Welcome

This blog is setup to showcase and illustrate the happenings around Toastmasters International - Founders District - Division C - Area C2. Doesn't that sound like a mouthful? We are physically located in the Orange County area. Our Area includes both Corporate and Community based groups. When you visit our site, we will have links to the unique clubs as well as post information about upcoming events, including Contests. Toastmasters International is a great organization for individuals who want to be world class public speakers and influential leaders.

David M. Penrose
Area C2 Director - 2015-2016

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Area C2 Club Listing

We are proud to introduce you to our Area clubs.

• Club #100
  Christian Century
  Deborah Reisdorph, President
  email me
  100.toastmastersclubs.org
  
  8101 Slater Ave, Huntington Beach, CA 92647
  
  
• Club #6851
  Astromasters
  Richard Potter, President
  email me
  6851.toastmastersclubs.org
  
  5301 Bolsa Ave, Huntington Beach, CA 92647
  
  
• Club #8771
  SpeakEZs
  Ram Seshadri, President
  email me
  speakezs.toastmastersclubs.org
  
  5301 Bolsa Ave, Huntington Beach, CA 92647
  
  
• Club #9331
  Achievers
  Linda Brown, President
  email me
  achievers9331.toastmastersclubs.org
  
  13252 Garden Grove Blvd, Garden Grove, CA 92843
  
  

When you contact the club, let them know you found them from our blog.

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Area C1 & C2 Contest

Spring 2016 Contest

AREA C1 & C2 INTERNATIONAL SPEECH & TABLE TOPICS CONTEST

You are invited!

Saturday, March 26, 2016

Registration starts 12:30 p.m.  |  Contest begins 1:00 p.m.

HB Community Church: 8101 Slater Ave, Huntington Beach, CA 92647

Cost: $5 w/ RSVP  |  $10 as a walk-in

Continental Fare food selections will be provided

RSVP to Stella Mahakian  |  email to: smpsasing@gmail.com

Explore what Table Topics and International Speech contests are all about [ here ].  Participate as a contestant or help make the contest a success. Your attendance is greatly appreciated!

RSVP to Stella Mahakian  |  email to: smpsasing@gmail.com

Volunteers and Donations are still needed; kindly fill out the volunteer and donation form [ here ]. Donations are tax deductible. When you donate, your club(s) will also be advertised during the contest. Rules and restrictions apply. 

Got Journal?

Are you looking for a reason to journal? Consider these benefits ...

People who journal are healthier than the rest of us — and not just mentally. Documenting thoughts and feelings in writing, whether it's in a leather Moleskin or on a computer screen, has enormous benefits for our physical health.

Website Development

We have a couple of clubs in the Area that want to have a separate website for the club and have asked me about software options. Additionally, there are individual members who are needing to create a personal website for their speaking business. So, if you are in either category this post should be helpful.

When I started creating web sites, back in 1996, all you needed was a text editor. Everyone was coding pages by hand and using tables to control the layout of their information. Those days are long gone and anyone wanting to create a snappy UI needs to know bootstrap, php, css and java. Today, you need to be able to create a responsive layout so that your information adapts to the device of your site visitors. Simply, you need a page that looks as great on a smart phone as it does on a 65" flat screen!

Fall Conference 2015

This past weekend was the Founder's District Fall Conference and Leadership Event. At the District Conference, held in the Fall and the Spring, the District holds a business meeting to vote on multiple initiatives. This meeting voted on the proposed split of Founders District into two districts. By an overwhelming majority, the District leaders voted in favor of forming District 100 - the Century District. Clubs located on and North of Ball Road will be in District 100. Clubs located South of Ball Road will remain in Founder's District. The delegates also approved the realignment to create TEN divisions from the existing EIGHT divisions.

Award Winning Speeches

Friends and followers, the Area C2 and Division C contests have concluded. Again, a special thank you to Stella Mahakian for serving as the Area C2 Contest Chair and who served as the Division C Food Chair at the Division C Contest, this past Saturday (October 24). Stella brings value by her attentiveness to details.


When every club participates in an Area Contest, the quality of the contest improves exponentially. We had representatives from each of the five clubs in the Tall Tale contest. Unfortunately, one contestant in the Evaluation contest was unable to attend. Our guest speaker was Pastor Mike Boswith, who shared his personal story of adversity and how God provided him the strength to continue in spite of immeasurable losses.

Eye Candy!

It's been a while since I last posted an article. Area Contest, getting ready for club visits, speaking, SpeechCraft, and a Debate ... a full plate. Recently I started working on a responsive web page template and was looking for eye catching artwork. You know what I am talking about? The kind of graphics that says, modern, colorful, professional, cutting edge - then I found the perfect source.

Just a Quick Note

My mother was a successful elementary school teacher. She worked her entire life teaching the 3rd grade for the St. Louis City School District. She loved her job. My mother was also consistent in creating hand written notes, whenever she wanted to make a point, show her concern, or express her emotions. At the recent Area C2 Contest, I wanted to express my gratitude to those whose efforts made the event successful. I clumsily wrote notes to everyone who played a key role.

[ EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY ]

Did you read your copy of the LEADER LETTER? This news is HUGE for small, specialty clubs who are looking to grow and become President's Distinguished. Here is the message as it appeared in the email update ...

