citizens should behave,when they themselves might be ignoring a passenger who falls downwhile riding a bike and needs immediate medical attention.

Let's take an example of being the Toastmaster of the Day for a meeting.We have a practice of telephoning each member to ask whether one iscoming and playing some role. Sometime back there were a couple ofmembers who thought they had a better idea when they started anonline agenda where people were supposed to go and fill in their slotsthemselves. And these two guys did not telephone people saying,"People must go online and use our tool!" The result was disastrous!Nothing happened till the last day and we had to make frantic phonecalls to save the day!

I always tell such 'brilliant' innovators, "We want agenda ready byThursday for our meeting on Saturday. You can get it by any means. Ifyour idea fails, please use our practice and complete the task!"

While TMCP has always welcomed innovation in variety of meeting etc,we have some standard operating procedures, which are time-tested andin such cases, we say, "One implementation is equivalent to 50 ideas!"

-DTM Prasad Sovaniprasad.sovani@gmail.com

Ajay Mathur served asPresident of Toastmasters Clubof Pune from July 2010.

He is a Chemical Engineerfrom IIT and an MBA fromFaculty of ManagementStudies – University of Delhi, aproject manager, a son, ahusband and a father, insanelycurious about almosteverything in life.

You can learn more from himby writing atajayma@gmail.com

First say to yourself what you would be; and then dowhat you have to do– Epictetus, Greek Philosopher

I came to Pune in 2007 and joined Toastmasters in 2008. Initially, it wasdue to a need to escape from the boring sameness of office life (work,petty politics, etc.) as also to grow some roots in a new city – throughsome social contacts. Over the last five years, I have learnt Life as wellas Leadership Lessons way out of proportion to what I have put intoToastmasters:

1. Life is a Bitch – especially when it is Friday night after a veryexhausting week at work and you are slated to speak on Saturday withneither a clue about the speech topic nor any idea about anythinginteresting to say. Stick with it.

2. Life is a Bitch, but your bitch (life) is somebody else’s dream(life) – Toastmasters attracts people from such diverse backgroundsthat, a lot of times, while interacting with others, you hear “Wow, I wishI could do/say/live that” – those are the moments you fall in love withLife again.

3. Take a Road Trip to attend a conference – it is a very goodopportunity to understand ‘The Grand Panjandrum on the Dais/Stage’ aswell as the neighbour on the next chair – and you will realize that bothare the same. Both have their dreams and their fears. Please ensure thatwhat gets discussed (especially ‘In High Spirits’) stays with you – not fornothing do they say “What Happens in Vegas, …”

4. Give it your all (and then some) – and the riches of the world willbe at your feet – I have seen many people join Toastmasters and go onto get their dream jobs, start businesses, enrol in fancy courses at fancyuniversities, get the spouse of their dreams/become one

5. Be careful what you ask for, because sooner or later, you willget it – be it a coveted club/district post, participating/winning in acontest or getting to organize one – or even having tea with the guestwith the cute dimple who just walked in .

Give me a Lever Long enough and a Fulcrum strongenough, and I will move the Earth – Archimedes,Greek Scientist

Toastmasters offers you a fulcrum using which you can think of movingthe earth – Ajay Mathur, Past Division Governor, Toastmasters

CC Ganesh Srinivasan is NFNLP certified NLP trainer, and working in IBM. Seen many roles in IBM likeCritical Situation Manager, Senior Delivery Manager, and Learning Consultant etc.

Sharing or service approach is most useful in Toastmasters as it is in other places. When I joinedToastmasters, I had many speaking experiences even before a crowd of 300-400. Still after my entry intoToastmasters my Ah's stopped completely. My speech improved greatly as I even went two levels up inSpeech Competitions and made many friends across organisations and cities.

What happens over time is that you get to hear great speeches, make incredible friendships and yourleadership skills move up another notch. These are the bonus effects on top of the satisfaction that youderive in giving your speeches and completing your projects becomes child play.

In TMCP especially the atmosphere is always fun filled and enthusiastic so much so I used to travel all theway from PCMC to listen to the sessions.

CC Ganesh Srinivasan with DTM Prasad Sovani in Uttarakhand

I am proud to be associated with leaders like DTM Prasad Sovani who in spite of the many glories hebrought still remains humble and very accessible. Sometimes what you have gained can be understoodonly when you compare yourself to someone of your own age but who is not participating in any activitylike Toastmasters. The key message is go wherever positive message and skill is made available andenthusiasm from members is contagious - In short go to Toastmasters - where leaders are made.

