pulse : volume 2 – issue 2

Cover Story

Reverbs

Champions

OFFICIAL NEWSLETTER OF DISTRICT 82 | JANUARY 2016

An agenda from the International Convention 2015. Read more inside.

Calendar

Page 41

Page 33

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Page 3

They say - Great leaders discuss ideas, not

people.

“The leadership forum in Toastmasters is a

wonderful platform to discuss ideas, to

experiment one’s skills, implement their ideas,

identify their weakness, make mistakes and

learn from them”

We started off stating loud and clear what our

vision would be for this year - To make the

universal Toastmaster’s brand, a common

brand in Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka and

outreach ourselves into the 2nd and 3rd Tier

Cities.

With increased Media Publicity, diversified

initiatives, a broader segmented budget and

targeted marketing, we are slowly inching

towards making this dream a reality.

Our year started off with our CGD’s ambitious

project the CEO’s breakfast meet in Colombo. In

an effort to take the Toastmasters programme to

more organisations, a breakfast meeting was

organized for CEOs and Managing Directors of

leading organisations in Sri Lanka that do not yet

have Toastmasters clubs. The resonating

message of the morning was that fear and

inhibition of public speaking in corporate

executives is universal and more organisations

realise the value of the Toastmasters

programme for their people. Tasting success at

this brand new effort a similar but bigger

program is now also being planned in Chennai

In January 2016.

One of the other early actions that has also paid

off, is the change to the alignment in Areas and

Pulse | January 2016 |

Divisions. Majority of our clubs are now

realigned according to geographical location.

The Main objective in this move was to facilitate

Area Directors (AD) to visit their Clubs more

frequently by allocating clubs located within

close proximity to the AD’s home clubs.

This initiative was not without its share of

opposition from members as well as officers.

However, it has proven to be a very effective

initiative and we are seeing how this has

succeeded.

For the first time ever, we have established The

Toastmasters Leadership Institute (TLI) in our

District.

The Toastmasters Leadership Institute was

formed as a premier educational opportunity for

Toastmasters’ club officers, as well as the

membership at large. TLI’s have been

established in many districts across the world

and the role varies from creating basic

educational & leadership programs offered by

TMI, to conducting advanced training programs

with Keynote speakers from around the globe.

TLI in D82 has aimed to ensure that there is a

certain standard maintained in the training

programs. This has been achieved with various

efforts put in by a pool of qualified trainers and

by standardizing the training programs across

the Divisions.

Our PQD also took a step closer to our vision by

declaring a first of its kind, economical

registration of INR 2000 / LKR 4000 for

Reverberations 2015, including complementary

transport to and from Colombo. Not only has this

helped us reach to the many who dreamt of

being a part of the district conferences but for

the first time ever we have had over 35% first

timers attending the District conference.

Channelizing the effort, time and resources, we

stripped out some glamour and induced some

more

with the idea to make the conference more

meaningful and the Conference was a Mega

Success.

Every journey they say has a plethora of hidden

destination’s that reveal them to a seeking

traveler. I believe all of you and we are

embarking on a new journey, a journey that can

change our lives for the good.

I would like to recap on the 3 broad goals we

have set for the district this year.

Negate – With years of experience and growth,

some of our expenses at the district have

grown. This year, on common consensus, we

have decided to negate the expenses driven

towards some flamboyant district events and

practices and eliminate un-resourcefulness while

we divert those funds to better every member’s

experience.

Bigger budget but different spending focus

Expand – Having created a mark thus far in

District 82, we now aim to reach out to the most

deserving – the students and the youth, who can

benefit from our wonderful movement and

capitalize on the excellent program we have

early on & to anyone and everyone who wants to

overcome the fear of Public speaking.

Reaching out to remote areas and aiding sick

clubs is one of the top most priority this

year.

WE Model – With empowering, out-of-the-box

and customized training programs for our

leaders and member’s and an increased budget

to promote Toastmasters, Open New Club’s and

sustain the sick one’s, we wish to transcribe the

potential of the ME into the WE.

This year for the first time we are introducing

procedure’s to various programs. These

guidelines were developed to make your

toastmaster’s journey more pleasant because

you now are guided by some principles and

need not reinvent the wheel.



under leaders with various leadership styles.

Some were perfectionists, some visionaries,

some meticulous and some process driven. As I

rubbed shoulders with them all. I have learnt

from each one of their leadership styles and

developed my own. One thing that would be in

common for all of us is the phases our

leadership style will go through. Steep growth,

stagnation, confusion, delusion, criticism and

finally a little appreciation.

All in all, welcome to the fabulous community

where leaders are made;

Make a Choice, to take a Chance, to Change

your Life;

Come be part of the new beginning at District

82!

DTM Sastharam Ravendran

District Director

District 82

Toastmasters International

“The leadership forum in Toastmasters is a

wonderful platform to discuss ideas, where

newer leaders experiment, implement their

ideas, identify their weakness, make mistakes

and learn from them.”

With this platform there sure might arise

challenges and conflicting ideas because of the

diverse personalities

The opportunity to speak face to face, to put

constructive criticism to its real test and the

ability to man up and take 100% responsibility is

what will give a holistic growth and will help the

leader evolve.

Take this opportunity to discuss ideas, clear your

thoughts, relax your minds and of course make

new friends.

It is indeed a new beginning, a simple but a

promising beginning for the many stable years of

District 82 to come.

In my years as a Toastmasters I have worked

under

The district vision this year is “To make the

universal Toastmasters brand, a common brand

in Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka and outreach

ourselves into the 2nd and 3rd tier cities”, and my

team and I, are excited and geared towards

doing what it takes and what we do best, ensure

we deliver expected results, for this vision to be

affirmed.

We hope to achieve this by driving 3 strategic

pillars, with regards to member empowerment,

engagement and awareness. We will play a

pivotal role to cascade inter district information

to all members as well as amplify district and

Toastmaster initiatives to all non-Toastmasters,

in order to build the equity of the brand. This is

an amazing organization, that will be an enable

you, our members to achieve your dreams, out

team will be a medium to help facilitate that.

With regards to empowerment, the flyer of the

month has shown tremendous enthusiasm, with

creative content piling our mail boxes. The

beautifully illustrated newsletter and content full

FB pages, are capsuling and indeed a thrill to

visit and learn. We thank all members who have

gone the extra mile to stretch themselves and

more importantly, share learning for fellow

members.

This year engagement has been of paramount

importance, to ensure you get the most of your

experience, by engaging through our newly

revamped website, which is extremely efficient

in functionality and beautiful layout. A new

feature being the district blog has been

incorporated, for you to share your thoughts

further and reach a global audience, so take a

shot at it and shout out! If your ever wondering

what’s up with the district, don't look further as

youPulse | January 2016 |


you will receive a beautifully updated, succinct

summary of the district bulletin to your mail box

every month.

We need to ensure the brand name, is well

known to all, and TM will not be the best kept

secret, therefore many new initiatives stemming

from club level are given added ammunition from

our team, to execute and make the most of. The

YouTube channel will comprise of much learning

and also monthly talk shows from renowned role

models and figureheads. Oh, and by the way, we

are on Instagram!

While you learn and enjoy this exciting

experience, please ensure that branding and

guidelines related to branding need to be

carefully and meticulously adhered to. So take it

upon yourself to abide by their guidelines, so we

can have a healthy sustained growth of the TMI

brand.

