PULSE : Volume 2 – Issue 2

OFFICIAL NEWSLETTER OF DISTRICT 82 | JANUARY 2016

Champions

Reverbs

An agenda from the International Convention 2015. Read more inside.

Cover Story

Page 3 Page 6 Page 16 Page 19 Page 26

Page 29 Page 33 Page 41

Calendar

Page 43

They say - Great leaders discuss ideas, not people.

“The leadership forum in Toastmasters is a wonderful platform to discuss ideas, to experiment one’s skills, implement their ideas, identify their weakness, make mistakes and learn from them”

We started off stating loud and clear what our vision would be for this year - To make the universal Toastmaster’s brand, a common brand in Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka and outreach ourselves into the 2nd and 3rd Tier Cities.

With increased Media Publicity, diversified initiatives, a broader segmented budget and targeted marketing, we are slowly inching towards making this dream a reality.

Our year started off with our CGD’s ambitious project the CEO’s breakfast meet in Colombo. In an effort to take the Toastmasters programme to more organisations, a breakfast meeting was organized for CEOs and Managing Directors of leading organisations in Sri Lanka that do not yet have Toastmasters clubs. The resonating message of the morning was that fear and inhibition of public speaking in corporate executives is universal and more organisations realise the value of the Toastmasters programme for their people. Tasting success at this brand new effort a similar but bigger program is now also being planned in Chennai In January 2016.

One of the other early actions that has also paid off, is the change to the alignment in Areas and Pulse | January 2016 | Page 3

Divisions. Majority of our clubs are now realigned according to geographical location.

The Main objective in this move was to facilitate Area Directors (AD) to visit their Clubs more frequently by allocating clubs located within close proximity to the AD’s home clubs.

This initiative was not without its share of opposition from members as well as officers.

However, it has proven to be a very effective initiative and we are seeing how this has succeeded.

For the first time ever, we have established The Toastmasters Leadership Institute (TLI) in our District.

The Toastmasters Leadership Institute was formed as a premier educational opportunity for Toastmasters’ club officers, as well as the membership at large. TLI’s have been established in many districts across the world and the role varies from creating basic educational & leadership programs offered by TMI, to conducting advanced training programs with Keynote speakers from around the globe.

TLI in D82 has aimed to ensure that there is a certain standard maintained in the training programs. This has been achieved with various efforts put in by a pool of qualified trainers and by standardizing the training programs across the Divisions.

Our PQD also took a step closer to our vision by declaring a first of its kind, economical registration of INR 2000 / LKR 4000 for Reverberations 2015, including complementary transport to and from Colombo. Not only has this helped us reach to the many who dreamt of being a part of the district conferences but for the first time ever we have had over 35% first timers attending the District conference.

Channelizing the effort, time and resources, we stripped out some glamour and induced some more

with the idea to make the conference more meaningful and the Conference was a Mega Success.

Every journey they say has a plethora of hidden destination’s that reveal them to a seeking traveler. I believe all of you and we are embarking on a new journey, a journey that can change our lives for the good.

I would like to recap on the 3 broad goals we have set for the district this year.

Negate – With years of experience and growth, some of our expenses at the district have grown. This year, on common consensus, we have decided to negate the expenses driven towards some flamboyant district events and practices and eliminate un-resourcefulness while we divert those funds to better every member’s experience.

Bigger budget but different spending focus Expand – Having created a mark thus far in District 82, we now aim to reach out to the most deserving – the students and the youth, who can benefit from our wonderful movement and capitalize on the excellent program we have early on & to anyone and everyone who wants to overcome the fear of Public speaking.

Reaching out to remote areas and aiding sick clubs is one of the top most priority this year.

WE Model – With empowering, out-of-the-box and customized training programs for our leaders and member’s and an increased budget to promote Toastmasters, Open New Club’s and sustain the sick one’s, we wish to transcribe the potential of the ME into the WE.

This year for the first time we are introducing procedure’s to various programs. These guidelines were developed to make your toastmaster’s journey more pleasant because you now are guided by some principles and need not reinvent the wheel.

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“The leadership forum in Toastmasters is a wonderful platform to discuss ideas, where newer leaders experiment, implement their ideas, identify their weakness, make mistakes and learn from them.�

With this platform there sure might arise challenges and conflicting ideas because of the diverse personalities

The opportunity to speak face to face, to put constructive criticism to its real test and the ability to man up and take 100% responsibility is what will give a holistic growth and will help the leader evolve.

Take this opportunity to discuss ideas, clear your thoughts, relax your minds and of course make new friends.

under leaders with various leadership styles.

Some were perfectionists, some visionaries, some meticulous and some process driven. As I rubbed shoulders with them all. I have learnt from each one of their leadership styles and developed my own. One thing that would be in common for all of us is the phases our leadership style will go through. Steep growth, stagnation, confusion, delusion, criticism and finally a little appreciation.

All in all, welcome to the fabulous community where leaders are made;

Make a Choice, to take a Chance, to Change your Life;

Come be part of the new beginning at District 82!

It is indeed a new beginning, a simple but a promising beginning for the many stable years of District 82 to come.

In my years as a Toastmasters I have worked under Pulse | January 2016 | Page 5

DTM Sastharam Ravendran District Director District 82 Toastmasters International

The district vision this year is “To make the universal Toastmasters brand, a common brand in Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka and outreach ourselves into the 2nd and 3rd tier cities�, and my team and I, are excited and geared towards doing what it takes and what we do best, ensure we deliver expected results, for this vision to be affirmed.

We hope to achieve this by driving 3 strategic pillars, with regards to member empowerment, engagement and awareness. We will play a pivotal role to cascade inter district information to all members as well as amplify district and Toastmaster initiatives to all non-Toastmasters, in order to build the equity of the brand. This is an amazing organization, that will be an enable you, our members to achieve your dreams, out team will be a medium to help facilitate that.

With regards to empowerment, the flyer of the month has shown tremendous enthusiasm, with creative content piling our mail boxes. The beautifully illustrated newsletter and content full FB pages, are capsuling and indeed a thrill to visit and learn. We thank all members who have gone the extra mile to stretch themselves and more importantly, share learning for fellow members.

This year engagement has been of paramount importance, to ensure you get the most of your experience, by engaging through our newly revamped website, which is extremely efficient in functionality and beautiful layout. A new feature being the district blog has been incorporated, for you to share your thoughts further and reach a global audience, so take a shot at it and shout out! If your ever wondering what’s up with the district, don't look further as you

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you will receive a beautifully updated, succinct summary of the district bulletin to your mail box every month.

We need to ensure the brand name, is well known to all, and TM will not be the best kept secret, therefore many new initiatives stemming from club level are given added ammunition from our team, to execute and make the most of. The YouTube channel will comprise of much learning and also monthly talk shows from renowned role models and figureheads. Oh, and by the way, we are on Instagram!

While you learn and enjoy this exciting experience, please ensure that branding and guidelines related to branding need to be carefully and meticulously adhered to. So take it upon yourself to abide by their guidelines, so we can have a healthy sustained growth of the TMI brand.

With that, it gives me great pleasure to share my thoughts. Make the most of your experience, and do help us, to help you, make a difference in your life and the people around you.