CC Ganesh Srinivasanganesh62@yahoo.com

ACB, CL Beena Mandrekar isImmediate Past President (IPP)of Toastmasters Club of Pune.

She is a lecturer at SymbiosisInstitute of InternationalBusiness, storyteller parexcellence and extrovert bynature.

You can learn more from herby writing atbeena.mandrekar@gmail.com

My journey in toastmasters began in fits and starts. I rang up AbhishekBihani a dozen times at least before I actually attended a meeting andthe kind soul that he was, he never once showed impatience.

A couple of meetings as a guest and I was asked to immediately give myice breaker! And with knees knocking against each other enough tocreate a racket I somehow spoke without mishap or mistake. Bang onafter that I was catapulted into the limelight for a role of Toastmaster ofthe day.

ACB, CL Beena Mandrekar, cutting cake at 5th anniversary celebrations ofTMCP along with President ACB, ALB Deepa Das, & DTM Prasad Sovani

The point of all this is that before Toastmasters happened I was rathereasy going and unfocused. The responsibility of a role player or anevaluator is huge and sooner more than later it becomes a habit withyou. Time management, memory, work life balance and love….you learnall this and more.

The future leaders of Toastmasters should know one thing: being in theorganization is a learning experience that is not imposed by anyone. Theburden is yours alone and the faster you perfect the art of doing yourrole the happier you are. Perfection in speech delivery, scintillatingevaluations and excellent listening skills will take you places you neverimagined.

The reflection of all this effort is seen at your work place or yourinstitution and confidence and the ability to speak off the cuff will earnyou kudos always.

Note: Order of past Presidents views in this article is based on the order in which they held the post of President of TMCP. We couldnot get details from one of the past Presidents of TMCP TM Shailendra Musale.

DTM Mohan Karambelkar hasunique qualifications of beingan engineer from IIT Mumbai(M Tech ReliabilityEngineering) and anaccountant (qualified fromACCA UK & CIMA UK).

He also has certifications CISAfrom ISACA (USA), CSQA fromQAI (USA) and ITIL Expertfrom EXIN (Netherland).

His 24 years of experienceincludes mainly qualitymanagement and softwaredevelopment. He has workedwith IT department,engineering department andaccounting department.

He is associated with ANLPIndia and is a Certified NLPTrainer.

He is a member oftoastmasters since Sep 2005and achieved the highest title‘Distinguished Toastmaster’ inOct 2012.

Mohan owns Pune basedmanagement consultancy forProductivity, Quality andReliability.

You may write to him atmohandkk@yahoo.com

Multiple Intelligences

DTM Mohan Karambelkar

I joined ACCA Singapore Toastmasters Club in September 2005. Thisclub is for the Chartered Accountants - CAs and CA students. I met manyenthusiastic toastmasters. Executive Committee member TM (now DTM)Vincent Lim had a unique way to entertain the audience. He will usedifferent types of puzzles.

One day TM Vincent gave a puzzle to guess a word. He told 6 sentences

------- has 7 letters.

Poor people have -------.

Rich people need --------.

------- is holier than God.

------- is more evil than devil.

If you eat -------, you die.

TM Vincent further said that “Primary school student can answer easily.Graduates will find it difficult”

In another meeting, TM Vincent gave another puzzle based onmeasurement jugglery.

Measure exactly 6 liters of water using 9 liters and 4 liters cans.There are no liter markings on the cans

Vincent said “It is good to solve within 2 minutes. More time means youneed to improve your analytics”

After looking at different puzzles, I really wonder whether intelligence isone or more. I could get the answer from Howard Gardner’s MultipleIntelligences. Different intelligences are linguistic or verbal (word smart),mathematical (logic smart), visual or spatial (picture smart) musical orrhythmic (music smart), bodily or kinesthetic (body smart), interpersonal(people smart) and intrapersonal (self smart). When I think about thelearning from Toastmasters, I often tend to correlate the learning withmultiple intelligences.

When we deliver the project 4 from Competent Communicator manual,we focus on language. We use vivid descriptions and rhetorical deviceslike simile, alliteration, triads etc. This gives us linguistic intelligence. Westart building our capacity to use language.

