Blogtrek

Conference Memories

I attended a Toastmaster District Conference this weekend. So many interesting events happened there that it became overwhelming; a lot of things I would like to blog seem to have been lost.

Some of the names of new Toastmaster clubs are interesting, especially the new clubs that have formed in the past year. Some of these are Motivators without Calculators, 10X and Mighty Mouths (reminding me of Mighty Mouse, which I saw when I was young - a cross between Mickey Mouse and Superman).

Some interesting aphorisms from Virgie Binford over the weekend: You cannot lead where you do not know. You cannot teach what you don't know. You cannot give where you don't have. You cannot share experiences that you have not had. You cannot return to where you have not been. In other words, if you don't have it, you can't give or share it with others. Perhaps these could be stated more positively; for example, You need to know in order to lead. To give or share with others, you need to have.

Themes. This year's theme was "The Power of One". It reminds me of "The Army of One". In any case, 1 to any power is still 1. My philosophy is "Just Add One", so that makes 1+1 = 2. Now 2 to the 100th power is an enormous number. This year's theme is "Walk the Talk". That reminds me of a Neil Diamond song where the lyrics are "Money talks, but it don't sing and dance and it can't walk." It is the same theme as Virgie's. If you are going to talk about doing it or having it, you need to do it and have it; else you don't show yourself as being sincere. Money is not sincere; in fact, it is downright hypocritical.

If I were the District Governor, my theme would be "Toastmasters is a Fire." Starting a Toastmasters club or keeping one going is like trying to keep a fireplace fire burning. You need the fuel of members, the air of a good educational program, and the heat of enthusiasm to keep a Toastmasters club going. Take one away and it folds or becomes merely a social club. Indeed, Toastmasters is like a fire.

A number of errors have come up recently. Many of these are caused by word processors so that the erroneous letter string constitutes a word. For example in the past you may get steepl instead of steel. Nowadays, you get steal instead, so that "steel pipes" becomes "steal pipes" and means foul play where none had been intended. Yesterday I saw this version of the golden rule: You should threat others as you would have them treat you. A Freudian slip on the part of the computer?