DTM Arshad Mohideen District PR Manager District 82 Toastmasters International

Web

: www.d82.org

Facebook : facebook.com/D82Toastmasters YouTube

: District 82 Toastmasters

Twitter

: twitter.com/d82tm

Issuu

: issuu.com/tmi_district82

Instagram : @d82tm

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Winning the championship although is a dream came true, it was never my goal.

I love performing and it fills me with joy to perform to a much larger audience, and my participation in the championship allowed me that, the winning was just an extra bonus.

I never thought I would win. Not that I doubted my abilities, but because the other speakers in the final gave an outstanding performance. To this day it still feel strange that I was able to win.

It is not toastmaster that creates better people, it is the person himself/herself.

I have seen people join and quit toastmaster after few months, because they are not investing much in their development.

Toastmaster is just a platform that helps you explore your speaking and leadership skills.

Earning the skills is your job.

Image credit: Toastmasters International

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Well.. not sure if this interest the reader, but I am highly allergic to pineapples, I do stand up comedy, and I have never won a table topic contest, not even in a club level.

There is no secret recipe in writing a speech, each have his/her style and that is the key point here, to be unique and not copy others. For me I always shock the audience the first 5 second with something strange (like the cigarette), then I entertain with humor for about 2 minutes, then give a dramatic story.

Have you ever been asked a table topic question, and after you answer it and went back to sit down you thought to yourself "if only I had more time, I could come up with a better answer". Well, your better answer is your next speech topic. I always drive speech topics from table topic questions that I was asked and I liked.

Fear will always be there with you no matter how advanced you get. for me my biggest fear is boring the audience,.

It will gain having talented employees who have the ability to lead and present, because they have practiced this craft in the club.

The topic of "relationships" have been overdone by many, to the point that even if you have a good message, the audience are already bored because they have heard similar topics.

I try to avoid such topics, and write something unique, something that nobody have brought before. Besides, and I agree with you, other gender might not appreciate your talk.

Your message has to be universal, everyone should like it and understand it.

I am a visual person, and I learn a lot faster from watching things, so yes YouTube is a great source for learning and teaching for me.

However, my advice to all; Always care about quality not quantity, and don't oversell your videos, if you think your videos are valuable and people need to hear it, Trust me, they will find it.

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World over, there are more corporate clubs than community clubs. Toastmasters inculcates learning-by-doing. Not by reading a book or attending a class on communication.

No other program builds learning-by-doing as well as toastmasters. And it is cheap as heck!

So Toastmasters is the obvious choice for a corporate to save cost yet impart learning to its employees.

1. I love travelling and exploring old cities with historical legacies 2. I had never delivered a public address till I joined toastmasters.

3. I'm a cricket buff and discussing cricket is a shortcut to become friends with me

I've stopped selecting 'topics'. I select incidents.

An incident from my life that I still remember (left a lasting impact).

As I re-run this incident in my mind, I let the message emerge on it's on. If i feel it's impactful, I go with it. If not, i think of another incident. This has ensured that I've never had the pressure of making up a story/character. They are all from incidents that have happened to me.

Structure starts in your head before it gets applied to the script. Unless you establish clarity of thought, clarity on paper (script) cannot exist.

Therefore I would recommend spending more time on thinking and reflection about the core message than jumping to scripting and building characters immediately.

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We are in the age of social media. I use www.facebook.com/adityaspeaks as a platform to connect with my fans and like-minded people.

Sometimes, speakers choose cheap-humor because it creates instant laughter. However, classy comedians have an array of topics they can speak on, (which may include poking the spouse). If only a narrow set of topics interest you, then you'll have to re-think the definition of humour.

YouTube is a great tool for aspiring professional speakers. However, remember that every picture/video uploaded is a representation of you. As its said, with more social media comes more responsibility smile emoticon

Image credit: Angie Key of Keystone Photography

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At the age of 15 or so I was asked to come up in front of the summer class and tell the group of 20 what I wanted to become in life. I went to stand in front and stood there silent for 5 minutes without uttering a single word.

One of the few reasons that prompted me to learn public speaking was I wanted to write books. However, I was worried about what will happen after I have my book. What if someone asks me to speak about the book, what if there is a press conference. I noticed that great authors are good speakers.

When I am stressed, I sleep, no matter how important things I need to (still do). All my ideas come in my sleep. Sleep can fix it.

This book is based on a folk tale my father told me when I was young. Years later I found out that tale represents every aspect of making you a leader others will choose to follow. I have been fortunate to work in more than 10 countries and also to work alongside people from 46 different nationalities. Later on when I became a coach I also had the amazing opportunity to work with people from 27 different nationalities 1-on-1. This gave me a great insight into people, and how ordinary folks like you and me could become leaders.

The book highlight 18 strategic areas to focus on to build you skills.

out of my frustration as a club president. Many ExCo members left the club for various reasons and I was left with my VPE and Treasurer. I used a 7 minute speech drive home the point of ownership, collaboration, influence without authority etc, which in a way helps us to increase the membership 250% and made the club a top club in our district. Later I would turn this 7min speech into a keynote and people started asking me where can I buy the book.

When these requests kept piling up, I sat down to write down. I got this reviewed by several leaders and revised the book. It was well received.

Forgetting what to say next.

I love to share what I learn. I share my life experiences - things I saw, read, heard or thought of.

Interestingly the idea of writing a book, came out Pulse | January 2016 | Page 14

I detailed 18 areas to focus in crafting a contest speech in my keynote titled “Cracking the contest code – through Strategy, Stupidity and Serendipity”. Let me share one approach here.

SEVEN STEPS TO STARDOM 1. COMMERCIAL: Write a 30 second address to the whole world (as if the whole world is listening to you) 2. SLOGAN: Write down one line you want them to remember after listening to you.

(WE CAN FIX IT) 3. STORY: Where did you learn that?

4. APPLICATION: How did you use it?

5. TRANSFORMATION: What changes did you see?

6. SEQUENCING: Say it in sequence (Organising as per chronology or to evoke curiosity) 7. FINETUNE: Multiple revisions on content and delivery based on expert feedback

Apart from obvious merits, the corporate clubs provide opportunities to bring employees together and provide avenue for collaboration, team building and fellowship.

You have to do it tastefully without offending anyone. Reception also depends on your reputation and likeability - on-stage and offstage behaviours.

You should never aim to add jokes to you speech, you only focus on telling stories in an entertaining manner. The humour needs to appear as it comes out naturally from the story – not a forced fit.

Youtube is the second largest content provider after google. Depends on what you use it for. It is a great marketing tool as it provides social proof for quality. However there are several other means of secure and embedded online communication. In the end, it depends on what you are aiming for.

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That defeats the purpose don’t you think?

What’s meant to be not known, should be not known. I’m kidding.

I used to be a musician. I played in a band for almost 4 years, and even played professionally for a few months. My dream was to be an international heavy metal artist. But then that died out because I realized music was not really what I wanted to spend my whole life doing.

compete on my own. Although I’ve got a lot of help from them, they’ve never told me that they’ll be disappointed if I lose or perform badly. So I don’t feel pressure from them.

Although there is a lot of internal pressure to perform. But hey, you work better when you are under a bit of pressure.

I have a bad memory in terms of words and symbols. It takes a lot of effort for me to remember something I read or something that’s told to me – because of this I need to constantly write down whatever I learn. I am very auditory, I’m very good at remembering anything musical.

I love travelling.

In terms of representing my country, District 82, and my family - it feels great.

