Grandiose Speeches

These Table Topics prompted some over-the-top speeches. Try them at your next meeting!

• You've won the Nobel Peace Prize this year. Amazing! How did you achieve this recognition?
  
• It's a sunny May day and you're feeling warm in your academic robe. You've just been awarded an honorary PhD at [prestigious university]. What will you say to the eager students, proud parents, and bored faculty in your Commencement address?
  
• You've just been exonerated for a major crime. Relieved, you address the court one last time. What do you say?
  
• Incredibly, your startup company grew to $10 million in revenues and 20 employees in one year. Tell the interviewer from Fast Company magazine how you did it.
  
• The applause is deafening, the audience glittering, the theater magnificent. You've just won an Oscar at the Academy Awards. Let's hear your acceptance speech!
  
• It's been an unbelievable journey. But, as you look over the record crowds at the National Mall, you cannot wait to begin your Inauguration speech.
  
• You're on a T.V. talk show promoting your surprise best-seller. "What was your book about?" the host asks eagerly, leaning forward.
  
• It's your funeral. Sorry, you're dead, but the person who knows you the best gives your eulogy. What do they say?

I paired this with a slideshow depicting the actual audiences a presenter would see at the above events. Perhaps it stimulated the participants, because this Table Topics session was a hit! 

Silences can be as Strong as Speech

Stop and listen -- on the Windsor Trail near Santa Fe Ski basin

An absorbing meditation on listening, and the importance of silence: an interview with Acoustic Ecologist Gordon Hempton

Andrews and Ralph Elected

MyChelle Andrews and Stephen Ralph, both of Albuquerque, were elected to district-level offices on May 18, 2019, during the District 23 Toastmasters 2019 conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

MyChelle Andrews

The members of District 23 Toastmasters elected Andrews, a data architect for the City of Albuquerque, to the role of Program Quality Director for the 2019-2020 Toastmasters year. Andrews has previously served as an Area and Division Director. In addition to helping found the CitySpeakers club at the City of Albuquerque offices, she frequently guides the Toastmasters club officer training programs for Albuquerque and northern New Mexico. The latter feeds directly into her role as Program Quality Director where she will be leading the training efforts across the district.

"I am so excited, but more importantly honored, to serve the district as the 2019-2020 Program Quality Director," said Andrews. "This year my focus is on the members. How can Toastmasters help our members have success in their personal and professional lives, as well as, in Toastmasters?"

She believes the approach to achieve this goal can be accomplished through three steps:

1. Ask the members what their goals are and why they joined Toastmasters. When a club understands what it’s members need, they are better equipped to help them achieve their goals.
2. Provide educational opportunities to ensure club officers and district leaders have the skills necessary to fully their obligations to the club and it’s members. And that all members who attend educational events take away something that will help them move closer to their goals.
3. Encourage members to “Do one task and do it well." When members focus on one role, one office, one leadership opportunity, the organization will thrive. So often we think, well no one else will want to do it, or no one else has volunteered so I will just go ahead and take on yet another task. 

"I know I am guilty of this, but what I have found is, when members understand what the task is, that they will have guidance from a mentor, and are allowed to think about it, they are very likely to step up. We have to allow members the opportunity to grow."

Stephen Ralph

Ralph, an assistant District Attorney with the Bernalillo County District Attorney's office, received the nomination and was elected to the position of Division Director for the northern division of District 23. 

Ralph began membership in Toastmasters in the Hi-Plains club in Clovis, New Mexico. Upon moving to Albuquerque, he stepped into an Area Director role for the district. In this position, he worked directly with four clubs - Marketing Masters, Off-the-Cuff, Sandia Lite, and Tumbleweeds - to help ensure their success. He also assisted with officer training and the running of contests. 

Graduating from the University of New Mexico with both a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and a Juris Doctorate of Law, Ralph brings a wealth of knowledge to the role of Division Director.