With that, it gives me great pleasure to share my

thoughts. Make the most of your experience, and

do help us, to help you, make a difference in

your life and the people around you.

DTM Arshad Mohideen

District PR Manager

District 82


Web

Facebook

YouTube

Twitter

Issuu

Instagram

: www.d82.org

: facebook.com/D82Toastmasters

: District 82 Toastmasters

: twitter.com/d82tm

: issuu.com/tmi_district82

: @d82tm

Winning the championship although is a dream

came true, it was never my goal.

I love performing and it fills me with joy to

perform to a much larger audience, and my

participation in the championship allowed me

that, the winning was just an extra bonus.

I never thought I would win. Not that I doubted

my abilities, but because the other speakers in

the final gave an outstanding performance. To

this day it still feel strange that I was able to win.

It is not toastmaster that creates better people, it

is the person himself/herself.

I have seen people join and quit toastmaster

after few months, because they are not investing

much in their development.

Toastmaster is just a platform that helps you

explore your speaking and leadership skills.

Earning the skills is your job.


Image credit: Toastmasters International


Well.. not sure if this interest the reader, but I am

highly allergic to pineapples, I do stand up

comedy, and I have never won a table topic

contest, not even in a club level.

There is no secret recipe in writing a speech,

each have his/her style and that is the key point

here, to be unique and not copy others. For me I

always shock the audience the first 5 second

with something strange (like the cigarette), then I

entertain with humor for about 2 minutes, then

give a dramatic story.

Have you ever been asked a table topic

question, and after you answer it and went back

to sit down you thought to yourself "if only I had

more time, I could come up with a better

answer". Well, your better answer is your next

speech topic. I always drive speech topics from

table topic questions that I was asked and I

liked.

Fear will always be there with you no matter how

advanced you get. for me my biggest fear is

boring the audience,.

It will gain having talented employees who have

the ability to lead and present, because they

have practiced this craft in the club.

The topic of "relationships" have been overdone

by many, to the point that even if you have a

good message, the audience are already bored

because they have heard similar topics.

I try to avoid such topics, and write something

unique, something that nobody have brought

before. Besides, and I agree with you, other

gender might not appreciate your talk.

Your message has to be universal, everyone

should like it and understand it.

I am a visual person, and I learn a lot faster from

watching things, so yes YouTube is a great

source for learning and teaching for me.

However, my advice to all; Always care about

quality not quantity, and don't oversell your

videos, if you think your videos are valuable and

people need to hear it, Trust me, they will find it.

1. I love travelling and exploring old cities with

historical legacies

2. I had never delivered a public address till I

joined toastmasters.

3. I'm a cricket buff and discussing cricket is a

shortcut to become friends with me

Structure starts in your head before it gets

applied to the script. Unless you establish clarity

of thought, clarity on paper (script) cannot exist.

Therefore I would recommend spending more

time on thinking and reflection about the core

message than jumping to scripting and building

characters immediately.

World over, there are more corporate clubs than

community clubs. Toastmasters inculcates

learning-by-doing. Not by reading a book or

attending a class on communication.

No other program builds learning-by-doing as

well as toastmasters. And it is cheap as heck!

So Toastmasters is the obvious choice for a

corporate to save cost yet impart learning to its

employees.

I've stopped selecting 'topics'. I select incidents.

An incident from my life that I still remember (left

a lasting impact).

As I re-run this incident in my mind, I let the

message emerge on it's on. If i feel it's impactful,

I go with it. If not, i think of another incident. This

has ensured that I've never had the pressure of

making up a story/character. They are all from

incidents that have happened to me.



Sometimes, speakers choose cheap-humor

because it creates instant laughter. However,

classy comedians have an array of topics they

can speak on, (which may include poking the

spouse). If only a narrow set of topics interest

you, then you'll have to re-think the definition of

humour.

We are in the age of social media. I use

www.facebook.com/adityaspeaks as a platform

to connect with my fans and like-minded people.

YouTube is a great tool for aspiring professional

speakers. However, remember that every

picture/video uploaded is a representation of

you. As its said, with more social media comes

more responsibility smile emoticon

Image credit: Angie Key of Keystone Photography


At the age of 15 or so I was asked to come up in

front of the summer class and tell the group of

20 what I wanted to become in life. I went to

stand in front and stood there silent for 5

minutes without uttering a single word.

One of the few reasons that prompted me to

learn public speaking was I wanted to write

books. However, I was worried about what will

happen after I have my book. What if someone

asks me to speak about the book, what if there

is a press conference. I noticed that great

authors are good speakers.

When I am stressed, I sleep, no matter how

important things I need to (still do). All my ideas

come in my sleep. Sleep can fix it.

This book is based on a folk tale my father told

me when I was young. Years later I found out

that tale represents every aspect of making you

a leader others will choose to follow. I have

been fortunate to work in more than 10

countries and also to work alongside people

from 46 different nationalities. Later on when I

became a coach I also had the amazing

opportunity to work with people from 27

different nationalities 1-on-1. This gave me a

great insight into people, and how ordinary

folks like you and me could become leaders.

The book highlight 18 strategic areas to focus

on to build you skills.

Interestingly the idea of writing a book, came

out

out of my frustration as a club president. Many

ExCo members left the club for various reasons

and I was left with my VPE and Treasurer. I

used a 7 minute speech drive home the point of

ownership, collaboration, influence without

authority etc, which in a way helps us to

increase the membership 250% and made the

club a top club in our district. Later I would turn

this 7min speech into a keynote and people

started asking me where can I buy the book.

When these requests kept piling up, I sat down

to write down. I got this reviewed by several

leaders and revised the book. It was well

received.

Forgetting what to say next.

I love to share what I learn. I share my life

experiences - things I saw, read, heard or

thought of.


I detailed 18 areas to focus in crafting a contest

speech in my keynote titled “Cracking the

contest code – through Strategy, Stupidity and

Serendipity”. Let me share one approach here.

SEVEN STEPS TO STARDOM

1. COMMERCIAL: Write a 30 second address

to the whole world (as if the whole world is

listening to you)

2. SLOGAN: Write down one line you want

them to remember after listening to you.

(WE CAN FIX IT)

3. STORY: Where did you learn that?

4. APPLICATION: How did you use it?

5. TRANSFORMATION: What changes did

you see?

6. SEQUENCING: Say it in sequence

(Organising as per chronology or to evoke

curiosity)

7. FINETUNE: Multiple revisions on content

and delivery based on expert feedback

Apart from obvious merits, the corporate clubs

provide opportunities to bring employees

together and provide avenue for collaboration,

team building and fellowship.

You have to do it tastefully without offending

anyone. Reception also depends on your

reputation and likeability - on-stage and off-

stage behaviours.

You should never aim to add jokes to you

speech, you only focus on telling stories in an

entertaining manner. The humour needs to

appear as it comes out naturally from the story –

not a forced fit.

Youtube is the second largest content provider

after google. Depends on what you use it for. It

is a great marketing tool as it provides social

proof for quality. However there are several

other means of secure and embedded online

communication. In the end, it depends on what

you are aiming for.


That defeats the purpose don’t you think?

What’s meant to be not known, should be not

known. I’m kidding.

I used to be a musician. I played in a band for

almost 4 years, and even played professionally

for a few months. My dream was to be an

international heavy metal artist. But then that

died out because I realized music was not really

what I wanted to spend my whole life doing.

