After district, the next two stages include the semi-finals, and the final competition held in Las Vegas August 17-20 where 82 contestants will compete for the title of “World Champion of Public Speaking.”

“Out of 12,500 Toastmasters clubs from around the world with more than 30,000 presenters in 113 countries, the final nine contestants on August 20 have truly battled their way to the top. We will be honored to have Bruce represent our club in Las Vegas. He has the talent to become an international winner,” says Tania Rain, Vice President of Public Relations for Lake Oswego Toastmasters Club 605.

A long-time member of Lake Oswego Toastmasters Club 605, Rottink has 21 years speaking experience and says Toastmasters made him a better speaker and presenter, which has been useful in all aspects of his life.  “I enjoy the opportunity to give speeches which entertain people and make them laugh.  I also enjoy getting together with quality people on a regular basis, and learning about them through listening to their speeches,” says Rottink.

Rottink’s winning speech is on the topic of “Gifts.” He draws the listener into his story with humor, shares a personal narrative and brings the audience to the edge of tears. The heartwarming and thought provoking nature of this speech gives Rottink an advantage against tough, international competition.

For more information about the District 7 Spring Conference, visit  www.communicateoregon.com.

About Lake Oswego Toastmasters Club 605
In 1952, Lake Oswego Toastmasters Club 605 was founded by a group of people with the goal to improve public speaking skills. In the last 58 years, the club has helped thousands become more proficient in communication and leadership. Today, the 35 member club enjoys weekly meetings where they practice prepared and impromptu speeches. Guest and new members are welcome to join the club every Monday at 6:30PM at 17377 SW Boones Ferry Rd. #200, Lake Oswego, Oregon, 97035. For more information, visit www.LakeOswegoToastmasters.com or email info@LakeOswegoToastmasters.com.  

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The speaker for the evening, Chris Swanson, was evaluated by Rich Smiley. Chris is working in an advanced manual and completed speech #1 on salesmanship where he role played a computer sale with the help of fellow Toastmaster Erik Crowley. Chris received an excellent evaluation and was awarded a ribbon.

Parthenon in Athens Greece

Erik led the Table Topics portion of the evening. He selected 10 places he has never been and asked each participant to tell him why he should visit. These impromptu speeches are  60 to 90 seconds in length and ideally have a beginning, middle, and end — all of the elements of a regular speech condensed into a shorter format. Places on Erik’s list included Boston, Anchorage, London, Jerusalem,  Sydney, Australia, Montreal, Canada and Athens, Greece. Tania took first place in Table Topics and received a ribbon for her description of the Parthenon, olive trees, and buzzing cicadas she experienced in Athens.

Thank you to everyone who participated.

You are invited to Toastmasters’ Club 605 meeting on Monday, April 25, 2011. Tonights’ theme is “Landing Your Dream Job.” Have you found your dream job or are you still looking? Have you had a funny (or not so funny) experience interviewing for a job? How has your experience at Toastmaster’s helped you improve your interview skills? We want to know.

Toastmasters has also reserved a booth at the May 5th Portland Job Fair. Everyone is welcome to attend and look for your dream job:

Thursday, May 5, 2011, 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM
Hilton Portland & Executive Tower
921 SW Sixth Ave, Portland, OR 97204

Here is tonight’s line up:

Duty Roster for April 25

Toastmaster                            Tania Rain

Word of the Day                     Brian Courtney Milligan

Humorist                                 Tony Quatraro

Speaker #1                             John Farrier

Speaker #2                             Chris Swanson

Evaluator #1                            Rich Smiley

Evaluator #2                            Terry McCarthy

Table Topics Master               Erik Crowley

General Evaluator                   Agnes Kam

Ah Counter                              Brian Courtney Milligan

Timer                                       Available

Grammarian                           Erik Crowley

Videographer                          Kristen Larsen

Presiding Officer                     Jean Sandwick

Marylhurst University, Lake Oswego, Oregon

On  Friday, April 08, the Area 63 International Speech and Evaluation Contests were held at Marylhurst University. Our club’s representatives were Chris Swanson in the Speech Evaluation Contest, and Bruce Rottink in the International Speech Contest.

