A newsletter from Chennai Speakers Forum toastmasters club.

1. SPEAKERS DIGEST
CSF, Club No. 2009282 November-2012
ing announcements
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2. After becoming a TM and participating in few CSF This brings us to understand what Abhyāsa and
meetings I felt how I have missed this great Kriyā are!
organization that provides a platform and an ideal
Abhyāsa is repeated practice performed with
friendly atmosphere to shape ones outlook towards
observation and reflection. We all know ‘practice
every aspect of life. Though there may be several
makes a man perfect’ but Abhyāsa stresses on
changes in a person’s mental make-up over the
observation and reflection while practicing and this
period, the greatest of them all one can experience
shapes us towards reaching perfection.
is ‘courage and self- confidence’, to face the world.
Kriyā simply means action with perfect execution.
When self-doubt rules the mind, to take simple
We all know how important execution is and without
steps forward would be a greatest challenge, it is
that all actions may fall flat. As John Doerr (a
the achievement of others that shows us the light
venture capitalist who supported and funded Google
that it is possible and this is our world too to chase
when none of us knew what Google is) said ‘Ideas
our dreams and make our ideas turn into a reality.
are easy, execution is everything and great
CSF is such a place where ideas shape reality. And
teams win’.
we are all witness to this great phenomenon, week
Sādhanā, Abhyāsa and Kriyā are vital in our life and
after week seeing our fellow TMs break all barriers
as I can see, this has been well implemented in the
to reach their pinnacle.
journey of CSF, where we have been witnessing the
To achieve this state of mind and action there are
growth in the last one year. After the idea has taken
three essential things required: a) Sādhanā b)
shape for a new TM forum every member of the
Abhyāsa and c) Kriyā (borrowed these words from
successive management team in CSF has raised
Sanskrit). What do these words mean and how
the bar in the last one year and exemplified how
does it impact a person’s life if practiced?
great teams should work. Finally the team’s
Simply said Sādhanā means in pursuit of a goal or execution speaks it all and I am sure the day is not
achieving something. How to achieve a goal and very far that we will be heard at international level.
what is the critical action that makes it possible? Like every TM in CSF, I am equally excited to know
The answer is: Abhyāsa and Kriyā! and welcome another great CSF management team
to lead us to greater heights in the near future.
Abhyāsa and Kriyā allow a person to shape a
person’s ideas and goals and turn them in to reality. TM Ramesh K
TM Ramesh Thandav
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3. President’s Desk
As always, it gives me immense pleasure to
reach you all through this column. We join
Toastmasters to improve our communication
taking the club to the next level but in the
and leadership skills. But over a period of time
process you will also take
we realize toastmasters is more than that. The
yourself one step higher. By being part of the
recent visit to Kochi proves this more than
executive committee one will get great
anything else. Our members brought laurels to
exposure. The Interesting part of toastmasters
the club. It was for the first time a member
is that the more you give, the more you get.
st
from CSF won the 1 runner up at the District
They say “The mediocre teacher tells, the good
Level Evaluation Contest and it was done in
teacher explains, the superior teacher
style by our very own founder president TM
demonstrates, the great teacher inspires.” Here
Arna Chugani and she also received the Golden
in Toastmasters, you can
Gavel award for our club for the year 2011-
become the great teacher by taking up
2012. Our DTM Saro Velrajan received the best
leadership roles. So I request you all to tap the
Division Governor in District 82 award. Our
leadership skills buried in you.
DTM Sastharam led his team and created
I thank all the members of the club for taking
history at Reverberations 2012 and also
the club to greater heights.
managed 187 registrations in less than 24
hours for Ovation 2013. We not only received Look forward to a fantabulous farewell month.
awards but also appreciation for energy and Wishing you all Godspeed!
enthusiasm shown by our members.
I strongly believe any member can achieve TM Pravin Mani
anything if good exposure is given and that
responsibility lies in the hands of the leaders.
