the voice of ctc - dec 2013
DESCRIPTION
Coromandel Toastmasters Club's News and Events update for NovemberTRANSCRIPT
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THE VOICE OF CTC COROMANDEL TOASTMASTERS CLUB’s NEWSLETTER
WHERE LEADERS ARE MADE
3075300
Coromandel
Toastmasters Club
Volume 1, Issue 3 December 2013
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
Newsletter at a Glimpse
Editorial Team Voice
President’s Voice
Awards & Recognitions
Educational
Club Member’s Voice
New Member’s Introduction
Updates from CTC
Distinguished Club Program
Club Announcements
Booking speech slots
Login to www.easy-speak.org and use your ID and Password for booking your speech slots.
(If you have not yet received your login ID contact TM Anirudh)
Role players are also requested to book the slots online as this will help us plan the meeting well in advance.
1 Member - 1 Guest
To improve the quality of meet-ings and to have fresh voices all members are requested to bring 1 guest along with them.
This will give variety to our meetings.
Newsletter at a Glimpse
Front Liner’s Voices ------- Page 3
CTC’s Editorial team conducted a feedback survey from all members and based on that they revamped the Newsletter
President lists the achievement of the club so far
Awards & Recognitions ------- Page 5
TM Satish awarded the “Distinguished Toastmaster” award
DTM Jayan’s awarded district level, Best Evaluator [1st runner up] .
TM Monisha awarded district level, Best PR
Educational ------- Page 8
Youth Leadership Program (YLP) - DTM Saro Velrajan writes about YLP and how it
helps students and toastmasters
Club members voice ------- Page 9
Arun, Monisha, Anirudh, Bharath & Pratap - voices for you
Other News from CTC ------- Page 13
Status of Communicator and Leadership tracks of CTC members
CTC’s Hall of Fame awards
New Member Introduction
Distinguished Club Status -------Page 16
Find out our club’s performance for distinguished status
http://coromandeltc.in Contact us at: [email protected]
TM Anirudh
“Every little smile can touch somebody’s heart. No one is born happy, but we are born with the ability
to create happiness around us””
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ABOUT TOASTMASTERS
HISTORY
How it started?
1924, Ralph C. Smedley held the first toastmasters meeting in a basement in YMCA in Santa Ana, California.
When it became
“International” ?
Toastmasters became Toastmasters Internation-al after a speaking club in New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada, expressed interest in joining the organization. 1924, Ralph C. Smedley held the first toastmasters meeting in a basement in YMCA in Santa Ana, California.
TOASTMASTERS -
TODAY
How big is Toastmasters
International today?
As of today there are
292,000 memberships in more than 14,350 clubs in 122 countries
Who can join Toastmas-
ters?
Anyone over the age of 18 can join toastmasters, provided they have the de-sire to improve their com-munication and Leadership skills.
Also toastmasters is a perfect platform for network-ing with people.
Toastmasters International (TI) is a nonprofit educational organization that operates clubs worldwide for the purpose of helping members improve their communication, public speaking and leadership skills. Through its thousands of member clubs, Toastmasters International offers a program of communication and leadership projects designed to help people learn the arts of speaking, listening, and thinking. TI also conducts International Speech Contest which starts at club level. The winners if they win in area level, division level and district level, they go for the semi finals of the In-ternational Speech Contest. Finally, 9 speakers will be selected for International speech contest.
Toastmasters International Mission
We empower individuals to become more effective communicators and leaders.
Coromandel Toastmasters Club is the youngest community Toastmasters club in
Chennai, Tamilnadu. Coromandel Toastmasters Club (CTC) is situated in Tambaram and helps the aspiring Leaders and Communicators in South Chennai in developing their per-sonal and professional skills. Currently there are 30 members in the club.
Coromandel Toastmasters Club’s Mission
We provide a supportive and positive learning experience in which members are em-powered to develop communication and leadership skills, resulting in greater self-confidence and personal growth.
