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IMPRINT ISSUE #1
From the Editor’s Desk
It is indeed a very proud moment for me to be releasing the first issue of Imprint for the year
2014-2015. I am thankful to President, TM Riana Pinto for pushing me out of my comfort zone
and constantly encouraging me to deliver with this task. I am also thankful to the Executive
Committee and the club members for their continuous support, feedback and contributions,
which have only helped me, enhance this newsletter.
This newsletter is of the members, by the members and for the members. It has been an
eventful first half of this term with our members delivering on their own set targets thereby
helping the club scale greater heights. We have had joint meetings with other clubs and
members shining outside the club winning us many accolades.
Get yourself a cup of coffee and enjoy as we walk past the year so far in this edition of
IMPRINT.
Jonathan Sequeira, CC, CL
VP-Public Relations
Konkan Toastmasters Club
2014-2015
IMPRINT KONKAN TOASTMASTERS CLUB
CLUB # 820149, AREA – 68, DIVISION - Q, DISTRICT – 20
2014 – 2015 / Issue #1 July-Nov
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The President speaks
Taking over as President from the successful reigns of immediate Past President TM Melvin Buthello
was truly a challenge. Hesitating, I stepped forward, taking this responsibility as a challenge but also
motivated to perform better with the able support of my strong excom officers who have been truly
supportive and worked as a team.
“Leaders establish the vision for the future and set the strategy for getting there” as quoted by John P.
Kotter, I and my excom had set the vision for the club and am pleased with the way our members are
working towards this vision through their commitment and achievements, thus moving closer to our
goals as a club.
With the end of first half of our term, I am delighted to note the progress our club has achieved.
Firstly, we successfully organized and delivered the Youth Leadership Program to young students of the
Parish Summer camp wherein nearly 35 students participated. This was very well conducted under the
leadership of DTM Dr. M.S. Babu - the main coordinator, with the assistance of TM Denzil & TM
Vanessa. Secondly, our member TM Sampath Sowrirajan attained his highest educational award and is
now a DTM – Distinguished Toastmaster. We all are very proud as he is the first DTM of our club.
Thirdly, we were able to achieve Smedley Award with 5 new members joining along with achieving
Division's Q41 award for enrolling 4 new female members.
As we reached October end, 4 of our members completed their educational goals with 2 CCs, 1 CL and
1 ACS and thus progressing in their journey of being better communicators and leaders. With their
dedication and commitment they helped the club in achieving 6 DCP points thereby attaining
"Distinguished Club" status within 4 months which is another record for our club.
As said by Les Brown, “Life takes on meaning when you become motivated, set goals and charge after
them in an unstoppable manner” is exactly what I feel now. I am truly motivated and committed to
achieve goal after goal, strengthening the club's membership base, motivating members to give their
best and helping them fulfill the vision with which they embarked on this toastmaster's journey.
I am indeed very proud of my strong excom team and their active participation along with members
who are helping us in realising this vision and keeping the Konkan club flag flying high. I owe my
sincere gratitude to each one of them. We are soon heading to our 200th meeting which is a great
milestone for our club. We, as a team, have set a few more goals which we hope to accomplish them
with the usual and continued support of our members, area and division officials.
TM Riana Pinto, CC, CL
President 2014-15
Konkan Toastmasters Club
2014-2015
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When the Student is ready!
The below Yogic saying holds a key universal truth about learning. Regardless of
age, social class or ethnic background, information can be presented to a
student, and then the student must choose to learn what is set before them.
Initially I thought, to learn better one has to go to a good school and college. To become better in life,
one should be tutored by good teachers. But life patiently taught me how to be a good student. I
found teachers everywhere, in people, circumstances, experiences, things, nature - almost in
everything and everywhere.
10 years back in United Arab Emirates, I first heard about Toastmasters when my friend casually
mentioned over the phone that he is thinking about joining a toastmasters club. 7 years back in Qatar, I
read on the church notice board about the Rosary Toastmasters club and joined immediately. The
journey did not last long as that club closed down and also my job forced me to move back to UAE.
