Division H New Members Orientation

TGIF Christians TMC's Charter Ceremony

Dracula LIVE in Taipei

It has been fun to learn Radio Drama with Director Ruth Giordano at Learning Kitchen for the past two years. From Shakespeare's master pieces, Treasure Island, to Dracula, I haven't only experienced the power of spoken words, but I've also laid hands on the noise making items to enjoy the foley innovation with anything I could have ever thought of!

Many thanks to Ruth for inviting me to join the Red Room community "dedicated to listening" and to help her achieve the mission of Red Room Radio Redux (R4) to bring the spoken word to a wide community using simple techniques of readers' theater and radio drama. As global citizens, I cherish the opportunity to learn the finest of the Western literary heritage with our Eastern friends and re-kindle an appreciation of the great stories and poems of literature and find common purpose with the literature of the world.

It is time we journeyed in time to the golden age of radio to hear Bram Stoker's classic tale of mystery and horror with the energetic and enthusiastic R Fourers!

Three Live Shows: Saturday 10/26 at 4:30 & 7:30 PM
Sunday, 10/27 at 2:30 PM

Vocals: Sarah Brooks, Marina Burana, Thomas Mayfield, Manav Mehta, Nate Murray, Colin Norman & Nic Sando.
Foley effects designed and executed by Sherry Li, Marina Burana

Tickets are on sale at the door starting 1 hour before each performance.
Students (200) & General Public (300)

Reservations:
Most of our seating is free-form on our rugs or free-standing.
We have a limited number of actual chairs: please let us know if you require/strongly prefer.
Write to us at r4.radioredux@gmail.com
We'll gladly keep your name at the door and look forward to seeing you!

For more information on Red Room Radio Redux:
http://www.redroom.com.tw/red-room-radio-redux/

A Tiebraking Judge--Joint Area C1 & C4 Humorous Speech & Evaluation Contests

Area C1 Governor Yvonne Kao is a responsible Toastmaster. In order to organize the Joint Area C1 & C4 Humorous Speech & Evaluation Contests smoothly, she attended many area contests to learn the savoir-faire. The evening before the joint C1 & C4 contest, Yvonne called me to discuss the details for an hour. On the contest day, she bought 5 chicken hamburgers and 10 pan-fried stuffed buns to feed the contest chair Ben Chao and the tiebreaking judge and helpers (Hui- yu Chuang and Pamela Wang) at a pre-contest lunch gathering at Taipei 228 Memorial Museum before 11:30. With an extra hour of preparation, we went through contest proceedings, rearrangement of the venue layout and the sound system. By the time, the open was open, everything was in order. The joint Area C1 & C4 contest turned out to be one of the most successful area contests with laughter and joy.

Be it a joint Area C1 & C4 contest, there were 8 contestants from C1 and 1 contest from C4 at the humorous speech contest, 8 contestants from C1 and 1 contestant from C4 at the evaluation contest! I can't help reflecting upon the proper alignment of Toastmasters clubs in each area. It's not only about the club numbers, but only the club character (community, corporate, campus, government) and club quality (high, medium, low) in each area. Take Area C1 for example, there are five clubs, including 2 strong community clubs (Legacy & Galaxy) and 3 campus clubs (FJU, Soochow, NTUT). Under Area C4, there are three clubs, two community clubs (Excellence & Hualien) and 1 campus club (NTUST).

Eight humorous speech contestants had their strengths in their ways. Everyone of them had a chance to place at District level. It was not hard to imagine the keen competition with a full house of laughter from the beginning till the end. The champion speaker Toastmaster Michael Woods (Legacy) talked about how much he wished to get ride of his old cell phone and what his cell phone taught him in the end. The first runner-up Toastmaster Moses Mo (Galaxy) talked about his super idle. After his beloved wife got retired, she decided to join EMBA course diligently. The second runner-up Toastmaster Carol Liou talked about her experiences  with boys. It was a pity that 5 contestants had to miss the opportunity to represent Area C1 to compete at Division C contest, including Ingrid Hsueh's (Legacy) My Husband's Girls; Crystal Chien's (Legacy) Just Listen; Sophie Chen's (SCU) Culture Differences; Godfrey Wu's (SCU) Fish Tank & HOt Pot; Philip Botha's (NTUT) Sacrifice. 

