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District: 41

May/2013

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

1 District Governor’s

Musings

2 Interview of PastInternational President, DTMPat Johnson

3 Interview of RegionAdvisor – Region 13 DTMNagraja Rao

4 Interview of HumorousSpeech Champion District 41- TM Romeo Ningombam

5 Interview of SpeechEvaluation Champion District41 - TM Shalini Sharma

6 DTMs of the current year

7 Triple Crown Winners ofthe current year

TOASTMASTERS INTERNATIONAL

NEWSLETTER

District Governor’s Musings

Fellow Toastmasters,

We are extremely happy to publish the latest issue of Expressions-41.

We are crisscrossing the length & breadth of India attending all the divisionconferences & we are glad that all the conferences are greatly successful sofar. We had planned to groom new leaders & we had issued guidelines tocreate the next level of leadership by giving a chance to become ContestChair, Chief Judge and Conference Chair; to Toastmasters who had notplayed that role at that level so far. That created some 50 odd new leadersacross the district.

We would also like to recognize the new Distinguished Toastmasters ofDistrict 41 (Please find the list of new DTM’s on page 19)

We had urged you all to complete one educational award and oneleadership award each year. Some of you have gone ahead and completedthree awards or more so far in the current Toastmasters year (Please find the

list of triple crown winners on page 20)

Several Toastmasters have completed at least one award this year. Are youone of them?

Several clubs have reached Distinguished Club status and above, Is yourclub one of them?

If not, we still have 2 more months in the current TM year. You can stillachieve that even now!

District-41

Executive Committee

District GovernorVinay Jain

Lt. Governor forEducation &Training:Prasad Sovani

Lt. Governor forMarketing:Ritu Arora

We have added several new clubs in the current year and even put new cities on the Toastmasters map.Cities such as Allahabad, Barmer, Bhopal, Lucknow, Patna, Raipur, Tirupati have started their first TMclubs. We also want to start new clubs in other newer cities such as Agra, Guwahati, Jammu, Mapusa,Ranjangaon, Surat, Vadodara, Vijaywada, etc.

We seek your help in getting your friends, relatives in these cities to join Toastmasters and get theseclubs formed. If you know even one person in these cities, please let us have their contact details so thatwe can consolidate that data and work on chartering these clubs.

Oration 2013 is round the corner and we are set to cross 700 registrations for this, making it the largestconference in India so far. Please be there to cheer the contestants from your divisions! But, theInternational Speech Contest and Table Topics Contests are not the only reason to be in Hyderabad.Besides the contests, you have a great networking opportunity to rub shoulders with other Toastmastersfrom different cities. You will have to be present at the District Council meeting to elect the new leaders ofDistrict 41 and of course, we have got some great trainers lined up for you. We have several trainers fromIndia who will train us, but someone from USA will come to India especially for us.

Darren LaCroix, the World Champion of Public Speaking, 2001 will be there to teach his secrets of contestwinning!

So, be there to learn from the Masters and network with fellow Toastmasters!

Yours in Toastmasters-Vinay Jain, Prasad Sovani and Ritu Arora

uddingl@gmail.com

DTM Pat Johnson, Past

International President –Toastmasters International(2010-2011) believes that sheis a better community member,parent, employee, leader, friendand manager because of whatshe has learned inToastmasters.

She is working as AssistantDirector for Business Educationat the British Columbia PensionCorporation in Victoria, BritishColumbia, Canada.

You may write to her atpatthetrainer@shaw.ca

Achieving Greatness Together

DTM Pat Johnson

Q: How & when did you join Toastmasters?A: I joined Toastmasters in the year 1983, after being terrified by myfirst experience of public speaking. It took me a number of monthsbefore I got there to investigate about Toastmasters, but fortunatelywhen I attended the first meeting, I discovered a very welcomingenvironment. I found a home, I found my tribe. When I look back at itnow, I feel blessed.

