Our executive for 2009-2010

• President: Carlo Wolff ACB CL
• VPE: Emily Minor CC ALS
• VPM: Joyce Hu CC CL
• VPPR: Spike Gu ACB CL
• Treasurer: Linda Ma CC
• Secretary: Dan Smith DTM

We particularly look forward to welcoming our Founding President, Sam Jones DTM, to attend this meeting, the first time he’s been able to attend a CAT meeting since moving abroad.

28 May, 2009 from 7:10pm

• TME Jenny Ni CC CL
• TTM Delphy Chow ACS CL
• Speech: Spike Gu ACB CL
• Speech: Wendy Wang ACB ALB
• IE Linda Ma CC
• IE Michelle Lee ACB ALB
• GE: Sam Jones DTM

For venue details, please email attend@chinaadvancedtoastmasters.com

Our Summiting Session for this meeting, focused on Body Language and Using the Stage will be led by Spike Gu ACB CL.

• TME Emily Minor CC CL
• Speech Chris Haynes CC
• Speech Wendy Wang ACB ALB
• Speech Daniel Smith DTM
• GE Delphy Chow ACS CL
• IE Carlo Wolff ACB

Our venue is very close to Nanjing West subway station. We’ll send it out to everybody on the email list – or who asks of course! Just email “attend@chinaadvancedtoastmasters.com” or subscribe by emailing “agenda-subscribe@chinaadvancedtoastmasters.com” and we’ll make sure you get it.

We enjoyed a series of great presentations at CAT last night. Here are some of the things I noted from the training on organizing your speech from Sam Jones DTM:

1. Are going to entertain, persuade, inspire or inform? Keep your speech aligned with that purpose.
2. Beyond the basic outline (introduction, body and conclusion), look for alternative structures. Sure, there’s the basic three points, but there are other structures too – like compare and contrast, time (past-present-future), and telling a story (with a lesson).

A few other things that I noted from the evening:

• Delete everything you can. If you are evaluating a speaker and don’t have something to say on a point, just move to the next point rather than saying that you don’t have anything to add. Focus on what you are there to say and do your best to skip the rest.
• Test humor one-on-one. To find out whether a joke is funny, try telling the joke without much emotion to someone in general conversation – if they smile, you might have something worth using (thanks Warwick).
• You might feel like you don’t have enough time, but don’t bother telling the audience – they probably won’t learn better by you telling them that you’re rushing. Instead, act like you have all the time in the world.
• And thanks to Emily Minor CC CL for demonstrating how when you are introducing a speaker, you can just keep clapping until they get to the front of the room – it’s a simple courtesy but looks very professional.

For me, one of the highlights of the evening was having the majority of DTMs in China in the room at one time, something that usually only happens at Conferences and Conventions. Our whole individual evaluation team consisted of DTMs – Rebecca Hong (also Lt Gov Education and Training), Warwick John Fahy (past Chairman of China) and  Sam Jones (our Immediate Past President). This yielded what I think was the most rewarding, stimulating and valuable evaluations session I can remember – thanks to each of you for your contributions!

Videos from the night to come soon.

Our next meeting is 8 January next year when we’ll have a training on body language delivered by Spike Gu ACB CL.

Summiting Session: Organizing Your Speech Sam Jones DTM

Speech Carlo Wolff CC
Speech Jenny Ni CC CL Woman? Woman! Woman…
Speech Spike Gu ACB
Speech Dan Smith DTM

TTM Emily Minor CC CL
GE Wendy Wang ACB ALB
Timer Joyce Hu CC

And do checkout the post from our President, Emily Minor CC CL, about her Summitting Session on “How to Say It” from our last meeting here.

And have a look at our flyer with the next few months planned Summiting Sessions…

A10 Speech Carlo Wolff CC
Sales Training Speech (15-20min)

A2 Speech – Woman? Woman! Woman… Jenny Ni CC CL
Humorously Speaking: Leave them with a smile (5-7min)
Objectives:

1. Prepare a serious speech that opens and closes with humorous stories.
2. Prepare a closing story that reemphasizes the speech’s main point.
3. Deliver the stories smoothly and effectively.

A11 Speech Spike Gu ACB
Interpretive Reading: Read a Story (8-10min)
Objectives:

1. To understand the elements of interpretive reading.
2. To learn how to analyze a narrative and plan for effective interpretation.
3. To learn and apply vocal techniques that will aid in the effectiveness of the reading.

• TME Sam Jones DTM
• Training Wishing your words would work well? Emily Minor CC CL
• Speech Wendy Wang ACB ALB
• Speech Daniel Smith DTM – C1 revisited…
• GE Chris Haynes CC
• IE Joyce Hu CC

Remember: Membership is restricted to CCs and above but meetings are open to all.

Thursday night at Baileman.

Last night we had a dynamic meeting including our club officer elections.  Let me highlight a few parts of the meetings.

Delphy gave an excellent training on how to take the terror out of speaking.  It was good to be reminded of the simple, but profound techniques for controlling anxiety.  She started with a focus on the body–posture, breathing and stretching.  Then she guided us to focus our minds on the objectives of the speech and away from “what will people think of me?”  If you are a dual member and need a trainer for your other club, I highly recommend scheduling Delphy!

Emily gave her HPLP final presentation.  If you do not know, she created a “Pawbook”for the CAT.  In essence, she has captured all of our processes and procedures into a handbook for the purpose of bringing clarity to our practices and as a means to orient and train members.  The HPLP is a milestone in the TM journey and it was exciting to be there and see Emily cross this line.  Please congratulate her.

All of the other speakers and evaluators did an excellent job.  Syna gave a humorous speech about what it means to be a woman, Joyce is mastering the Right Brain Evaluation, Mark Shaw lead a dynamic Table Topics session, and thanks to Jenny Ni we kept an on-time meeting.  Finally, we had two guests who where both very capable speakers, even though they are not TM members.  I suspect they will be soon.

One of the most important ceremonies we have each year is the election.  The election is when the club speaks and chooses its leaders.  It is my honor to introduce the CAT Exco 2008-2009.  We will have an induction ceremony for them in an up coming meeting.  I have full confidence in the continued development of the CAT under the capable leadership of the new CAT Exco!  I want to especially welcome Spike and Marco to the team, and thank Bill Wang for his year of service as the SAA, he will be serving as the President of the MSD club, congratulations.   Lastly, allow me to communicate my confidence in Emily as the new President!

President: Emily Minor, CC & CL
VP Education: Daniel Smith, DTM
VP Membership: Joyce Hu, CC
VP Public Relations: Spike Gu, CC
Secretary: TBA
Treasurer: Marco Meng, CC
Sergeant  at Arms:  Delphy Chow, ATMB & CL
Immediate Past President: Samuel Jones, DTM

Cheers,

Sam Jones, DTM

CAT President