Being a Toastmasters member allows one to improve both a person's communication and leadership skills. It's not just paying up the membership fees that one will automatically gain both of that. We have to earn those skills through practice, and practice naturally takes time.

The reason behind my lack of posting is because of the recent "Speech Contest" season. This time around, all TM Clubs are having their Humorous and Evaluation Contests. These are 2 separate contests....one is to make the audience laugh for 5 ~ 7 minutes, while the other is to try Evaluating someone else without humiliating them.

As I wasn't prepared to be competing, I volunteered to organize the event for my club. It's a win-win situation for me, as:-
1) I've done the same role before last February, hence all the materials are with me
2) I wanted to be evaluated for my Leadership manual
3) Someone needs to take up that role so that other members can join the competition

The program went on smoothly, and I did managed to found some hidden talents some "non-active" members have. Also, having help from other clubs does help at the very last minute. So, as they helped me complete one of my Leadership assignments, I return the favour twice by being a test speaker TWICE in the same week. Huh? Test speakers are the "scape goat" for the Evaluating Contestants to compete on...see who gives the best evaluation.

So that's the Assignment 6 of my Competent communicator manual. Despite receiving a lot of positive feedbacks...being evaluated by 10 people who I hardly hear from is some pressure. So I rested for a few weeks until I receive the video of me speaking in Vistana. I did so badly as compared to other speakers....there's still a long way for me to improve myself before I can actually be speaking in front of an audience who's actually paying to hear me speak. Let's see how long I'll take to achieve that.

Status: Completed helping up in Area contests. Surprisingly both contestants from my club managed to win the Area contest and training hard for the Division level. Can't wait to see them SOAR in the coming contest next month.

Labels: Toastmasters