Q: Pat Johnson in the year 1983, scared of introducing senators,& Pat Johnson in the year 2010, the fifth woman InternationalPresident of Toastmasters (and first from Canada), whatmotivated you to consistently excel in such a long journey?A: I think there are many factors which kept on motivating me for sucha long time- let me touch base with some of them. First of all I believethat this is an education programme, and I never lost sight of the factthat I came here to learn. I think the variety of people in Toastmastersand the experiences they bring to Toastmasters has kept me veryinterested.

I went through ups and downs as people do, and I think some peoplebecome non members in such phases. But I always kept myselfengaged. I started with stages where I wanted to just enhance myconfidence, and express my thoughts, give voice to things I wasthinking about.

Shortly after joining Toastmasters, I attended the district conference,and I met International Directors at the very first district conference. Iwas immediately exposed to the big world of Toastmasters, so I knewwhat existed out there. And as I am a curious person, that makes me alifelong learner.

I visited many clubs in my District as an Area Governor; I gotrecognised as the Area Governor of the year. So that was hugelyencouraging to me a person who was shy, lived in a very smallcommunity, and did not have much opportunity.The first six years were easy to stay involved in because I achieved myfirst DTM, I chartered a new club and I helped clubs which were failingin very small communities. And in the mean time, I never missed asingle District Conference, or the District Executive Committee meetingevery month.

I was so hungry to learn, and Toastmasters provided challenges oneafter another, which kept me motivated. In the bargain I made manyfriends and mentors.

Q: As a woman, how do you think we can increase more participation of women inToastmasters? In Region 13 or specifically in India where it is very less compared to globalstandards.A: This is a very challenging question. I think it’s a culture based, this challenge is not only in India but invarious regions of the world. In my opinion, as women grow in the organization they can invite morewomen.

There are role-models; I think we need to put them on the forefront of Toastmasters. We can targetwomen organizations, where they naturally get together. When I was in South Africa, I went to a numberof women networking events. We promoted Toastmasters specifically to business women participating innetworking events.

We need to share more and more stories about women in Toastmasters, and about the kind of valueaddition Toastmasters did in their lives.

Q: What did you learn from the leaders in Toastmasters before you became InternationalPresident in 2010-2011?A: The list of learning’s from fellow Toastmasters is huge, but I would like to mention a few things Ilearned from leaders in Toastmasters

Lead with your heart: You need to be a heartfelt leader, true to your calling.Importance of being a careful listenerBeing able to take a very complex discussion of many people and condensing it down to a keyselling point.Stay true to your values but never lose your sense of humour.People, that’s what really matters.

Pat Johnson with District 41 leaders Prasad Sovani, and Vinay Jain

Q: Please share some your best achievements as an International President of ToastmastersInternational.A: One of the things that I deeply thought about while running for International President wasGlobalization. At that time we were not regionalised, and I strongly felt that Toastmasters shouldbecome a global organization.

We needed a two thirds vote at the international convention for initiating the process of Regionalization. Isaid that if we do not do this, Toastmasters would cease to exist.

I feel honoured that I was in the executive committee. I think that was the greatest moment in myToastmasters journey. I was a part of huge team which brought it into reality.

Another equally important thing was rebranding to reach to new communities and new demography.

Q: Your message to leaders in Toastmasters.A: If we feel something is important, we can find the time and the resources. Not having funds andresources is just an excuse.

Pat Johnson with Michal Notaro, Toastmasters International President 2011-12

We need to share more and more storiesabout women in Toastmasters, and about thekind of value addition Toastmasters did in theirlives.

dingl@gmail.com

DTM Nagraj Rao is Region

Advisor for Toastmasters Region– 13 which includes clubs inIndia, Sri Lanka, China, Japan,Korea and Taiwan.

In Toastmasters he has heldmany positions such asPresident Distinguished DistrictGovernor (2010--11),Toastmasters International,D82. Lt. Governor Educationand Training - ToastmastersInternational, District 82 (Indiaand Sri Lanka) 2009-10. AndDivision B Governor,Toastmasters InternationalDistrict 82 (2006-2007)

He is currently working asExecutive Director at Bayer’sGanesh Food Products.

