South Main Monthly

Vol. 1 No. 5 South Main Speakers, District 56, Club 8609 May 2007

The mission of the Toastmasters club is to provide a mutually

supportive and positive learning environment in which every
member has the opportunity to develop communication and
leadership skills, which in turn foster self-confidence and
personal growth.

IN THIS ISSUE:

*President's Corner President’s

*Anniversaries and Milestones
Wei Zhang
Walter Caro, Biru Yang, Sam Tsen
Vivek Rajan
*Calendar of Events
Education Session: Bill Gove’s Speech
Spring Picnic & Officer Elections
*Riddle Me This! by Renay Jacob
*New Member Spotlight
Ranjith Poduval
*Features
“Nerf Guns and Stress Relief” by Vivek Rajan
“My Reflections on a Tall Tale Miracle" by Vivian Li
“The Human Mind” by Ranjith Poduval
*Ask the Master
How do you get through the table topics?
The South Main Monthly is a monthly publication of the South
Main Speakers Toastmasters club. We meet every Sunday at
1:30 p.m. in 10305 South Main Street (Houston Chinese
Church), Room 411. For more information, please visit our
website at: http://groups.msn.com/southmainspeakers
If you have any comments, contributions, or suggestions
concerning this or future issues, please send them to
floatingcomma@gmail.com. Thank you for reading!
Corner
Fun and Games with the South Main Speakers!
By Annie M. Ballatore, CTM
Are you ready for a wonderful afternoon of great
fun? Would you like to participate in the excitement of
delicious food, excellent entertainment and fantastic
company? Then mark your calendar! On May 20th, in
steps with our traditions, we will host our spring picnic in
Hermann Park. As always, we will have a stimulating
meeting with inspiring speeches, motivating evaluations
and a scintillating Table Topics session. Of course, we
will have games: a great opportunity to laugh and bond
together. Please invite your families, coworkers and
friends to this delightful event.
As it is also time to pass the baton, the club officer
elections will be held at the picnic. Reflecting upon the
past year, this thought of William Pollard comes to my
mind: "It is the responsibility of leadership to provide
opportunity, and the responsibility of individuals to
contribute." The opportunity is here for all of you to
seize. Please step forward and decide to contribute to the
club leadership serving either as a club officer or as a
support group for the elected officers. Together you will
make your club shine.

-Vivian Li, Editor

 Anniversaries & Milestones
• Fond farewell to Wei Zhang, who
will be leaving to go back to
Beijing near the end of the month.
Goodbye and good luck!
• Congratulations to Walter Caro,
Biru Yang, CTM, and Sam Tsen,
CTM, who celebrate their first year
anniversary with South Main
Speakers this month!
• Happy birthday to Vivek Rajan,
who will celebrate his birthday this
month on the 23rd!
Riddle Me This!
Contributed by Renay Jacob,
ATM-B
Think of a five-letter word starting
with T. It's plural. Add an S at the
end, and you'll get a six-letter
word that is also plural. What
words are these? The answer can
be found at the end.
May
May 6: Education Session on Bill Gove
Bill Gove (1912-2001) was known around the
world as the father of professional speaking.
Mr. Gove was the first President of the
National Speakers Association and winner of
every major speaking award in the industry,
including Toastmaster Internationals Golden
Gavel Award. The Golden Gavel Award is
given annually at the TM International
Convention. It honors a distinguished
individual in the fields of communication and
leadership.
At this meeting we will view Bill Gove's
Golden Gavel acceptance speech session
followed by a related Table Topics session
May 20: Spring Picnic and Officer Elections
Come enjoy the nice weather at our annual
Spring Picnic from 1-4 p.m. and located at
Hermann Park’s Bayou Parkland Pavilion,
6520 Almeda, Houston, TX 77021. Officer
elections for the next term will also be held at
the picnic, so get more involved by becoming
an officer!
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 New Member Spotlight
Please give a warm welcome to our newest member, Ranjith
Poduval! Ranjith gave his ice breaker speech shortly after he joined
last month and shared with us his early life in Delhi, then in Texas
A&M where he pursued his masters degree in mechanical engineering,
and now in Houston working. Ranjith has already proven to be a
valued and active member of South Main Speakers!

started playing bullseye with the nerf gun.

By the way, that is a nice way to take a
break. After excessive use of the gun, the
stickiness of the bullets started to fade off
and the bullets refused to stick to the board.
To get the stickiness back, one of my
coworkers started licking the tips of the
bullets. Yuck! Disgusting! It reminded me
Nerf Guns and Stress Relief of Capt. JR’s speech on “Cold War” a few
by Vivek Rajan weeks back.