To Join Us Contact
Naresh B - VP Membership Mobile No: +91 95009 78800 ; Email: [email protected]
About Toastmasters International
About Coromandel Toastmasters Club
“In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: IT GOES ON”
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EDITORIAL TEAM VOICE
One ultimate question that was running into our mind was, what exactly is the mis-sion and vision of our newsletter?. To set it, we designed a feedback survey question-naire with questions like, Does members find this newsletter useful? How much time does a member dedicates to read the news-letters? We got good responses from CTC mem-bers and based on which the first thing we did was to made our mission and vision statements. Mission Statement “To make a newsletter every month on time, focusing on club‘s news and events of the month” Vision Statement “Newsletter should be read within 15 minutes that informs / educates and makes him aware of the best things happening at CTC and in the world of Toastmasters.” The New Beginning We have included a new column “Educational” which will be cover topics only from public speaking skills, Communication skills and Leadership skills. To make you read within 15 minutes, we have included a lot of pictures and abridged our written content. We believe that will make you understand faster than written words. We have also worked on the quality of photographs used. We invited DTM Jayan to be the photographer and shoot some best moments at CTC using his DSLR camera. That was a phenomenal success and it helped us revamp our website, newsletter and also the Face-book page. Most of the award sections, articles section, educational section and CTC news section follows the norm, “Let pictures talk more than the written words” I am sure you will like our style to make you read it within 15 minutes.
Note of Thanks
Special thanks to our Advisor, TM Monisha, for her support and guidance. She spent a lot of time explaining us and guiding us on how to make it as per Toastmasters Interna-tional guidelines. No doubt you were awarded the best PR in District 82 for your commit-ment. DTM Jayan captured some wonderful moments at the club using his DSLR camera. Thank you very much. Thanks to TM Iniyan for extending all support as previous Editor in Chief. DTM Saro Velrajan, DTM Jayan, DTM Satish, TM Madhavan, TM Monisha, TM Arun, TM Anirudh, TM Bharath, TM Pratap thank you so much for your time and effort for send-ing articles when we asked you. Thank you to all others who indirectly helped for the suc-cess of this newsletter. Happy Christmas and Happy New Year. Enjoy reading!
Naresh Kumar B Editor In Chief, CTC
Newsletter Revamped
We at CTC always believe in changes. So is the newsletter, revamped to meet Toastmasters International Standards
Animesh Shah
Sub Editor, CTC
Rajesh Sub Editor, CTC
Monisha Monikantan Advisor, CTC
65% respondents read for 10 minutes or lesser
“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the
greatest accomplishment “
4
Interview with Madhavan
What does New Year Mean to you? To me, New Year is a time to look back and see what worked and what did not work in the past year and use those learn-ing to do better in the next year .
What is your 2014 new year resolution? I usually don't go for any resolu-tion, but I try to use the New Year to get back on track on some of the things I wanted to do, but failed to till then.
Any message for CTC members? Since most of the members are fairly new, the only message or suggestion is to be regular to the meetings and take up what-ever opportunity comes your way. You will be amazed at the results
PRESIDENT’S VOICE
It is December, and it is usually the time for stock taking and reflection. While Coro-mandel Toastmasters Club (CTC) was officially chartered only in September 2013, the amount of work that the team had put in from the beginning of the year to start the club was remarkable. The challenges were immense, like having to conduct meetings with just 5 people or the struggle to reach the magical membership of 20 for getting chartered. But thanks to the relentless work of early members like Satish Vachaspati, Monisha, Anirudh and Karthikeyan (to name a few), the club got chartered and is on its path to a solid growth. The support lent by the members of Chennai Toastmasters Club(CTM), Infosys Toastmasters Club and senior Toastmasters like DTM Nina John also played a catalytic role in the growth of the club.
At this juncture, I would like to update the members about the progress of the club.
Contests
Our senior most member - DTM Jayan Narayanan – made not only Coromandel Toastmasters Club but also the entire Tamilnadu Toastmasters community proud by becoming the first runner up at the District Level Evalua-tion Contests at the Reverberation 2013 held in Banga-lore. As a bonus, CTC also got the first runner up prize for the club with the most facebook presence.
Membership
Our membership stands at 29 and as you are aware, we received the first Smedley Award, which is given to the club that added 5 or more addi-tional members during August and September of a year.
Educational Milestones
Satish Vachaspathi became the first DTM from Coromandel Toastmasters Club. In addition, 3 members (Monisha, Madhavan and Anirudh) completed their Competent Lead-ership requirements.