You may write to him atnagarajdtm@gmail.com

Practicing the art & science of coffeemanufacturing & public speaking.

Insights from Region 13 – Region Advisor

DTM Nagraj Rao

Q: How & when did you join Toastmasters?A: December 2001. Mr.Arjun Raj Urs, who was in our office for atraining program for our staff, was waxing eloquent abouttoastmasters. Those days, I firmly believed that making time foranything other than business was a criminal waste of time and money.Arjun was so persisting that I decided to visit the club just once, only tomake him happy.

When I came to MCC on the first Monday of Jan 2002, it was theinstallation ceremony of the new team headed by Mr.E.K.Rajendran. Istepped into the conference hall with trepidation, as I knew no onethere. I was welcomed with broad smiles and firm handshakes.

What struck me was the ease in which they included me into theirgroup. In the next meeting, I was given a table topic. I surprisedmyself by speaking for one and a half minute, even though my wholebody was drenched in sweat due to nervousness. When they gave methe red ribbon, I was sure that they had made a mistake!

I continued attending the meetings out of curiosity. The projectspeeches were awesome. The depth of understanding and scope ofknowledge of meconians were mind blowing. Every meeting waseducative, informative and interesting. Before I knew it, I was hooked!

Q: Please tell us about your profession?A: After getting my engineering degree in Electronics andTelecommunication, I began my career in the coffee industry in 1988. Iam currently the Executive Director of Bayar’s Ganesh Food ProductsPvt. Ltd., managing its Resources, Operations, Business Developmentand Strategic planning.

Our company is one of the leading manufacturers of Roast and GroundCoffee in India. The company has successively won the prestigious‘Best Roaster Silver Award’ during the India international Coffee festivalin 2009 and 2012. It is the first Indian coffee company to haveachieved the ‘Class ‘A’ BRC” certification. Bayar’s has been chosen asthe sole manufacturer of coffee for café chains Costa Coffee, Au BonPain and Dunkin Donuts in India.

Q: You are working as a Director of a coffee company for twodecades, how Toastmasters has helped you in your profession?A: Toastmasters has added immense value to my professional life. Thefirst important benefit I derived from the program was an increase inmy listening ability. I am now able to listen to others without having anongoing mental conversation inside my head. That has enabled me to

respond precisely and effectively. I am able to think more creatively because of my extensive experiencein mentoring, evaluating and judging hundreds of speeches and the ideas contained in them. TheToastmasters journey has also helped to make a transition from being a manager to a leader.

Q: What is your role & responsibility as a Region Advisor for Region 13?A: Region advisors help in the growth of Toastmasters International. Every region is assigned one RegionAdvisor. As Region Advisor for Region 13, my primary role is to help increase clubs and members. Isupport district leaders in a number of ways such as district operations like district success planning, inidentifying marketing strengths and needs of the district, developing and mentoring future district leaders,facilitating district leader training held at the International Convention and at mid-year.

Region 13 consists of clubs in India, Sri Lanka, China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan. I have to visit all thesedistricts at least once and present a training program during their conferences.

Q: What is your vision for the fastest growing Region (Region 13) in ToastmastersInternational?A: I visualise that every city in Region 13 will have at least one toastmasters club and by the end of 2025,the World Headquarters of Toastmasters International will shift to India!

Q: How was the experience of managing District 82 as a District 82 Governor (July 2010 toJune 2011)?A: It was an awesome experience! Leading two districts (41 and 82) with 14 divisions, 64 areas spread allover India and Sri Lanka was a daunting responsibility! The geography was vast, the issues were complexand time consumed was enormous. But it was fun! I had a fantastic team of leaders working with me andwe solved 99% of all problems with collaboration and creativity. All of us gave our best and the result wasthere to see: We emerged #1 for the 4th consecutive year and created a world record!

