What is Toastmasters?

Toastmasters International is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping people improve their public speaking and leadership skills. The organization has existed for more than 75 years and has chapters in more than 50 countries.

While being a member I have meet many great friends and new people.  What I like most about Toastmasters is being able to listen to stories and providing critiques.  Although it is not the theatre, it really reminds me of watching and directing actors.  I also enjoy the chance to speak and inspire people to think critically and be engaged.  That in itself is a very good talent to grow because having the ability to communicate clearly publicly is a skill.  I know that in order to be the Director and Leader I want to be that I must be a great speaker that moves people; shaking the water to make splashes!

Some of you may or may not know that each prepared speech that is given in Toastmasters is evaluated by another member and a winner is chosen each night in three categories.

The winning categories are as follows:

1. Table Topics, where members are chosen at random to speak on a created topic and answer a question at the drop of a hat.
2. Best Speaker, members choose to speak on a prepared topic
3. Best Evaluator, members who evaluate the speakers

Having stepped up for the second time to do an evaluation for a speaker, I was pleasantly surprised to win Best Evaluator on April 13th!

The next week I decided to put my Voice and Movement skills together to do a class as my speech. I was able to lead a group of more than 30 people in a circle to do stretching exercises as well as basic voice training in a short 10 minute seminar. It was fun to see the group get involved in the process to enjoy themselves while learning to improve on their enunciation, volume and breathing.  The point of the class was to make members aware of their bodies as an instrument.  I wish I had a picture to show you what went on!

Last night on April 27th.  I took on the leadership role of Table Topics Master. As the TTM, I came up with a subject that pushed fellow members to use their imagination muscles to tell tall tales.  I was very happy to receive a lot of great responses from members telling me that I pushed the envelop with my topic just enough that made others have fun with what may be for some an uncomfortable subject.  This evening I was also presented with the Honor of becoming Toastmaster of the Month for my active participation during the month of April, presented to me by the chapters President Aye Aung.

Overall this month of Toastmasters has been great! And I look forward to participating in the months ahead.  If you are interested about learning more about my club the Westside Toastmasters visit www.westsidetoastmasters.com

Just saw Rango today and I liked it.  The story is about a chameleon who lives as a pet who uses his imagination to come up with different stories until his world finally becomes a reality when he is faced to deal with the harness of being in the desert alone without anyone to take care of him.  He finds himself in a whole new town called Dirt and realizes that he can be anyone he wants to be; nobody in the town knows him at all.

He creates a persona that the townsfolk in the saloon find intriguing and proves himself quickly with his first challenge with a hawk that has been tormenting the town.  This incident proves to the others that he is a hero and he is quickly promoted to be the town’s sheriff by the corrupt mayor.  Without giving to much away Rango finds himself to be the town’s savior during their water crisis and eventually is called out to be a fake, he leaves in shame only to find out that the story that he created is really his story and he must go back to the town to finish his story whether he lives or dies.

Watching the film was quite interesting, the rending of the scenes and the characters were quite beautiful; picturesque landscapes looked real.  Computer graphics have really come a long way and I can’t wait to see what the future holds.  Another great thing about the film was the voice acting of the characters.  Everyone was very unique and engaging; fantastic character design as well.  The film is homage to the spaghetti western, it was also slow at times but no matter the story moved along and captured Rango’s plight quite well.  What I took away most from the film was the message that you can be anyone who you want to be, but it is up to you to follow thorough and to find your inner passion that affects the other people who surround your life.

I’m very excited to see the film which is coming out on the 17th!  Make sure to go see it in IMAX 3D. Directed by Joseph Kosinski.