ISSUE 1 2011, District 20, Division A area 10

Bat Newsletter

Re-Branding

When I was born, my father promised to

raise me like himself – a leader.

Unfortunately, he lived just 3 years later.

To some, naming one’s child after a known

personality (be a superstar, legend, or

president) would somehow emulate the

personality and achievements of that

person when they grow up. My father too

believed in that – so he named me after

Philippine President Elpidio Quirino and so

with my brother Ramon (after President

Ramon Magsaysay)

I am the 3rd from a brood of four (a brother

& 2 sisters), born to a quite comfortable

life then. The family runs the biggest

grocery store in the community. But

nothing is constant but change. Our world

started to crumble with the death of my

father and mother, when I was 3 and 11

years old, respectively. With all properties

sold one by one to finance my brother’s

education, life for me became a survival.

Except for my first two years in college, I

was a self-supporting student from

Standard VI till completion of my college

education. Passing the CPA licensure

examinations became the defining

moment of my life. It led me to ocean of

employment opportunities – both local and

overseas.

Joined Philippine’s biggest bank

(Philippine National Bank), the biggest

engineering company worldwide

(Halliburton) and as U.A.E’s Finance &

Administration Manager for a courier

company. At the latter, I had to surrender

my independence or liberty to flirt when I

met and married my wife.

Saving a Filipina from possible life

sentence, or even death, introduced me to

community service in UAE. Volunteered

as an officer of the Philippine Contingency

Committee during the Gulf War, I had to

send home my family for their safety.

These heroic acts, service to mankind and

to the nation, and a remarkable feat to rise

from the bondage of poverty to become a

self-made professional were recognized,

in June 2001, when I was chosen as one

of the 11 recipients worldwide of a

Presidential Award (New Heroes Award)

given at the Malacanang Palace by

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Introduced to toastmasters in 2000 after a

mediocre acceptance speech as President

of the Philippine Institute of Certified

Public Accountants (PICPA), it enhanced

my leadership and communication skills.

Attending a TMI Convention at Reno,

Nevada as a first-timer in August 2004

made me realize my attainment was

insignificant compared to lots of

successful toastmasters I met. That

motivated me to plan my next accent to

higher goals – finish my MBA (graduated in Sept’2007) and achieve advanced

educational awards.

Leaders are not born but made; my

exposure to toastmasters greatly helped

fulfill “the promise”.

“Quest For The Best”

Dr. Elpidio R.Quitevis, ACS/ALB

BAT President – 2011-2012

Hello and good Day!

Dear Fellow Toastmasters of Bahrain Advance

Toastmasters (BATA), this is your Vice

President Education sharing simplified Club

success As Program for the YR 2011- 2012. I

went on vacation right after our first Executive

Committee Meeting and was unable to attend

1st and 2nd regular club meeting in July and

August. But I must say thanks to TM

Farkhanda as acting VPE she has taken care of

Educational matters and I am also obliged to

DTM Ahmed to keep posting me different

BAT matters and all rest of the EXCOM

members President Elpidio to keep me

informed about all discussions and decisions

made in my absence. In-fact I did not felt

myself out of Bahrain.

Coming back to our real commitment for the

BAT’s Educational goal to achieve well

advance in time I would like to emphasize

some important point to consider by all of us

as a team because I believe that

“Together We Achieve More”

The mission of a Toastmasters club is to

provide a mutually supportive and positive

learning environment in which every

individual member has the opportunity to

develop oral communication and leadership

skills, which in turn foster self-confidence and

personal growth.

For achieving our set goals we have to focus

on following two fundamental points.

Educational Awards:

As member of Advance Club

we have to work differently as we discuss in

our EXCOM and regular meeting but we have

to concentrate on CC‟s, ACS, ACB, ACS,

ACG, Leadership Awards, CL, ALS,

leadership Excellence, and Distinguished

Toastmaster (DTM) awards issued to

members determines our club’s success in

helping our members learn not only speaking

skills but leadership skills as well. Do not

forget to submit your completion detail to your

own VPE TM Dr. Jamshaid Gul.

As VPE my prime

responsibility is to remind all members to jot

down your speaking and leadership plan till

December and mail me as early as possible

leave rest on me how I will fix your speaking

and leadership time. Be in touch with me and

us TOGETHER WE WILL ACHIEVE

MORE.