As we all know Chennai Speakers Forum
officers election is coming up, I request you all
to take part in the same and take the club to
the next level. By doing so, you are not only
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4. S
P
E
It was the year 2010; I was serving as the So, how can you get the maximum out of the
A President of Chennai Toastmasters Club. A toastmasters program? This article describes a
K guest in his mid-20s approached me at the end 3R technique that you can use to become a
of the meeting and asked, “Sir! I’m completely successful toastmaster. The fullest benefit of
E
impressed by the meeting. Can I complete the toastmasters program can be achieved only
R entire course in just 1 year? I’m very busy with when you follow the 3Rs:
S lot of other activities and I want to complete this 1. Regular
course soon”. Being regular is the most important trait of a
He is not an exception. Very recently, I was successful toastmaster. What happens to an
D approached by a young toastmaster who said athlete, does not exercise regularly attend
I “Sir! I am doing my under graduation now and I practice sessions regularly? Mastering the art
G have lots of spare time. I want to complete my of public speaking is very similar to sports – it
DTM in the next two years”. requires regular practice. What better platform
E can you get to regularly practice your skills than
I have seen several toastmasters who want to
S complete their speaking projects, soon. Public a toastmasters club?
T Speaking and Leadership are skills that are  Regularly attend club meetings
developed by practicing, participating and  Regularly take a diverse set of roles in the
performing. There are absolutely NO club meeting
 Regularly deliver speeches in your club and
SHORTCUTS. If there is one magic pill that you
in other clubs
can swallow before going to the bed and wake
 Regularly participate in contests and
up as a competent speaker the next day benchmark your performance
morning, everybody will be a competent  Regularly take leadership roles in your club
and outside your clubs
speaker today.
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5. 2. Research breaking the shell, but because of the several
1000 minutes that it spent in hatching.
Performing adequate research is important for
any assignment that you do – not just in Fellow toastmasters, let us take the following
toastmasters. Charles E. Jones, a famous resolution to become a successful
author said "Five years from now you'll be the communicator and a leader.
same person you are today except for the
I’m a toastmaster…
books you read and the people you meet”. It is
I participate in meetings, but don’t precipitate
very true. As a toastmaster, we need to develop
habits of reading books, reading newspapers, I’m always prepared, so I’m not afraid
attending educational programs, attending I help others to perform, so that their skills
contests and continuously learning new things can reform
by research. Research helps us to discover
I give everyone a pat, that’s the best way to
new ways of doing things, it helps us to
get them to act
constantly innovate and discover a BETTER
YOU! I’m a toastmaster …
3. Rehearse I remain positive, even if my blood group is
negative
Our District 82 Champions TM Alexandar Babu,
and TM Guruprasad delivered a 7 minutes I treat everyone fair, they being a guest or a
humorous speech to win the prestigious 1st and DTM doesn’t matter
3rd positions respectively in Reverberations I’m ready to serve the club, because my heart
2012. Can you imagine how many times they says so with every single lub-tub
would’ve rehearsed before their most
I’ll follow the rules, as it helps the club to
memorable performance at the District? They
reach its goals.
would’ve rehearsed at least a 50 times for
months together, before their final performance I’m a toastmaster!!!
at the district. If great champions have to
rehearse for at least 50 times before their By
performance, how many times should we
rehearse before giving our speech at the club? DTM Saro Velrajan
A successful toastmaster rehearses multiple
times before they perform in toastmasters.
A chicken that pops out from an egg is special,
not because of the 1 minute that it spent
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6. TM Pon G Nithya
A
whole year is over. Wishes fulfilled. Dreams shattered. Promises kept. Resolutions broken!
S Yet another new year is here. New year. New beginnings...
P
E Here are my Toastmaster resolutions for 2013.
A 1. To attend Toastmaster meetings regularly. (Well, this one's the absolute usual..er essential!!)
K 2. To take every prepared speech and role seriously and look-out for the learning it is supposed to
E bring.
R 3. To give my fullest effort, to the preparation and performance every role and prepared speech.
S 4. To volunteer for table-topics sessions when needed.
5. To watch-out for fellow Toastmasters, and help them in their journey of self-development, with
useful and encouraging feedback.