But in terms of an accomplishment, to be honest, I don’t feel much of a difference. I think I’ve got a lot to improve before I’ll ever be satisfied with my skill of public speaking.

My parents have never forced me to do anything. That’s something wonderful I cherish to this day. I chose to join Toastmasters and to compete Pulse | January 2016 | Page 16

Yes I do.

Step 1 – Find a story. Every interesting and memorable story has a conflict (or a problem).

Find this and make yourself absolutely clear about it. If you can’t find a story, find a problem you’ve faced and then resolved through experience – this experience generally becomes your story.

Step 2 – Find the message. The solution to the problem is your message. Put this message under 10 words – then tell the story and make the point to as many people as possible until you are completely clear about what you want to say.

Get the audience's input aswell Step 3 – Refine it. Find mentors and work on the script until every word, gesture, and pause supports your message.

The corporate sector is in a constant battle to find leaders that can drive change - and there is only so much that a company can do to develop their employees when it comes to leadership.

Also all professionals are pressed for time, and slotting in time to develop themselves is very hard. So companies depend on trainers or consultants for this and most professionals (in this part of the world) depend on their companies to provide leadership training. But trainers are costly, and programmes that take participants through a lengthy programme that measures progress are a huge cost for most corporates.

Also today’s global economy is driven by innovation. But innovators who can’t clearly communicate, waste their ideas. Passionate professionals

professionals who can’t put something across to their team in a simple and engaging way, are wasting their potential.

So, its established that Communication and Leadership are the most crucial skills for socioeconomic success today, and Toastmasters is the best platform to develop this because we have a structured methodology to hone these skills. It’s a proven methodology, and I personally have seen so many people gain so much in their professional lives just because of a couple of habits or ideas they gained by being a Toastmaster for a couple of years. A company that invests on its employees to join the programme will never regret this.

Very true - it’s a tough thing to figure out what to speak on. But the answer will come if you try.

When I was a musician, I learned that the best song-writers, first write for the waste paper basket. That means, they write without the expectation of coming up with a great song.

After they write about 10 to 20 songs, one of them would end up a great idea. Then building upon that they create a masterpiece. Bands like Led Zeppelin, Bon Jovi and Alterbridge use this process.

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I think that can be applied to contest speaking as well. It takes you a couple of speeches to end up with one worth contesting with. This time I had at least 4 different speeches with me before I ended up with the speech that got me to the finals.

To find if the speech relates to the audience, you always need to try it out with an audience. It is only then, will you truly find out if it’s a success or not. Unfortunately something that seems good to you might not be the best for the audience. So try it out before contesting with it.

When I take the stage, I don’t have fear.

Nervousness, yes. But that’s not fear – nervousness is just the adrenaline rush before you do something important. I think I have gotten over the phase of fearing failure on stage. That’s very important if you want to be a speaker. You need to understand that 1 out of 10 times, you are bound to make a fool of yourself. It’ll only affect you if you take yourself too seriously – but if you don’t, you’ll learn to bounce back the next time.

I personally don’t like insulting people in my speeches. I don’t think speech is about making fun of others, its about delivering a message that people can benefit from. So to answer your question, I would only tackle a topic like that to make a point, and I would completely avoid jokes that insult people I care about. And like you said, its not tasteful to make fun of people like that. The only person you have permission to make fun of is yourself.

That’s why effective speeches always have the message coming from a character other than yourself. All the characters other than you are better portrayed as superior to you while you should

should always play the role of the “Student” or the “Faliure” who finally understands the lesson.

Because as Dananjaya Hettiarachchi says, you should not be the hero of your own story. If a person tries to do the opposite, and they are not skilled, they could lose most of the audience.

And though the audience might laugh, the speaker could lose the audience’s respect for him.

A speaker should try very hard to generate humor that’s neutral and doesn’t offend anyone.

You can’t play the role of a comedian who tries to make an audience laugh at any cost. There’s a clear line that one should draw there. If not, you won’t gain the respect you need to convey an important message.

At the end of the day, what you say is a reflection of who you are. The audience is also judging who you are by your speech – and not just the contents of it. So it’s important for a speaker to gain self-awareness in this aspect and not forget where he/she is. Once an audience loses respect, you have lost what you are there to deliver.

My advice would be – always deliver excellence.

It’s a great platform, and its getting crowded with content by the day. The only way you will stand out is if you focus on creating content that is exceptionally well presented. I don’t know much about posting on YouTube, but I know for certain that the universal principals of success applies to it.

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Reverberation 2015, the much awaited mid-year conference of District 82 unfolded in the historic city of Kandy, Sri Lanka over the weekend of 27th to 29th November 2015.

The conference began with the hike in Hanthana and the 6 Masters Cricket tournament.

Trailing through paths telling their own stories of beauty, endemism and adventure‌ The Hanthana hike was the first of these two events. District 82 Toastmasters packed their bags and were Hanthana bound in the wee hours of the morning on 27th November 2015.

Starting from the University of Peradeniya, the Toastmasters brave enough to take on the adventure were led by experienced guides on a quest along the Hanthana mountain range.

From the fresh mountain air to the colorful and amazing views, Hanthana Mountain Range was no doubt a memorable experience for Toastmasters!

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The ‘6Masters Cricket Encounter’ followed lunch to round up day 1 and all teams and their cheering squads gathered at the sports grounds of the University of Peradeniya to witness the battle.

The tournament was organized by Awakening Toastmasters Club and saw a team representing each Division in District 82.

The qualifier matches of the tournament began at 1.30pm, with matches taking place in parallel and had the Top four teams progressing to the semi-finals.

After 3 hours of enthusiastic dueling, the teams that progressed to the semi-finals and their opponents were Division C vs Division F and Division E vs Division H. Following two intense semi-finals, Division C & Division H progressed to the final battle.

After an intense clash between Divisions C and H, ‘The Hurricanes from Division H’ blew the competition away to walk away as winners of the 6 Masters Cricket Tournament.

In addition to the winner’s trophy, there were awards presented at the star-studded Reverberations 2015 Awards Ceremony on Day 3; TM Nuwan Rajapakse for Best Batsman, TM Chaya Wickramadara for Woman of the Tournament and TM Tharaka Ranwatta for Man of the Tournament.

With the conclusion of the tournament, the festivities of the day came to an end.

Needless to say, Reverberations 2015 had an interesting start with these 2 amazing networking events.

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Day 2 began with the Business Meeting which was held at the University of Peradeniya Arts Theatre.

The District Executive Meeting commenced first and all Division Directors and the extended teams presented their mid year performance reports. With the conclusion of the District Executive Meeting, the District Council meeting commenced where pressing matters for the coming term discussed with the Council members.

At the conclusion of the Council meeting, DTM Sastharam Ravendran announced that the next District 82 Council Meeting will be held on 27th May 2016 at the Ovation conference in Chennai.

Concluding the Business Meeting, DTM Catherine MacGillivary joining us from District 73 in Melbourne, Australia took the stage next to speak on best practices from her home District.

DTM Sastharam Ravendran presented the first copy of ‘Reflect’ the Mid Year Progress Report of District 82 to DTM MacGillivary and the first copy of the District 82 Procedure Booklet to DTM Kenneth Wong, Advisor for Region 13.