Two and a half years back I resumed my toastmaster's journey with Konkan Toastmasters club. As if I
was ready this time for learning, I continued to improve my communication and leadership skills. The
universe offered all the possible opportunities for me to learn from it. As club member, role player
during meetings, speech contestant, President of the club and area governor, every role offered a new
change, new challenges. But with time I have become a better student and choose to learn from what
is set before me.
Today I am thankful to the TM fraternity and to all fellow members and friends who have supported me in my
toastmaster's journey. In this journey I met people, who sincerely care about self-improvement and others
well-being.
I urge all of you, to bring new members to toastmaster meetings because if the student in them is ready,
Toastmasters platform will surely act as the best teacher for them and they too will reap rich dividends.
TM Melvin Buthello, CC, CL
Area 44 Governor, Div E, District 20
Immediate Past President
Konkan Toastmasters Club
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The New Elects
After an eventful year (2013-2014) for Konkan Toastmasters Club that was led by the dynamic and
perceptive president TM Melvin Buthello, it is now time for a newly elected Executive Committee to
have the club sailing forward with greater zeal and enthusiasm.
The Club, held the installation ceremony of its new executive committee for the term 2014 - 2015 on
Monday, June 23rd, 2014 at Ghanem Gardens Clubhouse. TM Mou Bera, Area ‘68’ Governor conducted
the installation ceremony. She is now also joined our club as a member. TM Shyam Sundar, Division ‘Q’
Governor was the guest of honour.
President, TM Riana Pinto, will head the newly elected committee. The other members of the
committee are: TM Jovita Pereira-DSouza (Vice President Education), TM Vanessa Pereira (Vice
President, Membership), TM Jonathan Sequeira (Vice President Public Relations), TM Sweta
Bhradwaj (Secretary), TM Timothy Veigas (Treasurer) and TM Denzil Fernandes (Sergeant – At –
Arms).
The Outstanding Toastmaster Award is determined by a point system based on Attendance,
Participation, Contribution and Presentations done within & outside the club. The award was bagged
by TM Riana Pinto (First Place); TM Jovita Pereira D’Souza (Second Place); TM Vanessa Pereira (third
Place).
The tremendous support from Mr. Wilfred Fernandes, Manager, Ghanem Gardens was whole
heartedly appreciated by presenting a flowering plant which was accepted on his behalf by his wife TM
Mable Fernandes. DTM Sampath Sowrirajan’s incessant support and mentoring was appreciated and
he was presented with a bouquet of flowers as a token of our gratitude.
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The perfect Handover. Thank you!
The outgoing executive committee of Konkan Toastmasters club has given the incoming team a running
start with a lot of accolades and achievements earned in their term!
Outgoing Executive Committee was led by President, TM Melvin Buthello The other members of the
committee were: TM Riana Pinto (Vice President Education), TM Jonathan Sequeira (Vice President,
Membership), TM Jovita Pereira (Vice President Public Relations), TM Vanessa Pereira (Secretary),
TM Sundeep Matthais (Treasurer) & TM Roque D’Souza (Sergeant – At – Arms).
The club has seen tremendous success and has reached great heights under the efficient leadership of
TM Melvin Buthello and his team. The Distinguished Club Program helps clubs promote quality,
ensure productive meetings, provide structure and guidance and increase the enthusiasm of the club.
Every year, Toastmasters International recognizes high-performing clubs. This year the club has
achieved the President’s Distinguished Club stature. The District presented the VP – Education, TM
Riana Pinto, with the Club DCP Achiever award. The club has seen a tremendous growth in the
membership as well and bagged the Smedley and Beat the Clock awards.
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Achievements Galore
The Konkan Toastmasters Club has always been known to have members of great calibre and talent.
However, the last year has seen out members shine brightly not only within the club but outside at
Area Level and Division Level. Below are a few to be mentioned in no particular order.
1) TM Joseph Shabu Stanley, a member of Konkan Toastmasters club is
currently serving the Division as the Assistant Division Governor
Education and Training, Division – Q, District 20.
TM Melvin Buthello, our immediate past president is serving as the
Area Governor for Area - 44, Division – E, District 20.
2) TM Christopher Almeida, a past president who had in his time set
new standards for our club with his achievements is serving as the
Area Governor for Area - 52, Division – Q, District 20.