I have a bad memory in terms of words and

symbols. It takes a lot of effort for me to

remember something I read or something that’s

told to me – because of this I need to constantly

write down whatever I learn. I am very auditory,

I’m very good at remembering anything musical.

I love travelling.

In terms of representing my country, District 82,

and my family - it feels great.

But in terms of an accomplishment, to be

honest, I don’t feel much of a difference. I think

I’ve got a lot to improve before I’ll ever be

satisfied with my skill of public speaking.

My parents have never forced me to do

anything. That’s something wonderful I cherish

to this day. I chose to join Toastmasters and to

compete

compete on my own. Although I’ve got a lot of

help from them, they’ve never told me that they’ll

be disappointed if I lose or perform badly. So I

don’t feel pressure from them.

Although there is a lot of internal pressure to

perform. But hey, you work better when you are

under a bit of pressure.


Yes I do.

Step 1 – Find a story. Every interesting and

memorable story has a conflict (or a problem).

Find this and make yourself absolutely clear

about it. If you can’t find a story, find a problem

you’ve faced and then resolved through

experience – this experience generally becomes

your story.

Step 2 – Find the message. The solution to the

problem is your message. Put this message

under 10 words – then tell the story and make

the point to as many people as possible until you

are completely clear about what you want to say.

Get the audience's input aswell

Step 3 – Refine it. Find mentors and work on

the script until every word, gesture, and pause

supports your message.

The corporate sector is in a constant battle to

find leaders that can drive change - and there is

only so much that a company can do to develop

their employees when it comes to leadership.

Also all professionals are pressed for time, and

slotting in time to develop themselves is very

hard. So companies depend on trainers or

consultants for this and most professionals (in

this part of the world) depend on their

companies to provide leadership training. But

trainers are costly, and programmes that take

participants through a lengthy programme that

measures progress are a huge cost for most

corporates.

Also today’s global economy is driven by

innovation. But innovators who can’t clearly

communicate, waste their ideas. Passionate

professionals

professionals who can’t put something across to

their team in a simple and engaging way, are

wasting their potential.

So, its established that Communication and

Leadership are the most crucial skills for socio-

economic success today, and Toastmasters is

the best platform to develop this because we

have a structured methodology to hone these

skills. It’s a proven methodology, and I

personally have seen so many people gain so

much in their professional lives just because of a

couple of habits or ideas they gained by being a

Toastmaster for a couple of years. A company

that invests on its employees to join the

programme will never regret this.

Very true - it’s a tough thing to figure out what to

speak on. But the answer will come if you try.

When I was a musician, I learned that the best

song-writers, first write for the waste paper

basket. That means, they write without the

expectation of coming up with a great song.

After they write about 10 to 20 songs, one of

them would end up a great idea. Then building

upon that they create a masterpiece. Bands like

Led Zeppelin, Bon Jovi and Alterbridge use this

process.


I think that can be applied to contest speaking as

well. It takes you a couple of speeches to end up

with one worth contesting with. This time I had at

least 4 different speeches with me before I

ended up with the speech that got me to the

finals.

To find if the speech relates to the audience, you

always need to try it out with an audience. It is

only then, will you truly find out if it’s a success

or not. Unfortunately something that seems good

to you might not be the best for the audience. So

try it out before contesting with it.

When I take the stage, I don’t have fear.

Nervousness, yes. But that’s not fear –

nervousness is just the adrenaline rush before

you do something important. I think I have gotten

over the phase of fearing failure on stage. That’s

very important if you want to be a speaker. You

need to understand that 1 out of 10 times, you

are bound to make a fool of yourself. It’ll only

affect you if you take yourself too seriously – but

if you don’t, you’ll learn to bounce back the next

time.

I personally don’t like insulting people in my

speeches. I don’t think speech is about making

fun of others, its about delivering a message that

people can benefit from. So to answer your

question, I would only tackle a topic like that to

make a point, and I would completely avoid

jokes that insult people I care about. And like

you said, its not tasteful to make fun of people

like that. The only person you have permission

to make fun of is yourself.

That’s why effective speeches always have the

message coming from a character other than

yourself. All the characters other than you are

better portrayed as superior to you while you

should

should always play the role of the “Student” or

the “Faliure” who finally understands the lesson.

Because as Dananjaya Hettiarachchi says, you

should not be the hero of your own story. If a

person tries to do the opposite, and they are not

skilled, they could lose most of the audience.

And though the audience might laugh, the

speaker could lose the audience’s respect for

him.

A speaker should try very hard to generate

humor that’s neutral and doesn’t offend anyone.

You can’t play the role of a comedian who tries

to make an audience laugh at any cost. There’s

a clear line that one should draw there. If not,

you won’t gain the respect you need to convey

an important message.

At the end of the day, what you say is a

reflection of who you are. The audience is also

judging who you are by your speech – and not

just the contents of it. So it’s important for a

speaker to gain self-awareness in this aspect

and not forget where he/she is. Once an

audience loses respect, you have lost what you

are there to deliver.

My advice would be – always deliver excellence.

It’s a great platform, and its getting crowded with

content by the day. The only way you will stand

out is if you focus on creating content that is

exceptionally well presented. I don’t know much

about posting on YouTube, but I know for certain

that the universal principals of success applies

to it.


Reverberation 2015, the much awaited mid-year

conference of District 82 unfolded in the historic

city of Kandy, Sri Lanka over the weekend of

27th to 29th November 2015.

The conference began with the hike in Hanthana

and the 6 Masters Cricket tournament.

Trailing through paths telling their own

stories of beauty, endemism and

adventure…

The Hanthana hike was the first of these two

events. District 82 Toastmasters packed their

bags and were Hanthana bound in the wee

hours of the morning on 27th November 2015.

Starting from the University of Peradeniya, the

Toastmasters brave enough to take on the

adventure were led by experienced guides on a

quest along the Hanthana mountain range.

From the fresh mountain air to the colorful and

amazing views, Hanthana Mountain Range was

no doubt a memorable experience for

Toastmasters!

The ‘6Masters Cricket Encounter’ followed lunch

to round up day 1 and all teams and their

cheering squads gathered at the sports grounds

of the University of Peradeniya to witness the

battle.

The tournament was organized by Awakening

Toastmasters Club and saw a team

representing each Division in District 82.

The qualifier matches of the tournament began

at 1.30pm, with matches taking place in parallel

and had the Top four teams progressing to the

semi-finals.

After 3 hours of enthusiastic dueling, the teams

that progressed to the semi-finals and their

opponents were Division C vs Division F and

Division E vs Division H.

Following two intense semi-finals, Division C &

Division H progressed to the final battle.

After an intense clash between Divisions C and

H, ‘The Hurricanes from Division H’ blew the

competition away to walk away as winners of the

6 Masters Cricket Tournament.

In addition to the winner’s trophy, there were

awards presented at the star-studded

Reverberations 2015 Awards

Ceremony on Day 3; TM Nuwan Rajapakse for

Best Batsman, TM Chaya Wickramadara for

Woman of the Tournament and TM Tharaka

Ranwatta for Man of the Tournament.

With the conclusion of the tournament, the

festivities of the day came to an end.

Needless to say, Reverberations 2015 had an

interesting start with these 2 amazing networking

events.