D
6. To spread the Toastmaster spirit of personal-leadership, learning and sharing, beyond the
I portals of Toastmaster meeting.
G 7. To always be on the look-out for opportunities for learning.
E 8. To improve personal relationships and professional competencies.
S 9. To make the way I live my life, and not just my spoken words, do the talking for the world to
T hear.
10. To listen to and trust the gentle hopes that love, faith and life whisper.
11. Now this is one set of resolutions I hope not to break :-)
A toast to all the Toastmasters out there!
Wish you a Happy New Year!
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7. Few things taste as good as I have the habit of evaluating my
W freedom. Success is one of them.
D progress. Initially it was “bad to
okay” and soon it became “okay”
Joining Toastmasters, regularly and suddenly one day I could give a
i attending meetings, actively
participating in contest, taking the
e “fair” to it.
I felt okay with the “okay” and “fair”
S
s
CC manual seriously and giving
speeches and practicing in front of s feels good and just thinking about
P mirror till you are satisfied...wow how “good” will feel makes me feel
E h where these all take us.. i too good.
Don’t wish to be a good speaker just
A This is the recipe for being a master
K ? communicator. r desire to be a good speaker..don’t
just desire to be a good speaker but
Success is never a hit or miss!
E
R There is a recipe for success. There is always
e decide to be a good speaker. Once
you decide, follow this recipe and
a recipe for success. success is a sure shot.
S
I am a result oriented person like everyone
?
and when I joined Toastmasters, I asked a
D fellow 3-yr- toastmaster, how long does it take
I to become good in communication skills and
the answer I got was 1 year. He said, “attend
G the club regularly and in one year you will be a
E good speaker. “
S That was the best answer I could have
T received. I had a concrete answer that I could
trust. He said that with such conviction that it
looked like he was giving a guarantee and I
completely bought it. My intuition said, yes..it
is true and i decided to give it a shot and stick
with it for one year and see .
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8. Non Verbal A new thought on
Cues are not effective communication….
by Nijil Chandran
Important
The content may not be the king when it comes
S How often have you heard the importance of
non-verbal cues in your speech? The most often to a speech, but it is no worse than the soldier
P quoted research says that for any speech or who faces the enemies up front with courage.
E conversation or discussion, the meaning of the What was this research that gave such accurate
A message is carried more by the voice and the numbers? How did they measure this? Thanks
body language than by the actual spoken words. to the internet, my research was not as
K cumbersome as the research under question.
 Your words 7%
E  Your tone of voice 38% Who did this research? Albert
R  Your body language 55%. Mehrabian came up with this research in the
late ‘60s, but there are few important points to
S For anyone who has been part of any
note before confirming the direct implication of
communication group, this may not be news.
his research to a speech.
That your body language and vocal variety is
D much more important than the content of your THE STUDIES
speech is a widely accepted and repeated
I mantra. But the numbers are fascinating, almost
Mehrabian and his colleagues were seeking to
understand the relative impact of facial
G unbelievable; I wondered why words carried expressions and spoken words.
E only 7% while we spend more than 70 % of the
Study 1
time writing those words for the speech. Is that
S even possible?
In Mehrabian and Wiener, (1967), subjects
listened to nine recorded words,
T How can someone explain such disparity?  Three conveying liking (honey, dear and
Though I agree that I’m much more impressed thanks)
by Obama’s enthusiastic animated speech than
 Three conveying neutrality (maybe, really
Manmohan Singh’s dull recitation, I had difficulty
and oh)
in agreeing to the sheer insignificance assigned
 Three conveying disliking (don’t, brute and
to words in a speech.
terrible).
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9. The words were spoken with different tonalities research to any meaningful discussion between
and subjects were asked to guess the emotions two human beings. If that is not enough, the
behind the words as spoken. The experiment research was done only using words not
finding was that tone carried more meaning than complete meaningful sentences.
the individual words themselves.
Of course, there is no denying the importance of
Study 2 voice and body language in any communication
situation. They are as important as the words.
