ACT Speech Marathon / Christmas Slash Party

The Alabang Community Toastmaster Club held a Slash Party (Speech Marathon / Christmas Party) at the ViewFort Terrace Hill in Carmona, Cavite. Lots attended.

For starters, there were games. Here's the Taboo game being explained by Viviene.

Awarding of the Competent Leader Pin

The theme of today's meeting was "Unleash Your X-Factor". During the regular club meeting, I received the Competent Leader Pin from Club President Dr. Neil Caranto at Alabang Community TMC in Northgate, Alabang. Here's a short video of the awarding. (Apologies, as the video camera is slightly tilted to the left).

(video credits: Andre Marcelo-Tanner)

Aug 20, 2009 Toastmasters Meeting - Educational Talk

Today I gave an educational talk on The Toastmasters Educational Program from the Successful Club Series. The talk, entitled, "Education Goals of Members", is a presentation of the two tracks: Communication and Leadership tracks. Specifically, I discussed how members can benefit and receive credits for participating in the various roles of a meeting.

(video credits: Andre Marcelo-Tanner)

The Toastmasters Educational Program

(This talk was delivered at the Aug.20, 2009 Toastmasters Meeting of the ACT Club.)

There are two tracks in the traditional program, the communication track and the leadership track. The core of the communication track is the Competent Communicator manual. It contains 10 speech projects to help you gain the basic skills needed to present an effective speech.

(video credits: Andre Marcelo-Tanner)

Toastmasters Speech Timing Cards - Improvised & DIY - Part 2

(This is the continuation of Toastmasters Speech Timing Cards - Improvised & DIY)

Do the same when the midpoint time is up for the yellow card and the maximum time is up for the red card.

If you are a bit far away from the speaker, you may raise the colored card to attract the speaker's attention. This is similar to when a student in a class raises his hand to get the teacher's attention.

This isn't too distracting for the audience, if you as Meeting Timer, is far back at the table or room. If, however, you're somewhere in the middle, you could subdue the motion to avoid unnecessary distractions for the audience.

Toastmasters Speech Timing Cards - Improvised & DIY

Today, I finished making a set of improvised signal cards for timing Toastmasters speeches. Others would call these "timing cards". They're quite durable since they're really made of heavy plastic.

These timing cards are meant to replace the battery-operated Toastmaster signal lights device that we previously used at the club. That timing lights device seems to have some circuit contact problems.

Even with the rotary switch clicking into the correct position, one or two lamps don't light up. It might take a little bit of twisting or nudging on the switch knob for contact to happen and the LED light to light up. So there are two problems: getting the LED to light up is one thing, getting the LED to stay lit is another.

Club Officers Training for Divisions B and H - Makati City

Attended today the Club Officers Training at the Old Makati Stock Exchange Building. Representing Alabang Community Toastmasters Club are (L to R): Lolet Gabay (Sgt-at-Arms), me (President), Violet Imperial (Secretary) and Larry Gamboa (VP-Membership). Behind Larry is veteran Toastmaster Gina Mapua and behind me is photobombing Rosan Cruz.