Division N Newsletter November 2014

you haven’t witnessed one

of Cliff Peterson’s smooth

and insightful evaluations,

the master class is now in

session — get ready to

take notes.

I hope you'll take full ad-

vantage of the inspiration

that the Fall Conference

can provide for jumpstart-

ing your motivation. Let’s

start now to ensure a

strong finish to the first half

of the 2014-2015 Toast-

masters year for our dis-

trict, our division, our clubs

and ourselves. The long list

of October educational

awards on page 5 is proof

that great things are hap-

pening in Division N! We

are truly a division with

Noteworthy Energy.

What will you accomplish

now while everyone else is

waiting for later?

“Ambition is the path to

success. Persistence is the

vehicle you arrive in.” -Bill

Bradley

November is the time of

year when attention natu-

rally begins to turn away

from our professional to-do

lists and toward our familial

to-do lists. Soon there will

be gatherings to plan, par-

ties to attend and trips to

pack for. The closer the

end of the calendar year

gets, the easier it is to say,

“I’ll accomplish that goal in

the new year.” But what if

you started the holiday

season with a sense of

purpose instead of a sense

of waiting?

If your clubs are anything

like the ones I belong to,

things start to settle down

at the end of fall as priori-

ties shift, and meeting at-

tendance gets sparse at

times. What a perfect op-

portunity to be ambitious

and a little selfish — identi-

fy the roles you need to

complete a CL so you can

volunteer when an opening

arises, or be prepared with

one of your speech pro-

jects so you can fill in on

short notice when a speak-

er cancels. Or do you want

to accomplish an advanced

project like an HPL or an

ACG workshop that you

have been too busy to sit

down and plan for?

Attending the Fall Confer-

ence on November 8th is a

great way to get re-

enthused for the work we

do as Toastmasters, and to

reorient ourselves toward

purposeful action. From the

keynote speaker to the ed-

ucational sessions, you’ll

come away with so many

ideas for your club and

your personal growth. I still

practice and share specific

skills that were introduced

to me at my first confer-

ence.

Educational value aside,

one of the best reasons to

attend the conference is to

root for our Division N Hu-

morous Speech and Evalu-

ation contestants as they

go head-to-head with the

rest of the District’s best. If

you haven’t yet had a

chance to hear Ritesh

Chhabra’s winning speech

about his arranged mar-

riage, you’re in for a lot of

laughs (you may also want

to bring a tissue). And if

Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop

I N S I D E T H I S I S S U E :

Talking Heads

Toastmasters

Sweep Division

Contest

2

Meet Your

Division N

Champions

3

Vocal Variety 3

Photos:

Division N

Contest

4

Hall of Fame 5

Division Events 5

District Events 5

D I S T R I C T 5 6

T O A S T M A S T E R S

D I V I S I O N N

Division N Notes N O V E M B E R 1 , 2 0 1 4 V O L U M E 1 , I S S U E 5

By Amber Fessler, ACS, ALB, Division N Governor

P A G E 2

Talking Heads Toastmasters Sweep Division Contest

In a rare occurrence, two

standout members of the

Talking Heads Toastmasters

Club, Ritesh Chhabra and

Cliff Peterson, recently won

both the Area and Division

contests. Chhabra was

awarded first place with his

humorous speech titled ‘My

Lovely Arranged Marriage,’

and Peterson earned first

place by impressing the judg-

es in the evaluation contest.

The Talking Heads Toastmas-

ters Club was founded in

1985. The club is affiliated

with BP but club membership

is open to the public. The

club meets weekly at the BP

Westlake Campus in Houston.

The Club has an enthusiastic,

motivated membership. It has

earned the President's Distin-

guished Club, Select Distin-

guished Club and the Distin-

guished Club awards. Its mem-

bers have served in Area and

District leadership roles. The

Club is proud to have members

who have achieved the Distin-

guished Toastmaster award.

For more information, please

visit:

talkingheads1530.

toastmastersclubs.org

or contact:

Vlad Trygubenko:

vladimir.trygubenko@

bp.com

Mark Sweet: msweet@

boundlessnetwork.com

Amy is the President and Mark

is the VP Public Relations of

Talking Heads Toastmasters in

N-20.

D I V I S I O N N N O T E S

By Amy Xu and Mark Sweet

Meet Your Division N Champions!

P A G E 3 V O L U M E 1 , I S S U E 5

I am the Vice President for BitsOfCode, a Houston-based innovative company that develops cutting-edge software for challenging in-dustry applications. I joined Talking Heads Toastmas-ters Club with the intent of polishing my communication and leadership skills. Cur-rently I am serving as a Sec-retary of the club and active-ly working towards complet-ing my CC and CL manuals. Somehow Toastmasters tend to attract really nice people who are always ready to encourage and help you. That is the main reason I look forward to the weekly meetings.