With increasing
The package read: "Ages 8 & up." I fit into popularity of the
that category, so I picked up the package gun, a colleague
from Toys-R-Us. It was a nerf gun with bought two more
bullets made out of foam, tipped with a nerf guns. Now
rubber dart so that the bullets stuck to with three guns
smooth surfaces. I bought the nerf gun and all of us were
took it to work to have some fun, especially playing nerf war.
since everyone at work seemed a little Nerf wars were
stressed of late. I kept the nerf gun on my the most entertaining of all the games we
desk, and I would occasionally surprise my played - hiding behind tables, chairs and
colleagues by shooting at them when they cabinets to avoid getting killed. The wars
entered my office. Though the gun fired at didn’t last more than 3 to 4 minutes, and it
pretty high speeds, it didn’t hurt anyone as was just a great way for everyone to release
the bullets were made out of foam. It was their stress. After all, it doesn’t hurt to go
fun! postal with nerf guns!

Soon enough the nerf gun started to get

popular, and it attracted more people to ************
come to my office and play with it. We even
drew a dart board on the whiteboard and

South Main Monthly 3


My Reflections on a Tall Tale Miracle
by Vivian Li
It was luck I tell you. Because of a certain
President and VP-Education who refused to
let me off the hook, I was expected to give a
tall tale at our club’s contest in February.
What have I got myself into!? Writing a tall
tale is hard enough, much less having to
deliver it. After racking my brain for days
for a tall tale—watching TV, reading the
papers, and eating ice-cream for
inspiration/procrastination—I finally came
up with a tall tale in the nick of time.
Since tall tales are always based on a
problem that is outrageously solved, I
googled for answers to the age-old question:
where do all the missing socks go? There
were many different answers out there, but
one of them caught my eye: Just blame it on
the Communists! Communists and
disappearing socks. Sounds silly, but I
could always do worse.
And then the rest is a blur. Somehow I
fumbled my way through the club level, then
area, then division, and finally last Friday
found myself on the stage of district. And at
each step I had the pleasure of hearing great
speeches given by powerful speakers not
only in tall tales, but also in international
speeches. There were hilarious speeches,
such as one about a shampoo that allows you
to time travel, and inspirational speeches,
such as one advising people to ‘go get a
life.’ And I learned a lot from the passion,
creativity, and special “magic moments” in
all of them.
What probably buoyed me all the way was
my content. It’s just a fact, tall tales are
hard to spin and I luckily spun a pretty good
one. And the mismatched socks was a
clever touch (Thanks Michael!). I practiced
my speech on the drive to work, in the
shower, and as I lied in bed to go to sleep till
I could give it…well, in my sleep. Once I
knew the speech so well, I could refine the
plot, the props, and the gestures, and say it
without any distracting ums and ahs. I never
worked that much on any speech or
presentation, and it didn’t get to be a chore
as much as I thought, but a joy.
Especially at district though, I realized that
content doesn’t make the full package. The
other tall tale speakers spun their tall tales
perfectly, but also animated them superbly
with skills we learn just from the basic
manual, such as vocal variety and gestures.
One speaker gestured grandly using almost
the whole stage to paint his picture of a
dusty Western town, while another one
assumed the voices of her frightened boss
and her conniving persona. It was gratifying
to see the amazing results of speakers who
expand and hone the skills taught in
Toastmasters to create rich and memorable
speeches.
So like I said, it was luck that I got as far as
I did. But was it the auspicious alignment of
the stars? Or maybe it was my lucky white
shirt and black pants that became my speech
giving “uniform.” Quite frankly, it could
have been a lot of things, but for sure it was
the very generous support of my fellow
South Main Speakers Toastmasters and the
wonderful new people I met along the way
who gave a strange girl in need of a new
wardrobe warm advice and encouragement.
I was also definitely lucky to have this
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opportunity to hear a variety of speeches and
to meet the larger Toastmasters family
beyond South Main.
I encourage each and every one of you to
participate in the contests when the next
ones come. You might be pleasantly
surprised too, have fun, and will definitely
learn a lot from the experience.
************
The Human Mind
by Ranjith Poduval
Have you ever paused for a minute and
wondered what actually distinguishes us
from our evolutionary cousins, what
prompted us to leave the evolutionary
habitats of our predecessors to move out of
their innate habitats to greener pastures?
Why the human race is so different from any
other known species in the known world?
The answer to all these questions has to be
one—the human mind. It’s not just that we
are capable to have superior and inquisitive
thoughts and that we are capable of not just
asking the questions, and also finding the
answers. But another concept of awareness
which distinguishes us from our peers in the
animal kingdom is that we are not just
capable of thinking, but also are capable of
thinking about what we are thinking and
recognize if it is wrong and correct it, or in
simpler words become aware of it. There is