Distinguished Club Program (DCP)
As of 17 December 2013, CTC has earned 5 DCP points and become a Distinguished Club.
Initiatives to improve club meetings’ quality
In order to help the members improve their communication skills and to assist them in competing against the best in the speech contests, 5 members with potential have been identified, and they are being given guidance and coaching.
With the increased involvement and enthusiasm of the members, I am sure we as a club will be among the best in the District in 2014 and beyond.
Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year!!
Madhavan V.
President , Coromandel Toastmasters
Club
Club Achievements
Small and continuous improvements visible at every meetings at CTC. It is all because of the relentless work of our members
SMEDLEY AWARD
For adding 5 members in Aug-Sept 2013
2013 2013 2013 --- 201420142014
“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as
though everything is a miracle“
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Interview with
DTM Satish
About your first toastmas-
ters meeting experience?
I went to Ford Toastmasters
as Guest and was thinking what Toastmasters all about. Are they going to teach me how to toast. But the energy and pas-sion of members giving speech-es and warmth shown to guests was inspiring to me which made me join toastmasters
How will you put your journey to DTM in few
lines?
As my mentor DTM Saro says
for self improvement the jour-ney starts with First step. My journey towards DTM was full of challenge and fun. I met wonderful people all through my journey who guided me during my journey. Thanks to DTM Saro, DTM Karthik and host of Toastmasters who were there through this journey.
What is your next immedi-
ate target ?
Restart my Communication journey and also as Ambassa-dor visit the clubs
Your proudest moment in
toastmasters?
Conducting two Division Con-ferences in Ford and Starting Coromandel Toastmasters
What do have to say for
aspiring DTMs?
Enjoy your journey in Toast-masters. Always take the op-portunities which will come to your way . They are the best teachers.
AWARDS & RECOGNITIONS
DTM Satish Vachaspathi
CTC’S 1st
Recipient of Distinguished Toastmaster Award [DTM]
from Toastmasters International
DTM Satish at CTC
Satish is a passionate toastmaster who used to be the first to reach the venue. He greets all the toastmasters and guests, checks for role players and if they do not turn up, he takes up a role. Else he leaves it to the young toastmasters. Once 2 speakers did not turn up for a CTC’s meeting. So he delivered an impromptu speech to run the show and won the best speaker award too.
The best of talks happen at the tea time which he invites everyone after the meet-ing. Many of us used to have our light talks there and we get to know each other better. Satish used to share his knowledge, feedback or improvement points for speakers and role players. He also tells us about the happenings at the toastmasters. In short he de-velops CTC by his informal style.
Guardian of CTC
Satish along with others started Coromandel Toastmasters Club. A few months back the club was only with 4 or 5 members but today we have 30 members attending and all this happened in a few months time. This remarkable change is because of him.
He was holding the position of Vice President Education and now handed over the baton to TM Anirudh who is equally passionate about CTC.
.
Distinguished Toastmaster Award to TM Satish
TM Satish giving his DTM Speech at CTC
“My idea of Christmas, whether old-fashioned or modern, is very simple: LOVING OTHERS”
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Interview with DTM
Jayan Narayanan
Things that you are pas-
sionate about?
Needless to say, I am pas-sionate about public speaking. Other passions include people, branding, photography, long distance driving, nature and traveling.
What do celebrations
mean to you?
The life that I live every mo-ment!
Do you celebrate only
successes?
Success, what does that mean? I can’t find it in my dic-tionary.
AWARDS & RECOGNITIONS
DTM Jayan Narayanan
Recipient of Best Evaluator [1st Runner Up] in District Level Contest [REVERBERATIONS 2013 ]
His Facebook message “quoted” for you,
“ I experienced a revelation and hence I have a message to share. This photo is to
certify it. For someone who is a born introvert, overcoming inferiority complex was a challenge. Today, thanks to Toastmasters, I don't know what being an introvert means. Inferiority complex was too complex a trait and I trashed it.
Several years ago, I had participated in the Toastmasters Speech Evaluation contest and I lost at the second level itself. The reason - I moved away from the mundane tem-plate based process and tried to induce humour. I had a great connect with the audience but didn't win.