Day 2 began with the Business Meeting which

was held at the University of Peradeniya Arts

Theatre.

The District Executive Meeting commenced first

and all Division Directors and the extended

teams presented their mid year performance

reports. With the conclusion of the District

Executive Meeting, the District Council meeting

commenced where pressing matters for the

coming term discussed with the Council

members.

At the conclusion of the Council meeting, DTM

Sastharam Ravendran announced that the next

District 82 Council Meeting will be held on 27th

May 2016 at the Ovation conference in Chennai.

Concluding the Business Meeting, DTM

Catherine MacGillivary joining us from District 73

in Melbourne, Australia took the stage next to

speak on best practices from her home District.

DTM Sastharam Ravendran presented the first

copy of ‘Reflect’ the Mid Year Progress Report

of District 82 to DTM MacGillivary and the first

copy of the District 82 Procedure Booklet to

DTM Kenneth Wong, Advisor for Region 13.



The formal Opening Ceremony started with the

flag march. Chief Guest, Ms. Radha

Venkataraman - Assistant High Commissioner to

India in Kandy, and Keynote Speaker TM

Palaniappa Subramaniam, one of the World's

Top 3 speakers in 2012 took the stage to inspire

the audience.

Registrations officially opened for the Ovation

2016 Conference: all members registering at the

Reverberation conference received a

promotional offer on the fee and over 190

members registered during this conference

weekend.

Wrapping up Day 2, all Toastmasters partied the

night away at the historical Queens Hotel

The day began with the contestants’ briefing at 8

am. Once the rest of us took our seats, Day 02

had officially begun. We saw DTM Sudash

Liyanage - Program Quality Director, District 82

take the stage first and deliver an inspiring

speech on challenging the status quo. DTM

Kenneth Wong - Region 13 Advisor and Mrs.

Gowri Rajan, the first Lady Governor of Rotary

International District 3220, Sri Lanka and

Maldives took the stage next to deliver

educational sessions.

The prestigious Distinguished Toastmaster award

was presented to DTM Shanthi Silva, DTM

Ranmal Goonetilleke, DTM Bernadine

Jayasinghe, DTM Pranav Vinod Kumar and DTM

Rahul Shankar.

Humorous Speech contestants had the audience

in stitches and proved that District 82 is home to

some serious entertainers! The Evaluation

Speech contestants were also out to prove their

skill and the Division Champions gave tough

battle to claim the District Champion title. The

Mid-Year Conference concluded on a high note

with an invitation to District 82 to meet again, in

May 2016 in Chennai at Ovation 2016!

The Reverberation 2015 conference certainly

made its mark in the historical city of Kandy.

Kudos to the Conference Chair, DTM Noorul

Munawwara and the entire organising committee

for a memorable conference experience!

If you missed the conference, catch up on the

details through the scripts of our live blog

(d82.org/blog) from the hill capital of Sri Lanka.


Humorous Speech Contest;

• 1st place - Trishma Pinto

• 2nd place - Goutham V. Sharma

• 3rd place - Mario Wickramarachchi

Evaluation Speech Contest;

• 1st place - A Shyamraj

• 2nd place - Kaishika Rodrigo

• 3rd place - Hugh Conan Doyle

Best Division (2014/2015)

Division I

Division governor of the year (2014/2015)

• Rahul Shankar - Division G

Area governor of the year (2014/2015)

• Ira Shukla

Highest membership retention

• Great lakes Chennai Toastmasters Club

• Phoenix VIC Toastmasters Club

• SLIM Toastmasters Club

Areas with best retention

• Area F2

• Area I1

• Area C2

Membership growth

• HNB Central Region Toastmasters Club

• Sabaragamuwa Toastmasters Club

• Phoenix Toastmasters Club

PQD awards: Maximum and dedicated

participants in TLI awards

• Wayamba Toastmasters Club

• IESL Toastmasters Club

• AATSL Toastmasters Club

• TCS Chennai Chapter

• Ford Chennai Toastmasters Club

Area Accolades

• Area I1

• Area I2

• Area G3


Flyer of the month

• Farhan Immamudeen - SLIM Toastmasters

Club (July)

• Sreekar Reddy - Clima VIT Toastmasters

Club (August)

• Himanshu Grover - Phoenix VIT

Toastmasters Club (September)

• Charindi Ranasignhe - COYLE Toastmasters

Club (October)

Best Facebook Presence

• NDB Toastmasters Club

Best Newsletter Award

• APIIT Toastmasters Club

Best Newsletter was selected on a few criteria;

• Visual appeal/ creativity

• Thematic concept

• Innovative thinking

• Correct use of TMI branding

• Educational value

• Awareness building on Toastmasters events

• Engagement with members

Accordingly, newsletters from 12 clubs were

shortlisted whose newsletters best met most, if

not all of these criteria. They are, in no particular

order, CLIMA VIT TMC, Voice of Colombo TMC,

Brisa VIT Toastmasters, APIIT TMC, Pinnacle

Advanced TMC, Awakening TMC, Nuvens TMC,

TCS Maitree Champions TMC, IFS TMC, SLIM

TMC, Rising Pillars TMC, and Thirdware TMC.

A panel of judges voted based on the above

mentioned criteria and the Top 5 newsletters in

District 82 in the 1st Term were;

1. APIIT TMC – Winner

2. Awakening TMC

3. Voice of Colombo TMC

4. CLIMA TMC

5. Pinnacle TMC

*TMC - Toastmasters Club

I first thank the editorial team of District 82 for

the opportunity to write in this souvenir – and be

part of an effort to capture and reach out to as

many members by sharing our experiences.

We always wonder what makes something

successful – is there a special management

strategy or super human talent involved, is it

because of the circumstances or could it be

because of even luck?

I would like to share with you – what my team of

Area Governors and I feel about the experience

of being a District Officer, serving members and

ultimately learning from this experience – which

was our biggest success.

We started off with very simple and

straightforward focus – all our activities were

focused on only – members, members and

members. This helped eliminate doubts about

what is important and what isn’t.

This is one of my favourite oxymorons.

(Grammar Nazis beware!) The toastmasters

leadership program is structured to fit

everyone’s goals and aspirations. But that

doesn’t mean all of us have the same goals or

aspirations – as a leader it is important to

understand that. I had to understand that my five

area governors Prasanna, Ranganathan, Ira,

Aravindan and Gautam all were in this together

to serve members and their own leadership

experience – we cannot deny them of the

opportunity to make best use of this by putting

our

our interests before them. This opinion was

uniform for everyone.

If I had to answer a member’s question about a

contest, I will have to be thorough about its

rules. If I needed to help with chartering a club –

perhaps visiting a new corporate organization, I

will need to know the guidelines and be clear. A

very important rule we devotedly followed was to

ensure we kept updating each other about the

processes and rules that commonly are huge

doubts or queries from members, guests or

prospective clubs. This was key to both reviving

clubs as well as converting over ten

prospectives into clubs. We were never afraid to

clear doubts by asking and never assumed we

knew it all. Senior Leaders, members and past

officers are always there to help us out.



Rather than speeches, presentations and

feedback on how a contest, conference or

meeting could have gone better – we put our

learning from using feedback effectively to

create something members can use as an

example. Want contests to be conducted well?