The Board of Directors met on August 10-11. As a part of the discussions, they approved a two-phased approach for integrating virtual clubs into the Toastmasters experience. Phase 1, which is effective immediately, allows for virtual attendance. In Phase 2, which is expected to begin by mid-2016, clubs may charter as virtual (online only) clubs.

SHUT THE FRONT DOOR! Effective immediately, it is possible to sign-up members who will attend meetings virtually. This is great news for clubs who are struggling to get members in the door. There are some qualifying rules to consider before you go out and celebrate. Let the smiling and cheesecake eating begin ...

Area C2 - Tall Tale and Evaluation Contest

Tall Tale and Evaluation Contest
by Stella Mahakian

Content:

Date, Time & Venue
Marketing our Division Contest and Club Contest
Club Contest Guideline & Timeline
Opportunity Drawings needed
Volunteers needed

Hey, Pigpen!

Remember Pigpen from the Peanuts comics? The little kid that walked in a cloud of dirt, everywhere he went. Well science now reveals that not only do we ALL have a cloud that follows us around, everywhere we go, but that it is as unique as a finger print. It tells who we are, what we have done and where we have been. The name?

A Club Portal from Scratch

I am proud to announce that FREEToastHost2 has created a blank portal for me to be able to create a series of screencasts, showing how to build a Club Portal from Scratch. The aim is to create a helpful and easy to follow series of ONE MINUTE How Tos. Imagine being able to embed podcasts, videos, demonstrations, a photo album into your club portal! What? You didn't think that was possible? You will be surprised at everything you can do to make YOUR CLUB PORTAL a one stop shop for folks wanting to learn more about Toastmasters.

10 Reasons Why - Conferencing Calls

If you have lived in Southern California for any time at all, you know that driving is not as pleasant as driving in other places. The exception, taking an unrushed drive on Pacific Coast Highway. So, scheduling face-to-face meetings always has to take into consideration "rush hour." On any given day, driving 10 miles can take 60 minutes. GRRRRRRR!

Art of Flyer Design

Recently, I conducted a webinar for Founders District - Division C. Teaching non-technical folks how to use a sophisticated software program is not productive or feasible. Why? In most cases, people who have graphic design projects do not have the resources or ability to install programs like Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop. However, most people have access to Microsoft PowerPoint. This webinar is using Office 2016 for MAC.


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Toastnosis

TOASTnosis^©
/tōst - nō - səs/

Have you ever noticed that there are certain activities that are the catalyst for your most profound thoughts? Sleeping? Singing in the shower? Sitting in a hot-tub? Exercising? For me, it's walking. I have some of my best ideas while I am walking. That may be my minds attempt to prevent me from getting bored - I am not sure. I just know it is great for stimulating deep thinking. Today was no exception. While I was walking, thinking about a new system for communication - COGENTAL^©, I was thinking about the practice of hypnosis. You know, when you are induced into a semi-conscious state so that you can bypass your conscious defenses.

Have Fun

"HAVE FUN?"
I will!

Have you ever asked yourself, "what is MY purpose in life!?"
Have you ever wondered, "why am I here?"
I may not be able to help you find your purpose and answers to those profound questions in a 3-5 minute speech. I wish I could ...

What I can do is help you discover your purpose and message by focusing on which important decisions to make and how to move forward. Would that be helpful for you?

Mindmap your speech!

While preparing a speech to give as a Test Speaker at a nearby club, outside our Division, I realized the power of mind-mapping to create a well organized speech. I will embellish  here by including the speech in progressive stages, so that you can generalize and create your personal speech.  Tony Bazan popularized the use of Mind Mapping as a way of "thinking out loud." Of course, we Toastmasters understand the value of writing our speeches out. We are also taught that we should never memorize our speech "word-for-word." So this method of thinking and planning makes great sense for us.

It's Nice to Share!

Do you remember when you were younger, how good it felt to share and have someone share with you. Well, sharing is one thing that we Toastmasters do well. As Toastmasters, we love to do great things and share within our Area, Division, District, Region and THE WORLD ... so that others can enjoy the fruits of our labor. If you ever see anything on Club 100's Portal (http://100.toastmastersclubs.org) that you would like to customize for YOUR club, just let me know. Use the form on the right to communicate directly with me. There are thousands of resources available.

Online Eye Candy Store

Someone reminded me that every time we write a post for a blog, or Facebook and even Twitter ... we increase our "sharing rate" (the likelihood that one of our contacts/followers will share our posting through their account) when we include a photo. I realize that it isn't always possible to find the right photo, and when you do find a photo - it may not be legal to share because of copyright issues. So, I have a solution. Here is a list of websites where you can find copyright-free images. The best part is that most of them come in a high resolution so you incorporate them into presentations, flyers, banners, etc ... I like to refer to this list as the Online Eye Candy Stores.

www.sitebuilderreport.com/stock-up
stocksnap.io
startupstockphotos.com
picjumbo.com
sumall.com/free-marketing-images
unsplash.com
www.lifeofpix.com
jaymantri.com
skitterphoto.com
nos.twnsnd.co
www.resplashed.com
www.pixabay.com
www.pexels.com

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