Finally I gave a try this year and at the District Level contest (Reverberations 13) held at Bangalore, I emerged as the 1st Runner up in the Speech Evaluation Contest. So, this award is certainly a testimony to the fact that the world is changing and ready to accept those who dare to be different. I'm so delighted I shared the stage with some amazing people from Kerala, Tamilnadu, Karnataka and Srilanka!
Now, here's the message. Be bold. Be sincere. Be shameless. Be creative. Be innova-tive. Most importantly, be different. Stand out. Take risks. Like modern day technologies, be disruptive and question the Status-Quo.
www.toastmasters.org - The vitamin C and L for your career and also life. ”
DTM Jayan—Best Evaluator [1st Runner Up]
“If you don't stand for something you will fall for anything”
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Interview with
TM Monisha Monikantan
What according to you
are qualities of good PR?
According to me, "Passion"
is the main quality required, not
just for a PR but for any profes-
sion.
What is your immediate
goal in toastmasters ?
To complete my ALB
What is the key take
away working for CTC?
Do not give up. The begin-
ning is always the hardest.
Can you share your first
Toastmasters meeting
experience?
In my very first meeting
at Toastmasters, I was a TT
speaker. I was very nervous to
even stand up. But the
encouragement of the Toast-
masters made me to talk for a
minute on the topic given to
me.
AWARDS & RECOGNITIONS
TM Monisha Monikantan
Recipient of Best Public Relations - District Level [REVERBERATIONS 2013]
TM Monisha—Best PR (District Level)
TM Monisha’s Voice
"As Daniel Golston says, "If you are passionate about something, be passionate about
learning". And that's exactly what I did as the VP-PR. I followed my passion, learnt (and
still learning) from several seasoned Toastmasters about the art of Public Relations and
the end result was the unexpected recognition which I can never forget in my lifetime..”
Hats off to Monisha
TM Monisha was one of the team members instrumental in starting this club. Cur-
rently, she holds the position of Vice President - Personal Relations in CTC. Due to per-
sonal reasons she had to leave Chennai and moved far off, about 700 kms, to her
hometown.
Distance did not stop her working for CTC. She was consistent and delivered all the
work from a far off place. Her flyers in Facebook page is something everyone regularly
watches out for. Once the theme of the meeting is decided, the flyers do the first show; a
perfect invitation for Toastmasters for the meeting; a minimum number of words amalga-
mated with colours, pictures and the touch of her magic wad makes it the best.
She is also an ardent blogger who updates her speeches and events at Toastmas-
ters. With 900+ followers, she is definitely following the footsteps of DTM Saro Velrajan in
helping other Toastmasters to learn from her experience.
On this occasion, we would like to say hats off to TM Monisha for her continual con-
tribution for the betterment of the club and the district. You have definitely made a signifi-
cant impact by mentoring and leading a path.
Congratulations for winning Best PR award at District Level. You made CTC proud.
We wish you all success in your future endeavors. Good Luck!
“Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift of God, which is why we
call it the present “
8
YOUTH LEADERSHIP
PROGRAM (YLP)
Whom we help
Higher secondary school students and college students
What skills do we train
Prepared speeches Impromptu speeches Evaluations Debates Listening Leadership
How do a Toastmaster
Benefit from YLP
Organizing a project involving various groups Delegation of work Co-ordination with people Leadership without authority Leading by example Mentoring & coaching
DTM Sajo Velrajan @YLP
DTM Lalita G. @YLP
Wish to Volunteer @ YLP
Contact your Club President / Area Governor or look for up-dates in Facebook from other Club / Areas
Wish to start a YLP ?
Contact us at
EDUCATIONAL
Youth Leadership Program
Written by DTM Saro Velrajan
Toastmasters from Tamilnadu has run several Youth Leadership Programs (YLP) in the last 3 years. Youth Leadership Program, shortly called as YLP follows a standard curricu-lum from Toastmasters International. YLP provides an opportunity for fellow toastmasters to give back to the community. We impart communication & leadership skills to higher sec-ondary school students and college students. YLP programs are initiated by school/college authorities or by alumni of schools/colleges. The cost of organizing the program is taken care of by a sponsor - typically, the school/college authorities. YLP programs are normally conducted over the weekends when fellow Toastmasters are readily available to conduct the workshops. We normally split the students into groups of 20 and for each group there will be 2 coordinators from Toastmasters. YLP program is conducted for a period of 6 - 8 weekends.