Q: As a region advisor for Region 13, you must be travelling a lot, how do you manage work lifebalance? Does Indian family system help you?A: Yes, I need to travel at least once a year to all districts and of course for the mid- year and Yearlyconvention. Otherwise all other meetings are conducted via Skype or GOTO meeting online. I had takentwo years off from active toastmasters after my DG role to streamline my business. With proper planningand delegation, it is possible to do justice to both my roles as Executive Director and Region Advisor. I amthankful to my partners who understand my passion for toastmasters and are willing to step in whenever Ineed help. I have 2 teenage daughters and my wife is a very capable homemaker which is a huge blessingfor me.

Q: To manage the rapid growth of Toastmasters in Region 13, we surely need more leaders.Please let us know your thoughts & vision in this regard?A: Most people who join toastmasters consider their journey complete the moment they get their CC orthey become club presidents. It is sad because the best is yet to come and they miss out on that!

Sometimes the most capable people do not volunteer to take up higher roles because they do not havethe time! What is not obvious is the fact that by performing leadership roles, people change from theinside. This inner transformation makes them better husbands/wives, better bosses, better parents andbetter team-players. There is an enhanced quality of life because you become adept at conflict resolution.We need to identify the right people and groom them as leaders not only for the benefit of toastmastersbut for the society as a whole. A measure of success for present leaders is how many future leaders theycan identify and develop.

Q: Please share one advice for all Toastmasters leaders at various levels.A:

Never, ever demean a person- you cannot undo the damageEvery speaking assignment is an opportunity to convey something meaningful – don’t waste it.Every leadership role is an opportunity to discover something about yourself – don’t miss it.Your words carry power – don’t underestimate it

Q: Toastmasters must have brought numerous changes in your life. But tell us about oneimportant change in your life after you started with Toastmasters?A: Because of toastmasters, I made an important self-discovery. I found out that I am happiest when Icontribute towards increasing the self esteem of people around me. I now look out for opportunities to‘Recognize’ people and bring their positive attributes to their notice.

Nagaraj Rao with Michal Notaro, Toastmasters International President 2011-12, and Pat Johnson, Toastmasters InternationalPresident 2010-11

I visualise that every city in Region 13 willhave at least one toastmasters club and by theend of 2025, the World Headquarters ofToastmasters International will shift to India!

This is an interview with

winner of District 41Humorous Speech Contestheld in Kolkata on 3rd –4th Nov 2012. RomeoNingombam presented aspeech titled “An IdeaCalled India”. Click here toenjoy the speech onYouTube.

Romeo is a Secretary ofMicrosoft HyderabadToastmasters Club, & he isassociated withToastmasters since June2012.

He is working as a CRMsoftware developer inMicrosoft Hyderabad.

You can send yourcomments, feedback, orsuggestions toromeo.ningombam@gmail.com

An Idea Called India

Romeo Ningombam

Q: Please tell us in brief about yourself, how & when you joinedToastmasters?A: I am currently working as software developer in Microsoft Hyderabad. Myhome state is Manipur. I am secretary for Microsoft Hyderabad Toastmasterclub.I wanted to join toastmaster since long time in order to overcome my fear ofspeaking in front of crowd and more importantly to improve my ability tocommunicate effectively. But somehow I delayed. In June 2012, there wasan icebreaker contest in my club and I took that as first step. I didn’t come intop 3 in the contest but that was a good start.

Q: Have you always loved presenting humorous speeches, or arehabitual of adding humor in all the speeches?A: Before the contest I had just completed Project 2 from CC manual. InProject 1 I attempted to use humor in my speech, but since it was my firstspeech I was not so sure if it would work. In my Project 2 I tried to add lot ofhumor. Some humor worked well but some didn’t because of my poordelivery like lack proper pauses, fast pace, & accent problem etc. But thatspeech was a start of my humorous speech and my club seniors startedseeing me as humorous speaker.