Membership:

In order to properly conduct the educational

program, a club should have at least 20

members. Membership turnover is

unavoidable as members move change jobs, or

encounter other situations that take them away

from the club. As we all know our veteran

toastmasters and driving force behind us Alex

Ginete, DTM Lt. Governor Education &

Training District 20 --Toastmasters

International. As promised by our members at

least we have to bring one new member (at

least CC) for membership building of our

Club.

I shall keep on discussing

Educational Programs for the

success of BAT time to time and

will achieve our set goals.

A Successful Club Dr. Jamshaid Gul (ACG, CL)

Vice President Education

Bahrain Advance Toastmasters

Then, I never dreamed of being a District

Officer, ever. As always, I take my

aspirations ‘one step at a time’.

Over ten years ago, I accepted the challenge

to help form a Toastmasters Club. It never

dawned to me that the humble decision

would have given me an enormous chance

to, in what I believe in all dimensions,

become a better person.

At the onset everything was new. Everything

was novel. Practically, I only wanted to

improve my unpromising public speaking

skills. That was all I needed then.

Sooner than I expected, I was immersed into

delivering prepared speeches one after the

other and eventually achieved the

Competent Toastmasters certificate, then

simply called CTM. That was all I needed

then, so afterwards I chose to lay dormant in

Toastmasters… as many would do after the

first achievement.

Four years later, the yearning for wisdom

was awakened within, or was it just the right

time? I finally accepted DTM Fe Gutierrez’

long standing invitation to join the Bahrain

Advanced Toastmasters (BAT). Before long

I found myself talking about Toastmasters,

felt everything Toastmasters and literally

breathed Toastmasters.

The assignments came in droves. Each

designation became a challenge. Every

position was an opportunity to grow, to learn

and to become a better person and to add

value to the organization we love to serve.

In BAT, I learned that we always face

forward, while we constantly look back.

That’s why, as each term ends, you see BAT

members taking on leadership roles as

officers with two hands up high… always

willing and at all times, always able. I also

found the high-pitched reality: In BAT, the

„I‟ becomes „We‟, one step at a time. As members of the BAT family, we all reflexively become Membership VPs. We invite people to join toastmasters by setting an example as a respectable member of the community of nations worth emulating. We talk about change. We share inspiring experiences. We profess self-improvements, and we gain positive changes in our lives in return. Today is a challenge. Tomorrow will be another aspiration. That is all we need for our continuous growth, ‘One Step at a Time’.

One Step at a Time

Alex Ginete, DTM

VP Membership

“Add humor to add a new dimension in your speech”

You don’t have to be a comedian to use humor in a speech. Just consider use of humor so that you add a new dimension in your speech. How do you add humor? To begin with, you can think of an embarrassing moment that happened in your life. You might have experienced this while checking-in hotels, travelling in a bus, travelling in a train, touring in a taxi, attending an interview, visiting a new friend etc. That incident could have an element of surprise or twist too. Just write that incident in one line. Establish a setting, bring in characters, create a conflict, add color and life, build and exaggerate. Another way is that you can make fun of yourself. This also goes very well with audience Don't risk picking on someone in the audience, even if everyone laughs. You never know when some statement can hurt

someone's feelings or seem inappropriate. This gives you a chance to practice setting up humor. Make sure that whatever your choice of humor is, you must be able to connect it to the point you are making. Keep your humor short. If what you do does not go over well, it is a lot easier on you and your audience if the humor is short and not a three-minute flop. Don't preview your humor by saying, 'This is a funny line.' That puts too much pressure on you for it to be funny. Go for it! Use humor in your next speech. There is a good chance they will go home remembering your points better and feeling good about you and your presentation.

NT Arasan, ACB, CL

Toastmasters International has long been known as an organization that helps people

improve their public speaking skills. Over the years, Toastmasters clubs and districts

have increasingly created websites, conference materials, meeting materials and other

communications that displayed their individuality. In early 2008, it became clear that

this customization had evolved to the point where the Toastmasters brand was

suffering from a lack of consistent perception and recognition among members and

prospective members.

