DIABLO TOASTMASTERS CLUB 598 NEWSLETTER

“WHAT’S GREAT IN 598”

The Diablo Toastmasters Club

is a community Toastmasters

Club that meets every Thurs-

day at 7 PM at Denny’s Res-

taurant, 1313 Willow Pass Rd.,

Concord, CA.

Volume 19, Number 10 October, 2016

The mission of a Toastmasters

Club is to provide a mutually sup-

portive and positive learning envi-

ronment in which every member

has the opportunity to develop

communication and leadership

skills, which in turn foster self-

confidence and personal growth.

Publisher: Cindy Johnson, CC, ALB, President

Editor: John Peterson, ACG, ALB

DISTRICT 57 FALL CONFERENCE

Put this on your calendar! The District 57 Fall

Conference is scheduled for Saturday, Novem-

ber 5th at the San Ramon Conference Center,

3301 Crow Canyon Rd, San Ramon. This is

where the winners of the Humorous Speech and

Evaluation contests from all eight Divisions within

the District will compete for the D57 Champion-

ship. For all you new members of our club,

please do yourself a favor and attend this confer-

ence! You’ll really see what Toastmasters can

do for you if you work at it!!

Early-Bird registration for the conference is avail-

able on the District’s website, www.d57th.org, for

only $85 through October 21st, so sign up now!

SAVE THE DATE!

Plans are underway for a Fall Party for Diablo

598, with Saturday, November 12th being the

date selected. Mark the date now, and watch

this space for further news!

CONCORD CHAMBER YO-PRO’S EVENT

Instead of their usual monthly mixer, the Concord

Chamber of Commerce “Yo-Pro’s” will be gather-

ing at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Concord from 1

to 4 P.M. on Saturday, October 22nd, for the an-

nual Chamber-sponsored “Bay Area Beer & Slid-

er Fest.” Join our Yo-Pro’s representative Ross

Carter for this fun event, featuring samples from

a variety of local restaurants and breweries! De-

tails on page 5 and at www.beersliderfest.com.

Club Continues Collecting

District Award Ribbons Diablo 598 has been one of the premier Toast-

masters clubs in the East Bay since its founding in

April of 1948, and a look at a pair of our more re-

cent club banners tells the reason why!

At left are photos of two banners. The upper one

is taken from our club website,

now being updated, and goes

back to the early days of our

location at the now-closed Siz-

zler’s Restaurant on Willow

Pass Road. The lower one was

taken at the end of last month,

hanging on the wall at Denny’s.

What a difference!!

During the time span of perhaps 10 years between

the two photos, the number of award ribbons at-

tached to them has at least doubled if not more!

“President’s Distinguished Club”

banners have been added for

almost every year, and they now

date from the earliest in 1994 to

the most recent in 2016. Other

ribbons mark other awards such

as “Home Club of the District

Governor” (Ashley Harkness in

2008), “Home Club of the Divi-

sion Director” (currently Dilek Alkaya), and

“Home Club of the Area Director” (currently Ann

Hartwig).

We’ve always known we belong to an outstanding

club, but it’s nice to have visual proof of it also!

Not so long ago, the Diablo 598 agenda always

included regular training. Toastmasters Interna-

tional gave each club three sets of “canned and

ready to go” training presentations. These

presentations are cornerstones to building on

skills and opportunities in our club. They aug-

ment the manuals. Each session offers more

“face time” for speakers. Best of all, they re-

quire a minimum of preparation, i.e., you don’t

have to write out a whole new speech!

Each set was designed to train members to:

Be better speakers through speech planning

and development skills

Make us a more successful club through de-

velopment of positive club attributes.

Grow leadership excellence through club

leadership role training.

We’ve decided to bring them back to Diablo 598

on a regular basis. In the first hour, for fifteen

minutes between Club Business and Table Top-

ics, a club member will make one of the above

presentations. This program will benefit all

members. New members will get (easy) speak-

ing time; continuing members will have opportu-

nities to sharpen skills. Anyone can do them.

A look at some of the coming titles will give you

a better idea of the program and its benefits.

ASHLEY’S COLUMN

By Ashley Harkness

The Better Speaker Series:

Know Your Audience. When you develop

your speech, you must consider who is in

the audience. The time, place and situation

will help, but there’s a lot more!

Preparing an Introduction. Setting the

stage for the incoming speaker is critical to

his or her success. Letting the audience

know why they should listen is the job of the

introduction, a mini-speech in and of itself.