Conference? Speechcraft or any event? Take up

the challenge, be part of such an event, lead

from the front and help members understand

what goes into organizing it well. Concentrate

more on good training programs – rather than

telling people what a good club has, provide

them with the information that will make them do

the same to their own. A member, officer or not,

will take your training program seriously – do not

doubt them!

Staying motivated to complete our own

speeches, club roles and also take part in

division level activities and serving clubs was a

big challenge – but it did teach us that the most

important foundation of the program lies in the

most basic thing – attending a meeting, taking a

role or giving a speech. This keeps the

foundation extremely strong. We don’t end up

being visiting officers that way! I still remember

gently reminding my AGs and regularly sending

mails to the club VPEs about what is next. Most

members, even officers don’t complete their

Advanced Leadership (or wonder which Series

is the right one for this level). We sent out

regular communications and reduced the blood

pressure of VPEs, letting them know that help is

always just an ask away.

This is something I enjoyed practicing. By

regularly letting my AGs know what plans are

on, keeping a repository of everything, from

documents, expense information and division

information – the level of transparency we

shared helped close the communication gaps

and removed assumptions.

I am stopping with these six points – there

definitely is a lot more and these six are surely

not the ‘fix it all’ magic points. But, when I looked

back, they struck me as points we overlook

during our leadership journey.

I do feel guilty for sitting here so far away from

everyone when I could stay involved and

continue to work with members wanting to build

on your leadership and communication

strengths. All I could do was come up with this

article – of course, I did harass my AGs into

contributing (as mentioned earlier – put

members first, then yourself – even when it is as

sinful as getting them to contribute to an article

that you were asked to write!)

With all that guilt in my heart, flowing through my

hands onto the keyboard – let me take this

opportunity to add my thank you’s:

I still feel both proud and at the same time in

awe at being mentioned as the best division in

the world and receiving a congratulatory mail

from a District team half way across the world.

Though not an official Toastmasters recognition

– it does show how much being recognized for

something means to us – let’s ensure we always


recognize the contributions of our members at all

times!

Thank you to the district team – for I learned

something from each of you and hope to

continue the same. Learning is wonderful,

especially when it is the only thing we look for in

the program.

To my club, areas, every single member I had

the privilege of serving and my past Governors –

I call these people ‘conspirators’ for getting me

to be so deeply involved with Toastmasters. All

the senior members and DTMs whom I never

gave the opportunity to say no () Be it special

meetings, speechcrafts or conferences – I

wanted you there and you never let us down!

I learned from such members that all you need

to do is just ask – I remember Sangamam 2015

when a keynote speaker did not turn up – all I

had to do was ask and DTM Saro & DTM Lalitha

to step in and they conducted one of the most

amazing education sessions enjoyed by

members who didn’t bother to ask what

happened to the speaker who was supposed to

come!

I have a confession to make and this is for my

five AGs – I asked each of them four questions –

hoping it would ease my contribution to this

article. (They were - Your challenges, success,

motto and favourite memories). I only use these

last few lines from your contribution to give a

fitting thank you to all of you:

Each of you replied with beautiful answers on

what you felt about each question – and it made

me realise how wonderful a journey and memory

this experience has been to you – You

mentioned your challenges, obstacles and you

always mentioned that you could turn to your

Division Governor when you needed help – you

believed in my leadership. Thank you for that – It

is all that a leader should hear from his team.

I happily sign off and wish members an amazing

reverberation at Kandy, a great season of

festivals and a very happy new year!

Auf Weidersehen!

DTM Rahul Shankar

(Presently in Zurich, Switzerland on work

deputation)

On a side note, I have managed to attend 1

toastmasters meeting so far, which was also a

club humorous contest. Maybe it is a sign to

move closer to contests (if you know what I

mean )

It is always encouraging to be recognized for

your efforts. I definitely feel blessed to receive

overwhelming support from my Toastmasters

friends from across the District.

My 3 quick tips are as follows: i) Be SPECIFIC in

identifying the speaker’s strong points and areas

of improvement. ii) Provide recommendations

that can be EASILY used by the speaker in their

very next speech. Iii) Don’t just tell the speaker

what parts of the speech can be enhanced,

DEMONSTRATE the enhancement.

My best resource for improving my Evaluation

skills is my home club – Pinnacle Advanced

Toastmasters Club. At every meeting, we have 3

evaluations per speaker. In addition to that, our

evaluations, too, get evaluated by the General

Evaluator. My club provides me plenty of

insights, as well as practice, to provide

meaningful feedback for effective speech.

Rayhan – my husband and fellow Toastmaster –

is also a great source of ideas and suggestions

for me. He always provides an honest review of

my performance, helping me to improve.

“Evaluate for your win vs evaluate for the

speakers’ progress”. As evaluators, first and

foremost, our objective is to add maximum value

to the speaker. That should always be our

primary focus. At a contest, it is no different.

Concentrate majorly on providing significant

feedback that is useful for the speaker. At a

contest, technique (how you say it) also counts.

Your technique gets better through the study and

practice of good public speaking.

I loved meeting friends from all over the District!

Our Toastmasters movement is so wonderful

because of the brilliant people who make it so

fun. The beautiful city of Kandy, too, provided a

relaxing backdrop for the conference and

excursions.



One of the best ways to improve your speaking

skills is to make the most of opportunities to

speak to varied audiences. As a professional

compere and trainer, I have been privileged to

speak to diverse groups on a frequent basis.

Over time, the accumulated speaking

experience has proved to be very valuable for

me… and I keep learning and growing every

time I speak!

I am open to all of life’s wonderful surprises! As

long as I continue to give my best to every day, I

know that life will provide for me fabulously in

fun and meaningful ways. It will be thrilling for

me to see how the journey unfolds in the next 5

years!

Yes, I did enjoy the fun night thoroughly! I don’t

mind the Fun Night taking place before the

contest. It is up to each individual contestant to

decide if they would like to attend the Fun Night

or not.

At the outset, I take this victory as a boost to my

pronounced learning on understanding a foreign

audience. The victory has offered me an

unfathomable pride and has also helped me

envision Toastmasters on a wide angle. I belong

to Virudhunagar Toastmasters, Tamilnadu,

India. We do not rejoice many clubs in our

vicinity. At this point, this award has helped me

draw the attention of many of our club members

towards contesting and Toastmastering outside

our club setting aside the factors like distance

and time. This victory has built an undying trust

over Mentorship in me. My speed was the

predominant reason for the failure in my

previous attempt at the District level. Many

senior Toastmasters advised me to check my

word rate. Thereby, my sincere aim this time

was to lessen the word rate and help the

audience follow and comprehend every word of

mine. By the time I completed my speech, I

realized the true value of getting mentored. My

sincere thanks to all my beloved mentors, who

advised me on my pace! As we all know,

creating humor is a very serious business. I had

thousands of questions on my sense of humor, a

few years ago. This victory has given me


positive answers and left a smile lit forever on

my face. I feel so happy on having been able to

keep the audience entertained throughout those

7 minutes. My deepest thanks to everyone who

cheered and supported all the contestants

throughout the event!

The moment the Humorous speech Contest was

announced at our Club, I started hunting for a

topic. I looked for themes that my friends and I

usually choose to talk about during hang outs

and I landed on one topic. All my friends had

one thing in common; we were all weak in

Mathematics during our school days. We have

never felt tired speaking about our ignorance

towards the subject and the punishments we

received from the Maths teacher. Every time that

we chatted about Mathematics examination and

our arrears, we ended up laughing till our

tummies ached. I decided that there could be no

other better topic. Only the selection of topic

took me time.

