Public speaking engagement

[Diane CBPFC]

I joined Toastmasters this past fall, mostly because I am scared spitless when it comes to making speeches which are needed on occasion at the library where I am the board chair.

I am doing surprisingly good at it and have won one mini-speech contest and four table topics contest all of which are off the cuff. I do much better saying what is on my mind than I do with my written out first speeches.

Anyway the Town phoned me and asked me to emcee our towns pep rally for the Olympics this Friday – there will be five schools in attendance, a country music singer singing “O Canada”, the Mayor, and hopefully an MP of some sort to award a kid in our area his tickets to the Olympics for winning a writing contest. They are building a stage and there will be a balloon release – all in all - a pretty big gig for a newbe Toastmaster.

I get to hob-nob with the dignitaries afterwards at a luncheon.

My Aunty Mary is very proud.

[Jack]

That's amazing!

I have an Aunty Mary too!

Also, well done with the new career as an after-dinner speaker. Though I admit, I thought Toastmasters were a company that made toasters.

[Joan]

Wow, Diane!  Congrats!  We have a celebrity in our midst.  Good on you - I'm hopeless at that sort of thing.

[Diane CBPFC]

My fellow Toasmasters are helping me out tomorrow night at our usual meeting which instead has been made into a Pep Rally Headquarters as they don't wan't me to let the team down. They are already planning "seeding" the audience and laughing and clapping at the right places - bless their hearts.

Joan - I too am not much good at this type of thing - but will never get any better unless I "challenge the edge of my boundries".

[Tarquin Thunderthighs lll]

I reckon more than Aunty Mary is proud. And you can count us all in as well. Do you still have an English accent, Diane?

Maybe we could all record a little clip of our voices and post them here?

[The Peepmaster]

I'm impressed, Diane. I thought your new job at the library meant tidying the chairs and maybe putting books away. Making speeches is a whole new ball-game.

[Diane CBPFC]

Thanks Tarqs 

Peeps - I don't work at the library - I have just volunteered on the board for the past five years: doing programming, chess club, art show and workshops, Amnesty International events, community surveys, policy committee, staff safety, board workshops, working in book sales, writing club, Nanowrimos, assembling new shelving, hired librarians, goodbye parties, begging for money parties (thus the need for public speaking skills) etc.  Good grief - it does sound like work!

[The Peepmaster]

Thanks Tarqs 

Peeps - I don't work at the library - I have just volunteered on the board for the past five years: doing programming, chess club, art show and workshops, Amnesty International events, community surveys, policy committee, staff safety, board workshops, working in book sales, writing club, Nanowrimos, assembling new shelving, hired librarians, goodbye parties, begging for money parties (thus the need for public speaking skills) etc.  Good grief - it does sound like work!

Don't you tidy the chairs at all?

[Calvin]

Can't commend this enough,
I think it was a Seinfeld bit where he noticed that the #1 phobia was the fear of public speaking #2...#2 mind you, was death. So if you're at a funeral, more people would prefer to be in the casket than giving the eulogy.
Formally speaking in front of a group of people has paralyzed me my whole life, I know it held me back at school. I can hold my own in a group discussion, or contribute to a group brain storming (for want of a better phrase) session at work, but put me up front and centre and I'm a basket case.
I've always envied but admired those who could do it effortlessly. Even more so, those who couldn't, but strove to overcome it.

[Diane CBPFC]

Thanks Tarqs 

Peeps - I don't work at the library - I have just volunteered on the board for the past five years: doing programming, chess club, art show and workshops, Amnesty International events, community surveys, policy committee, staff safety, board workshops, working in book sales, writing club, Nanowrimos, assembling new shelving, hired librarians, goodbye parties, begging for money parties (thus the need for public speaking skills) etc.  Good grief - it does sound like work!

Don't you tidy the chairs at all?

Sometimes I give them a little wiggle.

[Diane CBPFC]

Can't commend this enough,
I think it was a Seinfeld bit where he noticed that the #1 phobia was the fear of public speaking #2...#2 mind you, was death. So if you're at a funeral, more people would prefer to be in the casket than giving the eulogy.
Formally speaking in front of a group of people has paralyzed me my whole life, I know it held me back at school. I can hold my own in a group discussion, or contribute to a group brain storming (for want of a better phrase) session at work, but put me up front and centre and I'm a basket case.
I've always envied but admired those who could do it effortlessly. Even more so, those who couldn't, but strove to overcome it.

Do you have access to a Toastmasters club Calvin? They don't push you before you are ready and the tips and support are great. It is good to see other people progress, it gives you confidence to think you can too. There are many smaller steps you can take before giving your first speech to get you used to be up at the podium - such as being the table topics master - sure you are there speaking, asking your questions, but it is the group that is on edge waiting to see who you will direct your question to. So you get a chance to stand there center stage so to speak while 3 or 4 other members do an impromtu speech.

If I were you I would give it a try. Its nice to know you can if you want to. 

The way I look at it is I have everything I need to be able to stand up and speak and it is only the little voice in my head says that I can't that is stopping me.

[Diamond Lil]

Diane I've said this before but you never cease to amaze me (smiley with a thumbs up)

[Malc]

Diane, I really admire people who overcome a natural shyness to get out there and speak in public, I know some people are genuinely terrified but somehow feel it's a lion to be tamed or a mountain to be climbed.

Well done!!

[Tarquin Thunderthighs lll]

'Ere, 'ere! Well said!

[Tarquin Thunderthighs lll]

See what I did there? Actually, Diane, and I mean this most sincerely (as a Canadian import was wont to say), from where I'm standing, you have all the attributes to be a truly excellent public speaker, in particular your wonderful sense of humour. In a forum with a disproportionate glut of professional humourists, alongside some very witty 'amateurs', you're the most consistently funny member in the ranks in my opinion. And what's more, it's all intentional, which is more than I can say for some of these bozos.