YLP workshops are similar to what we do in regular toastmasters meeting. The stu-dents come and do the various roles and the faculties guide them to effectively do their roles. YLP programs provide the confidence and courage to youngsters to face interviews, debates and public speaking situations. YLP programs provide opportunity for Toastmasters to develop leadership skills Toastmasters of Tamilnadu believe in educate and illuminate and has illuminated several 1000s of students in the last 3 years, by conducting regular YLP programs. If you are inter-ested in our society, come and join us to conduct the next YLP in Tamilnadu.
Toastmasters who volunteered for one of the Youth Leadership Program
Anjuman School, Chennai Thiagaraja College of Engineering, Madurai
“If you judge people, you have no time to love them“
9
Interview of Arun What does 2014 New Year mean to you? According to me New Year is just another day. If we have commitment towards our goals and constantly invest efforts to achieve them with lot of persis-tence and sensibility, every day is a new beginning. What is your 2014 New Year resolution?
I do not use New Year eve's
an excuse to build resolutions. I believe any day should be a good time to start doing what your passion is or what you want to do. Any message for CTC members? This club has members who are equipped to achieve suc-cess in the toastmasters world and steer the club to greater heights. I urge the new mem-bers to take leadership roles as and when they are offered. Per-forming these roles with your fullest commitment will enable you to find your true potential of leading people, which is a direct indication for your growth at work place.
CLUB MEMBERS’S VOICE
How many of us are playing life too safe and getting nowhere fast? Are we stuck in the comfort zone and just hoping to have a mistake-free, loss-free and stress-free life? It may sound like the good life now, but it is actually the “no-life” way to go. A constant need for security is one of the things that keep us from taking risks. There are people who have not taken a single risk all their life and have gotten no-where. My Grandmother is 88 years old. In spite of having had a good formal education, she was timid and always had someone make her decisions, be it her father before mar-riage and husband after marriage. Having taken no risk at all to voice her opinion, she had never been a daring/outspoken woman all her life. All we got is one life and why do we
have to give it in hands of others to rule? On the other hand, there are people who literally walk over the edge and take dumb risks. Ramesh, an amateur wild life photographer, rushed to a village on the outskirts of Bangalore, where a herd of Elephants were reported to have strayed from the forest. Ignoring the repeated warnings from the forest department cau-tioning civilians not to venture too close, Ramesh slipped away to photograph the wild herd. In excite-ment, he went too close to one of the tuskers which panicked and attacked him. He was rushed to the hos-pital and declared “dead on arrival”. The reckless risk he took cost him his life!
So how can we take calculated risks? Calculated risks are those where the potential downside is lim-ited, but the potential upside is virtually unlimited. Ac-cording to Andre Malraux, “Often the difference be-tween a successful person and a failure is not that one has better abilities or ideas, but the courage that one has to bet on one's ideas, to take a calculated risk - and to act”. You can either live someone else’s tried-and-tested template for a life or you can make your life your own.
I would like to congratulate CTC members, DTM Jayan for achieving “1st Runner up at District level evaluations contest” , TM Monisha for getting “The Best PR Award” and TM Satish Vachaspathi for joining “Distinguished Toastmasters” community. I would like to applaud the efforts of the new editorial team comprising of Naresh, Animesh and Rajesh for putting together yet another enthralling newsletter. I would also love to appreciate all members of Coromantel Toastmasters Club for showing a phenomenal enthusiasm and continual improvement in Toastmasters community. I wish all members Happy Christmas and Happy New year.
Arun Kumar AS
Area Governor—M1
Division M
Take Calculated Risks in Life
You are the right person to take decisions for your life visualize the problem well ahead and take calculated risks
Message from Arun
“The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway”
10
Interview of Monisha What does 2014 mean to you? Personally, 2014 is going to be very special to me as it's go-ing to change my marital status. In my Toastmasters journey, it's special too as CTC celebrates its 1st anniversary! It's been abso-lutely delightful to have seen the various stages of CTC - crawl, walk, run and now fly!
What is your 2014 new year resolution? Well, there's no resolution as such. I just want to "Be good and do good" for now and always
Any message for CTC mem-bers? Every accomplishment starts with the decision to try. So keep trying!
