Club member Bonnie Smith-Davis has been using her Toastmasters skills to promote her new children’s book “Tales of Our Boys and Other Critters.” The book includes stories of neighborhood critters and the furry family members she and her husband have adopted from the local Cedar Bend Humane Society.

Over the last week Bonnie delivered a virtual talk about the book that was hosted by the Humane Society and she was interviewed on local radio station KXEL. Today she also told one story from the book, “Thomas and the May Basket,” at our club meeting. We were entertained by her adroit (the meeting word of the day) cat Thomas’s determination to pull a May basket of treats up the stairs.

In her talks, Bonnie displayed storytelling skills that she has been able to practice in our club. We wish Bonnie the best in finding an audience for her book!

On Tuesday night, member Joe Ciccone did a great job representing our club at the Divsion W Humorous Speech Contest, placing second for his speech “A Fish Out of Water”! While those of us who spend a lot of time in Zoom meetings are accustomed to seeing speakers seated, in Toastmasters speech contests, contestants typically stand. Joe adapted his speech and gestures well to this new challenge, and had a smooth delivery.

Division W consists of the clubs in northwest and north central Iowa, and includes 16 clubs eligible to send contestants to speech contests. The first place finisher in each contest will advance to the District contest during the distict spring conference on April 30-May 1; if they are unable to compete, the second place finisher will advance.

Two contests were held, the Humorous Contest, in which the last contest level is District 19 (which consists of Iowa plus a few clubs in Nebraska and Illinois that border Iowa), and the International Contest, typically motivational speeches in which the last contest level is literally international, with contestants from around the world.

Humorous Speech Contest results:

1st – Laura Crofutt (Top O’ Morning, Sioux City), 2nd – Joe Ciccone (Waterloo Speechmasters, Waterloo), 3rd – Trang Nguyen (iToast, Ames)

International Speech Contest results:

1st – Tammy Dunn Peterson (Top O’ Morning, Sioux City), 2nd – Nick Davis (Shibboleth, Mason City), 3rd – Alta Byg (Town and Country, Ames)

Usually at the end of a job interview the employer asks you if you have any questions. You should come prepared with some questions or listen carefully during the interview and save some questions that arise for the end (showing you’re a good listener). If you don’t have any questions, you will come off as uninterested in figuring out if you’re a good fit for the job or company.

However, are you ending with the most effective questions? I have served on eight search committees and been on the job market myself a similar number of times. From my practical experience and from reading about best practices for interviews, here are four great questions to ask the person or committee interviewing you:

What are the most important qualities that you are looking for in the person who will fill this position?

Why it’s effective: This allows you to end on a strong note if you can respond to their answer by briefly highlighting how you have those qualities. Alternatively, you may realize that you aren’t as good a fit for the job as you thought (which is not a terrible realization – better to learn now than later).

What has been your best moment so far with the organization?

Why it’s effective: This helps you learn more about what the person interviewing you values most about working there, and what their, and possibly the organization’s, idea of success is like.

How would you describe your leadership and communication styles? (if it’s the person who will be supervising you)

Why it’s effective: One of the most important determinants of your happiness will be your relationship with your supervisor. You will learn a lot about the person’s level of self-awareness and if their leadership and communication styles mesh well with yours based on how they answer this question.

How would you describe the organization’s culture?

Why it’s effective: Another important element of your happiness will be how you fit in with the company culture. Do you like a casual or more formal workplace? Do you want to socialize with your coworkers often or are you more independent?

Hopefully these will give you some good ideas for the next time you are preparing for a job interview. If you want to learn how to interview better by thinking on your feet and answering questions you’re not expecting, or reduce your use of filler words like uh, um, and like, come visit us and see if Toastmasters can help! We practice impromptu speaking and reducing our use of filler words in each of our meetings.

Waterloo Speechmasters meets online every Thursday from noon-1pm; if there’s enough interest some can meet at Upper Iowa University. Click Contact Us on the upper left part our website to get the login information for our meeting.

Why would writers join a club that is mostly about improving your oral rather than your written communication skills?

We have had several writers join our club over the last five years, myself included. Here is how participating in a Toastmasters club helps people become better writers, whether it is a large part of your job or a hobby or side hustle:

1. Many of the principles of writing an effective speech are the same as writing an effective essay, article, or report. By learning what makes an interesting and effective speech and how to keep our audience’s attention we also learn what captures and holds a reader’s attention. Our fellow club members provide immediate, constructive feedback on our speeches.

2. For many writers, written communication is our comfort zone. We can edit away until we like how something sounds. Oral communication happens in the moment – it can be empowering to break out of our comfort zone and learn how to speak effectively on our feet.

3. Writing is a solitary activity. It’s healthy for us to take a break to connect with people “in real life” and to hear different stories. It is rejuvenating and can inspire new ideas.

4. Some writers may be invited to speak about their work at a conference or may want to promote the idea they are so passionately writing about to an organization. Learning to be a good public speaker makes you an even more effective messenger for your ideas and amplifies your impact beyond the written word.

Curious if Toastmasters may be a good investment of your time? Guests are always welcome at our meetings. We meet every Thursday from noon-1pm CST (GMT-6) online (so we have members from outside of Iowa), with an in-person option at Upper Iowa University in Waterloo if there is enough interest. For our login information, click Contact Us in the upper left corner of our website.

Can you imagine volunteering to compete in a speech contest within your first year of joining a Toastmasters club?

Well, in recent years we have had members volunteer to do just that! Within their first year of Toastmasters, Lindsay Pieters and Mary Martin Lane competed in the Tall Tales Contest and the International Contest, respectively.

