September 22, 2008 Minutes

From Austin Toastmasters (Balcones, Club #3407)

Jerry Barrett opened our meeting by introducing the guest speaker David Brooks, 1990 Toastmasters World Speech Contest Winner. David Brooks’ vignettes led us though several points of speech writing and speech presentation. You can find out more at DavidBrooksTexas.com but here are some gems I grabbed hold of.

• It’s good to be nervous, to have a little nervous energy. Fear is your reason to be prepared. Good speakers do not “wing it.”
• Write down the purpose of your speech, succinctly enough to fit on the back of a business card. You’ll likely want to entertain, inform, inspire or persuade the audience on a topic. What do you want them to do, think or feel?
• The Gettysburg address was 286 words long, 189 of those were one syllable with an average 27.1 words per sentence. Google “Gettysburg address drafts” to find the prior editions of the speech and see what Lincoln took out. This speech is short enough to be a table topic!
• You should write your speech out. Then you can edit it. Lincoln once wrote a letter and at the end he wrote, “I would have written a shorter letter but I did not have the time.”
• After writing it out, don’t memorize it, internalize it. Memorization is “every word in the right order” and if you miss one, you think you have messed up. Internalization is “every idea in the right place.” This allows you to make the audience your focus, not your words.
• The progression of a speaker can usually be categorized as follows:
  • Average – concern about self – how do I look, feel and sound
  • Good – concern about message
  • Great – concern about audience
• Tell your story then take a “you” turn and take the point back to the audience.
• Keep your own personal story file. When ever something happens in your life that evoke fear, anger, happiness, surprise, sadness…. And one other… jot it down and put it into your file.

At the end meeting the guests were introduced. Guoen Wang and Nathan Mallone visited Toastmasters for the first time. Welcome. Silvestre Olvario returned for his second visit. And we were joined from Toastmasters from other clubs for this special presentation: Mirsa Douglass and Tim Curtis. (I apologize for any botched names.)