Chris gave an excellent evaluation, using many of the techniques that we discuss each week such as demo-ing the gestures and body movements he was commenting upon, telling why he could relate to this particular speech, and talking about the impact some of speech’s “room for improvement issues” had upon him, and suggestion specifics on how these issues might be corrected.  In any other Area contest, Chris would have almost certainly won.  However, Chris had the misfortune of going head-to-head with one of District 7′s most experienced and accomplished evaluators, a person who has already won the District Evaluation contest at least once.  Chris came in 2nd, but can come away proud of his evaluation, and we can be proud of the way in which he represented our club.  Good job, Chris.

In the Area 63 International Speech Contest, there were only two contestants.  The other contestant went over time and was disqualified, and thus, Bruce won first place in that contest.  Bruce subsequently talked with the disqualified contestant, and he confessed that he changed one of the stories in his speech “on the fly” and suspects this was why he ran overtime.  This is an experience we can all learn from – Don’t mess with your speech while you’re giving it!

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This event will include:

• a fabulous keynote speaker, Mark Eaton, formerly an National Basketball Association All-Star and now a motivational speaker,
• learning valuable things during your choice of 8 different breakout sessions, including a professional development track, and personal development track,
• the District 7 Evaluation Contest where you can learn how to improve your evaluations,
• the District 7 level of the International Speech Contest, where you can learn new techniques to use in your next speech,the chance to meet and network with Toastmasters from all over the state of Oregon, and southwest Washington
• a great lunch.

Registration is only $85 until April 30th.  Don’t miss this chance to improve your skills, and meet new folks.

All the details can be found via this link (click on the black boxes at the top of the page for specifics):

http://www.communicateoregon.com/

Public speaking offers viewers around the world insight into your life. Learn more at ted.com

Congratulation goes to Bruce Rottink and Chris Swanson for moving up to the next level in the International and Evaluation speech contests.

Bruce’s speech about “gifts” possessed a strong and meaningful message. He delivered it with professionalism, engaging the audience with humor and seriousness – causing both laughter and tears. We are excited to have Bruce represent our club in the next stage of the International Speech contest. Bruce, we hope you make it all the way to Vegas in August. We will be right there rooting for you through the entire process.

Chris evaluated seasoned Toastmaster Mark Scholz from the Wallmaster Club in Tualatin. Mark’s model speech evokes emotion and is delivered in a unique fashion using silence as a tool to impact the audience. Chris crafted an excellent evaluation, noting the strengths of the speaker and providing areas for improvement.  Chris, your style is crisp and clean and very easy to follow. You are eloquent and choose your words carefully. We are excited to watch your progress as you move up the contest ladder. Keep up the good work.

Thank you goes to all the contestants and judges. Speakers Erik Crowley and Tania Rain provided the audience with great listening material. Erik shared a powerful story about over coming obstacles and never allowing anyone to tell you “You Can’t” do something. Tania entertained the audience with a reflection story on three trips she took to the circus: once as an 8 year old with her grandpa, once as an adolescent with her dad, and most recently as a mother with her 8 year old daughter.

Brian Milligan and Rich Smiley also provided our model speaker with excellent evaluations during the contest. The significance of the evaluation is core to the Toastmaster mission. Evaluations allow us to continue to improve upon our skills as public speakers. Each evaluator provided a nugget of important information on how the speaker can fine tune his performance to deliver his message in the most impactful way possible. Great job everyone on your participation.

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Public Speaking in Athens c. 1515

Toastmasters Annual International Speech and Evaluation competitions will be help at club level during March. Lake Oswego Toastmasters, Club 605, is proud to host our club contest on March 7 at 6:30 PM. The public is encouraged to come and watch these extraordinary speeches.

The chief judge role will be played by Jean Sandwick.

This year’s International Speech competitors are:

Erik Crowley, Bob Johansen, Tania Rain, and Bruce Rottink

The competitors of the Evaluation contest are:

Chris Swanson, Rich Smiley, and Brian Milligan

Our most seasoned club member, Bruce Rottink, has been a Toastmasters for 21 years.  He has entered all 4 of the speech contests (International, Humorous, Table Topics and Evaluation) several times during his Toastmaster career. In 2006, he won the District Humorous Speech Contest and went on to perform in the Regional Humorous Showcase. The speech entitled “How to Survive a Bus Ride” illustrated why you don’t want people to sit next to you and how to repel potential seat mates. “Making all of those people laugh very hard was the best 7 minutes of my entire Toastmasters career,” said Bruce,” because I love to make people laugh.” Bruce took home a trophy and was awarded free registration at the regional conference, airfare to the conference in Sacramento, and one night of free lodging.