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The formal Opening Ceremony started with the flag march. Chief Guest, Ms. Radha Venkataraman - Assistant High Commissioner to India in Kandy, and Keynote Speaker TM Palaniappa Subramaniam, one of the World's Top 3 speakers in 2012 took the stage to inspire the audience.

Registrations officially opened for the Ovation 2016 Conference: all members registering at the Reverberation conference received a promotional offer on the fee and over 190 members registered during this conference weekend.

Wrapping up Day 2, all Toastmasters partied the night away at the historical Queens Hotel

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The day began with the contestants’ briefing at 8 am. Once the rest of us took our seats, Day 02 had officially begun. We saw DTM Sudash Liyanage - Program Quality Director, District 82 take the stage first and deliver an inspiring speech on challenging the status quo. DTM Kenneth Wong - Region 13 Advisor and Mrs. Gowri Rajan, the first Lady Governor of Rotary International District 3220, Sri Lanka and Maldives took the stage next to deliver educational sessions.

The prestigious Distinguished Toastmaster award was presented to DTM Shanthi Silva, DTM Ranmal Goonetilleke, DTM Bernadine Jayasinghe, DTM Pranav Vinod Kumar and DTM Rahul Shankar.

Humorous Speech contestants had the audience in stitches and proved that District 82 is home to some serious entertainers! The Evaluation Speech contestants were also out to prove their skill and the Division Champions gave tough battle to claim the District Champion title. The Mid-Year Conference concluded on a high note with an invitation to District 82 to meet again, in May 2016 in Chennai at Ovation 2016!

The Reverberation 2015 conference certainly made its mark in the historical city of Kandy.

Kudos to the Conference Chair, DTM Noorul Munawwara and the entire organising committee for a memorable conference experience!

If you missed the conference, catch up on the details through the scripts of our live blog (d82.org/blog) from the hill capital of Sri Lanka.

Humorous Speech Contest; •

1st place - Trishma Pinto

•

2nd place - Goutham V. Sharma

•

3rd place - Mario Wickramarachchi

Evaluation Speech Contest; •

1st place - A Shyamraj

•

2nd place - Kaishika Rodrigo

•

3rd place - Hugh Conan Doyle Pulse | January 2016 | Page 24

Best Division (2014/2015) Division I

Flyer of the month • Farhan Immamudeen - SLIM Toastmasters Club (July) • Sreekar Reddy - Clima VIT Toastmasters Club (August) • Himanshu Grover - Phoenix VIT Toastmasters Club (September) • Charindi Ranasignhe - COYLE Toastmasters Club (October)

Division governor of the year (2014/2015) • Rahul Shankar - Division G

Best Facebook Presence • NDB Toastmasters Club

Area governor of the year (2014/2015) • Ira Shukla

Best Newsletter Award • APIIT Toastmasters Club

Highest membership retention • Great lakes Chennai Toastmasters Club • Phoenix VIC Toastmasters Club • SLIM Toastmasters Club Areas with best retention • Area F2 • Area I1 • Area C2 Membership growth • HNB Central Region Toastmasters Club • Sabaragamuwa Toastmasters Club • Phoenix Toastmasters Club PQD awards: Maximum and dedicated participants in TLI awards • Wayamba Toastmasters Club • IESL Toastmasters Club • AATSL Toastmasters Club • TCS Chennai Chapter • Ford Chennai Toastmasters Club Area Accolades • Area I1 • Area I2 • Area G3

Best Newsletter was selected on a few criteria; • Visual appeal/ creativity • Thematic concept • Innovative thinking • Correct use of TMI branding • Educational value • Awareness building on Toastmasters events • Engagement with members Accordingly, newsletters from 12 clubs were shortlisted whose newsletters best met most, if not all of these criteria. They are, in no particular order, CLIMA VIT TMC, Voice of Colombo TMC, Brisa VIT Toastmasters, APIIT TMC, Pinnacle Advanced TMC, Awakening TMC, Nuvens TMC, TCS Maitree Champions TMC, IFS TMC, SLIM TMC, Rising Pillars TMC, and Thirdware TMC. A panel of judges voted based on the above mentioned criteria and the Top 5 newsletters in District 82 in the 1st Term were; 1. APIIT TMC – Winner 2. Awakening TMC 3. Voice of Colombo TMC 4. CLIMA TMC 5. Pinnacle TMC *TMC - Toastmasters Club

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I first thank the editorial team of District 82 for the opportunity to write in this souvenir – and be part of an effort to capture and reach out to as many members by sharing our experiences.

We always wonder what makes something successful – is there a special management strategy or super human talent involved, is it because of the circumstances or could it be because of even luck?

I would like to share with you – what my team of Area Governors and I feel about the experience of being a District Officer, serving members and ultimately learning from this experience – which was our biggest success.

We started off with very simple and straightforward focus – all our activities were focused on only – members, members and members. This helped eliminate doubts about what is important and what isn’t.

This is one of my favourite oxymorons.

(Grammar Nazis beware!) The toastmasters leadership program is structured to fit everyone’s goals and aspirations. But that doesn’t mean all of us have the same goals or aspirations – as a leader it is important to understand that. I had to understand that my five area governors Prasanna, Ranganathan, Ira, Aravindan and Gautam all were in this together to serve members and their own leadership experience – we cannot deny them of the opportunity to make best use of this by putting our

our interests before them. This opinion was uniform for everyone.

If I had to answer a member’s question about a contest, I will have to be thorough about its rules. If I needed to help with chartering a club – perhaps visiting a new corporate organization, I will need to know the guidelines and be clear. A very important rule we devotedly followed was to ensure we kept updating each other about the processes and rules that commonly are huge doubts or queries from members, guests or prospective clubs. This was key to both reviving clubs as well as converting over ten prospectives into clubs. We were never afraid to clear doubts by asking and never assumed we knew it all. Senior Leaders, members and past officers are always there to help us out.

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Rather than speeches, presentations and feedback on how a contest, conference or meeting could have gone better – we put our learning from using feedback effectively to create something members can use as an example. Want contests to be conducted well?

Conference? Speechcraft or any event? Take up the challenge, be part of such an event, lead from the front and help members understand what goes into organizing it well. Concentrate more on good training programs – rather than telling people what a good club has, provide them with the information that will make them do the same to their own. A member, officer or not, will take your training program seriously – do not doubt them!

Staying motivated to complete our own speeches, club roles and also take part in division level activities and serving clubs was a big challenge – but it did teach us that the most important foundation of the program lies in the most basic thing – attending a meeting, taking a role or giving a speech. This keeps the foundation extremely strong. We don’t end up being visiting officers that way! I still remember gently reminding my AGs and regularly sending mails to the club VPEs about what is next. Most members, even officers don’t complete their Advanced Leadership (or wonder which Series is the right one for this level). We sent out regular communications and reduced the blood pressure of VPEs, letting them know that help is always just an ask away.

This is something I enjoyed practicing. By regularly letting my AGs know what plans are on, keeping a repository of everything, from documents, expense information and division information – the level of transparency we shared helped close the communication gaps and removed assumptions.

I am stopping with these six points – there definitely is a lot more and these six are surely not the ‘fix it all’ magic points. But, when I looked back, they struck me as points we overlook during our leadership journey.

I do feel guilty for sitting here so far away from everyone when I could stay involved and continue to work with members wanting to build on your leadership and communication strengths. All I could do was come up with this article – of course, I did harass my AGs into contributing (as mentioned earlier – put members first, then yourself – even when it is as sinful as getting them to contribute to an article that you were asked to write!)