This year Joe Ciccone, who has been a member a few months, wanted to participate in the Humorous speech contest. We held our club contest yesterday and Joe will be advancing with his speech “A Fish Out of Water.” Lindsay is again representing our club, this time in the International contest, with her speech “I Made You Tacos.”

Why are speech contests important? All members benefit by watching their fellow club members stretch themselves and grow. Helping with contests above the club level, whether it’s as a judge, ballot counter, or timer, exposes members to fresh stories and speaking techniques as they hear members from other clubs speak. It’s also a chance to participate in the camaraderie and community of Toastmasters.

The next stage of the contest is the area contest, to be held virtually the evening of Tuesday, March 16th at 6pm (the area consists of all four Cedar Valley Toastmasters clubs). We wish Joe and Lindsay luck!

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Waterloo Speechmasters meets every Thursday from noon-1pm CST (GMT -6) online. To obtain our Zoom information, visit our club website and click Contact Us under the Main Menu on the upper left part of the page.

In his book How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life, Dilbert cartoonist Scott Adams talks about how he learned from his many failures and turned them into successes.

At one point, Adams lists skills “…in which I think every adult should gain a working knowledge…Luck has a good chance of finding you if you become merely good in most of these areas.”

Public speaking
Psychology
Business writing
Accounting
Design (the basics)
Conversation
Overcoming shyness
Second language
Golf
Proper grammar
Persuasion
Technology (hobby level)
Proper voice technique

As Toastmasters we should feel good that we are developing the verbal communication skills Adams mentions. By listening to other members’ stories, we learn about the psychology of how other people think, including people who may be quite different from us.

Members who get involved with marketing the club through flyers, websites, and social media learn about design and some technology.

There are also opportunities to practice a second language, by either joining a club that exclusively speaks the language you’re interested in, or one of the many bilingual or multilingual clubs worldwide.

The club treasurer even learns a bit about accounting. Members can learn quite a lot about accounting by taking on more complicated financial roles at the district level in Toastmasters.

It might be more of a stretch to say we can help people learn how to golf. But members who love golfing can certainly share their passion in their speeches!

If we want to grow, it’s clear there are many skills we can develop in Toastmasters. As a result, more opportunities, or “luck,” may find us.

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Image credit: Ripounet, Eloy, CC BY-SA 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/, via Wikimedia Commons. No changes were made to the image.

1. We welcomed guest Patti Rey, our area director. We learned about a timing app that we can download and use if we have the timer role, and about the upcoming speech contest season.

2. Joe delivered his second speech, using good storytelling skills like humor and attention to detail. We learned about the cultural differences this New Jersey native experienced while living in Texas. (For example – how Texans use cottage cheese in their lasagna vs. ricotta cheese!)

3. Mary Martin provided the word of the day – conundrum.

4. Members faced a conundrum choosing the Table Topics speaker of the day from four thoughtful responses, but Lindsay won. Ayushi asked questions related to dilemmas about spending money.

1. We welcomed guest Regis Zweigart.

2. Bonnie told us about the 4 D’s of Time Management (delete, delegate, defer, do it), and how she’s used it to promote a book.

3. Beth delviered a thought of the day appropriate for our cold, wintery weather. “In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.” – Albert Camus

4. Kristine won Table Topics for answering a question about who her favorite supervisor was.

5. Lindsay provided the word of the day: pacific (peaceful, calm). She said we were a pacific group of people.

1. Ashley, our Vice President Education, was able to make a meeting after being gone for awhile for surgery!

2. We welcomed guests Colt, a recurring guest and Toastmaster from British Columbia, Canada (his club, Penticton Toasties, meets on Thursdays at 5:15pm PST/7:15pm CST), and repeat guest Phil from Omaha.

3. Joe’s inspirational thought of the day related to overcoming fears. He suggested trying to add a key word to the thoughts Could, Would, Should: Did.

4. Our speaker Kristine talked about different types of journals she has kept (including her first one at 8 years old, the Cabbage Patch diary pictured above)!

5. Ashley won Table Topics for her response thanking the club being like a family and delivering food to her home following her surgery. Lindsay demonstrated Table Topics do not have to follow a theme to be effective, coming up with a variety of interesting questions.

6. Bonnie provided the word of the day, precedent.

1. Abhay from Davenport and Phil from Omaha visited us.

2. Ahmed delivered a speech about public speaking in Saudi Arabia. For many years public speaking was banned, and when it was lifted you could only speak about certain subjects. Masa delivered a good evaluation of the speech, showing attention to detail when discussing the speech’s strenghts and areas for improvement.

3. The theme for Table Topics was Acts of Kindness. It can be fun to build in an interesting story or fact into the question so that is the approach out Table Topicsmaster Kristine used. Here are the questions in case other Toastmasters reading this or others are interested in looking for conversation starter types of questions.

• In December, a man in a fast-food restaurant drive- through in Minnesota paid for the meal ordered by the stranger in line behind him. That person then paid for the meal of the person behind them. This went on for over 2 ½ consecutive days and over 900 cars before someone broke the chain and stopped paying for the next person’s meal. What is a small act of kindness you have received, or that you gave to someone else, that you will never forget?

• A grade school in Mississippi designated January to be Kindness Month at their school. Each morning, one of the fourth graders in a group called the Kindness Crew read what act of kindness the entire school committed to for that day. If you were helping the Kindness Crew out with ideas, what types of acts of kindness would you suggest these young students try to do during the day?

• This year the National Football League is giving 7,500 health care workers free tickets to the Super Bowl. If you could receive a free ticket to any event anywhere in the world, what would it be and why? (let’s say it’s a couple years from now, after the pandemic)

• Some people like to leave out rocks along trails with inspirational sayings. What saying would you put on a rock if you did this?