I have been a member of Toastmasters of Lincoln Park since August 2008. During the 2009-2010 year I am the Sergeant at Arms. This officer is mainly responsible for bringing the meeting materials, starting the meeting on time, and giving the introduction. This affords me the opportunity to improve my speaking at each meeting.

During each speech, an ah/um counter counts the number of verbal pauses during your speech. There is also a timer who will hold up a green card when you have a minute to go, a yellow card when you have thirty seconds, and a red card when your time has run out. There are ten speeches on the path of becoming a 'competent communicator'. All attendees have forms so they can evaluate the speakers, but one person (evaluator) is tasked with giving a speech at the end of the meeting about your performance.

My ToastPark Profile

#8 Get Comfortable With Visual Aids "ToastPark: Version 2.0"

I went over time again. It's rather difficult to give an application presentation and tutorial in under 7 minutes. I think it would have been best had I limited myself to no more than ten slides (I had 22). Unfortunately, this caused me to rush the ending and it jeapordized the comprehension of the last third of the presentation. Other than my time issues, I am happy with how I spoke and came across. I have definitely improved many aspects of my speaking so far. Overall I think this was my best speech so far and it provides me with the confidence to finish the next two speeches in spectacular fashion.
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#7 Research Your Topic "Possibilities"

This speech was five months in the making and it focused on the features of ToastPark. The club had just procured a slide changer and it helped quite a bit even though I forgot to plug it in. My main misstep for this speech was my time. I decided, during preparation, that I had to go over the limit to adequately present the application. So, I knew I was going to go over, but I didn't realize it would be 11 minutes. Though, the audience was transfixed and I didn't feel too bad about it. Unfortunately, my awareness of how much I had to fit into the time limit and how late I was running caused me to rush my speaking more than I would have liked. One evaluation sheet mentioned I should smile more, and after watching the tape, I realized this was very true. I will have to be sure to integrate moments of laughter, and go with the laughter, not just wait for it to stop when it happens. At the end I started clapping for some reason, I'll have to not do that again. I suppose I felt like I did a good job and wanted to give myself a round of applause. At 33 seconds, I saw sombody in the audience obviously holding back laughter and I almost started laughing myself. I did start stumbling over my words, but a few seconds later I was able to compose myself and remember not to look at that person.
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#6 Vocal Variety "Peace Be With Us"

Three days before the meeting, I noticed there was only one other speaker signed up for the meeting. I used that as motivation to come up with a topic for this speech. After a lot of brainstorming, I settled on a subject that turned out to be more emotional then I expected. I did a lot of things right in this speech. In particular, the importance of setting the tone and subject of your speech in the first sentence was reaffirmed. If I didn't make it very clear in the beginning that this was a serious speech, my reputation of being jokey on stage may have preceded me. Overall, I consider this my finest speech so far.
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#5 Your Body Speaks "These Feet Were Made For Walkin'"

This speech was inspired by my Look at them Shoes! musing. A month before giving this speech, I attended the area speech contest. There I saw five of the best speeches I have ever heard one after another. Those speakers inspired me reflect on all of my speeches and realize how much I can improve. From all of this, I committed to giving my best speech so far, and, in this speech, I accomplished that goal. The weakest part of all of my past speeches has been my structure. This time, I wrote my speech in a way where the transitions were very apparent. I have gotten to a point where my speaking has much improved, and from now on, I can focus on the finer details and continue the journey towards mastery.
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#4 How To Say It "The Last Microsecond Of The Most Fleeting Moment"

I didn't realize I was wearing the same style shirt as the Toastmaster until I uploaded this video. In the beginning I remarked 'Thank you coach' to the Toastmaster. This was a play on the March Madness theme where he was introducing the speakers as the starting lineup. This speech was the kind of improvement I was looking for over my last speech. I wanted to give a speech about a topic very sincere to me with a good bit of emotion. I definitely toe the line if not cross it when it comes to my energy level on stage. I am happy with this, because Toastmasters is not necessarialy about giving perfect speeches, but about practicing in a supportive environment where you can experiment with the exremes of your oratory. My transitions were not as smooth as I wanted since I didn't have a framework in place to help the audience follow along; I will improve this in my next speech.
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#3 Get To The Point "I'm Walkin' Here"

As you can tell by the look on my face as I leave the stage, this speech was a real let down for me. I learned in this speech the importance of rehearsing and of not expecting responses or any other external input that you have no control over. Overall I had too much to say and not enough time to say it. The speech was unstructured and it felt like a rant without a destination. I will be sure to practice my speech at least twice, develop a solid structure, and aim for the 5 minute mark as opposed to the 7 minute mark in future speeches.
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#2 Organize Your Speech "Perception of Large Numbers"

My goal with this speech was to experiment with my assumptions about preparation. In my first speech, I over wrote and over prepared. In this speech, I wanted to have, what I considered, a very small amount of notes and prepared dialog. I am still working on the correlation of the amount of content I have prepared and the length of the actual speech. This time, I filled out four note cards, of which, I got through about three and my time was a minute and some over. From this, next time I will compile a light list of key phrases and continue my improvisational fills between those. I will strive to no longer use notes or turn away from the audience even when using visual props. Overall I was very pleased with my performance, the funniest and wittiest parts were not designed that way but evolved from the open nature of my speech's structure. This was an excellent continuation of my progress and I am excited to give more speeches with what I have learned so far.

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#1 Icebreaker "5 years old"

The goal of this speech is to introduce myself to my fellow club members. I elected to give a summary of why I decided to join, a brief description of my life and what I expect to accomplish. I had a long speech prepared, but next time I will be sure to develop a speech that is composed of high level points where I can improvise the connections between them. My use of notes prevented me from constantly engaging the audience and forced me to pace back and forth. Feedback emphasized positively on my vocal variety, passion, stage presence, body language and eye contact.

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