With all that guilt in my heart, flowing through my hands onto the keyboard – let me take this opportunity to add my thank you’s: I still feel both proud and at the same time in awe at being mentioned as the best division in the world and receiving a congratulatory mail from a District team half way across the world.

Though not an official Toastmasters recognition – it does show how much being recognized for something means to us – let’s ensure we always

Pulse | January 2016 | Page 27

recognize the contributions of our members at all times!

Thank you to the district team – for I learned something from each of you and hope to continue the same. Learning is wonderful, especially when it is the only thing we look for in the program.

To my club, areas, every single member I had the privilege of serving and my past Governors – I call these people ‘conspirators’ for getting me to be so deeply involved with Toastmasters. All the senior members and DTMs whom I never gave the opportunity to say no () Be it special meetings, speechcrafts or conferences – I wanted you there and you never let us down!

I learned from such members that all you need to do is just ask – I remember Sangamam 2015 when a keynote speaker did not turn up – all I had to do was ask and DTM Saro & DTM Lalitha to step in and they conducted one of the most amazing education sessions enjoyed by members who didn’t bother to ask what happened to the speaker who was supposed to come!

I have a confession to make and this is for my five AGs – I asked each of them four questions – hoping it would ease my contribution to this article. (They were - Your challenges, success, motto and favourite memories). I only use these last few lines from your contribution to give a fitting thank you to all of you: Each of you replied with beautiful answers on what you felt about each question – and it made me realise how wonderful a journey and memory this experience has been to you – You mentioned your challenges, obstacles and you always mentioned that you could turn to your Division Governor when you needed help – you believed in my leadership. Thank you for that – It is all that a leader should hear from his team.

I happily sign off and wish members an amazing reverberation at Kandy, a great season of festivals and a very happy new year!

Auf Weidersehen!

DTM Rahul Shankar (Presently in Zurich, Switzerland on work deputation) On a side note, I have managed to attend 1 toastmasters meeting so far, which was also a club humorous contest. Maybe it is a sign to move closer to contests (if you know what I mean )

Pulse | January 2016 | Page 28

My best resource for improving my Evaluation skills is my home club – Pinnacle Advanced Toastmasters Club. At every meeting, we have 3 evaluations per speaker. In addition to that, our evaluations, too, get evaluated by the General Evaluator. My club provides me plenty of insights, as well as practice, to provide meaningful feedback for effective speech.

Rayhan – my husband and fellow Toastmaster – is also a great source of ideas and suggestions for me. He always provides an honest review of my performance, helping me to improve.

It is always encouraging to be recognized for your efforts. I definitely feel blessed to receive overwhelming support from my Toastmasters friends from across the District.

My 3 quick tips are as follows: i) Be SPECIFIC in identifying the speaker’s strong points and areas of improvement. ii) Provide recommendations that can be EASILY used by the speaker in their very next speech. Iii) Don’t just tell the speaker what parts of the speech can be enhanced, DEMONSTRATE the enhancement.

“Evaluate for your win vs evaluate for the speakers’ progress”. As evaluators, first and foremost, our objective is to add maximum value to the speaker. That should always be our primary focus. At a contest, it is no different.

Concentrate majorly on providing significant feedback that is useful for the speaker. At a contest, technique (how you say it) also counts.

Your technique gets better through the study and practice of good public speaking.

I loved meeting friends from all over the District!

Our Toastmasters movement is so wonderful because of the brilliant people who make it so fun. The beautiful city of Kandy, too, provided a relaxing backdrop for the conference and excursions.

Pulse | January 2016 | Page 29

One of the best ways to improve your speaking skills is to make the most of opportunities to speak to varied audiences. As a professional compere and trainer, I have been privileged to speak to diverse groups on a frequent basis.

Over time, the accumulated speaking experience has proved to be very valuable for me… and I keep learning and growing every time I speak!

I am open to all of life’s wonderful surprises! As

long as I continue to give my best to every day, I know that life will provide for me fabulously in fun and meaningful ways. It will be thrilling for me to see how the journey unfolds in the next 5 years!

Yes, I did enjoy the fun night thoroughly! I don’t mind the Fun Night taking place before the contest. It is up to each individual contestant to decide if they would like to attend the Fun Night or not.

At the outset, I take this victory as a boost to my pronounced learning on understanding a foreign audience. The victory has offered me an unfathomable pride and has also helped me envision Toastmasters on a wide angle. I belong to Virudhunagar Toastmasters, Tamilnadu, India. We do not rejoice many clubs in our vicinity. At this point, this award has helped me draw the attention of many of our club members towards contesting and Toastmastering outside our club setting aside the factors like distance and time. This victory has built an undying trust over Mentorship in me. My speed was the predominant reason for the failure in my previous attempt at the District level. Many senior Toastmasters advised me to check my word rate. Thereby, my sincere aim this time was to lessen the word rate and help the audience follow and comprehend every word of mine. By the time I completed my speech, I realized the true value of getting mentored. My sincere thanks to all my beloved mentors, who advised me on my pace! As we all know, creating humor is a very serious business. I had thousands of questions on my sense of humor, a few years ago. This victory has given me Pulse | January 2016 | Page 30

positive answers and left a smile lit forever on my face. I feel so happy on having been able to keep the audience entertained throughout those 7 minutes. My deepest thanks to everyone who cheered and supported all the contestants throughout the event!

The moment the Humorous speech Contest was announced at our Club, I started hunting for a topic. I looked for themes that my friends and I usually choose to talk about during hang outs and I landed on one topic. All my friends had one thing in common; we were all weak in Mathematics during our school days. We have never felt tired speaking about our ignorance towards the subject and the punishments we received from the Maths teacher. Every time that we chatted about Mathematics examination and our arrears, we ended up laughing till our tummies ached. I decided that there could be no other better topic. Only the selection of topic took me time.

Once I froze my topic, it was just a compilation of all our experiences with the subject, Mathematics. To add appeal, I exaggerated the happenings and finally shared a portion of my script with my friends. I could feel the context working. Then, I presented the same to a few of my colleagues. I sensed that everyone could relate with problems, formulae, logic and calculation. I started building a firm belief on the concept and continued scripting. That resulted in my speech on the topic, “SAA, is my Maths teacher in the hall?”

were long. If one did not work, I quickly passed on to the next segment. I did not have long running descriptions to set base for any joke. In humorous speeches, the frequency of audience laughing and responding to your jokes should be high. A silence in the audience for a notable time starts diluting the effect of even some worthy jokes that come in the latter part of your speech.

I felt that the element of unpredictability added essence to humor. Unfortunately, in my case, I had chosen incidents that people could easily connect with. That removed the share of surprise in my speech. Any one could predict the climax of each of my segments. That’s when I chose to pepper humor through my words.

“Prove that (a+b) 2 =a2 + 2ab + b2 . I never said (a+b) 2 =a2 + 2ab + b2 . Why should I prove that?” Here, I clearly understood that people would not react if I just quoted that I found the formula very tough and I failed in it every time. I used the word ‘prove’ in the question as my point of attention. Gladly, the plan worked.

Another coincidence is that most of my jokes which really worked ended with a question to the audience. a. Why should I prove that? b. Why is the scale made of wood and steel when it can be made of plastic? c. Why did you say Christ was crucified on a cross when it actually looks like a plus? I think these questions helped me convey my points very strongly.

