SAP Toastmasters

D I S T R I C T 4 , A R E A C 3 , C L U B 5 9 6 0 6 9 O C T . 2 0 0 9

DISTRICT 4
SOCIAL MEDIA:
SAP Toastmasters Club Contests Fall ‘09
by Amitabh Mishra (ACS), Next was Club Humorous Speech tics. Nick Rose stepped up effort-
Facebook Donna Vigil (CC, CL) & Contest. We had several things lessly to his role as Sergeant At Arms,
Linked In Mario Herger (ACB) going for us: first, the date: just days after his return from wedding
Twitter
09/09/09 - we mean, could we and honeymoon. Most of us know
have hoped for or planned a more how sobering the first post-
YouTube
memorable date? Then, we had honeymoon days are. Rahul Kabra
(SAP Toastmasters conducted two
great attendance. Anticipation was and Danai Wiriyayanyongsuk per-
highly successful club contests in the
in the air, not to mention excite- formed the very important role of
month of September: Evaluation
ment. Even a corporate SAP event timer admirably, and Mario Herger
Contest and Humorous Speech
in the adjoining room, complete and Joshua Johanson went about
Contest. Here’s a report.)
with lights and cameras, failed to their task of ballot counting with a
impress Toastmasters who were stern look on their face, ensuring that
What's chocolate cake got to do
convinced this was the better there'd be no allegations of ballot-
with Toastmasters? Elaine Lung,
ticket in town. tampering or requests for a recount.
Area C4 Governor, test speaker
Many other toastmasters stepped to
for the Club Evaluation Contest
Congratulations to Fariya Ali for the fore by performing little leadership
on Sept. 02, made a vivid presen-
winning first prize for a wonder- acts to ensure a fluent meeting. I recall
tation that had many listeners
fully crafted and funny speech on Donna DJ Vigil organizing a migra-
drooling over the aroma & taste
stalking a foreign film star shoot- tion of chairs into the room before
of chocolate cake. She then
ing on location in San Francisco. the meeting, and out of the room
INSIDE THIS surprised everyone by proceed-
She moves on to represent the afterwards.
ing to explain why being involved
ISSUE: club at the Area Humorous
with Toastmasters could be an
Speech Contest on Oct. 2nd.
equally satisfying experience.
SAP Toastmas- 1 Hiren Kotadia delivered an
ters Club Con- energetic and hilarious speech on
The contestants, Manish Garg,
tests Fall ‘09 so-called 'arranged marriages'. If
Joshua Johanson, Markus
Fariya's speech excelled in struc-
Lintermanns and Amitabh
ture and writing, Hiren's scored in
Mishra were not unduly dis-
Testimonial— 2 terms of content. Emmanuel
tracted by the chocolate meta-
”Sunday School Mayssat gave a funny speech on
phor and each went on to pro-
teacher”
his adventures on aging and anti-
vide thoughtful, constructive
aging.
feedback. It was a tough job for
the judges but Amitabh was
Member News 2 Mohini Wettasinghe and
awarded second place while
David Brutman performed
Manish, a first time contestant
Club 2 incredibly important roles as Evaluation Contest (L to R): Mario Herger (Contest Chair),
but long time Toastmaster, won
Calendar
Toastmaster and Chief Judge, Manish Garg (winner), Amitabh Mishra (runner-up)
first place. Manish goes on to
respectively. Mohini conscien-
represent our club at the Area
Club 2 tiously conducted the meeting and
C3 Evaluation Contest on Friday,
Information nd interviewed the contestants at the
October 2 .
end. David juggled his many re-
sponsibilities with aplomb - brief-
We appreciate the help of the
ing the judges, timers, ballot
following volunteers for the
counters, et al, and ensuring that
evaluation contest: Donna Vigil
the judging and tallying process
(Toastmaster), Rahul Kabra
went off without a hitch. It is to
(Chief Judge), Heather Cowan
the credit of the entire team of
(Sergeant At Arms), Hiren Ko-
volunteers, and specifically of
tadia & Birgit Starmanns
these two Toastmasters, that the
(Timers), Bill Copeland &
contestants could give their
Adish Abnave (Ballot Count-
speeches unencumbered by logis- Humorous Speech Contest (L to R): Hiren Kotadia (runner-
ers). up), Amitabh Mishra (Contest Chair), Fariya Ali (winner)
Testimonial— “Sunday School Teacher”
by Joshua Johanson
Last Sunday, our teacher didn’t
show up to teach our class at
church. Since I am in a leader-
ship role, the responsibility
landed on me to teach the
lesson. I was not prepared. I
am a person who really likes
to have things prepared and
when I find myself in situations
like this I usually get so nerv-
ous that I can’t even think.
This time, I was able to pre-
sent with clarity and confi-
dence. I could actually think
clearly enough to give a lesson
Member News
Mario Herger, our club
Treasurer, was seen collect-
ing club dues conscien-
Have an idea for a
tiously, after stepping up to
contribution? take the role over from
Madhuri. Manish Garg did
Send it to us, this is a special Table Topics ses-
YOUR newsletter! sion in a “debate” format,
asking members to speak on
“pros” and “cons” of a vari-
ety if topics. Bill Copeland
is chief organizer for the
Area C3 Contest (see insert
at right).
Club Information
Toastmasters International
http://www.toastmasters.org
District 4
http://www.d4tm.org
SAP Toastmasters
http://saptm.freetoasthost.net
Club Meetings
Wednesdays, 12:00-1:00 pm
SAP, Building 2
3412 Hillview Avenue
Room: Lombard (2nd floor)
Palo Alto, CA 94304
that was intelligible and spiri-
tual. Several people came up
to me afterwards and told me
how my lesson had helped
them.
I did not join Toastmasters to
work on my impromptu
speaking skills, but it definitely
came in handy last Sunday.
This club gives the perfect
environment for you to thrive.
You can work on speeches
that are serious or humorous,
prepared or impromptu, or
Oct. 02, 6 PM: Area C3
Contest — Be there at HP
Hilltop Toastmasters at 3000
Hanover St, Palo Alto, to
cheer on Fariya Ali and
Manish Garg in the Humor-
ous Speech & Evaluation Con-
test, respectively. For more
details, contact Area C3 Gov-
ernor Bill Copeland at
bill@copelands.org.
Oct. 22: SAP Diversity
Day — SAP Toastmasters will
put up a booth at SAP Diver-
sity Day. This is your chance to
Officers
President: Donna “DJ” Vigil, CC, CL
VP Education: Rahul Kabra, CC
VP Membership: Sri Govindarajan
VP PR: Amitabh Mishra, ACS
Secretary: Mohini Wettasinghe, CC
Treasurer: Mario Herger, ACB
Sergeant-at-Arms: Fariya Ali
Video Officer (honorary role):
Ingo Sauerzapf
even practice giving evaluations
or running a meeting.
But as challenging as the activi-
ties are, the environment is
even more encouraging. Every-
one is learning together. We
are all in the same boat and we
all want each other to suc-
ceed. This provides the safety
and security that we need to
take the chance to spread our
wings and fly. Then, when the
need arises outside, you will be
ready.
learn how to assist in setting up and
running a booth, not to mention
being noticed! Contact Sri Govin-
darajan for more details on how
you can help!
Club Calendar
Newsletter Editor:
Amitabh Mishra, ACS
amitabh.mishra@sap.com
Newsletter Committee:
Niyati Bedekar
Birgit Starmanns, ACB, ALB
Donna (DJ) Vigil, CC
Page 1 photos: Amitabh
Mishra
Page II photos: Joshua Jo-
hanson, Birgit Starmanns