something evolution has built in our brains
called consciousness, which is not just
external but in a deep sense internal too.
We are conscious of not just our
surroundings but also our thoughts which is
what enables us to label our thoughts as
good or bad, and why we can instantly
realize if a thought is unethical or wrong. It
is this deep rooted algorithm which is called
awareness, consciousness, or in some
religions human soul.
This is a very powerful tool for human
development because it enables us to put the
spotlight onto ourselves. Many of us who
are reading this are here because we
" realized " we need to better ourselves in
many ways, public speaking being one. Is it
not wonderful that we don’t need anyone to
point out our flaws because we "know" them
somehow and the realization of this natural
awesome mechanism can do wonders for
personal development. All the answers we
are searching for comes from inside of us
somewhere when we become aware of this
magnificent gift nature has bestowed on us.
So if any of you think you are just your
thoughts or your personality, think again.
You are much more and wake up to this fact.
Go deep within, there is infinity there.
Amen.
************
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 can be challenging, but there is a good deal
of pleasure and satisfaction in rising to a
challenge and succeeding.
Some advice on getting started:
Ask the Master
Dear Master,
I dread Table Topics. And I don’t think I’m
alone. I never felt a minute that lasted so
long until I was asked to give my first table
topic speech ever in Toastmasters. Do you
have any tips on how to ease the table topics
jitters and make the butterflies in my
stomach fly away with the time?
—Table Topics Sufferer
Dear Table Topics,
Table topics is a part of the Toastmasters
meeting that fills some members, like
yourself, with fear; other people come to the
meeting just to participate in table topics.
Extemporaneous speaking. It happens all
day long. Chat at the water cooler. Meet a
friend while standing in line. Answer the
boss' unexpected question about your
project. All of these are just practice for
table topics and the beneficiaries of table
topic practice. There's nothing to fear from
these chance daily discussions and there's
nothing to fear from table topics either.
Guests are usually given their first exposure
to Toastmasters by delivering a table topics
speech. Back before I joined Toastmasters
and I was visiting a club I occasionally was
called on to do table topics. Yes, table topics
1. Smile! It will make you feel good,
more confident and more relaxed. It
also pleases the audience.
2. Remember the word of the day and
use it in the first sentence you say. If
you postpone it you may well forget
to use it at all. If you use it in the
first sentence, even if it's a sentence
you planned before you heard the
topic, everyone will be so impressed
that they will respect the rest of the
topic response no matter what you
say. And once you have the first
sentence out you will have something
to build on and momentum to keep
you going.
3. If your mind is blank at the
beginning of table topics then ask the
topic master to repeat the question.
Use this time to think of an answer
or at least an opening line to two.
This will let you appear careful and
precise to your audience.
4. If you have nothing to say then say
nothing. If you're not done then be
silent and think. This will appear to
be a dramatic pause. It appears sage
as you let your audience digest what
you've already said. And it keeps
from offending the Ah-Counter,
better silence (except in radio) than
Ahs!
5. If you need a little more time to think
of a reply then greet your audience:
"Mr/Ms Topic master, fellow
toastmasters, and guests." There,
you've politely introduced yourself
and bought yourself another 10
seconds to think. Just make sure this
is a Toastmasters meeting before
South Main Monthly 6
 using the exact wording described, it you've been bothered by it
would not go over well if you are since then, and NOW you
addressing the U.N. General want to respond to it.
Assembly!
6. Now we're down to the emergency Do not fear the Toastmaster club as an
techniques. audience. Unlike most audiences, every
o If you can't talk about the member has been the speaker at some time,
topic, maybe you can talk and expects to be again. This is one of the
about how hard it is to talk most receptive audiences you can find. Any
about the topic! It's better to comments will be constructive advice on
address the topic, but if you how to do better next time.
can't then go off on a tangent:
tell a story related to it,
describe how it affects you,
tell a joke that relates (if you
know a clean one that is
appropriate to the topic).
o You may be able to request a
different topic. Some clubs
and topic masters (most
actually) will have no
objection to giving an
alternate. Remember they've
been on the receiving end of
hard topics too.
o Finally, if all else fails: Talk
about something else. This is
to be avoided unless the topic
is really impossible. You can
just announce that you've
decided that you really must
address someone else's topic
because it is so pertinent to
you. Or say you have
something important to you
that you want tell the group.
Some topic masters will
threaten to give you the same
topic next meeting (so you
should work out a response
before then, but that gives
you plenty of time to work out
a response). You might even
be able to use this to your
advantage: Say that you once Answer to riddle:
failed to respond to a topic, These and Theses

South Main Monthly 7