Communicate98_Jan-Mar'23

Dear Toastmasters,

Welcome to the latest edition of our quarterly newsletter, where we hope to inspire and motivate you with stories and insights that will help you colour your wings and soar to new heights

Whatever colour you choose, we want to celebrate your growth and achievements as a Toastmasters. Your journey is a testament to your dedication and commitment to personal and professional development, and we're honoured to be a part of it

As we continue to soar to new heights, let's remember the power of community and support Let's lift each other, share our knowledge and experiences, and help each other colour our wings with the brightest and most beautiful shades.

Our Cover Story looks at the benefits of being a Toastmasters couple. Toastmasters can bring people together in more ways than one, and it's amazing to see how the organization can strengthen a relationship Whether you're working on speeches together, attending meetings as a couple, or supporting each other in leadership roles, Toastmasters can help you build a stronger connection

For many of us, Toastmasters is more than just a public speaking club. It's a community of like-minded individuals who share a passion for personal growth and development. We hope these articles remind you of why you fell in love with Toastmasters in the first place and encourage you to continue your journey

As always, we welcome your feedback and suggestions for future editions of the newsletter at Newsletterteam@district98.org

We hope you enjoy reading this issue and that it inspires you to colour your wings and reach for the skies

Best wishes.

WHAT MAKES YOU TICK?

I joined Toastmasters in 2014 as a young professional right out of college and found it to be a wonderful place to practice leadership and communication skills The thoroughly crafted “Pathways” education curriculum helps you navigate these skills in an organized manner Some skills and techniques I have developed through Toastmasters:

Communication skills: The “Understanding Your Communication Style” project is a ready reckoner to know your communication style Every speech delivered has been an experience and the learnings are implemented in the next speech Giving speeches, getting feedback, and incorporating the feedback in the next speech, have made me a better communicator and understand the areas I need to work on

Negotiation skills: The Pathways “Negotiate the Best Outcome” project beautifully explains different Negotiation Strategies, Selecting the Negotiation Style which best applies to you, and reaching an outcome Organizing the first Open House Event as the Vice President Membership of my Club and applying these techniques ensured the success of the event on a tight budget.

Change Management: “Change is a Constant”, and with this ever-evolving world, the “Manage Change” project in Pathways is a great module to learn more about managing change. The pandemic was a change management playing field, where Toastmasters were the early adopters in switching seamlessly to Online Meetings “Always have a backup for a backup”, is something we need to keep in mind.

Collaboration: it has become increasingly common to work across multiple teams and geographies to achieve a shared goal. Someone who approaches group-working scenarios with an open mind and a willingness to listen will benefit any team In Toastmasters, we work as a Team, be it at our clubs or at the District level. The entire structure of `Toastmasters is built in a way, by which we can rarely succeed by working alone. We need mentors for guidance, a team of role players to conduct a meeting, a team of district leaders to ensure the success of the District; it teaches us to work and lead in a Team Hence “Toastmasters, where Leaders are Made” is truly exemplified by the collaboration

WHAT MAKES YOU TICK?

Customer service orientation: "How can I help you?" is a phrase that should never be far from the minds of any professional Staff at most organizations needs to be able to retain current customers, bring in new clients or, at the very least, keep internal customers and stakeholders happy making solid customer service skills essential Toastmasters teaches us one of the most important Leadership Styles – Service Leadership Service Leadership teaches us the art of influence, motivation, and persuasion, which can be practised in our teams in the professional environment As Club Growth Director, one of my responsibilities is to Build new clubs. Pitching Toastmasters to various Corporates and Institutions on how a Toastmasters Club in their organization can benefit their employees, brings out the Customer Service skills which I can use in my professional life

My dear members, each one of us has our own journey and learning curve in Toastmasters. As we learn and grow each day, it's also important to understand how Toastmasters is helping us become better in our professional and personal life The above are a few skills that make me Tick

What makes you Tick?

AnkitDasgupta,DTM ClubGrowthDirector,District98

POWER UP 2.0

Perfect knowledge from perfect masters could always create perfect results. Having such a wonderful training program like TLTP, where all newly elected club officers got training from expert officers so that they can understand their responsibilities and do well in their roles, TLTP program not just helped the club officers to excel in their roles but also improved the meeting qualities at ground level

DISTRICT OFFICERS TRAINING PROGRAM (DOTP 3)

While running a marathon alone may seem less challenging than competing in a team event, achieving success as part of a group requires the expertise of skilled coaches In Toastmasters, the TRIO (District Director, PQD, and CGD) play a crucial role in providing guidance and support to newly elected district officers, and through the (DOTP) District Officers Training Program, they help develop a multitude of exceptional leaders within the organization

WEDNESDAY WISDOM

Effective evaluation is not a criticism, but an opportunity to motivate and inspire. "Evaluate to Motivate" is a core principle in Toastmasters, where feedback is given constructively to encourage personal growth and improvement in public speaking skills Mario Razario, DTM shared his wisdom on speech evaluation.