CLUB MEMBER’S VOICE
What’s your New Year resolution?
New year resolution is hard to follow but if we could do it for a year and then for the years to come it can change a lot of things
Every New Year, I hear a lot of resolutions from people around me “I will hit the gym everyday and shed x kilos this year!”, “I will quit smoking this year”, “I will save y rupees by the end of this year”, “I will control my temper from now on!” and the list is almost end-less. For the very first time in my life, I took a New Year resolution in my 2nd year of col-lege. I wrote on a piece of paper that “I shall not waste my food” and also stated the rea-sons why I don’t want to waste it. I then stuck the paper on my room wall so that every time I see it, I get reminded of my resolution. The initial days were a little difficult. (You know how hard it is to eat the food provided in hostel :P ) As days passed by, the resolu-tion became a part of my daily routine. By the end of 2008, I contemplated how effective my New Year resolution had been and It was then that I decided two things - I shall continue the resolution of not to waste food for the rest of my life.
I never believed that I would be able to keep up my resolution for one “long” year because I’ve seen a lot of people breaking their resolution in the very first week of New Year! But the sense of con-tentment it gave me whenever I had a clean platter, made me question myself, “If I can do this for one whole year, why not for the rest of my life?” After all, wast-ing or not wasting food is not confined to a particular year but for a lifetime! I shall not wait till the next New
Year to take another resolution. Every day is a new day, another chance to change. So why do you have to wait till the next New Year to change something which you can do right now? I deeply appreciate the fact that people take some time to reflect on their past and try to take some measure to bring about changes at the dawn of the New Year. But if they are taken for granted, then what’s the point in making one? So what’s your resolution???? Perhaps is it not to take one!!!!! Happy New Year folks!!!
Monisha Monikandan
Vice President—PR
CTC
“A creative person is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others”
11
Interview with Anirudh What does 2014 mean to you? Expecting 2014 to help me in fulfilling my dream
What is your 2014 New Year resolution? I am not used to it. I will take resolutions then and there if needed, without waiting for a new year
Any message for CTC members? You have taken a decision to be a Toastmaster. Please be regular to the meetings and do take up roles. I did it and I have improved a lot. If you want to know in what way I have im-proved, please contact me in person
CLUB MEMBER’S VOICE
You Hold The Key
You set your targets, accomplish it enjoy it. You hold the key for your life
It was a winter evening. I sat on a park bench near a fig tree, holding a Dairy Milk Silk. I saw some kids playing in the park, giggling and laughing enjoying every moment. I felt nostalgic as I thought back of my school winter vacations. Occasions and festivals are created by humans for the pursuit of happiness. The seasons carrying the festi-vals backpack ecstasy.
My avidity on Christmas every year was because of a portly, joyous, white-bearded man from North Pole with a large number of magical elves. This person visited my home every year on 25th December midnight when I am at sound sleep. But I have never seen him, because he was as quick as a lightning. When I wake up at morning, all I saw was a bag hanging in the window. On seeing the bag, I could feel my excitement bubbling up inside, my champagne cork getting ready to burst. The bag had gifts from pas-tries to video games, for which I craved throughout the year. If you can’t get whom I am talking about, his name
is Santa Claus.
When I was 10 years old I asked my grandfather “will Santa Claus visit me all through my life”, he smiled and replied “he will visit and endow you until you are a kid”. His words baffled me. I prayed that I should be a kid throughout the life. But 2 years later I became responsi-ble for bursting my own bubble.
My cousin who is older than me visited on a half yearly vacation. She told me that Santa Claus stories are myth and she started her investigations. On the day before Christmas she took me near a cupboard belonging to my mother, I went with her not knowing that she is going to take away the light of my life. She opened it and took a red coloured bag from it. And as I predicted the same bag was hanging in the window next day morning. And finally I ascertained who the Santa Claus was. like a fine mist disap-pearing in the morning, my innocence disappeared when I grew up and so I missed San-ta Claus.