Once I froze my topic, it was just a compilation

of all our experiences with the subject,

Mathematics. To add appeal, I exaggerated the

happenings and finally shared a portion of my

script with my friends. I could feel the context

working. Then, I presented the same to a few of

my colleagues. I sensed that everyone could

relate with problems, formulae, logic and

calculation. I started building a firm belief on the

concept and continued scripting. That resulted in

my speech on the topic, “SAA, is my Maths

teacher in the hall?”

My prime idea was to present something that

everyone in the audience could quickly connect

with. Almost 70% of any audience would fear

Mathematics. Thereby, I drafted a script with the

simple incidents that would have happened in

anyone’s school life.

I had partitioned my speech into around 20 short

inter-connected segments. So, none of the jokes

were long. If one did not work, I quickly passed

on to the next segment. I did not have long

running descriptions to set base for any joke. In

humorous speeches, the frequency of audience

laughing and responding to your jokes should be

high. A silence in the audience for a notable time

starts diluting the effect of even some worthy

jokes that come in the latter part of your speech.

I felt that the element of unpredictability added

essence to humor. Unfortunately, in my case, I

had chosen incidents that people could easily

connect with. That removed the share of

surprise in my speech. Any one could predict the

climax of each of my segments. That’s when I

chose to pepper humor through my words.

“Prove that (a+b) 2 =a2 + 2ab + b2 . I never said

(a+b) 2 =a2 + 2ab + b2 . Why should I prove

that?” Here, I clearly understood that people

would not react if I just quoted that I found the

formula very tough and I failed in it every time. I

used the word ‘prove’ in the question as my

point of attention. Gladly, the plan worked.

Another coincidence is that most of my jokes

which really worked ended with a question to the

audience. a. Why should I prove that? b. Why is

the scale made of wood and steel when it can be

made of plastic? c. Why did you say Christ was

crucified on a cross when it actually looks like a

plus? I think these questions helped me convey

my points very strongly.


Emotions are inevitable on the stage. All of us

land up with nervousness, anxiety, enthusiasm,

fear or any other primal form of emotion.

Practically, we cannot remove them completely.

I simply tried to place my involvement in the

audience a little above my other emotions. I kept

myself busy thinking about the time, the

response of the audience and my content which

literally dominated the emotion of nervousness.

My God! I am not very sure how close my

answers would be to expert solutions. However,

let me submit my humble opinion.

1. Do not keep searching for content. Think

what makes your friends laugh during your

regular road side chats. That works with any

crowd. Only the style of presentation may

need change.

2. Do not wait for a humorous incident. Work

with words and make any incident

humorous.

3. Know that the level of understanding of a

crowd and that of an individual are very

different. A joke that did not work on a single

friend may work on a group of friends.

Everything about Reverberation 2015 was so

special. To be specific, the MCs were amazing.

They kept us enthralled throughout the

conference.

Innovation was oozing at every point. The

Education session of TM Palaniappan

Subramaniam was appealing. The session

detailed all the fundamentals of a contest and

also ran through some highly methodological

content.

Kandy was enticing. I felt so privileged to have

attended Reverberation 2015.

My answer for the first question is: ‘Of course,

yes!’ My answer for the second question: ‘In fact,

yes!’ All the contestants felt the same.

Like every Toastmaster, I’d love to complete my

Distinguished Toastmaster track in 5 years.

Virudhunagar Toastmasters and Madurai

Toastmasters are the only two clubs that

function down south of Tamilnadu. In the next 5

years, I would like to learn more from the senior

Toastmasters and stand a mentor for many

clubs in the south.

In fact, I wish to be called an Active participant in

all contests organized by TMI.

I’m sure that the support of District 82 will

definitely place each of its members high above

his/her aspirations.

July 26, 2015 will forever be a day to remember.

Why? Well, for starters, it marked 500 glorious

meetings of the first club of Tamil Nadu - the

Chennai Toastmasters Club (CTM). For main

course, it celebrated the people who

spearheaded the Toastmasters movement in the

region, enabling thousands of people today to

learn the nuances of effective communication

and leadership. For dessert, aaah! What can I

say? It celebrated the Tamil Nadu Toastmasters

movement with such élan, leaving everyone

awestruck, starry-eyed, and asking for more.

After several months of planning, countless days

of coordinating, and innumerable hours of

rehearsing, the day had finally dawned. A grand

venue was chosen to celebrate the grandiose of

the occasion - the newly refurbished Rani

Seethai Hall. Every single member of the club

participated in some manner or the other, giving

it their all to make the event a grand success. In

true CTM style, the evening began with a

marriage of Tamil Nadu with Toastmasters, i.e.,

the meeting was opened with the Sergeant at

arms

Arms' address, and it was followed by the

Tamizh Thai Vazhthu (sung by the adorable little

Saburi Ramakrishnan), the traditional prayer

song of Tamil Nadu.

The first set of emcees, TM Sivadas

Balakrishnan and TM Noorain Mohammed

Nadim, kick-started the main event in style. They

left the audience in splits by addressing many

important topics like why the evening was so

special, why CTM was known as the 'Lighthouse

Club of Tamil Nadu', and their choice of clothes

for the evening, among other things. The

Celebration Chairs of the evening, TM

Sabareeswar Balakrishnan and TM Sunil Baffna,

then took stage to present a report of how the

club had performed in recent times, and how the

club, in all its glory, ranks as the best community

club in Tamil Nadu. A wonderful video collage

was played to honour the occasion too. This

video, besides containing nostalgic photos of

CTM and its members over the years, also

contained awwww-worthy messages from

revered Toastmasters from around the world; to

namePulse | January 2016 |

name a few, we had the Immediate Past

International Director of Toastmasters

International, DTM Deepak Menon, the 2014

World Champion of Public Speaking - TM

Dananjaya Hettiarachchi, and DTM Lalitha

Giridhar, the Past President and maternal

'maami' of the club.

Arun Krishnamurthy, the award-winning Indian

environmentalist, was the Chief Guest of the

evening. His keynote address on the state of the

environment in Tamil Nadu left many people

moved, and inspired to contribute to the cause of

the environment.

Next up, we had the beautiful TM Ishwarya

Balamurugan take the stage to enthral us all with

a graceful Bharatnatyam performance.

The entertainment did not end there for we had

TM Renugadevi and TM Ankur Singhi host the

next section of the evening, leaving a smile on

everyone's faces what with their lovable

"bickering".

The "sun" and the "son" of CTM, DTM Aditya

Maheswaran, was next on the agenda. He, of

course, left the audience 'ooohing and aaaahing'

for more, what with his education session on -

'Setting the stage on fire'. He almost did it,

literally, while assuredly setting our hearts on fire

with his words, giving the audience critical tips

and pointers on how to conquer the stage every

single time.

We also had the HR Head of Infosys in South

India, Sujith Kumar, edutaining the audience

with his hilarious, yet wise life lessons.

The paternal and maternal fairy God-parents of

CTM, DTM Abraham Zachariah and DTM Nina

John, then took the stage to honour all those

people who played a part in the growth of

Toastmasters in the region.

This was a priceless opportunity for many new

members to see and greet all those people who

first planted the seeds of their beloved club.