A GLIMPSE INTO DEMO MEETINGS

Westin Hotel, Mumbai on 5th Dec 2022

Organized by Division U Director Joydeep Bhowmick with Area Directors Aashna Bhimani, and Ravindra A DTM

Siemens Energy, GIDC Naroda, Ahmedabad on 16th Dec 2022

Organized by Division J Director Jyoti Bhat with Area Director Vikash Jha

Hindi - English bilingual club online on 19th Feb 2023

Organized by Division J Director Jyoti Bhat with Area Director Pravina Bharija

A GLIMPSE INTO DEMO MEETINGS

Bechtel India Pvt Ltd , Vadodara on 2nd Mar 2023

Organized by Division A Director Utkarsh Dange, with Area Directors Pushkar Inamdar and Yogesh Kantak

Dombivli Community Toastmasters Club, Mumbai on 19th Mar 2023

Organized by Area Directors Anand Ashok, Sangita Mishra DTM, Rajendra Patil, and Gaurav Karnik

Canon Digital, Mumbai on 16th Mar 2023

Organized by Division B Director Babu Narayan with Area Directors Jyot Talreja and Anand Ashok

A GLIMPSE INTO DEMO MEETINGS

Ahmedabad University

on 29th Mar 2023

Organized by Division J Director Jyoti Bha Area Director Meghana Mehta

Hindalco Offline Club

on 31st March 2023

Organised by Area D2 Director Mayur Kotak

Decimal Point Analytics

on 29th Mar 2023

Organized by Division B Director Babu Narayan

NEW CLUBS IN THE DISTRICT

DESIGN OF THE MONTHS

The design was made for our 4th Anniversary Meet titled Aatmnirbhar

The poster was the announcement for our PR Team and this PR Team was meant to sweep along the entire club members' synonyms to that is the wave pattern of this poster with our PR Chair riding the wave and under his tutelage are the four members working on various activities.

This wave pattern was also inspired by the theme of how waves are self-reliant and are not dependent on anyone.

When our VPE announced the reverse meeting, I searched on google to get the idea of the reverse meeting Then TMoD gave the theme of the meeting as "Time Machine" it was the cherry on the cake and it became easy for me to create a poster

Taking inspiration from the designs of a few VPPRs who design minimalistic posters, I incorporated triangles from one of the designs to create a twotone, minimalistic flyer for a speech marathon The triangles on one side and details on the other side are an attention-grabbing design to effectively promote the meeting

From Toastmasters buddies to life partners

Dimple Mehta Mumbai Toastmasters

Mumbai Toastmasters (henceforth MTM) has felt like home for the longest time. I’ve built long-lasting relationships, learned many lessons and grown tremendously in my 6 years at this club Let me tell you the story of my most meaningful relationship.

I have always been someone who takes my time to make friends. And so even a year after I had joined MTM, I was only on cordial terms with most members. I was a last bencher in a club of over 150 members And one April Sunday, joining me on one of the last seats was this boy- Jeevan Fernandes- whom I merely exchanged smiles with We formed a cordial relationship just like I had with everyone else

Many like-minded members wanted to hang out after the meeting. Jeevan and I became part of the group, spending nearly 12 hours together every Sunday

In the upcoming club elections, I stood from the floor for the position of VPPR and lost. And that evening, I received a call from Kunj Shah- the VPM elect- to be a part of his buddy team. He had called only two people, the other one being Jeevan In the next few months, Jeevan and I worked together intimately on growing the club as Kunj had to fly out of the country for work. That’s how we became really close friends

"SHARED EXPERIENCES AND A SUPPORTIVE COMMUNITY CAN CREATE LASTING BONDS."

From Toastmasters buddies to life partners

Dimple Mehta Mumbai Toastmasters

Over time, our friends started cornering us individually as to why we weren’t dating each other They thought we were extremely compatible and had a special bond- but I guess we just needed to take our time On 24th January 2019- we finally mustered the courage and took the plunge We’re happily married with a cat now.

I believe watching each other on the stage and as leaders in the ecosystem really made us understand our value systems The members at MTM encourage and allow us to be vulnerable and so many of us connect on deeper levels because we wear our hearts on our sleeves Without that environment, we would never have met or learned so much about each other. So yes, we're indebted to MTM, Kunj and many others for what we share today.