When we deliver the project 2 from Competent Communicator manual,we learn about the logical flow of the speech.

The logical structure for a speech can be chronological, spatial, causal, comparative, problem solution andtopical. In subsequent speeches, we practice different logical structures and gain logical intelligence.

When we deliver the project 8 from Competent Communicator manual, we learn about use of visual aidslike pictures and props. This gives us an opportunity to develop an ability to visualize diagrams, createthem and use them to communicate. The learning of visual intelligence starts with this.

When we deliver the project 5 from Competent Communicator manual, we learn about the stance,movements, gestures, facial expressions. We understand the non-verbal communication and discover ourkinesthetic intelligence.

When we deliver the project 6 from Competent Communicator manual, we learn the characteristics ofgood voice. Though it is not music, we learn about volume, pitch, rate and quality. This gives us vocalintelligence.

Toastmasters provide a fabulous opportunity for interpersonal intelligence – giving a feedback, listening,team building, facilitating etc. through leadership projects and communication projects.

The intrapersonal intelligence is developed through understanding our vision, mission, values and ourleadership skills. We have ample opportunities like leadership excellence projects to develop right attitudeand decision making.

If you ask a toastmaster the learning from toastmasters program, generally toastmasters will saycommunication or leadership or both. However, my answer is multiple intelligences. People blink theireyes and have a question mark on their faces. I suggest them just google ‘multiple intelligences’ andexperience the toastmasters, you will understand the link.

When I think about the learning fromToastmasters, I often tend to correlate thelearning with multiple intelligences.

How to tackle Table Topics?

DTM Prasad Sovani

Table Topics is the most religious part of a Toastmasters meeting. Surprised? People become religioussuddenly, when the Table Topics session begins. They either look up to the sky or look down & pray, “OhGod, let this topic master not nominate me to speak!”

Have you experienced this? This happens because most Toastmasters do not know how to tackle TableTopics. They simply do not know how to gather thoughts quickly.

DTM Prasad Sovani, a frequent off-the-cuff speaker, elaborates on useful structures for organizations, fororganizing your thoughts in presenting an impromptu speech.

First rule is do not REACT when a topic is provided to you, but RESPOND to the topic.

There are some simple formulae or techniques for attempting a table topic. Let us look at 3 of them. Thefirst & the simplest one is the PREP technique. For each technique the first table explains the steps in atechnique & second table provides one example.

1. The PREP Technique: It is to be used when you are clear about your view point.

P State the POINT you want to makeR Give REASONS to support your pointE Provide EXAMPLES and ELABORATIONSP State your POINT as a logical conclusion leading from the reasons and examples

Example of PREP Technique

SampleTopic

SHOULD WE PREPARE TURNING PITCHES TO AID OUR SPINNERS WHENHOSTING TOURING SIDES SUCH AS AUSTRALIA?

PointI think we should prepare rank turners to help the Indian Cricket Team

Reason The reason is-All the other countries prepare pitches to help the home team. So there isnothing wrong in doing so to help our own bowlers.

ExampleAustralian as well as South African pitches are fast and bouncy. They aid theirfast bowlers. Do we complain that time? We lost 4-0 in Australia because theyprepared pitches to support their bowlers. So we can do the same to them.

Point Therefore I feel that we should prepare rank turners to help the Indian CricketTeam.

2. The Pendulum Approach: It is to be used when you are not either for or against the topic.

Example of Pendulum Approach

Sample Topic SHOULD AGRICULTURE INCOME BE TAXED?

ON the One Hand

We have many farmers earning in crores, yet not paying in taxes, while asalaried person is taxed even though he earns mush less. These rich farmersusually plant cash crops such as sugarcane & cotton and use technology to get abetter yield.

On the OtherHand

We have some farmers struggling to make both ends meet. If they earn adecent income in one year due to a good monsoon, they may have to pay a tax,but the next year, they may have no rainfall & no income. They cannot even usetechnology due to the small size of their farms.

On BalanceWhile we need to tax the super rich farmers, we should not ignore the poorfarmers. So on balance, we can make the rich farmers pay tax on incomes abovea slab substantially higher than the non-farmers. And that too on a moving 5-year average income!