Q: How you started preparing for contest? Have you presented samespeech across all the levels (Club to District)?A: I started my preparation one week before the club level contest. Actually Ihad no plan to participate in humorous speech competition. It was at theinsistence of Padma, (my club senior and division H governor) that Iparticipated in the humorous speech contest at club level. My speech titlewas “Being Romeo” and I spoke about how toastmaster’s skills would help inbecoming a successful Romeo (meaning dating girls). Spoke about how toplay the role of timer, evaluator, general evaluator etc. while dating girls.Well a typical topic for humorous speech. After club level I started becomingserious. Attended few other area level contest and I realized I needed towork a lot on my speech. I gave the improved version of the same speech atthe area level contest but I came 2nd. Coming 2nd at area level was ablessing in disguise.

At my area contest, I realized that most of the people spoke about relation,love or partner and mine was no different. Moreover no point repeating thespeech I lost. So I decided to change my speech and started thinking ofdifferent kind of speech even though I just had two weeks for the division.

I took around one week to fully form the idea of the final speech “An idea called India”. One week beforethe contest I just had the idea and the structure but the speech was not ready. With the help of mymentors and friends, I made it to a full fledge humorous speech. I gave one final demo in my clubmeeting just 2 days before the division contest. I was modifying the speech even the morning of thecontest. Somehow it was well received at the division contest.

Q: Had you done any audience analysis specific to Hyderabad & Kolkata? Did you make anychanges in speech presented in Hyderabad, & speech presented in Kolkata?A: Yes I modified my speech a little bit. In Hyderabad, the division level contest venue was Microsoft. Iadded a part in apple people as Microsoft is a competitor of Apple. I added a small part for Kolkata. Forresonance the guests had two options for staying - one was expensive hotel, the Swissotel and anotherwas cheaper budget hotel. I used that as comparison between mango people and apple people. I chosetwo persons who are known to almost everyone in the audience. Reet Arora, an owner of iphone wasobvious choice for apple people and I chose Mubeen, who was staying in budget hotel, for mango people.

At Kolkata, one major unplanned change was the conclusion. I was supposed to use power pointpresentation showing national flag, Sachin Tendulkar, Indian Jawans and then finally a gorgeous picture ofKatrina Kaif. The picture of Priyaka Chopra (I didn’t get Katrina Kaif’s picture) was just the backup in casethe power point didn’t work. Unfortunately due to some technical issue, the power point didn’t work thatday and so I resorted to the back-up plan.

Q: Please let us know about your mentor? How important is the role of mentor while preparingfor highest level (District Level)?A: I was lucky I got mentored by two of the best humorous speakers. I took help of RajashekherMamidanna, a professional stand-up comedian and winner of district 82 Humorous speech contest, 2011and Shashank Bhavaraju, 1st Runner in district 41 Humorous speech contest, 2011.

Without their help, I would not have won this contest. I learned many valuable lessons from them andtook help reorganizing the structure of the speech, delivery, choice of the right jokes, body language etc. Ithink one should definitely have a mentor. In a contest like that in district level, every small thing matters.One needs an experts view. For example, Shahank advised me to end in humorous note. So we decided toend with a film star picture.

Q: Along with mentor, who else assisted you in preparing for District Level contest?A: In fact, I took help from entire Hyderabad toastmasters. As practice for my district, I took speakingslots in different club meetings and gave the same speech. I told the audience that it was the speech Iwas going to give at resonance 2012 at Kolkatta, and asked for feedback.

I took each of the feedbacks seriously and implemented all those I can. For example one audience gave afeedback that I was smiling at some of my jokes, which sometimes is not appropriate. I consciously triedto avoid that in next practice speech.

I remember the night before the district contest. There was a final practice session in front of theHyderabad team in budget hotel. I even wore the dress I was going to wear the next day. I got feedbacksas minute as the timing of taking out the iphone from pocket, breaking coconut, hand movement etc. Thatwas indeed one of the best practice sessions.