TM Ramnath Murali and TM Ramesh Daswani

played affable hosts for the rest of the evening

by initiating the beginning of the contest of the

day - the clash of the skit-ians. A group skit

competition, the event witnessed enthusiastic

participation from several clubs in Tamil Nadu.

In terms of the entertainment of the event, the

climax was witnessed during a stand-up comedy

act by Tamil Nadu's rib-tickling stand-up

comedian, Alexander Babu. The meeting ended

on a high by a one-of-a-kind UV act that was

performed by the members of the club. While the

event was conducted in pitch darkness, it

successfully lighted everyone's hearts, leaving

everyone revelling with joy and happiness on an

evening well spent.

CTM's 500th meeting will stand testament to

many things for many years to come. It t shows

that when a group of people come together for a

noble cause, then nothing can stop the event

from becoming a massive success. It shows that

no matter what, quality education cum

entertainment events will never go out of style.

And lastly, it stands witness to how CTM is, and

will always be, the lighthouse club of Tamil

Nadu.

Thus, this was how CTM's 500th meeting created

fireworks across Tamil Nadu on July 26. It truly

sounds like a day to remember, doesn't it?

Noorain Mohammed Nadim

Immediate Past President, CTM,

and Assistant Division Director – Divison ‘G’


The Toastmasters Club of the Institute of

Personnel Management (IPM) of Sri Lanka

(a.k.a. HR House), completed a Youth

Leadership Programme for a group of

youngsters, guiding them in the right path in

becoming future leaders. This is the second

group of young leaders trained by the IPM

Toastmasters in the IPM Youth Leadership

Programme (YLP) – Phase II.

The purpose of this YLP is to build a strong

foundation in the hearts and minds of the young

energetic children, to groom them to become

effective and ethical communicators and

leaders. This was launched under the theme of

“Give the best to your children”.

The programme was conducted over eight

consecutive Saturdays for the children of IPM

stakeholders. The members of IPM

Toastmasters Club volunteered their time to

mentor these young children to harness

essential communication and leadership skills

such as effective listening, body language, voice

and vocabulary, time management, organizing,

delegation and team building.

The students who successfully completed the

programme were awarded certificates in a

ceremonial gathering held at HR house, in

Narahenpita - Sri Lanka on 17th of October 2015.

The occasion was graced by the Chief Guest,

Assistant Programme Quality Director – Sri

Lanka, TM Ranishka Wimalasena (IESL

Toastmasters club), Guest of Honour, President

of IPM Council and the Charter President of IPM

Toastmasters Club - Mr. Rohitha Amarapala,

Key Note Speaker and Finalist in the World

Championship of Public Speaking 2015, TM

Arfath Saleem (Ralph Toastmasters Club), along

with the parents of the young leaders.

The most exciting segment of the evening was

the “IPM Youth Best Speaker” Speech

Contest which was held with the active

participation of the youth leaders. The contest

was conducted with adherence to the

international speech contest standards and

guidelines. These youth leaders showcased their

public speaking skills before a distinguished

gathering.

YLP – Phase II was coordinated by the

Immediate Past President of the club, TM

Nehansa Weerasinghe, current Club President

TM Chathuri Dilhara Abayaratna, club Executive

Committee and other club members. The

programme was amply supported by the Area

Director Area E4, TM Dilrukshi Rajapakse (who

is also the initiator & coordinator of the YLP –

Phase I).

The toastmasters of IPM Toastmasters Club

made another distinctive mark in their vibrant

journey by forming the IPM Gavel Club.



Text Timelines for Membership Awards

Text DCP Goal related timelines

Text Division, District and International Conferences

Text

Timelines for MOTs, DOTPS, OTPs, Emergence, Submission of Officer

Lists to TMI, Timelines for Area Director’s Visits, Submission timeline for

Area Director’s visit report,

TextTimelines for Membership Renewals/ Memberships dues/ Club Officer

Election timelines/

Text PR Awards Submission Deadline Windows, Newsletter submission deadlines

TextDistrict Timelines – Notice of meetings, timeline for District Officer

nominations, submission of reports, District newsletter etc.

Text Timeline to release results of District PR Awards

TextDistrict Council Meetings, TLI events, Documents due to be sent to world

headquarters, deadlines for district officers

Text Golden Gavel/ Golden Gavel+ related material

Other points given in detail that are not marked on calendar

The events in the District 82 Toastmasters Year were integrated into one calendar for

the ease of reference of District Officers. The events are colour coded into the

following groups of event types. Events are further listed by the month. Commitments

of each Division for educational goals as well as conference dates were noted at the

District Officer Training Programme at the beginning of the year.

2016 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

January

Fr Sa Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su Mo Tu We Th

AD RR PRMOTP:

Div. D (Remote)

OTP:

Div. B (Chennai)

Div. D (Remote)

Div. D (Chennai)

RM –

SL

February

Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su

Talk Up Toastmasters Award:

DTAP RR E-TN

March

Tu We Th Fr Sa Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su Mo

Talk Up Toastmasters Award:

RR

April

Fr Sa Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su Mo Tu We Th

RR

Due: Membership-renewal dues

FB/

WebDiv. A PRM Div. D

May

Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa

Beat the Clock Award:

RR

Notice of Business Meeting for Ovations to be

circulated

CO

June

We Th Fr Sa Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su Mo Tu

Beat the Clock Award:

2016 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

Fr Sa Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su

TR/

DN

RM –

TN

JTP/

EM -

SL

OTP:

Div. E

&

Div. H

OTP:

Div. G (Chennai)

Div. I (Vellore)

OTP:

Div. I (Chennai)

Div. F

OTP:

Div. C

& J

OTP:

Div. A

Flyer NL2

Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su Mo

Membership Building Programme

DUE

JTP/

EM –

SL

Flyer Dues JTP

OTP

MOT

Tu We Th Fr Sa Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su Mo Tu We Th


MR Flyer Deadline: Club Renewals LE

Fr Sa Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa

BSS

TR/

NC1Div. I Div. B

NC2

AD

2T

AD1 Div. G Div. E Div. H FlyerDiv. C,

F, J

Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su Mo Tu


TR

Ovation ‘15 DD

AGM/

GG

We Th Fr Sa Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su Mo Tu We Th


DCP

15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31


2015 Colour Code Details of the deadline

January

AD Begin: Area Director’s Visits (2nd Term)

RR 3rd – Release results of the PR Awards – Flyer of the Month

PRM 5th – PRM 2nd Quarter Report Submit to District Director

TLI – TN 8th – TLI – Chennai 2016

OTP: Div. B 9th – OTP: Division B (Chennai)

OTP: Div. D 9th – OTP: Division D (Remote)

RM – SL 10th – District Review Meeting (Sri Lanka)

OTP: Div. D 10th – OTP: Division D (Chennai)

TR/ DN15th – Monthly Treasury Report for November 2016 to District Trio

15th – Deadline to submit nominations for the next District Council

RM – TN 16th – District Review Meeting (Tamil Nadu)

JTP/ EM – SL 17th – JTP/ Emergence (TLI Event) (Location TBC)

OTP: Div. E

OTP: Div. H

17th – OTP: Division E

17th – OTP: Division H

OTP: Div. G 23rd – OTP: Division G (Chennai)

OTP: Div. F 24th – OTP: Division F

OTP: Div. I23rd – OTP: Division I (Vellore

24th – OTP: Division I (Chennai)