My prime idea was to present something that everyone in the audience could quickly connect with. Almost 70% of any audience would fear Mathematics. Thereby, I drafted a script with the simple incidents that would have happened in anyone’s school life.

I had partitioned my speech into around 20 short inter-connected segments. So, none of the jokes Pulse | January 2016 | Page 31

Emotions are inevitable on the stage. All of us land up with nervousness, anxiety, enthusiasm, fear or any other primal form of emotion.

Practically, we cannot remove them completely.

I simply tried to place my involvement in the audience a little above my other emotions. I kept myself busy thinking about the time, the response of the audience and my content which literally dominated the emotion of nervousness.

Everything about Reverberation 2015 was so special. To be specific, the MCs were amazing.

They kept us enthralled throughout the conference.

Innovation was oozing at every point. The Education session of TM Palaniappan Subramaniam was appealing. The session detailed all the fundamentals of a contest and also ran through some highly methodological content.

Kandy was enticing. I felt so privileged to have attended Reverberation 2015.

My God! I am not very sure how close my answers would be to expert solutions. However, let me submit my humble opinion.

1. Do not keep searching for content. Think what makes your friends laugh during your regular road side chats. That works with any crowd. Only the style of presentation may need change.

2. Do not wait for a humorous incident. Work with words and make any incident humorous.

3. Know that the level of understanding of a crowd and that of an individual are very different. A joke that did not work on a single friend may work on a group of friends.

My answer for the first question is: ‘Of course, yes!’ My answer for the second question: ‘In fact, yes!’ All the contestants felt the same.

Like every Toastmaster, I’d love to complete my Distinguished Toastmaster track in 5 years.

Virudhunagar Toastmasters and Madurai Toastmasters are the only two clubs that function down south of Tamilnadu. In the next 5 years, I would like to learn more from the senior Toastmasters and stand a mentor for many clubs in the south.

In fact, I wish to be called an Active participant in all contests organized by TMI. I’m sure that the support of District 82 will definitely place each of its members high above his/her aspirations.

Pulse | January 2016 | Page 32

July 26, 2015 will forever be a day to remember.

Why? Well, for starters, it marked 500 glorious meetings of the first club of Tamil Nadu - the Chennai Toastmasters Club (CTM). For main course, it celebrated the people who spearheaded the Toastmasters movement in the region, enabling thousands of people today to learn the nuances of effective communication and leadership. For dessert, aaah! What can I say? It celebrated the Tamil Nadu Toastmasters movement with such ĂŠlan, leaving everyone awestruck, starry-eyed, and asking for more.

After several months of planning, countless days of coordinating, and innumerable hours of rehearsing, the day had finally dawned. A grand venue was chosen to celebrate the grandiose of the occasion - the newly refurbished Rani Seethai Hall. Every single member of the club participated in some manner or the other, giving it their all to make the event a grand success. In true CTM style, the evening began with a marriage of Tamil Nadu with Toastmasters, i.e., the meeting was opened with the Sergeant at arms

Arms' address, and it was followed by the Tamizh Thai Vazhthu (sung by the adorable little Saburi Ramakrishnan), the traditional prayer song of Tamil Nadu.

The first set of emcees, TM Sivadas Balakrishnan and TM Noorain Mohammed Nadim, kick-started the main event in style. They left the audience in splits by addressing many important topics like why the evening was so special, why CTM was known as the 'Lighthouse Club of Tamil Nadu', and their choice of clothes for the evening, among other things. The Celebration Chairs of the evening, TM Sabareeswar Balakrishnan and TM Sunil Baffna, then took stage to present a report of how the club had performed in recent times, and how the club, in all its glory, ranks as the best community club in Tamil Nadu. A wonderful video collage was played to honour the occasion too. This video, besides containing nostalgic photos of CTM and its members over the years, also contained awwww-worthy messages from revered Toastmasters from around the world; to name

Pulse | January 2016 | Page 33

name a few, we had the Immediate Past International Director of Toastmasters International, DTM Deepak Menon, the 2014 World Champion of Public Speaking - TM Dananjaya Hettiarachchi, and DTM Lalitha Giridhar, the Past President and maternal 'maami' of the club.

Arun Krishnamurthy, the award-winning Indian environmentalist, was the Chief Guest of the evening. His keynote address on the state of the environment in Tamil Nadu left many people moved, and inspired to contribute to the cause of the environment.

Next up, we had the beautiful TM Ishwarya Balamurugan take the stage to enthral us all with a graceful Bharatnatyam performance.

The entertainment did not end there for we had TM Renugadevi and TM Ankur Singhi host the next section of the evening, leaving a smile on everyone's faces what with their lovable "bickering".

The "sun" and the "son" of CTM, DTM Aditya Maheswaran, was next on the agenda. He, of course, left the audience 'ooohing and aaaahing' for more, what with his education session on 'Setting the stage on fire'. He almost did it, literally, while assuredly setting our hearts on fire with his words, giving the audience critical tips and pointers on how to conquer the stage every single time.

We also had the HR Head of Infosys in South India, Sujith Kumar, edutaining the audience with his hilarious, yet wise life lessons.

The paternal and maternal fairy God-parents of CTM, DTM Abraham Zachariah and DTM Nina John, then took the stage to honour all those people who played a part in the growth of Toastmasters in the region.

This was a priceless opportunity for many new members to see and greet all those people who first planted the seeds of their beloved club.

Pulse | January 2016 | Page 34

TM Ramnath Murali and TM Ramesh Daswani played affable hosts for the rest of the evening by initiating the beginning of the contest of the day - the clash of the skit-ians. A group skit competition, the event witnessed enthusiastic participation from several clubs in Tamil Nadu.

In terms of the entertainment of the event, the climax was witnessed during a stand-up comedy act by Tamil Nadu's rib-tickling stand-up comedian, Alexander Babu. The meeting ended on a high by a one-of-a-kind UV act that was performed by the members of the club. While the event was conducted in pitch darkness, it successfully lighted everyone's hearts, leaving everyone revelling with joy and happiness on an evening well spent.

CTM's 500th meeting will stand testament to many things for many years to come. It t shows that when a group of people come together for a noble cause, then nothing can stop the event from becoming a massive success. It shows that no matter what, quality education cum entertainment events will never go out of style.

And lastly, it stands witness to how CTM is, and will always be, the lighthouse club of Tamil Nadu.

Thus, this was how CTM's 500th meeting created fireworks across Tamil Nadu on July 26. It truly sounds like a day to remember, doesn't it?

Noorain Mohammed Nadim Immediate Past President, CTM, and Assistant Division Director – Divison ‘G’

Pulse | January 2016 | Page 35

The Toastmasters Club of the Institute of Personnel Management (IPM) of Sri Lanka (a.k.a. HR House), completed a Youth Leadership Programme for a group of youngsters, guiding them in the right path in becoming future leaders. This is the second group of young leaders trained by the IPM Toastmasters in the IPM Youth Leadership Programme (YLP) – Phase II.

The most exciting segment of the evening was the “IPM Youth Best Speaker” Speech Contest which was held with the active participation of the youth leaders. The contest was conducted with adherence to the international speech contest standards and guidelines. These youth leaders showcased their public speaking skills before a distinguished gathering.