My nostalgia broke off and I started jogging around the park. When I started jogging there was a 5-6 year old kid who was wearing a government school uniform also started to run. He just started behind me, overtook me and went ahead of me. He stopped when he reached the starting point and smiled at me. I had no clue what for he is smiling. He stood in the same place, but I continued and went ahead for my second round. He again started, over took, went ahead and reached. Again he smiled at me, this time pointing his two fingers towards the sky he was hopping and dancing, conveying that he
outpaced me twice.
By setting his own target and by accomplishing it, he is celebrat-ing it in every possible way. I learned from him that ‘happiness is not something ready made, It comes from your own actions’. All we need to do is to recognise the happiness like an innocent child and share it like a Santa Claus. I dropped the Dairy Milk which I was holding in my hand in his school bag when he was away from it and I left the park silently.
Santa Claus is back in town.
Ani Rudh
Vice President - Education
CTC
“Now and then it's good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy”
12
CLUB MEMBER’S VOICE
History of New Year Resolutions:
‘New Year Resolutions’ have been a part of human civilization since the days of Babylon. Babylonians celebrated it in what is now the month of March. The idea of ‘New year resolu-tions’ was later adopted in the Roman culture which celebrated it during the month of Janu-ary. January is named after Janus, the two faced roman god, one face looking at the old and the other at the new. But, in those days it was a period of celebration and revelry.
Later on as Christianity caught on, the same became a time for self-introspection. They were known as puritans. They reflected upon their character, attitude and behavior over the year that went by and resoled to become a better human being in the year to come.
How successful?
The really good idea of self-assessment and improvement may have caught on. But, how many succeed in achieving their resolutions? Research studies conducted on it say that most who take up such resolutions fail in it. But, there are some patterns noticed.
Those who set quantifiable (a measurable reference point) and time bound goals have been found to be far more successful than those who don’t. So, it’s better to make a New Year resolu-tion like,
“I am going to lose 5 Kg weight in the next 3 months”, than “I am going to lose weight”
To make a quantifiable and time bound goal to happen, one has to set a frame in which one will have to fit a plan, and thus once the plan is in place, one can focus on the execution.
A leaf from the great minds
The great Indian sages who lived centuries ago spent a sig-nificant amount of time in self-introspection. They realized that human potential is vast and we use so little of it. We shouldn’t be taking resolutions and acting upon it at some particular point in time. The more often we self-introspect, and the more we act upon it, the better we shall become.
Having said all that,
Wish you all a very happy and crazy New Year. Tu-Too!!
New year Resolutions – Origins & Motivations
A good idea of self-assessment and improvement. The motive is simply to motivate.
Bharath Raman
Member, CTC
Interview with Bharath What does 2014 mean to you? I see and feet lots and lots of transformations inside me and the society around me.
What is your 2014 New Year resolution? To try my best to understand people around me more by lov-ing them more than I did in pre-vious years.
Any message for CTC members? Try new things, ‘Experiment’; learn by failing again and again and again; Until one day you see the success.
My New year Resolution
I have been a spectator for a long time when It comes to sports. Come 2014, I will make myself ready for the Chennai marathon
Pratap Simha
Member, CTC
"Athletes, I'll drink to you, Or eat with you, Or anything except compete with you”
These are lines from Ogden Nash’s poem “Born to be a Spectator”. As a passionate spec-tator of sports, my biggest regret in life has been that I didn’t pursue competitive sports as much as I should have. My exploits in competitive sports are limited to being part of my school cricket team. For 2014, I have resolved to rediscover the athlete in me. I want to put my running shoes on and visit the gym every alternate day. I hope that my 2014 reso-lution would culminate in my participation in 10 kmrun of 2015 Chennai Marathon and I have set an ambitious target of clocking that distance within an hour.
Pratap Simha is a new member in CTC. He has already started his Competent Communication Projects and Competent Leadership projects. For him CTC is the right place as it gives him ample oppurtunities to participate and grow.
“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one
more time”
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UPDATES FROM CTC
COMMUNICATION
TRACK
The Toastmasters communi-
cation track has four levels and 10
speeches will be delivered at each
level. The levels are as follows,
Competent Communication
Advanced Communication Bronze
Advanced Communication Silver
Advanced Communication Gold
(4 stages abridged as CC, ACB, ACS, ACG)
CTC Communication Tracker
Coromandel Toastmasters is a
young club comprising two mem-
bers DTM Satish & DTM Jayan as
the torch bearers of the CTC.