WINGS WITH COLOUR

Flashes of pure white imagination

Piercing like a beam of sunlight

Creates kaleidoscopic colourful hues

When I tightly shut those expressive eyes

Pure white turns so bright

There lies in the folds of

My blank white wings of imagination

My world of colours camouflaged

Only to shimmer like a rainbow

Like a blinding white beam of sunlight

Breaking the whites into mirrored colourful hues

So do my white wings shimmer in verbal hues

As I spread my blank imaginative wings in arcs

A royal takeoff into the colourful artistry

Pure white, perfect and bright

TOASTMASTERS - A RAINBOW IN MY LIFE

My journey in ToastMasters started in Oct 2022, and since then, my life has been adorned with different colours by virtue of being a part of it. The enriching experiences, new revelations, and focused learning grow each day continually.

My experience can be well articulated using the RAINBOW colour spectrum:

(V)iolet signifies empathy and kindness

This trait is evidently displayed in Toastmasters, where support for innovation is given, which helps you present and promote your creativity.

(I)ndigo signifies spiritualism and inward thinking In Toastmasters speech preparations, a good amount of introspection is needed to present your unique and reflective content, which promotes an increase in your gamut of wisdom

(B)lue signifies peace and relaxation This is well depicted in Toastmasters by giving an opportunity to exhibit oneself without any fear of judgment or apprehension.

(G)reen signifies growth and nature Our natural talents are surfaced through Toastmasters, and their growth through new challenges is sought.

(Y)ellow signifies happiness No matter whether you are the presenter or a participant, in Toastmasters the only feeling you have after the session is a smile and satisfaction

(O)range signifies warmth and vibrancy

Every Toastmasters meeting is full of energy; it shows the strength of oneness and perseverance to grow together

(R)ed signifies love and vitality All Toastmasters sessions provide us with a platform to cultivate our passion while feeling safe and confident that nothing can go wrong

Thank you, Toastmasters, for making my life so colourful! NehaDeshpande

UBSToastmastersClub

PROGRESSION NOT PERFECTION

I joined Toastmasters on 1st June 2016 and since then my love for it has grown by leaps and bounds. I started this journey to be an impactful speaker Over the years I have developed much more than just public speaking. Servant leadership, effective communication, change management, networking, conflict resolution, initiative, accountability, persistence, tenacity, resilience, managing online workshops, and webinars, and many other skills were honed in the process of improving myself.

When I started my journey I used to take a lot of time to draft and deliver speeches and hardly took an interest in other roles of club meetings, and leadership, and had no interest in going outside the club. However, when I realized that true transformation comes when you take leadership roles, follow the values of integrity, respect, service, and excellence, commit yourself to the journey of improvement, and serve the community at large My transformation from delivering 1-2 speeches a month to handling leadership roles, mentoring and delivering projects, taking meeting roles in and outside the club, etc happened because I started saying yes to opportunities that came to me in 2018

Most importantly I started to go deeper in trying to understand project objectives, the best way to attempt them, what planning I need, and how I can make the most of what Toastmasters had to offer. It took some doing.

One after the other when I started attempting failing, redoing, evaluating, soliciting feedback, learning, and again attempting projects and roles, I learned and grew In the past 6+ years, I have delivered hundreds of speeches, taken leadership roles, given educational sessions, helped and mentored clubs, and individuals, and competed a lot I prepared, attempted, took feedback, applied the feedback in the next speech, and kept moving forward

If you wish to improve yourself, first become a Determined Toastmaster. Keep delivering projects, learning where you could improve, attempt another project and apply previous feedback Nothing is perfect and all we do waiting for perfection is delay and procrastinate. If you wish to be a better leader or a speaker, start by understanding the role or projects that you do, follow the fundamentals, and eventually after attempting hundreds of projects you will feel an improvement inside

ARTICLES PROGRESSION NOT PERFECTION

The love for Toastmasters is endless. It’s a platform I have chosen to express myself

As Mulund Toastmasters Club Dr Ralph C Smedley said, “We learn best in moments of enjoyment ”

”Enjoy being a toastmaster, keep giving your best to improve, and strive for Progression and not Perfection

Avinash Singh, DTM

Mulund Toastmasters Club

Readers and Debaters

Toastmasters Club

LET’S FIRST COLOR OUR WINGS WITH RAINBOW

Let’s colour our wings, to look beautiful With seven colours of rainbow bright, To spread our wings, to fly in the sky, To fill colour in our own life, to fill colour in the life of others

To make this world attractive, to make this world beautiful

To express gratitude to mother earth and To the compassionate universe around us

Supreme painter has used all hues and varied shades to carve with care an intricate mosaic a veritable kaleidoscope to nurture all living and non-living beings. When I take a pause to look around, I’m filled with the awe-inspiring spectacle of this creation, which has a cyclic rhythm of its own, wedded intimately with the everchanging pattern, which is not monotonous. Each dawn the sun peeps out from the eastern horizon, waking up all lives in half the hemisphere, while the other half rest their sleepy heads in sweet slumber

The eternal rotation of Mother Earth, makes possible the cycle of day and night, its revolution around the sun, harbingers the veritable seasons Each season comes loaded with its bounteous unique charm, colour, flavour, and aroma.