3) TM Mou Bera, who is currently serving as the Area Governor for Area
- 68, Division – Q, District 20 has joined our club as a member.
4) Last but not least and most importantly, our guide and club member
TM Sampath Sowrirajan has now achieved the pinnacle of the
toastmaster's journey by becoming a DTM – Distinguished
Toastmaster. He should now always be referred to as DTM Sampath
Sowrirajan.
For the new members, who do not know what a DTM means – See
the below schematic
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Empowering our Youth Our Club feels proud for successfully conducting its first ever Youth Leadership program (YLP)
combined with a Personal Development program (PDP) for the children and is grateful to the Parish
Summer Camp Organizers for giving us this opportunity.
Konkan club has conducted two similar programs on Public Speaking for the summer campers in the
previous years. The participants have very actively participated this year in the PDP/YLP program and
our club members have conducted 8 sessions including the grand finale. We had arranged good
speakers who gave their presentations on 8 different topics through this program imparting
communication and leadership values. The young participants were actively involved in these sessions
as they were given group activities through which they got the message clearly. There was active
participation, commitment and dedication of the young children to their roles and enthusiasm in taking
up different roles, the interest in learning and most of all delivering their speeches or performing their
roles without any fear. A big change in the children was evident and their great delivery surprised the
seasoned toastmasters too. It is indeed a fulfilment of our club objective to impart good
communication skills to the next generation who will carry on the leadership qualities implanted in
them at this young age.
Konkan Toastmasters Club takes this opportunity to thank
the Summer Camp Organizers, volunteers and our Chief
Coordinator DTM Dr. M.S. Babu, Speakers from Doha
and Indian Toasmasters Club, coordinators TM Denzil
Fernandes, TM Vanessa Fernandes, the Konkan club
ExCom and members for their contribution to the success
of this PDP/YLP. Most importantly, special thanks to
Immediate Past President TM Melvin Buthello for taking
the initiative and igniting the fire of this program amongst
us. A special YLP newsletter was released to
commemorate the occasion. This was prepared by TM
Jovita Pereira.
Congratulations to all the budding speakers for your active participation and wish you good luck in your
studies. Hope to see you as the future sparkling leaders of our community.
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My Fantastic Journey
A year ago I started my journey in Toastmasters by giving my ice-breaker speech.
This has for me been a really great and fantastic journey where I have learnt a lot
in my past 10 speeches and this has definitely improved my communication
skills. I still have a lot to learn, but I will continue my journey – as one of my
favorite quotes says “Dripping water can hollow out stones, not by force, but by
persistence”
I like to thank this club for giving me much more self-confidence and the necessary tools to stand up
and express myself – I am thankful that I got the opportunity to meet you all and that we together with
a common target work towards being better communicators.
A year ago I didn’t know much about my own un-locked potential within communicating. I can frankly
say that, I had the opinion that communicating was something taught by my parents when I was a
child, and I didn’t have to train and develop myself later on in life. That is wrong. But meeting
toastmasters, this view totally changed and I realized how important communication in our daily life –
whatever we are doing and where we are.
Looking back into my toastmaster's journey, I must admit I have enjoyed each project in the competent
communication manual. It is fascinating to learn how the manual simply builds your self-confidence
and teaches you how to communicate and make it possible for you to grow and achieve higher goals.
On being asked which of the 10 projects I found most exciting - it is difficult for me to answer, because
they all are a great learning process and are valuable. But I would like to highlight 4 projects that I feel
are very important to make a good and interesting speech:
1. Organize your speech, Opening – Body - Conclusion
2. Eye contact with audience
3. Body language
4. Vocal variety
What things will makes you be a better communicator:
• Your manual will guide you
• Spend much time for preparation
• Meetings will make you grow
• Evaluation will give you feedback how to grow
• Training, training and training
One of the things I find most interesting coming to the club meetings is to see how members are
striving to deliver higher achievements by taking different roles or by giving their various speeches. I
am convinced that my toastmaster’s journey has motivated and challenged me to adopt higher noble
values by working with myself and joining the meetings.
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I am proud to say that I now understand why "Toastmasters International" since it was founded in 1924
has more than 300,000 members spread across 15,000 clubs in 126 countries – this really shows the
popularity and that people found it worth spending time on.