In Mehrabian and Ferris (1967), subjects were
But for a complete speech, a ratio of 33:33:34
asked to listen to a recording of a female saying
S the single word 'maybe' in three tones of voice
makes much more sense than Mehrabian’s
P to convey liking, neutrality and disliking.
7:38:55. Words cannot stand alone all the time,
Mehrabian's research in itself is a perfect
E The subjects were then shown photos of female
testimony to this fact. His research was probably
faces with the same three emotions and were
A asked to guess the emotions in the recorded
tweaked by innovative individuals to attain their
own goals. The more people accepted the
K voices, the photos and both in combination.
misinterpretation of his theory, the more people
E The photos got more accurate responses than joined the bandwagon of 7:38:55. With time, his
the voice, by a ratio of 3:2.
R theory developed a credibility that will be very
They cautiously note: hard to break.
S All this reminds of a Siddhuism, “Statistics are
These findings regarding the relative
like miniskirts, they reveal more than what they
contribution of the tonal component of a verbal
hide.”After all Obama owes as much as to his
D message can be safely extended only to
catch phrase “Yes we can” to all the emotions
communication situations in which no additional
I information about the communicator-addressee
he showed while making that historic speech.
The title may be slightly misleading, but I know
G relationship is available.
you wouldn't read if not for such controversial
E Let us analyze his experiments with a title. It is not too far away from the central idea
speech in mind?
S of this article; although we can ill afford to
1) Mehrabian arrived at the ratio 7:38:55 through neglect non-verbal cues, they are not as
T two independent experiments. important as you thought them to be.
2) Mehrabian used only words, not a speech,
not even a complete sentence for conducting
this experiment.
Can combing results of two complex
experiments on human behavior be sufficient to
arrive at such a conclusion? Mehrabian’s
disclaimers are proof enough to confirm that we
cannot draw an accurate parallel from his
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10. TOASTMASTER’S RESOLUTION –
MY TAKE ON IT
TM Karthikeyan Balasubramanian
We’ve come to that phase of the year where good moments alone are remembered and unpleasant
S
incidents are erased off from our memories considering them as bad dreams. Its time to take up
P promises, be it NEW or OLD, after all we need to keep up our promises and live up to it.
E At this juncture, I would like to pull in an incident that happened couple of years ago between two
A toastmasters. The topic was about RESOLUTION FOR THE NEW YEAR 2009. It was on that
Sunday evening after Chennai ToastMaster Club’s last meeting for the year 2008, myself and
K
another toastmaster cum good
E friend of mine were chatting for
R long time. Our conversation
extended upto 9 pm and we
S discussed about many issues
before finally touching on the
D topic of New Year Resolution.
Both of us took the same
I promise and that is, to attend all
G meetings of Chennai TM Club in
E the year 2009.
Did we keep up our promise,
S
eventually?
T
NO. Both of us failed to live up to our promise, however, I did some justice though. My friend had to
leave Chennai for pursuing his masters abroad. While, Year 2009 happened to be the best year in
my calendar as I bagged the Best Speaker Ribbon for 7 times (3 of which coming from TM clubs in
Bahrain), Best Evaluator Ribbon for 15 times (8 of which coming from TM clubs in Bahrain) and
striking my maiden Best Table Topic Speaker Ribbon from Manama TM Club (the first and oldest
club in the Pearl Island).
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11. On the whole, I had attended 85 Toastmaster Meetings and 1 District Conference Meet in Bahrain.
 12 out of 85 meetings were attended in Bahrain TM Clubs.
 Attended 44 out of 48 meetings of the Chennai TM Club.
 Attended 27 meetings of TM Clubs situated in different parts of Chennai and,
 Participated in 2 Demo TM Meetings during the year.
It was a magnificent year for me, as I had ribbons pouring in.
S However, I am still finding it really tough to revive the same spirit in me as I took a long break in the
P year 2010 from TM activities.
E Coming back to the topic though, I’ve my stand clear on whether to or not to take resolution this
year. Without giving any work to my mind, my clear reply is NO as I’ve decided to walk in the path of
A another good friend of mine since; I am inspired of his MANTRA and desiring to adopt the same. It’s
K a tough challenge though, however, on Day 1, 2013 the adopted MANTRA will be put into action.