Q: One of the brilliant things you did in your speech is pauses, all the pauses won applause.Please tell us how you practiced for it? Was it written-documented in your written speech?A: Pause is one of the most important aspects of humorous speech delivery. We should give time foraudience to digest the joke. For example Poonam Pandey joke, people took 2-3 seconds to start laughingat the joke. So I needed a pause. One very powerful humorous speech technique is to throw somethingincomplete to the audience and let them imagine themselves. It increases their involvement to yourspeech. For example, in my speech the phrase “but LMAO!!…” (I didn’t complete the sentence). In suchcase we need to give enough time to laugh at their imagination.

Q: You come from North East region of India, & have mentioned about your thick accent. Manypeople in Toastmasters encounter this challenge to reduce their regional accent, & make itneutralize. How did you do it?A: Accent was one of the biggest challenges for me. One technique used is I recorded my practice onphone as well as camera and then listen to the speech. I find some words were not clearly pronouncedand some syllables in a word need to be stressed. I consciously improved on them next time.

Another way is choice of proper words to fit my accent. For example in my speech I replaced the originalphrase “the product of great liberalization policy” with “the result of great globalization policy”. Themeaning is almost the same, but the latter fits my accent better.

Q: Many of Toastmasters are afraid of cracking humor in speeches, because they are not surewhether audience would laugh on the humor. While preparing for contest, & documenting yourpauses had you planned for such scenarios? How you thought of tackling such scenarios?A: There are two important things - one is the complexity of the joke. People don’t laugh if they don’tunderstand that joke. Another is appropriateness of the joke- some joke might be too vulgar or too grossfor the audience.

I tried to make most of the jokes simple for the audience. The Poonam Pandey joke, I was not sure ifpeople would understand it so easily and I was little skeptical about the appropriateness. I anyway tookthe risk.

While delivering I stressed (even repeated some phrase), slowed down and gave proper pauses so thatpeople understand it. I also had another back up sentence, in case anyone doesn’t understand the joke. Inmy division speech, many people didn’t get LMAO joke because they didn’t understand the full form ofLMAO and I didn’t give them the full form. So I explicitly state the full form in Kolkata. SO my advice is incase if u think, audience may not understand your joke, have a back-up sentence.

The best way to tackle such situation is to just experiment. In one part of my division level speech, I triedto enact Sachin Tendulkar (just body language without much word) but no one understood. So I decidedto drop that part for district level speech.

Q: Who are your favorite stand-up comedians? Any plans to be the one?A: Raju Srivastava is my favorite stand-up comedian. Recently I saw Vipul Goyal and Nithin Gupta. I likethem too.

I have no plans to do stand-up comedy. I want to be motivational speaker and speak on various socialcauses.

Q: Are you also playing any role in Oration 2013? Or contesting in any competition?A: Being a member of host city for Oration 2013, i am volunteering myself for the Oration 2013. But I am not contestingin any competition. I would definitely love to participate in Table topic and International speech contest next time.

Q: Has your life changed after becoming Champ in humorous speech contest? Have you beencalled as a trainer (may be for “How to use Humour in your speeches”)?A: Oh yeah. Life has been quite busy after winning humorous speech contest. I have been going to manyclubs in various events to give my speech. But unfortunately due to busy work schedule I could go to onlysome clubs events.

Yes I have been giving training sessions about how to add humour in speeches. But one thing abouthumour is one thing does not fit all the speeches. So I love mentoring one-to-one rather than presentingtraining programmes to broader audience. I mentored some contestant in International speech contestand helped them discover their style. I love it.

Pause is one of the most important aspects ofhumorous speech delivery. We should givetime for audience to digest the joke.

This is an interview with

winner of District 41Evaluation Contest held inKolkata on 3rd – 4th Nov2012.

Shalini Sharma is memberof Toastmasters since last1.8 years, & currently sheis Hon. Treasurer ofDeloitte HyderabadToastmasters Club.

When we asked her acrucial question“Evaluation for impressingthe judges or expressingyourself?” she candidlyreplied that evaluation isfor improving the speech.

You may write to her atshalisharma@deloitte.com

Evaluate to express and not to impress

TM Shalini Sharma

Q: Tell us in brief about yourself? How & when did you joinToastmasters?A: I work for the Consulting practice of Deloitte and through campusinterview I got recruited for this profile.