3. Different perspectives: It is to be used at issue with different perspectives.

AACKNOWLEDGE that different people look at issue from their uniquesituations and perspectives

A Prove three different ANGLES of looking at the issue.

A ALTHOUGH we accept that majority opinion should prevail, we must arguethat minority interest should also be protected.

Example of different perspectives

SampleTopic

THE FARMERS SHOULD HAND OVER THEIR LAND TO GOVT FOR SEZS, FORECONOMIC GROWTH OF THE COUNTRY.

A Acknowledge that people have differing views on this.

A

e.g. Private Developer of SEZ – Wants to clear land, develop & sell it for profits.Feels that farmers are asking unreasonable prices & creating unnecessarytrouble.e.g. Companies wanting to set up base – May feel that the exit policy & contractemployment (available in SEZs), will be better for smooth functioning instead ofthe current unionism.e.g. The farmers – They lose land & emotions attached with it. Plus can nolonger depend on it for their household income. They are not well educated tobenefit from the larger employment generated & again, even here, the benefitswill be reaped by urban educated people.

AChina has only 5 SEZs. When the Indian Government wanted to open SEZ, theydid not expect 500 of them. So the Government should restrict it to (say) 10-15of them. & the farmers’ interests should not be ignored.

For more information regarding techniques & how to use them, please write to DTM Prasad Sovani atprasad.sovani@gmail.com

First rule is do not REACT when a topic isprovided to you, but RESPOND to the topic.

News from the Club

Grand celebration of TMCP’s 5th anniversary

A journey of 5 years was celebrated in 201st meeting of TMCP on 16th Feb 2013. We had a grandcelebration of 5th anniversary in MCCIA auditorium & Toastmasters from various clubs across Puneattended this grand event.

You can access the all the snaps of the grand event on TMCP’s facebook page by clicking here.

Ideation & How to go about it.

After successful 201st meeting, TMCP organized division level Education Session as a part of its 202nd

meeting. Professional writer Sheila Kumar, author of the book “Kith and Kin – Chronicles of a Clan” wasinvited to talk on how to create ideas & how to give words to your ideas. You can access the snaps of thisDivision level education session on TMCP’s facebook page by clicking here.

Finish What You Start

We all concentrate majorly on completing Communication titles. But in the month of February, ACB, ALBGaurav Nagpal, completed two leadership titles, Competent Leader, & Advanced Leader Bronze.

We congratulate ACB, ALB Gaurav Nagpal & we are sure he would continue with same rigour, passion &consistency in the future. You can write to ACB, ALB Gaurav Nagpal at raregem@gmail.com

For the benefit of all, below are the details of how you can complete ALB?

1 Applicant must have completed title Competent Leader2 Applicant must have conducted two programs from The Successful Club Series and/or The

Leadership Excellence Series.

The Successful Club Series is a set of 10-15 minute educational speeches focused on improvingthe quality of club meetings, with tips on attracting and maintaining members. This program isusually presented during a club meeting.

You can download the script outlining the workshop and a PowerPoint presentation athttp://www.toastmasters.org/289DCD

The Leadership Excellence Series is a set of modules that teach members the skills they will needto be successful leaders inside and outside of Toastmasters. Each module takes about 10 minutes topresent and includes a PowerPoint presentation and a script that can be personalized.

You can download the script outlining the workshop and a PowerPoint presentation athttp://www.toastmasters.org/310DCD

3 • Applicant must have served at least six months as a club officer (president, vice presidenteducation, vice president membership, vice president public relations, secretary, treasurer, orsergeant at arms).• The six month term must be completed at the time this application is submitted.

4 While serving as a club officer:• Applicant must have participated in the preparation of a Club Success Plan.• Applicant must have participated in a district-sponsored club officer training program.

ContributorsCC, CL Umesh Agashe

Chief EditorLayout and designProduction

CC Nagappan Palaniappan

Co – EditorInterview Coordinator (All the past Presidents ofTMCP)

ACB, ALB Beena Mandrekar

Co – EditorLanguage Evaluator

This is a monthly e - Newsletter of Toastmasters Club of Pune. The sole purpose of this e - Newsletter is to sharesuccess stories of fellow Toastmasters, activities at club level & spread the brand of Toastmasters. If you would like tocontribute in e - Newsletter or have an idea for content or suggestions for improvement in e - Newsletter, you maywrite to agashe.umesh@gmail.com