Being an elder in the family – I feel it is important to transfer valuable the knowledge to my kids and
grandchildren based on what I have gained during my life. And I must admit that toastmasters
meetings are always on my lips when talking to either my kids or friends, because I really feel that this
is such a great place to improve one's self as either communicator or simply - a better human being. To
explain how enthusiastic I am about toastmaster and its values – I am planning to give my grown up
kids in Denmark a free toastmaster membership as a christmas gift this year.
I have during my fantastic journey also had to work hard with myself and have spent a lot of time
preparing each speech – but I feel that it had all been worth it. As has been said many a times, “it is
important to get out of your comfort zone” and challenge the brain, which we all do here in
toastmasters. Only by doing this, you will train yourself to achieve higher goals and levels of skills. All
communication consists of a "sender" and a "listener" and both must be on the same page! Otherwise
misunderstandings will crop up! That’s why, we as toastmasters are being trained to be both good
speakers and listeners/evaluators.
Clear and direct communication is really a great achievement that must be trained to avoid
misunderstandings leading to wrong conclusions by the receiver.
TM Bjarne Jensen, CC
Member
Konkan Toastmasters Club
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From Talking to Communicating
If anyone ever asked me, what job do I do? I would smile and reply, saying
‘I am paid to Talk’! That’s actually what I do, I am a safety instructor …
literally paid to talk.
Three years ago, I had just finished a training session and I was saying goodbye to the delegates when
one of the delegates came to me and asked me if I knew about Toastmasters. I had no clue what he
was talking about. So he gave me his number, gave me a location and told me to come and attend one
the meetings and see it for myself. I slept over it and in a few days, completely forgot about it. Two
years after this incident, I met the same gentleman once again and after the training session, the topic
came up once more. This time he used a different approach. He took my number and my email address
and contacted me. Unable to say no, I decided to give it a try. So there I was attending my first
Toastmaster’s meeting.
The meeting started with a small safety briefing after which the President came up to open the
meeting. He gave a small speech where he talked about the difference between the Chicken and Duck
eggs. He highlighted the need to showcase and improve our skills because if we don’t, no matter how
good we are, it would amount to nothing. Not only did it catch my attention, it also helped me make a
decision, perhaps one of the best I made in a long time … the decision to join Toastmasters.
The fact is, I am good at talking and after I joined, there were times when I would wonder, what kind of
improvements would I see? Would it really benefit me? As the days passed and I started doing my
projects, the gaps started showing up. One by one as I started to patch the gaps up, I started to realize
something: anyone can talk, but not everyone can communicate.
Communication is a skill which is made of various components, being able to talk is just one of them.
There is so much more to communication. Each project would highlight one of the components and
challenge you to take it up and incorporate it in your speech; there was a template, a flow, transitions,
gestures, voice modulation, using visual aids and so much more.
But that is just one side of the story. After you gave the speech, a group of very friendly and supportive
people would tell you what you did well and most importantly where you could change or do better.
There was so much room for improvement, such a lot to learn. As I started learning, I could see the
positive impact it had on my professional career. I was not only talking … I was communicating!
Very recently I completed all the Projects in the Competent Communication Manual. It was a beautiful
experience, a wonderful journey! But I know this is not the end, rather it is just the beginning. There is
still a lot of ground to cover, still a lot more to learn, still a few miles to be run … in my journey from
Talking to Communicating!
TM Denzil Fernandes, CC
Sergeant at Arms
Konkan Toastmasters Club
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The 6,000 words Journey
Five years after I first heard of Toastmasters I finally joined this distinguished club
network. Typically, the first project I pursued was to enhance my communication
skills by following the CC (Competent Communicator) Manual and deliver 10
speeches with different objectives for each speech.
The first speech objective was to break the ice with audience and introduce myself. Being unaware of
how the audience can actually affect me, I was not worried about it. What really thrilled me was the
overwhelming question, “Who am I?” At that time, I was a job holder for the last 8 years in Qatar, I
almost did nothing else and facing the question about who am I actually turned to “Whom I was”! It is
true for many of the expats here that they become occupied by the work and gradually disconnected
from their social base in home country and eventually become machines. This icebreaker speech
opened my eyes to something I knew but I did not realize i.e. how deeply it was affecting my
personality.
