1. Be A Winner!
2. Pins, Medals, Elections & Honors
3. Stop the Robbers!
4. The Mouse Trap
5. Death, Taxes, or Public Speaking?
6. Back to Columbus-Whitehall Toastmasters Website

Be A Winner! Speech Contests: This is where everyone wins!!!! Have you given more than five speeches?? Did you know that now you can compete to become the World Champion Speaker? Yes, YOU! Did you know that our club has produced speech winners at the highest levels? Did you know that our club has produced professional, motivational speakers? Yes, it starts right here at the club! Everyone has 4 shots at glory! Two contests are held each year, The Humorous and Table Topics Speech Contest and the International Speech and Evaluation contest! Our congratulations to David Crowder! The competition at the District Spring conference was the toughest I have seen in years and David slugged it out with the likes of a former International Director and several other high level competitors! This is the first time that David has made it all the way to the District level competition!!! Again, Congratulations, David, for a job well done!! - Charley Ashley

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Pins, Medals, Elections & Honors Toastmasters! If there's any one meeting that you need to make, it's the one coming up on Tuesday, June 14th at 7:30 PM. At that time, we'll have special awards for those members who have completed at least five speeches. Another outstanding event during this meeting is election of Club Officers for 2005-2006. Anyone who is nominated can give a special occasions speech at that time and get credit for it. Charley will send an advanced manual outlining this speech for all who are interested. He'll also be sending out a special message regarding this speech opportunity. Plan now to join in the activities for a unique meeting!

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Stop The Robbers! Did you miss my speech about The Robbers a few months ago? We've got to stop The Robbers! Who are The Robbers? Your friends and family members! You see, they have been stealing our time! With the advent of the Internet and emails, we suddenly became very productive. We learned to quickly send messages, photos, and documents anywhere in the world. BUT because email was free and so convenient, it was subject to much abuse. Fortunately there is now software that will help protect us from some of the abuse. What we can't ward off are the fake warnings that are sent to us unknowingly by our friends and family. These fakes are a waste of our time! How can you protect yourself from being a pawn in someone's sick joke? First, check your emails to see if you can answer "yes" to most of these questions: Was the text really written by someone other than the person who sent it to you? Does it actually say something like "This is not a hoax" or "This is not an urban legend."? Does it use techniques to over-emphasize -- like using LOTS of UPPERCASE letters and LOTS of exclamation points!!!!! Does it seem to give extremely important information that makes you wonder why you've never heard of it before? Does it have any inconsistencies or go against common sense? Does it fail to give website links, valid phone numbers, or other ways to validate its claims? Does the email tell you to "Forward this to everyone you know." ? I've started a personal campaign that when I get a suspicious email, I will check it out on one of the email hoax websites to see if it appears. Almost always it does. If the email doesn't appear on this site, I check the website of the companies or individuals that are referenced. These sites can easily be found by doing a search on Google or some other search engine. If these websites don't say anything about the message in the email, then it's probably not true. Once I determine that an email is a hoax, I send it back to the sender with a nice cherry note explaining that I always check out suspicious emails. I also send them one or two links proving that this email is a hoax. So join in stopping these robbers! Here are some websites that I hope you will check the next time you get one of these suspicious emails: http://www.truthorfiction.com http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/hoax.html http://www.snopes.com http://www.hoax-slayer.com/latest-information.html http://www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/hoaxes/hoax.asp http://vil.nai.com/vil/hoaxes.asp -Maria Scott

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The Mouse Trap A mouse looked through the crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife open a package. "What food might this contain?" He was devastated to discover it was a mousetrap. Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse proclaimed the warning. "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!" The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said, "Mr. Mouse, I can tell this is a grave concern to you, but it is of no consequence to me. I cannot be bothered by it." The mouse turned to the pig and told him, "There is a mousetrap in the house." The pig sympathized, but said, "I am so very sorry, Mr. Mouse, but there is nothing I can do about it but pray.  Be assured you are in my prayers." The mouse turned to the cow. She said, "Wow, Mr. Mouse. I'm sorry for you, but it's no skin off my nose." So, the mouse returned to the house, head down and dejected, to face the farmer's mousetrap alone. That very night a sound was heard throughout the house -- like the sound of a mousetrap catching its prey. The farmer's wife rushed to see what was caught. In the darkness, she did not see it was a venomous snake whose tail the trap had caught. The snake bit the farmer's wife. The farmer rushed her to the hospital, and she returned home with a fever. Everyone knows you treat a fever with fresh chicken soup, so the farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard for the soup's main ingredient. But his wife's sickness continued, so friends and neighbors came to sit with her around the clock. To feed them, the farmer butchered the pig. The farmer's wife did not get well; she died. So many people came for her funeral, the farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide enough meat for all of them. So, the next time you hear someone is facing a problem and think it doesn't concern you, remember -- when one of us is threatened, we are all at risk. We are all involved in this journey called life. We must keep an eye out for one another and make an extra effort to encourage one another. EACH OF US IS A VITAL THREAD IN ANOTHER PERSON'S TAPESTRY; OUR LIVES ARE WOVEN TOGETHER FOR A REASON. - Dana Rogers

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Death, Taxes, or Public Speaking? Death, Taxes, or Public Speaking ... which one do you fear the most? Most would say public and/or impromptu speaking. Let's say you are being interviewed for that dream job. You have the training, experience and technical understanding of the job. The interviewer asks you, "How's the weather in Bali?" Can you answer with poise and give an acceptable response? Or will your deodorant stop working and will panic set in? What if you are asked to speak at a class reunion? How about a tribute at the funeral of a family member or friend? Could you handle it? All of these skills can be learned at Toastmasters. Each Toastmaster Club is designed to help you develop leadership and comunication skills in a supportive environment, fostering self-confidence and personal growth. This self-paced program has each project outlined for you. All you need to do is prepare the script on any subject you're interested in. On May 21st, I attended the District 40 Conference and workshops. There were speakers and Toastmasters from Ohio, West Virginia and Kentucky. I learned an acronym for goal-setting... SMART:       SPECIFIC MEASURABLE ACHIEVABLE REALISTIC TIME-BOUND On the following Monday, I was the keynote speaker for a middle school tutorial graduation. Even though I was asked on Sunday night to stand in for the original speaker, I was able to give the speech using cardboard props that spelled out SMART goals. Our Columbus-Whitehall Club meets on the second and fourth Thursdays of each month at 7:30 PM. It's a fun, affordable way to improve your communications skills. If you're not one of our members, call me -- Chuck Scott, V.P. of Membership -- at 614.236.3100, or email me at vpmembership@whitehall-toastmasters.org.

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