E  WHAT IS THAT MANTRA?
R  WHY I CALL IT A TOUGH CHALLENGE?
S  HOW THE MANTRA INSPIRED ME?
Answers to all these will be voiced out in Jan 2013 Newsletter Issue.
D I take this opportunity to wish all my friends from the Toastmasters family a very Happy,
Prosperous, Joyous and a Successful New Year 2013.
I
G
E
S
T
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12. TM Ramesh Thandav
Life will be banal if it is without happenings; the
charm of life is change. Incidentally, most of us
dread the very word change and find comfort in
our own shell. Life gives numerous occasions to
S everyone to embrace change and question the
statuesque. One such occasion is New Year
P and New Year’s Resolution.
E Let us try to understand what Resolution means
A and trace its historical significance. Resolution is stop eating sweets, lose weight by one pound a
derived from the word ‘resolve’ means breaking week rather than lose weight. Women appear to
K into parts, reducing things into simpler forms, increase their success rate by 10% when they
E and holding it firmly. A simple fact is if we want share their goals with their friends.
to achieve something, a) we should believe in it
R b) hold it firmly and practice it.
Why is this astounding failure percentage
S Historically speaking, resolutions during
reported? Lets us examine what causes this.
Most important of all is one should believe that
important occasions and events are quite resolutions are for us to make our life better. It
prevalent from ancient civilizations especially
D creates a basic conviction to pursue it against all
from Babylonians, Romans and Medieval odds. The best way to begin is to believe that ‘I
I period. hold the power than any other outside influence’,
G Many a time resolutions are not necessarily a Abraham Lincoln once said, “Always bear in
mind that your own resolution to succeed is
E life changing effort. It might come from a simple
reasoning and change the way things are and more important than any one thing.”
S this change may be something to do with a Did you know that before being elected the 16th
T person’s life or something that impacts the well President of the United States of America, he
being of the society. lost 8 elections? How many of us would lose 8
A study by Richard Wiseman shows that 88% of elections and keep going? Many of us would
the people who make New Year resolutions fail quit at the first sign of adversity. But Lincoln had
even though 52% of them were confident that a “resolution” to succeed.
they will succeed. It is said, men achieved 22% I found four proven ways to succeed in
more when they get into goal setting. This achieving resolutions: a) Keep it simple b) Keep
basically helps to form small measurable goals it realistic c) Don’t let the set back discourage d)
like indulge in sweets once a week rather than Make it accountable.
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13. Keeping it simple: To say I want to exercise this Don’t let the set back discourage: The idea is to
year is bit vague and not specific, instead to say progress on the goal we want to achieve. In the
it simply that I am going to exercise 30 minutes event of failing on some occasion we should
three days in a week. By making it simple will avoid being hard on oneself. Consider it as a
help us clearly see and follow what we are slight set back and try to come back on track.
accomplishing and make course correction if Let’s not get discouraged.
necessary.
Make it accountable: It is a good idea to have
Keep it realistic: A goal that is realistic will be a partners in goals. Husband and wife can jointly
S good partner in our endeavour. Setting have some goals or find a friend with whom one
P unattainable goals will lead us to failure. A can have goals together. This will bring in some
realistic goal can be a good motivator. sense of accountability. End of it all it brings in
E lot of fun and also a sense of fulfillment in one’s
A life.
K
E
R
S
D
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E
S
T
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14. Deepavali Celebrations at CSF
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15. Office Bearers
President : Pravin Mani
VP-Education : Vivekanandan B
VP-Membership : Nijil Chandran
VP-Public Relations : Kiran Sarma
Secretary : Ram Kumar
Treasurer : Ramesh Karunakaran
Sergeant at Arms : Padma Prabha V
Editorial Team Chennai Speakers Forum
Ramesh Thandav Meets every Sunday
K Ramesh
10am to 12pm
Ruby Hall, Presidency Club,
Egmore, Chennai, India
www.chennaispeakersforum.com
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