Pause! To look around…to observe the variedhued birds, singing their unique symphony in sync with the blooming flowers radiating

eye-soothing colours and enchanting aromas The animals have their own unique charm.

Enveloped by all these sense-gratifying, smell, sight, sound, taste, and touch, we humans lead our lives gliding out from our mother’s honeyed womb We too are empowered to colour the canvas of our lives with different hues of emotions

We are gifted with the power to ‘think’, and the power to ‘discern’. These dual attributes, propel us on the evolutionary ladder to be the supreme creation Human civilization is marching ahead as we invent and discover making our lives and making this world a better place to inhabit.

As an individual entity, how do I contribute to this bandwagon of progress? By being myself, by taking a baby step each day towards selfimprovement, and towards making my immediate surrounding, healthy and clean By adopting healthy habits, I remain peaceful, blissful, and happy Once I’m happy, I radiate and spread happiness among people I meet and come across. Happiness is contagious, it rubs on others and spreads infecting humanity. After all, our civilization has exemplified Universal ComraderyVasudhaiva Kutumbam.

Now let’s analyze how the above concept fits into our Universal Comradery of Toastmasters Family In our pursuit of becoming effective communicators and efficient leaders under the umbrella of Toastmasters International, we also develop colourful personalities. Progressing on pathways we pave our persona, primed by premier hues

LET’S FIRST COLOR OUR WINGS WITH RAINBOW

While the Table Topics sessions colour our psyche with thinking skills on our feet, the Prepared Speeches infuse many hues to the canvas of our personality Participating in different contests further strengthens our wings to fly.

Synchronously we graduate from shouldering responsibilities of different roles to be a part of the Executive Committee of the club and beyond It gives us opportunities to fly higher to reach the international arena, starting with baby steps from a club level.

The pandemonium of the Covid pandemic was a blessing in disguise when our meetings shifted from on-site to on-screen. The screen of our smart devices had a global outreach as we could fly around entering clubs around the world showcasing our innate colours while acquiring exotic flavours and colours from around the world. Don’t you agree my comrades-in-arms, we unique beings, and we Toastmasters are in our individual journey of self-development and are also making a significant contribution towards, Universal Comradery –

Vasudhaiva Kutumbam

Manoj Kumar, DTM

Chalk & Duster Toastmasters Club

SPECIAL FEATURE OPEN INVITATION TO ELOQUENCE 2023

The real Toastmasters experience is all about having a physical meetings, physical contests and lots of networking in person. To make this happen toastmasters District 98 is back with its first annual District conferenceELOQUENCE, physically after a long gap of 3 years

This year ELOQUENCE 2023 is going to be hosted by the HERITAGE CITYAHMEDABAD It’s the first time happening in the state of GUJARAT. Gujarat has a rich culture, diverse community, celebratory atmosphere and craftsmanship We welcome you to celebrate this uniqueness with us.

Eloquence will be organised as a two and half day event which includes District finals of various contests like - the INTERNATIONAL SPEECH CONTEST, EVALUATION CONTEST and this year we have two new contests

KAHAANI and IPL (IMPROMPTU PREMIER LEAGUE) It will have keynote speeches from renowned speakers and eminent personalities in their fields We will have exciting workshops lined up to enhance your leadership and communication skills.

if you are an aspiring leader you can be a part of the organising team, if you want to be part of a contest- be a role player, if you want to showcase your talent like singing, dancing or mimicry-be a part of our talent show.

This year it will be held from 26th to 28Th May @ FAIRFIELD BY MARRIOT, Ahmedabad. The added attractions of this event are NETWORKING DINNER @ World famous AKSHARDHAM TEMPLE @ GANDHINAGAR and FUN NIGHT @ RAJWADU- A themebased restaurant representing a unique mix of Gujarati and Rajasthani culture

Apart from this, you will have the opportunity to meet toastmasters from the states of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. It will be a golden opportunity to build some lifelong friendships and create long-lasting memories

I - TM Hiren Dholakia - Convenor of ELOQUENCE 2023 and my entire organising team are excited and ready to host you all at this Annual Extra

Nearly 200 toastmasters have already registered for this event and very few seats are left. What are you waiting for?

ELOQUENCE is not about boring talks and monologues from speakers It’s about engaging, involving and encouraging the audience to be a part of this event by showcasing their special skills HirenDholakia Convenor,Eloquence2023

Register today and be a part of this mega event

Looking forward to seeing you all

IN PICTURES : POWER UP 2.0

DISTRICT 98 PR EXTENDED TEAM

Neha Bhatt , DTM District Public Relations Manager

TM Tosif Video Editor

TM Bhavik Social Media Manager

TM Vrindavani

TM Keerti Content Curator

TM Raja Content Curator

TM Sheshang

Lead Creative Manager

TM Abha Creative Manager

TM Saishri Creative Manager