The purpose of this YLP is to build a strong foundation in the hearts and minds of the young energetic children, to groom them to become effective and ethical communicators and leaders. This was launched under the theme of “Give the best to your children”.

YLP – Phase II was coordinated by the Immediate Past President of the club, TM Nehansa Weerasinghe, current Club President TM Chathuri Dilhara Abayaratna, club Executive Committee and other club members. The programme was amply supported by the Area Director Area E4, TM Dilrukshi Rajapakse (who is also the initiator & coordinator of the YLP – Phase I).

The programme was conducted over eight consecutive Saturdays for the children of IPM stakeholders.

The members of IPM Toastmasters Club volunteered their time to mentor these young children to harness essential communication and leadership skills such as effective listening, body language, voice and vocabulary, time management, organizing, delegation and team building.

The toastmasters of IPM Toastmasters Club made another distinctive mark in their vibrant journey by forming the IPM Gavel Club.

The students who successfully completed the programme were awarded certificates in a ceremonial gathering held at HR house, in Narahenpita - Sri Lanka on 17th of October 2015.

The occasion was graced by the Chief Guest, Assistant Programme Quality Director – Sri Lanka, TM Ranishka Wimalasena (IESL Toastmasters club), Guest of Honour, President of IPM Council and the Charter President of IPM Toastmasters Club - Mr. Rohitha Amarapala, Key Note Speaker and Finalist in the World Championship of Public Speaking 2015, TM Arfath Saleem (Ralph Toastmasters Club), along with the parents of the young leaders.

Pulse | January 2016 | Page 36

The events in the District 82 Toastmasters Year were integrated into one calendar for the ease of reference of District Officers. The events are colour coded into the following groups of event types. Events are further listed by the month. Commitments of each Division for educational goals as well as conference dates were noted at the District Officer Training Programme at the beginning of the year.

Text

Timelines for Membership Awards

Text

DCP Goal related timelines

Text

Division, District and International Conferences Timelines for MOTs, DOTPS, OTPs, Emergence, Submission of Officer

Text

Lists to TMI, Timelines for Area Director’s Visits, Submission timeline for Area Director’s visit report,

Text

Text

Text

Text

Text

Text

Timelines for Membership Renewals/ Memberships dues/ Club Officer Election timelines/ PR Awards Submission Deadline Windows, Newsletter submission deadlines District Timelines – Notice of meetings, timeline for District Officer nominations, submission of reports, District newsletter etc.

Timeline to release results of District PR Awards District Council Meetings, TLI events, Documents due to be sent to world headquarters, deadlines for district officers Golden Gavel/ Golden Gavel+ related material Other points given in detail that are not marked on calendar

Pulse | January 2016 | Page 37

2016

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

Fr

Sa

Su

Mo

Tu

We

Th

Fr

Sa

Su

Mo

Tu

We

Th

Th

Fr

Sa

Su

OTP: Div. D OTP: Div. B (Chennai) Div. D (Chennai) (Remote) Div. D

January AD

Mo

RR

Tu

We

PRM

Th

Fr

Sa

Su

Mo

(Remote)

RM – SL

Tu

We

Talk Up Toastmasters Award: February DTAP Tu

RR We

Th

E-TN Fr

Sa

Su

Mo

Tu

We

Th

Fr

Sa

Su

Mo

Talk Up Toastmasters Award:

March RR Fr

Sa

Su

Mo

Tu

We

Th

Fr

Sa

Su

Mo

Tu

We

Th

We

Th

Fr

Sa

RR April Due: Membership-renewal dues FB/ Web

Su

Div. A Mo

Tu

PRM We

Th

Div. D Fr

Sa

Su

Mo

Tu

Beat the Clock Award: Notice of Business Meeting for Ovations to be circulated

May RR

CO We

Th

Fr

Sa

Su

Mo

Tu

We

Th

Fr

Su

Mo

Tu

Beat the Clock Award:

June

2016

Sa

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

31

Fr

Sa

Su

Mo

Tu

We

Th

Fr

Sa

Su

Mo

Tu

We

Th

Fr

Sa

Su

JTP/ EM SL TR/ DN

OTP: OTP: Div. G Div. I

RM – TN OTP:

(Chennai) (Chennai)

Div. E

Div. I Div. F

& Div. H Mo

Tu

We

OTP: OTP: Div. A Div. C &J

(Vellore)

Th

Fr

Sa

Su

Mo

Tu

Flyer We

Th

NL2 Fr

Sa

Su

Dues

JTP

Mo

Membership Building Programme JTP/ EM – SL

DUE

Tu

We

Th

Fr

Sa

Su

Mo

OTP Flyer

MOT Tu

We

Th

Fr

Sa

Su

Mo

Tu

We

Th

Membership Building Programme MR Fr

Deadline: Club Renewals

Flyer Sa

Su

Mo

Tu

We

Th

Fr

Sa

Su

Mo

Tu

We

Th

Fr

LE

Sa BSS

TR/ NC1

AD T 2

Div. I Div. B NC2

AD1 Su

Div. G Mo

Tu

Div. C, F, J

Div. E Div. H Flyer We

Th

Fr

Sa

Su

Mo

Tu

We

Th

Fr

Sa

Su

Mo

Tu

Membership Building Programme TR

Ovation ‘15

AGM/ GG We

Th

Fr

Sa

Su

Mo

Tu

We

Th

Fr

Sa

Su

Mo

Tu

We

DD

Th

Membership Building Programme DCP

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

31

2015

Colour Code

Details of the deadline

AD

Begin: Area Director’s Visits (2nd Term)

RR

3rd – Release results of the PR Awards – Flyer of the Month

PRM TLI – TN

5th – PRM 2nd Quarter Report Submit to District Director 8th – TLI – Chennai 2016

OTP: Div. B

9th – OTP: Division B (Chennai)

OTP: Div. D

9th – OTP: Division D (Remote)

RM – SL OTP: Div. D TR/ DN RM – TN

10th – District Review Meeting (Sri Lanka) 10th – OTP: Division D (Chennai) 15th – Monthly Treasury Report for November 2016 to District Trio 15th – Deadline to submit nominations for the next District Council 16th – District Review Meeting (Tamil Nadu)

January JTP/ EM – SL

17th – JTP/ Emergence (TLI Event) (Location TBC)

OTP: Div. E OTP: Div. H

17th – OTP: Division E 17th – OTP: Division H

OTP: Div. G

23rd – OTP: Division G (Chennai)

OTP: Div. F

24th – OTP: Division F

OTP: Div. I

23rd – OTP: Division I (Vellore 24th – OTP: Division I (Chennai)

Flyer

25th – Submission deadline for ‘Flyer of the Month’ PR Award

OTP: Div. C & J

30th – Joint OTP: Divisions C & J

OTP: Div. A

31st – OTP: Division A (2nd Term)

NL2 Talk up DTAP

31st – 2nd Deadline to submit a newsletter for Golden Gavel points (requirement is for 2 newsletters) 1st – Begin: Talk Up Toastmasters Membership Building Programme 1st – District Treasurer Audit Preparation

February RR E - TN

3rd – Release results of the PR Awards – Flyer of the Month 7th – Emergence (Chennai) Pulse | January 2016 | Page 40

2015

Colour Code JTP/EM - SL

Details of the deadline 21st – JTP/ Emergence (Colombo)

Flyer

25th – Submission deadline for ‘Flyer of the Month’ PR Award

Dues

27th – Club renewal window open (till 31st March)