They have completed all the 4
stages and have achieved the
Distinguished Toastmaster status.
TM Arun & TM Madhavan have
completed their ACB and stepped
into ACS.
TM Monisha is pursuing her
ACB.
CTC has many budding com-
municators who are well guided
by other toastmasters in their pur-
suit to complete competent com-
munication manual.
“A picture is worth a thousand words”. It is true for the graphs which depict the up
surging toastmaster journey of our members.
Opportunities at galore, the CTC toastmasters are steadily climbing the competent
communicator and competent leader ladder .
CTC STATISTICS
Budding Toastmaster in action
“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream”
14
UPDATES FROM CTC
LEADERSHIP TRACK
The Toastmasters Lead-
ership track has 3 Leadership
levels ,
1. Competent leader
2. Advanced leader bronze
3. Advanced leader silver
(3 stages abridged as CL, ALB,
ALS)
CTC Leadership Tracker
Coromandel Toastmasters
Club has two members (DTM
Jayan, DTM Satish) who have
completed their ALS level.
One member (TM Arun) is
pursuing ALS
Two members (TM Madhavan
& TM Monisha) are pursuing
ALB. 3 more members (TM
Rajesh, TM Sakthi Prasanna,
TM Anirudh) also met their CL
requirements recently.
About 20 members of the club
have been participating ac-
tively to meet their CL re-
quirements.
CTC’s STATISTICS
Leadership role at CTC starts from
arranging the chairs and cleaning them to
taking up meeting roles like Timer, ah
counter, TMOD et al. And as they climb up
the leadership ladder, roles like editor for a
newsletter, mentoring a member are tak-
en. One gets a spectrum of leadership
opportunities when he organizes events at
club / area / division / district level
Leadership role - Arranging chairs
Leadership Role - Grammarian
B S
“The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched - they must be felt
with the heart”
15
UPDATES FROM CTC
TOASTMASTER OF THE
MONTH AWARDS
NOVEMBER 2013
OCTOBER 2013
CTC’S HALL OF FAME
The spirit of healthy competitiveness brings the best out of CTC members.
Every week we see new heroes emerge at the club.
Congratulations to winners!!!!
NEW MEMBERS INTRODUCTION
We always love to have new members in CTC because they add new flavour
and energy to make us strong. The following are the new members who have
joined recently.
1. TM Chandrashekar 2. TM Pratap
3. TM Velmurugan 4. TM Satya
5. TM Sneha (transfer)
We wish you a wonderful toastmasters journey at CTC!!
Anirudh
Animesh Shah
“Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can”
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EXECUTIVE COMMITEE
President
TM Madhavan V [email protected]
Vice President Education
TM Anirudh [email protected]
Vice President - Membership
TM Naresh B [email protected]
Vice President Public Relations
TM Monisha M [email protected]
Secretary
TM Karthikeyan K [email protected]
Treasurer
TM Harikumar A [email protected]
Sergeant at Arms
TM Rajesh K [email protected]
Details of club
Toastmasters international
Our Address:
Sitadevi Garodia Hindu Vidyalaya,
Kalamegam Street Extension,
Tambaram, Tamil Nadu – 600045
Meeting Time:
Saturdays, 5:15 pm to 7:00 pm
We now accept articles for January 2014 newsletter
Write for us and mail it to,
CTC’s Distinguished Club Program Status
Toastmasters International sets 10 requirements for clubs to achieve different levels or goals in the Distinguished Club Program in each club year (July to June). A club will be given status like,
Distinguished Club - If 5 requirements are met
Select Distinguished Club - If 7 requirements are met
President’s Distinguished Club - If 9 requirements are met
DCP requirements and CTC’s status,
Achieved requirements are highlighted in green
1. Two Competent Communicators
2. Two More Competent Communicators
3. One ACB, ACS or ACG
4. One more ACB, ACS or ACG
5. One CL, ALB, ALS or DTM
6. One more CL, ALB, ALS or DTM
7. Four new members
8. Four more new members
9. Four officers trained at each COT
10. Membership renewal and Club Officer list submitted on time
Our current score: 5 points.
We’ve earned Distinguished Club status!!
“Life is what we make it, always has been, always will be”