Flyer 25th – Submission deadline for ‘Flyer of the Month’ PR Award

OTP: Div. C & J 30th – Joint OTP: Divisions C & J

OTP: Div. A 31st – OTP: Division A (2nd Term)

NL231st – 2nd Deadline to submit a newsletter for Golden Gavel points

(requirement is for 2 newsletters)

February

Talk up 1st – Begin: Talk Up Toastmasters Membership Building Programme

DTAP 1st – District Treasurer Audit Preparation


E - TN 7th – Emergence (Chennai)



JTP/EM - SL 21st – JTP/ Emergence (Colombo)

February


Dues 27th – Club renewal window open (till 31st March)

JTP28th – Judges Training to be completed for GG (minimum 3 members)/

GG+ (4 more members) points

OTP

End: Second-round club officer training for credit in the Distinguished

Club Program

31st – Last to submit Club Officers’ Training Report to TMI

MOT 31st – Last day to submit MOT report

31st – Names of Division Contest winners to be sent to District

Education office

March


Due15th – Membership renewals of minimum 20 members for GG/ GG+

points


Dues 31st – Deadline for Club dues renewal

LE31st – Session from the Leadership Excellence Series to be conducted

for GG/ GG+ points

Talk up 31st – Talk Up Toastmasters Membership Building programme closes

April

Due:

1st to 10th – Due: Membership-renewal dues for credit in the

Distinguished Club Program/ Dead Line – Semi Annual Dues

Remittance by Clubs for Distinguished Club credit

Div. A 3rd – Annual Conference: Division A


FB/ Web

1st – Deadline to submit nominations for best Facebook page contest

Insights for best website to be submitted to the PR Team by clubs for

Best Website Award

PRM 5th – PRM to submit 3rd Quarter Report to District Governor

Div. D 10th – Annual Conference: Division D

TR/ NC1

15th – Monthly Treasury Report for February 2015 to District Trio

15th – Nominations Committee Report to District Director



April

AD215th – Area Directors’ Club visit report to be submitted to District

Director

Div. I 16th – Annual Conference: Division I

Div. G 17th – Annual Conference: Division G (Sangamam 2016)

Div. B 17th – Annual Conference: Division B (Separate conference)

NC220th – District Nominating Committee’s report to be circulated to the

District Council

Div. E 23rd – Annual Conference: Division E

Div. H 24th – Annual Conference: Division H


BSS30th – Session from the Better Speaker Series to be conducted for GG+

Points

AD2 30th – Deadline to submit Area Directors’ club visit report to TMI

DCP10 30th – Clubs to achieve 10 DCP Points for GG/ GG+ Points

T30th – Deadlines to submit the Club ‘Tabloid’ for Golden Gavel Plus

points (Details will be disclosed at the OTP)

May

Beat the Clock: Begin: Beat the Clock Membership Award (May 1 to June 30)


CO 8th – Cutoff date to submit Winner Notification forms from each Division


GG 15th – Deadline for Golden Gavel/ Golden Gavel +

AGM15th – Clubs to conduct AGM (annual and semiannual clubs) and

submit Officer List for GG/ GG+ points

Notice of… 15th – Notice of Business Meeting for Ovations to be circulated

TR15th – Deadline to submit the Quarterly Treasurer’s Report for the

period of 1st July – 31st March to TMI

Ovation ‘15 28th – 29th: Ovation 2015 Conference



May DD

31st – District Deadlines: Late date: Area Directors’ visit report to TMI

31st – District Deadlines: New District Officers List to reach WHQ

31st – District Deadlines: Proxies for International Convention to reach

District Director

JuneBeat the Clock 30th – End: Beat the Clock Award (May 1 to June 30)

DCP End: DCP Programmes

Division

Conference

Dates

Div. A • Annual Conference - 3rd April

Div. B • Annual Conference: 17th April

Div. C • Joint Annual Conference - 30th April

Div. D • Annual Conference – 10th April

Div. E • Annual conference – 23rd April

Div. F

• 27th February – All club contests to be completed for 2nd term

• 15th March – All Area contests to be completed for 2nd term

• Joint Annual Conference - 30th April

Div. G • Annual Conference – 17th April (at PSG Tech, 9am to 5pm)

Div. H • Annual Conference - 24th April

Div. I • Annual Conference – 16th April (Separate conference)

Div. J • Joint Annual Conference - 30th April

Division OTP

Dates (2nd

term)

Div. A • OTP - OTP – Sunday, 31st January 2016

Div. B • OTP – 9th January (Chennai)

Div. C • Joint OTP – 30th January

Div. D • OTP – 9th January (Division D – Remote)

• OTP – 10th January (Division D – Chennai)

Div. E • OTP – 17th January

Div. F • OTP – 24th January

Div. G • OTP – 23rd January (at IITM Research Park, 9am to 1pm)

Div. H • OTP – 17th January (Kurunegala)

Div. I • OTP – 23rd January (Vellore), 24th January (Chennai)

Div. J • Joint OTP – 30th January

It’s been 2 months since we launched the

District 82 Blog.

In that short span of time we have published 24

articles from 17 contributors across District 82.

Collectively, these articles have been amassed

over 1000 views. This gives us a clear picture of

how interesting every club in District 82 is with

their own unique stories and perspectives.

Going forward, we will bring you more content

on the blog that is educational, inspirational and

interesting. If you love our articles then consider

sharing it with your fellow club members so that

they may also benefit.

If your club is hosting any events whether it be a

themed joint meeting between 2 clubs or a grand

event, feel free to call us. We’d be happy to give

our support in making your event famous and

successful.

If you or your fellow members would like to write

to us, by all means send us your articles. For

any queries related to the blog you can spam us

at [email protected]

TM Mazin Hussain

District Blog Master

District 82



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kx5n6knOhnA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kx5n6knOhnA

Much has happened in the last 6 months; Conclusion of the semi-

annual conference weekend was met with the news of flooding in

Chennai which even left some of our Toastmasters heading back

to Tamil Nadu stranded at the airport. When the going gets tough,

the tough get going and in true Toastmaster spirit, our

toastmasters in Tamil Nadu joined forces to help flood victims.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and we are truly

grateful that everyone is safe and sound again.

On a more global scale, the Millennium Development Goals met

its milestone year and the Sustainable Development Goals were

launched across the world: SDGs are 17 aspirational goals with

169 targets which form the global agenda for 2030 for sustainable

development. These goals and targets are expected to ‘Transform

our World’ by guiding global leaders in all sectors on priorities.

Toastmasters also have goals, targets and guidelines to help us

achieve them. Going the extra mile, we also have a network of

mentors, advisors and evaluators who will help us along and

ensure that we make the best choices in our journey.

As WCPS 2015 Mohammed Qahtani said in his interview (page

10) “Toastmasters is a platform that helps you explore your

speaking and leadership skills. Earning the skills is your

job.” The value of the Toastmasters programme will be in vain

unless we explore those opportunities and different avenues for

growth.

Make it a resolution this new year to invest in your development;

invest your time; invest your effort; invest your commitment.

Embrace everything that Toastmasters has to offer. The personal

and professional growth you achieve, the friends you make and

the experience you gain will be rewards more precious than the

year end bonus!

TM Yasangi Randeni

District Newsletter Editor

&

TM Hingston Lovell

District Co – Newsletter Editor

District 82


http://www.toastmasters.org/

http://www.toastmasters.org/