In late 2009, World Headquarters and its branding partner conducted research to better

understand Toastmasters’ position in the market. The research was comprised of

interviews with members and prospective members from around the world, club and

district leaders and board members; attendance at conferences, club meetings and

club leader trainings; analysis of the competition and a thorough review of our

materials.

Out of this research we learned that our organization faces many challenges, the most

significant being perception control. While the mission of Toastmasters International is

in part to, “continually expand its worldwide network of member clubs, thereby offering

ever-greater numbers of people the opportunity to benefit from its programs,” the

varying public's perceptions of the organization impede the clubs’ and districts’ ability

to be successful.

A clear and consistent brand tells one story of an organization. An ineffective brand

tells many stories – some of which are accurate and consistent, but the majority of

which are inconsistent and inaccurate. In order to realize our mission, we must create

consistency in the story we tell. Therefore, the primary objective of the rebrand is to

create and deploy one consistent Toastmasters.

To achieve this objective, we have developed a set of tools to help clubs and districts

around the world consistently share this identity. Through the consistent use of the new

visual system and positioning, we will successfully:

Accurately set and maintain the public’s perception of Toastmasters.

Expand the organization's reach into emerging markets.

Reduce the volunteer leaders’ workload by providing brand guidelines to use when

creating materials.

Garner more recognition and media coverage.

Become the consistently recognized world leader in leadership and communication

development.

Create a more consistent member experience, regardless of geography.

Source:www.toastmasters.org

Who are You? I am a mirror, reflecting your perception, of who

I am.

Describe yourself in a single sentence? An ordinary woman blessed with an

extraordinary feeling of purpose in life.

Which speaker in history do you admire the

most?

I don’t believe in history. History is dead and

gone. I live in the present and for me any person

who is able to forget myself for even a moment, I

would admire as a great speaker.

What does being a Toastmaster mean to you? For me being a Toastmaster is an

opportunity to fulfill my life purpose, to

touch hearts and make a difference in

people’s lives.

What was your most embarrassing

moment as a speaker? I felt scared rather than embarrassed the first

time I was asked to speak in front of a huge

audience, with a mike in hand, because my voice

to my ears sounded like a squeak, no words

seemed to come, but the response from the

audience gave no indication of my fear being

experienced by them.

What according to you makes a person a good public speaker? The qualities of a public speaker according to me

are the 5Cs

Confidence

Command over the language

Charisma

Clarity of thought

Clear delivery

Public speaker according to me is not only about

just speaking but delivering a performance,

which appeals to the audience and acts as a

catalyst to bring about a change in their lives for

the better.

.

What person or event inspired you or changed you in a positive way? In July 1999, I heard myself being addressed as

‘Maaji’ by a much older man, a very senior

VVIP, while other ladies in the group were being

addressed by their names. I realized then that it

was not the age but the way I was projecting

myself that gave others the feel of I being old

and outdated and a mother figure. I was only 48.

I decided to do something about the way I

carried myself and projected myself. I decided

on a makeover and changed the way I looked,

felt and interacted.

Words of advice for a novice speaker Are there truly novice speakers? We have been

talking since we started it in the first years of our

life, which means we have been speakers in one

way or the other for the whole of our lives. But

when we desire to structure our speaking around

certain objectives, within certain time frames,

then, we require honing our speaking skills.

I would say for such a novice speaker, the first

requirement would be to come with an empty

cup and be open to learning from other

experienced speakers who have walked the talk

within the framework of time and structure and

delivered on them.

I would also like to suggest never ever to copy

another and become a clone but to retain the

individuality, the uniqueness that is in you and

build on your strengths.

Keep eyes and ears wide open to notice

excellence and try and emulate the strategy and

the technique, to become better and better and

aim to become the best you can be.

Know Your Toastmaster… U

sha D

evra

jan

Incoming

Officers:

President : Elpidio Q

VP Education: Dr. Jamshaid Gul

VP Membership: Alex G.

VP Public Relations: Jahangir

Khan

Secretary: Fakhira Syed

Treasurer: Jothi Ruban

Srg. At Arms:Ahmed Rizvi

This is BAT’s first issue of the term 2011-2012, and for

this term we have planned something new to add to

the newsletter this term. In the first issue we have

published one of the toastmasters interview, and for

the next newsletter we will add new things as well.

Special thanks to all the members who contributed

and to Tm.Fakhira for helping me to make this

newsletter.