Bruce’s speech this year is on the topic of ”Gifts.” We look forward to hearing all speakers on Monday, March 7 starting promptly at 6:30 PM.

About the International Speech contest:

The winner of each club contest will advance to Area 63 in April. The winner of the area contest advances to division and then district. Nine semifinals will be held at the International Convention this August in Las Vegas, Nevada. One winner from each semifinal contest will move on to participate in the World Championship of Public Speaking.

2010 International Speech Contest Winners

About the Evaluation contest:

The Evaluation Contest features a 2 to 3 minutes evaluation of a target speaker. The target speaker gives a speech which all the evaluation contestants are to evaluate. The contestants are taken from the room and given five minutes to prepare their speeches and make notes. Then, their notes are taken away and they are brought back into the room one by one (at which time the contestant gets his notes back) to deliver their oral evaluation of the target speech. Since no contestant hears what another said about the target speech, the judges can compare the analytical abilities of the contestants.

Tips to winning an Evaluation contest

Judging Criteria – Evaluation Contest:

Speech Development (30%), Effectiveness (25%), Physical (15%), Voice (15%), and Language Appropriateness, Correctness and Manner (15%)

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Our two speakers, Rich Smiley and Brian Milligan, kept the audience entertained. Rich gave his second speech out of the Competent Communicator manual and Brian presented project two form the Story Telling manual.

American Pit Bull

Rich, a veterinarian, spoke of his passion for making a difference in people and animals lives. He has some wonderful stories on how he has gone above and beyond the call of duty. His story reflects an experience of treating a homeless man’s pit bull and saving the pit bull’s life on several occasions. Eventually him and his wife adopted the dog and they story ended on a very happy note for the dog and his previous owner who migrated south to the sunshine. Great way to work in the theme of the day Rich. Good job on speech #2.

Brian prepared a story on an experience he had years ago. Here are the main components of the speech that followed the outline of the project:

1. Get to the point: Right at the beginning Brian told us the point – the  trails and tribulations that we all experience in life

2. Setting: Story begin inside Bi-Mart in Sweet Home, Oregon and moved to Eugene where the remainder of the story took place

3. Main Character: This is a personal story about Brian, therefore, he is the main character

4. Conflict: Man versus self and man versus finances. The conflict presented starts with trying to balance on roller blades which rolled right out from under him causing a fracture wrist which ultimately caused a large medical bill and a great financial burden

5. Plot: This story is linear and easy to follow.  The structure was excellent and he left the listener with an important take away

6. Lesson: Don’t sacrifice safety and don’t take unnecessary risks, especially if you don’t have a steady job and insurance

Thank you Brain for sharing this story with us and using excellent body language depicting how difficult it was to move around with a fracture wrist. Brian’s non-verbal language even expressed the nausea felt when the anesthesia began to wear off while he was at the pharmacy to pick up a prescription. That takes skill to pull of a true feeling of illness while giving a presentation.

Brain took first place for best speaker.

The evaluators were Dean Schumacher and Tania Rain – both gave great feedback to both speakers. Tania took the ribbon for best evaluation of the evening.

Bruce Rottink played the role of grammarian and picked out some great usage of the English language from one of our guest and several speakers.

Table topics ran by John Farrier created a jovial atmosphere and Mary Brunette took the award for best Table Topic speaker and most enthusiastic. Yeah Mary!

We look forward to seeing you next week for the annual International Speech and Evaluator’s competition.

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Image via Wikipedia

Looking for some company and entertainment on Valentine’s Day? Join us at 6:30 PM.

Theme: Movies with Valentine in it or your favorite romantic movie (aka chick flick)

The Players:

Toastmaster                       Tania Rain

Word of the Day/
Ah Counter                         David Jamieson

Humorist                             Available

Speaker #1                         Rich Smiley

Speaker #2                         Erik Crowley

Evaluator #1                       Bruce Rottink

Evaluator #2                       Mary Brunette

Table Topics Master        Bob Johansen

General Evaluator            Chris Swanson

Timer                                    Jean Sandwick

Grammarian                       David Jamieson

Videographer                    Ben Davis

Presiding Officer              Erik Crowley

Setup Coordinator           Erik Crowley

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