In my Post-Graduate days I was an avid debater and visited many colleges totake part in Parliamentary Debates. That is where my interest in publicspeaking grew and I wished to continue it even in the corporate world.

Toastmasters came as a blessing when I heard about the Deloitte HyderabadToastmasters Club. It helped me keep alive my love for public speaking andalso provided opportunities to attempt forms I never thought I will.

I joined almost immediately, as soon as I heard about the club and I plan tobe a Toastmaster for a long time to come.

Q: How do you think that Toastmasters is helping in your personallife?A: Toastmasters is like one big family. Some of my closest friends areToastmasters.

Joy of meeting and getting to know people from different walks of life hasmade a whole lot of difference in the way I socialize and interact with people.I have imbibed qualities such as listening, rationalizing and evencommunicating better in my day to day life.

Q: How do you think that Toastmasters is helping in yourprofessional life?A: I can list many ways in which Toastmasters has made me a betterprofessional. Be it the confidence while giving presentations, the team-workthat goes into running the club, multi-tasking between club activities andclient work or the network of like-minded individuals, Toastmasters offers alot to learn from.

Q: How did you feel after your very first evaluation in Toastmasters?A: Delivering the first evaluation was unnerving without doubt. I wondered ifmy suggestions really helped the speaker at all. I remember taking feedbackfrom some of my fellow Toastmasters in the room after the meeting andeveryone encouraged me saying that with some practice I can be a goodevaluator.

One of the senior Toastmasters even suggested that I take part in theEvaluation contest. That was an encouraging start.

Q: Out of all the Evaluations you have done in the Toastmasters (Club-Meetings, variousContests), when did you feel that you had a major learning out of evaluation?A: One Evaluation that I learnt a lot from was the one at Division level (Divisions F and H). It introducedme to speaking in front of a large audience; I competed with some of the best Evaluators from Hyderabadand learnt a lot from observing the way they delivered their evaluations. It was at the Division level that Idiscovered the evaluation style that suits me best.

Q: How did you prepare yourself for the District-level Evaluation Contest?A: Right after I won at the Club level evaluation contest, I tried to do as many evaluations as possible. Iwanted to listen to as many different types of speeches as I could and analyze them in many differentways. I attended all the Area-level contests of Divisions F and H (except two) and observed the differentapproaches to Evaluation.

I watched videos online and spoke to some senior Toastmasters to get a perspective of how an evaluationmust be delivered and what aspects of a speech must be observed. Between the Division and District levelcontest, I shifted my focus from giving evaluations to what goes into making a good speech. I evendelivered a speech during this period.

Q: How did you feel when you were announced as the Winner of the District Level EvaluationContest?A: It was overwhelming. I was in disbelief for a few seconds but the cheer all around me helped meabsorb it almost instantly and it was an incredibly happy moment for me to walk on to the stage toreceive that trophy.

Q: Tell us which things one can do on a consistent basis for being a good evaluator?A: The primary aim of an evaluator must be to help the speaker to improve (even if it is just by oneaspect). It is important for an evaluator to identify the core purpose of the speech and the reason why itwas delivered to be able to suggest further improvements.

Some speeches are meant to be simple and some need exaggeration and recommendations should begiven accordingly. Evaluation is the best way to keep in touch with your analytical side.

Performing at least one evaluation a month will not only help in progressing in our CL tracks but also ingaining more experience as an evaluator.

Q: Who mentored you for the District Level competition? Apart from mentors from where didyou get help?A: I received help and encouragement from a lot of Toastmasters of Divisions H and F. Some of them areTM Rajnish, TM Sita, TM Muddassir, TM Shashank, TM Harsh, TM Padma, TM Rajasekhar, TMChandrasekhar, TM Anoop, TM Khalid and many more.

Even Toastmasters from other Divisions like Deepak Menon and TM Mario shared few words of advice. TheToastmasters from A.P. at Resonance were the biggest pillar of support. They helped keep my cool andcheered me on at every step.