JTP

28th – Judges Training to be completed for GG (minimum 3 members)/ GG+ (4 more members) points

OTP

End: Second-round club officer training for credit in the Distinguished Club Program 31st – Last to submit Club Officers’ Training Report to TMI

MOT

31st – Last day to submit MOT report

February

31st – Names of Division Contest winners to be sent to District Education office RR

3rd – Release results of the PR Awards – Flyer of the Month

Due

15th – Membership renewals of minimum 20 members for GG/ GG+ points

Flyer

25th – Submission deadline for ‘Flyer of the Month’ PR Award

Dues

31st – Deadline for Club dues renewal

March

LE

31st – Session from the Leadership Excellence Series to be conducted for GG/ GG+ points

Talk up

31st – Talk Up Toastmasters Membership Building programme closes

Due:

1st to 10th – Due: Membership-renewal dues for credit in the Distinguished Club Program/ Dead Line – Semi Annual Dues Remittance by Clubs for Distinguished Club credit

Div. A

3rd – Annual Conference: Division A

RR

3rd – Release results of the PR Awards – Flyer of the Month 1st – Deadline to submit nominations for best Facebook page contest

April

FB/ Web

Insights for best website to be submitted to the PR Team by clubs for Best Website Award

PRM

5th – PRM to submit 3rd Quarter Report to District Governor

Div. D

10th – Annual Conference: Division D 15th – Monthly Treasury Report for February 2015 to District Trio

TR/ NC1 15th – Nominations Committee Report to District Director Pulse | January 2016 | Page 41

2015

Colour Code

Details of the deadline

AD2

15th – Area Directors’ Club visit report to be submitted to District Director

Div. I

16th – Annual Conference: Division I

Div. G

17th – Annual Conference: Division G (Sangamam 2016)

Div. B

17th – Annual Conference: Division B (Separate conference)

NC2

20th – District Nominating Committee’s report to be circulated to the District Council

Div. E

23rd – Annual Conference: Division E

Div. H

24th – Annual Conference: Division H

Flyer

25th – Submission deadline for ‘Flyer of the Month’ PR Award

BSS

30th – Session from the Better Speaker Series to be conducted for GG+ Points

AD2

30th – Deadline to submit Area Directors’ club visit report to TMI

April

DCP10 T

Beat the Clock:

30th – Deadlines to submit the Club ‘Tabloid’ for Golden Gavel Plus points (Details will be disclosed at the OTP) Begin: Beat the Clock Membership Award (May 1 to June 30)

RR

3rd – Release results of the PR Awards – Flyer of the Month

CO

8th – Cutoff date to submit Winner Notification forms from each Division

Flyer

May

30th – Clubs to achieve 10 DCP Points for GG/ GG+ Points

GG AGM Notice of…

TR Ovation ‘15

25th – Submission deadline for ‘Flyer of the Month’ PR Award 15th – Deadline for Golden Gavel/ Golden Gavel + 15th – Clubs to conduct AGM (annual and semiannual clubs) and submit Officer List for GG/ GG+ points 15th – Notice of Business Meeting for Ovations to be circulated 15th – Deadline to submit the Quarterly Treasurer’s Report for the period of 1st July – 31st March to TMI 28th – 29th: Ovation 2015 Conference Pulse | January 2016 | Page 42

2015

Colour Code

Details of the deadline 31st – District Deadlines: Late date: Area Directors’ visit report to TMI

May

31st – District Deadlines: New District Officers List to reach WHQ

DD

31st – District Deadlines: Proxies for International Convention to reach District Director 30th – End: Beat the Clock Award (May 1 to June 30)

Beat the Clock

June DCP

Division Conference Dates

Division OTP Dates (2nd term)

End: DCP Programmes

Div. A

•

Annual Conference - 3rd April

Div. B

•

Annual Conference: 17th April

Div. C

•

Joint Annual Conference - 30th April

Div. D

•

Annual Conference – 10th April

Div. E

•

Annual conference – 23rd April

Div. F

• • •

27th February – All club contests to be completed for 2nd term 15th March – All Area contests to be completed for 2nd term Joint Annual Conference - 30th April

Div. G

•

Annual Conference – 17th April (at PSG Tech, 9am to 5pm)

Div. H

•

Annual Conference - 24th April

Div. I

•

Annual Conference – 16th April (Separate conference)

Div. J

•

Joint Annual Conference - 30th April

Div. A

•

OTP - OTP – Sunday, 31st January 2016

Div. B

•

OTP – 9th January (Chennai)

Div. C

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Joint OTP – 30th January

Div. D

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OTP – 9th January (Division D – Remote) OTP – 10th January (Division D – Chennai)

Div. E

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OTP – 17th January

Div. F

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OTP – 24th January

Div. G

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OTP – 23rd January (at IITM Research Park, 9am to 1pm)

Div. H

•

OTP – 17th January (Kurunegala)

Div. I

•

OTP – 23rd January (Vellore), 24th January (Chennai)

Div. J

•

Joint OTP – 30th January Pulse | January 2016 | Page 43

It’s been 2 months since we launched the District 82 Blog.

In that short span of time we have published 24 articles from 17 contributors across District 82.

Collectively, these articles have been amassed over 1000 views. This gives us a clear picture of how interesting every club in District 82 is with their own unique stories and perspectives.

If your club is hosting any events whether it be a themed joint meeting between 2 clubs or a grand event, feel free to call us. We’d be happy to give our support in making your event famous and successful.

If you or your fellow members would like to write to us, by all means send us your articles. For any queries related to the blog you can spam us at d82blog@gmail.com

Going forward, we will bring you more content on the blog that is educational, inspirational and interesting. If you love our articles then consider sharing it with your fellow club members so that they may also benefit.

Pulse | January 2016 | Page 44

TM Mazin Hussain District Blog Master District 82 Toastmasters International

Much has happened in the last 6 months; Conclusion of the semiannual conference weekend was met with the news of flooding in Chennai which even left some of our Toastmasters heading back to Tamil Nadu stranded at the airport. When the going gets tough, the tough get going and in true Toastmaster spirit, our toastmasters in Tamil Nadu joined forces to help flood victims.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and we are truly grateful that everyone is safe and sound again.

On a more global scale, the Millennium Development Goals met its milestone year and the Sustainable Development Goals were launched across the world: SDGs are 17 aspirational goals with 169 targets which form the global agenda for 2030 for sustainable development. These goals and targets are expected to ‘Transform our World’ by guiding global leaders in all sectors on priorities.

Toastmasters also have goals, targets and guidelines to help us achieve them. Going the extra mile, we also have a network of mentors, advisors and evaluators who will help us along and ensure that we make the best choices in our journey.

As WCPS 2015 Mohammed Qahtani said in his interview (page 10) “Toastmasters is a platform that helps you explore your speaking and leadership skills. Earning the skills is your job.” The value of the Toastmasters programme will be in vain unless we explore those opportunities and different avenues for growth.

Make it a resolution this new year to invest in your development; invest your time; invest your effort; invest your commitment.

Embrace everything that Toastmasters has to offer. The personal and professional growth you achieve, the friends you make and the experience you gain will be rewards more precious than the year end bonus!

TM Yasangi Randeni District Newsletter Editor & TM Hingston Lovell District Co – Newsletter Editor District 82 Toastmasters International