President Emeritus Marsha Hunt, ATM and toastmaster Soraya Deen pulled on our heartstrings at the last meeting of WCTM, using every skill in the repertoire to transport us to other realms of social concern. One of the most effective techniques, as demonstrated by Marsha in her speech, "A Miracle Connection", is the use of a personal story. Further pursuing the topic of her speech, Marsha left last Friday for the bumpy roads of Uganda, where she is again going to the Ugandan parliament to do more lobbying. 

Soraya Deen, who hails from Sri Lanka, captured Best Speaker with her heart-felt speech number six about violence we find in the world and on the ubiquitous video screen. Soraya talked about how we can communicate with our kids about non-violence.

General Evaluator Rose Lane, DTM brought up an interesting issue in her meeting evaluation. She reminded us that evaluators should evaluate the speech technique, not the topic of the speech. The purpose of Toastmasters is to improve our communication skills, and the goal of an evaluator is not to endorse or condemn the speaker's viewpoint. 

Nevertheless, the very act of engaging the issues — whatever they may be — is an essential part of what we do. Toastmasters is a terrific place to form  what your opinion is about anything. In our media-saturated world, where so many others want to do our thinking for us, Toastmasters provides a unique forum to help us find out what our ideas and viewpoints really are, and present them with eloquence and style. 

Form and content are the "yin-yang" of any speech, so in addition to flailing your arms about and making good eye contact, you can best reach your audience with a well-developed and persuasive topic that is meaningful to you and others.  

As for our other speeches from February 10, Rebecca Shakib shared a fascinating (and profitable) tale of her real estate investments in her speech number two, and Dan Marzec, CTM probed the topic of success with well-chosen and humorous aphorisms in, "Motivate Yourself for Success," from the advanced humorous speech manual. 

Newer member Art Hugon took home best Table Topic when he engaged Topicmaster Vicki Vaughn, CTM with a story of his favorite holiday. 

Now, if you like empathic connections, you're sure to enjoy this coming Thursday's meeting, when Carolyn Goldman is going to ask us about our pets. With a full slate of icebreakers, and a total of five speakers scheduled, WCTM's next meeting is sure to bring both enjoyment and knowledge.                                                                        — JCG