Q: In a competition, what should one do? Should one evaluate to express himself/herself or toimpress the judges?A: Evaluations are neither for the evaluator nor for the Judges. It is always for the speaker to improve thespeech.

The notable difference between delivering an evaluation during a meeting and a contest is to focus on thedelivery. The level of analysis and recommendations require a lot of focus in every evaluation you presentbut for a Contest, an evaluation must be presented like a speech itself with a beginning, body andsummary and that is the only bit done to impress the speaker, audience and judges.

The content should help the speaker to improve. Keep it brief but specific and focus on the most importantareas of improvement.

Q: Are you also playing any role in Oration 2013? Or contesting in any competition?A: Since I was a participant for International Speech Contest till the Division level, I did not take up anywork for Oration. Post that, I have been busy facilitating my move to Delhi in May end, so I haven’t hadtime to help the organizing committee. But I will surely be there to extend my help in every way possibleon the days of the event and to welcome Toastmasters from other cities to our very own Hyderabad.

Q: Has your life changed after becoming Champ in speech evaluation contest? Have you beencalled as a trainer (may be for “How to evaluate for beginners or experts”)?A: It’s been a good experience, the post ‘Champ-era’ if I may call it . I have certainly been morerecognized by fellow Toastmasters and a lot of people have even consulted me for feedback on theirspeeches. I have also given a few Evaluate to Motivate sessions to clubs in Hyderabad. It’s just nice toshare my ideas and feedback with people who have faith in them.

The primary aim of an evaluator must be tohelp the speaker to improve (even if it is justby one aspect). It is important for an evaluatorto identify the core purpose of the speech andthe reason why it was delivered to be able tosuggest further improvements.

DTMs of the current year(In alphabetical order, as on 8th May 2013)

Akshita Agrawal South Delhi Toastmasters New Delhi

Alfred Ravi Tauro Elan Toastmasters Hyderabad Hyderabad

Anuraag Awasthi East Delhi Toastmasters Club New Delhi

Brillian, S.K. Bombay Toastmasters Mumbai

Harsh Singhal Madhapur Toastmasters Hyderabad

Mohan Karambelkar Toastmasters Club of Pune Pune

Prasad Sovani Toastmasters Club of Pune Pune

Rajan Bhatia Toastmasters Club of West Delhi New Delhi

Ritu Arora Toastmasters Club of New Delhi New Delhi

Rukmini Iyer Thane Toastmasters Mumbai

Sabarigirish Kanjully Toastmasters Club of Pune South East Pune

Sangeeta Bahl Gurgaon Toastmasters Club Gurgaon

Deepak Menon Toastmasters Club of New Delhi New Delhi

Triple Crown Winners of the current year((In alphabetical order, as on 8th May 2013)

Agrawal, Akshita Nagpal, Gaurav

Arora, Ritu Naik, Sameer

Awasthi, Anuraag Nair, Sunil S

Bahl, Sangeeta S. Natu, Shailesh Sharad

Bhatia, Rajan Ohri, Sapna

Chakrabarty, Debaditya Panicker, Vinod Krishnan

Choudhary, Harmit Singh Raghavendra, Sriram Veera

DHUNDIA, CHAHITA Raheja, Harjinder

Fernandez, Kevin Rajvanshi, Sanchita

Gawade, Aishwarya S.K., Brillian

Goyal, Nachiketa Saini, Vrinda

Jain, Luvkesh Shah, Dharmesh D.

Jain, Vinay Shibu, Sheryl Prabha

Jeevan, Anupam Shrivastava, Arunima

Kanjully, Sabarigirish Shukla, Garima

Kantawala, Haider Singhal, Harsh

Kedia, Rahul Solanki, Jaideep

Kumar, Amit Soni, Rahul Kr.

Mahapatro, Anindya Soni, Safal

Mehta, Raj Sovani, Prasad

Menon, Deepak Taneja, Sameep

Mohandas, Mithun Tauro, Alfred Ravi

Tyagi, Parul

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