As I went through the process of delivering further speeches, I enjoyed the fact that I was the
ambassador of Arabs among my beloved group of Indian fellow toastmasters in Konkan Toastmasters
Club. I was the only Arab in the club and this inspired me to make a theme for my journey, I tried to
introduce Arab ideas in my speeches. This brought a lot of joy and cultural interaction as I spoke on
camels, deserts and Arabics poems. In the background, I was facing stunning facts every time I worked
on a speech or even as I delivered some jokes or facts in the various roles that I played in meetings.
No! Ice cream was not invented in Damascus; it is actually a 3,000 years old Chinese invention. Shisha,
a daily habit for many Arabs and an outstanding feature in our cafes is actually an Indian invention. The
largest population of the Arab camels is living a wild life in Australia that was brought from India! The
list goes on with unusual discoveries that only reveal how small and lively our planet is.
Delivering the tenth speech was another experience in itself! I wanted to deliver it in October but I was
travelling. So I did it in a country I have not been to for the last 32 years, in front of a group of people I
have never met and yet it was as fun and educational as it is in any toastmasters club that I usually
visited in Qatar. I learned that being a Toastmaster, I actually have friends and fellows in all over the
world and they are all ready to welcome me and provide assistance whenever I pop into their town.
Can you imagine how great this is?
Delivering the 6,000 words in the 10 speeches journey with Toastmasters was not easy but it was
enjoyable. I had to cut out time for it from my busy schedule being a full time contractor and a
dedicated family man. On the other side, I cannot count the blessings. I made many friends, my mind
grew and my soul became more vibrant. I gained many skills, be it the organized thoughts in the flash
of a second before I talked on any topic or the presence of mind in any meeting, the unleashed English
language or the exposure to spectrums of people otherwise I could have never met and knew this
deeply. My view to life matured at such a fast pace. When I look at all this, I become more confident
that every word of the 6,000 words was worth all the efforts.
TM Anas Ahmed, CC
Member
Konkan Toastmasters Club
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Joint meeting with IIEE-SQC Toastmasters Club
Meeting# 193 of Konkan Toastmasters and Meeting# 63 for the IIEE- SQC was celebrated together as a
special joint meeting. The meeting started with an informal introduction so that the members of the
two clubs could be better acquainted with each other.
Our TM of the Evening (TMOE), TM Melvin Buthello, took the reins of the meeting with the theme,
‘How to better the world’. The role players were split across members of both clubs. We had a packed
Educational session with 3 prepared speeches. We all laughed till we had tears in our eyes thanks to
our Joke Master TM Anas who shall from this day forth be known as Mr. Coffee. The table topics
session and general evaluation segment was even more interesting considering the mix of members
across the 2 clubs. The Evening ended with a lively photo session where TM Sundeep went on to prove
how committed Toastmasters are to being good listeners.
In all it was a successful joint meeting. One where we made new friends and leant a lot, that will most
certainly help us become better communicators. We look forward to many more such eventful
meetings. Thank you to IIEE-SQC for accepting our invite and joining us at our premises for this
meeting.
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Induction Ceremony of New Members
We are pleased to welcome the 4 new members in Konkan Toastmasters Club:
1. Vanessa Pearl Pereira
2. Kavya Nidhin
3. Ashik L Lobo
4. Mou Bera
5. Aloysius Dsouza
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DCP Points Status
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ExCom Contact Details
Konkan Toastmasters Club meets every 2nd and 4th Monday of the month from 7:00 - 9:15 p.m. at the Ghanem Gardens Club House.
Role Name Email Mobile
President Riana Pinto [email protected] 55915002
VP-Education Jovita Pereira [email protected] 66020816
VP-Membership Vanessa Pereira [email protected] 55764120
VP-Public Relations /
Secretary Jonathan Sequeira [email protected] 55115653
Treasurer Thimothi Veigas [email protected] 66032017
Sergeant-At-Arms Denzil Fernandes [email protected] 66760914
Immediate Past
President Melvin Buthello [email protected] 55823478