Publicity for VP-Ed, Elan Chalford

In the August 2010 issue of Toastmaster, the article titled, “Speaking A Capella” has two paragraphs devoted to our VP-Education, Elan Chalford, DTM.

Elan Chalford, a violinist who lives near Tampa Bay, Florida, and a Toastmaster for nearly 12 years, views speaking and playing music as a dexterous mental leap. The two activities involve two different parts of the brain, he notes. When you’re in front of an audience talking and performing music, the key skill that’s needed “is to be able to move back and forth between those two parts of the brain,” Chalford says. “It’s a lot more difficult than people might think. When I started doing it, I could feel a resistance, a kind of wall I had to pass through. But the more you do it, the better you get at it.”

Chalford says Toastmasters has greatly improved the s peaking part of his presentation. “After I had been with Toastmasters for a while,” he says, “when I was with any band on stage and something needed to be said, I could easily step up to the microphone and say something, whether it was a question of filling time or introducing a tune.”

Credit goes to Lou Polur for spotting the quote in the magazine independently and letting me know by Facebook.

The Summer Toastmaster

Tarpon Talkers Toastmasters Club met Wednesday, July 14, Bastille Day.  I believe  we achieved a further measure of liberation in our self expression.

First we had wee bit of a business meeting. We decided to allow and hour and a half for our club meetings. This permits three speakers and five to seven table topics, as desired.

We have another bit of business coming up. We shall discuss and decide how we want to handle voting for best table topic, best speech,best evaluation.

This was the first meeting presided over from beginning to end by our new President, Loretta Buckner. She did a fine job of that, and also treated us to a story she made up, “The Goldfish Boy.” She’s starting the Advanced Manual in Storytelling.

Arnie Milnes gave a talk that reminded us about the warning, “The British are coming. The British are coming.” The reminder was that we had failed to pay attention. Now we have British Petroleum.

Elan Chalford spoke about “Teaching Violin.” He drew a comparison and contrast between teaching one on one the traditional way, and teaching by video on YouTube.

Robert Chalford, as Table Topics master, cued each question with a personal tidbit of self revelation, to set the context. This encouraged participants to really spill some beans about themselves.

Jack Lynch nearly brought down the house with his physical humor. The room was rockin’. (Well, it is a portable classroom.)

Our guest, Rochelle Goodner, joined the talk with a confession of being a staunch Harry Potter fan. We shall hear more from her, as she is joining the club.

Next time, July 28, Jonathan Teller and Pam Cohn will be speakers. One more spot is open.

Arnie will be Table Topics Master, Elan will be Toastmaster, Jim Setaro will be Timer. Other roles will be filled as we can fill them.

Thanks to everyone for making it a memorable meeting.

Four Great Talks and More

At our meeting Wednesday the 10th of Feb., we had no less than four speakers sharing their stories and wisdom.

Mel Springer gave her Ice Breaker, telling about her family’s idyllic vacations on Croton Island in New York. She gave vivid description and even drew charts on the white board.

The part about predator capitalism attempting to rip off the legacy of the Croton native American tribe was a bit of a downer. But we appreciated the personal story Mel shared with us.
A similar personal story came from Ron Hughes. Ron is a guest who visits us during the winter. He told about establishing a gavel club in a prison. It sounded like a positive experience all the way!

Sparkie Lovejoy revealed a simple breathing exercise she discovered that improves her mood and spirit. She had us all breathing in unison!

Arnie Milnes rounded out the evening of talks by giving his revised contest talk, Power 101. He told us how we could reclaim our power by overcoming addictions. He did not specifically mention Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, but I knew that’s what he was talking about.

He will give the talk again tomorrow at the Area 74 contest at Aston Gardens at Westchase. The event starts at 9:00 AM and should be finished before 12:00.

Open House February 24 at Tarpon Talkers

The meeting coming up this week [in 2010] is our open house. Teachers and staff members of St. Pete College have been invited. The general public is cordially invited. I’m even inviting my two friends.

The meeting is oriented towards showing what a Toastmasters Club meeting is like. I’m hoping to give a talk on Advocating Toastmasters. Robert will be giving a talk on a recent discovery about learning skills.

Arnie is to be Toastmaster for the meeting. Loretta will serve as General Evaluator. Mel is up for Table Topics Master.

I’ll be contacting other members to completely fill out the agenda before the green flag drops.

Don’t miss this one!

After the Toastmasters Meeting

Here is a casual group image of our members, including our club coaches, Jim Setaro, Area 74 Governor, on the end at the right side, and Jack Lynch, second from left.

Other members are, left to right, Arnie Milnes, Chantel Korkis, a guest, Pam Cohn, Issel Vento, Elan Chalford and Loretta Buckner.

Members of Tarpon Talkers