Winning at the Club, Area and Division Humorous Speech Contest came as a pleasant surprise. Preparing for the contest motivated me to aggressively work on my speaking skills. I realized that the trick is to practice so much that you don’t have to worry about the speech con-

tent. Once that happens, you can focus more on your stage setting, ges-tures, vocal variety and other components of speech delivery.

It feels great to have the opportunity to participate at the District Contest. Re-gardless of the result, it will be an amazing experience. I am looking forward to November 8th.

power of words and its

proper arrangement in a

speech. I’ve reduced the

usage of any word or sound

as a crutch, as the Ah coun-

ter is making a note of

them. Now when I use ges-

tures in a speech I am very

thoughtful of how to use

them and incorporate them

with facial and body lan-

guage.

Toastmasters has helped

me tremendously in en-

hancing my leadership skill,

Vocal Variety is a monthly

column which features

members’ viewpoints and

success stories. Submit

yours!

Growing up as an orator and

winning all the competitions

and awards, I always

thought that I had somewhat

mastered the skill of Public

Speaking...until the day I

joined Toastmasters club

where I found that the art

has a lot more in it. Toast-

masters helped me learn the

wherein it taught me to

conduct a successful meet-

ing. I learned how much

effort it takes behind the

screen to organize a cam-

paign, contest, or just a

meeting. Being a past Sec-

retary and a VP Education,

I learned that the Toast-

masters organization is an

ocean of wealth and we

can keep digging in and

learn new things day in and

day out. The website and

the educational awards

department at Toastmas-

ters International are a

Vocal Variety: Rulan Patel, CL wealth of resources. I en-

courage our fellow Toast-

masters to use it extensively

for personal growth.

Rulan is the VP Education at

CITGO Voice in N-20.

Currently, Cliff works for BP as a Financial Analyst in the Gulf of Mexico region. Before that, he served four years in the Air Force as a Space and Missiles officer and two years in the Army National Guard as a Finan-cial Manager.

He lives with his lovely wife, Kay, and their demanding cat, Cali. When he's not at work or home, you can usu-

ally find him on a racquetball court or at a card table. The best way to bribe him is with dark chocolate.

Goals for the future include traveling and living abroad, writing a book, and owning his own business.

Ritesh Chhabra, Humorous Speech Cliff Peterson, Evaluation Contest

Join your fellow Division

N Toastmasters at the

Fall Conference on

November 8 as we cheer

Ritesh and Cliff to

victory as they compete

to be recognized as

District 56’s best!

Register for full or a la

carte admission at

tmd56.org.

P A G E 4

D I V I S I O N N N O T E S

Clockwise from left: Cliff Peter-

son accepts Evaluation trophy;

Evaluation contestants Cliff Pe-

terson, Michelle Perzan, Robert

Smart & Rico Simantov with

Contest Toastmaster Jim Har-

rington; Ritesh Chhabra accepts

Humorous Speech trophy; Hu-

morous Speech contestants

Ritesh Chhabra, Neha Sinha &

Judy Pappas with Contest Toast-

master Jim Harrington.

Chief Editor: Amber Fessler, ACS, ALB

Phone: 832-247-3940

E-mail: [email protected]

Respect Integrity Service Excellence

Division N Team, 2014-2015

Division Governor: Amber Fessler, ACS, ALB

Area N-20 Governor: Raul Rivera, ACG, ALB

Area N-21 Governor: Uriel Armey, CC, CL

Area N-22 Governor: Kim Muckleroy, CC, ALB

Area N-23 Governor: Max Lopez, CC, CL

Area N-24 Governor: Rick Bogue, ACB, ALB

Area N-25 Governor: Andy Paultanis, CC

District 56 Toastmasters

Division N

Upcoming Division N Events Area Governors complete all Round 1 club visits

Clubs with 6-month officer terms should hold elections in November so in-

coming officers can begin shadowing outgoing officers and attend December

TLIs.

Upcoming District 56 Events November 8: Fall Conference (all day,

Hilton Houston Southwest)

December 6: First Winter TLI (watch

tmd56.org calendar for details)

HALL OF FAME

J O S E H A R B , C C

J A M E S H A R R I S , C L

S H A L A H M O H A M M E D , C L

J U A N O R T I Z , C L

S I V A P A M A R T I , C L

S U B B A R A O P A V U L U R I , C L

W E N D Y S A L A H U D D I N , C L

B R I A N S E L I G , A L B

C L A Y T O N S I M O N S , C C

J U A N V A L E N Z U E L A , C C

E A R N A N Y E D U C A T I O N A L

A W A R D I N N O V E M B E R T O B E

F E A T U R E D H E R E N E X T

M O N T H !

More on district news, information and

events: www.tmd56.org

“We are what we repeatedly do; excellence then is not an act, but a habit.” -Aristotle

Did you know the January

TLI schedule is already

posted on tmd56.org?