Impromptu Speaking. Yes, there is actual-

ly a presentation on the skills of impromptu

I’ve resurrected my files of these presentations,

which are fully scripted and can easily be read

to the group. Of course, you can add addition-

al information, but keep it to a total of 15

minutes. In the past, this program kept the

membership strong, and again I see it as a

step toward making Diablo 598 a stronger club!

speaking! How do you quickly organize and

present a short “elevator” (2 minute)

speech? This presentation helps us to de-

velop our “speaking on our feet” skills.

The Successful Club Series:

Finding New Members. Bringing in new

members is a significant concern for all

Toastmaster clubs. This session offers nu-

merous ideas that a club can develop in or-

der to keep the chairs full.

Mentoring. Each of us have had or been a

mentor. Sharpening this skill and its appli-

cation is central to helping others improving

and coming back.

Evaluate to Motivate. Evaluation skills are

useful in all walks of life. In this presenta-

tion, we will learn several important aspects

to conducting a successful evaluation,

whether it be of the speech content or of the

speaker’s performance.

The Leadership Excellence Series:

The Visionary Leader. In this presentation,

we learn what it takes to look forward to

where we want to go and formulate a “How

to get there” plan. Members will follow a

leader with a “Vision” who can describe and

present his or her ideas.

The Leader as Coach. Each sideline has a

coach who watches over our performance

and offers suggestions. We learn how inter-

action on the part of the coach leader guides

people in the group to find success.

Giving Effective Feedback. Feedback is

not necessarily criticism. This presentation

teaches us about methods and techniques

that can change attitudes and directions. It

is a mirror of what is being seen and heard

by others that make us move forward.

Born and raised in Pittsburg, CA, of parents who

were grocery store owners at your local corner

“Mom & Pop” store, the furthest thing from my

mind growing up was going to college – until that

memorable meeting with my dad! So after gradu-

ating from Pittsburg High, I attended DVC and

then transferred to Chico State, where I earned

my B.S. in Engineering Technology.

I started my first job with PG&E as a drafter, and

retired 35 years later as a Senior Substation De-

sign Engineer. Working for PG&E, I found myself

looking for more out of life. Yes, PG&E was re-

warding, but we only know what we know. While

looking for the best place to put my retirement

savings I found World Financial Group (WFG).

You know what they say, “Timing is everything,”

and in 2008 I was able to move some of my sav-

ings to where it allowed me to retire five years

sooner rather than later!

I’m now a Certified Financial Educator (CFEd)

with the Heartland Institute of Financial Educa-

tion, which teamed up with WFG to educate the

masses on financial literacy. It’s ironic that we

live in one of the wealthiest countries in the

world, but most people are struggling financially

due largely to lack of financial education. It’s not

okay to be like the Federal Government which

can create and control its own budget – or not!

The main reason I joined Toastmasters was to

strengthen my speaking skills, in order to edu-

cate people in a more effective manner. I find

that being with Diablo 598 has given me confi-

dence to be a better speaker when speaking in

front of groups. I don’t plan to leave any time

soon, since knowledge is power and being able

to deliver my message more effectively helps me

give others the power to make better financial

decisions for themselves!

Irving Joe

CINDY’S COLUMN

By Cindy Johnson

“What’s Great in 598” is the publication of

Diablo Toastmasters Club 598, Concord, CA.

Publisher: Cindy Johnson, President

Editor: John Peterson

Assistant Editor: Martha Patt

Have you looked at our web page recently? Specifically, the meeting role sign-up page? If so, then you’ll have noticed that meeting role assignments have been made through the end of the year! This affects you!!

Please go to www.diablotoastmasters.org and review the sign-ups! Just click on the link to the “Meeting Role Sign-Up Page” just below the picture of our club banner on page 1. If you’re assigned to a role and won’t be able to fulfill it, or would like to vol-unteer for a different role, please don’t hesi-tate to notify Ashley Harkness, myself, or any one of the other club officers and we can make the change for you.

With our new system of pre-assigned roles we’ll be accomplishing a couple of important things. First, we’ll be able to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to participate in every role. Second, we’ll have an extra 10 to15 minutes available during the meet-ings, which we plan to use for training ses-sions on key Toastmastering techniques. (See Ashley’s article elsewhere in this newsletter explaining the plan in detail.)

We’ve had three such training sessions so far, and I know I’ve benefited greatly from them. I hope you’ve appreciated them as much as I have, but the important thing is that we’ll be using all of our meeting time to learn the communications techniques that Toastmasters offers us, instead of spending a lot of time just trying to fill in the next meeting’s roles! I know you’ll agree that will be a huge improvement!!