The target speaker was Eric Chan from MOFA Toastmasters Club. He delivered his third speech (get to the point) about APEC Voices of the Future 2013 at MOFA Toastmasters Club Thursday noon, October 17th. Being his individual evaluator, I was happy to see Eric take the challenge as a target speaker at the Joint Area C1 & C4 Evaluation Contest to be evaluated by 9 evaluation contestants. I was happy to see his improvement of contents and delivery in three short days. And I saw with my eyes that speakers are made in an encouraging and supportive learning environment. The evaluation contest was competitive among the contestants. The official ballot of a tiebreaking judge was of use!

After the contest, I joined the Dream Parade in front of the Presidential Hall. Wow, how I felt excited and recharged when I saw energetic elementary school kids from aboriginal tribes all over Taiwan. The blend of costumes, floats, music, and participants of all ages reminded of the Mardi Gras in New Orleans when I was a graduate student between 1979 and 1983. I was overwhelmed at those at age of 60 plus ladies dancers in sexy dazzling colorful samba outfits It was a thrill to follow the parade crowd for an hour with drummers and dancers of all ages on Chung-shan South Road and Jen-ai Road. I looked forward to joining the samba beauty competition for ladies over 60 in 2015.

Round Robin Evaluation

Was I happy to see Toastmaster Jenny Chen and Simon Hsieh at MOFA's meeting featuring two round robin evaluations for Toastmaster Weiling Chen and Erik Lahdekorpi Thursday noon, October 17th. Like all competition events, from spelling bees to baseball, sportsmanship isn't just reserved for athletes on the field. The sportsmanship is a tradition in sports and competition that players handle both victory and defeat with grace, style, and dignity. Jenny and Simon's demonstrated the spirit of sportsmanship with encore congratulations to Weiling and Erik, two winners at the Area H1 humorous speech contest and valuable recommendations to compete at Division H humorous speech contest at Tatung University Sunday afternoon, October 27th.

It was the first time for me to attend a round robin evaluation, given the fact that I had been a Toastmaster for 27 years. According to the club meetings and meeting roles at Toastmasters International, some advanced clubs have a Round Robin evaluation for the speakers. In addition to the designated evaluator giving an evaluation recorded in the member's manual, the other members around the room are asked for additional comments on the presentation.

Division H Governor Lawrence was the Round Robin Master. He assigned 5 evaluators for each humorous contest speaker. Each evaluator was given 1 minutes and 30 seconds to give kisses and kicks. Toastmaster Jenny Chen, Simon Hsieh, Pierre Chen were in my group to give dos and don'ts to Erik Lahdekorpi, the champion at Area H1 humorous speech contest. It was stimulating to learn more what a good speech is. It was exciting to experience the energy and enthusiasm from the floor, how how members help members grow in the field of public speaking!

Are speakers born or made? In Toastmasters, speakers are made in a positive and supportive environment. Good speakers have a pocket of speeches handy. Good speakers seize the stage to excel. Not only does it take time for speakers to give birth to good speeches, but they also need acquire the skills to involve the audience to convey the messages successfully.

A speech contest is only the starting point for speakers. We need to reflect upon the thoughts what we could have done better when the memories were still fresh. At the same time, we need to move forward to work on the next speech contest. A winning speaking is made by preparation, preparation and preparation, nothing else but full preparation!

As a senior member of Grand, I am happy to have diligent and enthusiastic members in search of excellence in our club. As Area H1 Governor, I am happy to see the support among Toastmasters clubs in Area H1.

A Judge--Area H3 Humorous Speech and Evaluation Contests

 Area H3 humorous speech and evaluation contests took place at Arris, Sunday afternoon, October 13th. As I live in Hsin-tien, Arris is in the neighborhood. It feels good to participate in the community event, not to mention a Toastmasters event in my community. As a life Toastmaster, it is one of my goals to charter an English speaking community Toastmasters club in Hsin-tien. When I'm as old as Toastmaster Richard Fong (90+), I wish I could walk to the Toastmasters club meeting from home.

There are four Toastmasters clubs in Area H3, Leadership Village didn't send any representatives. Two contestants from each club participated in humorous speech contest and evaluation contest. Being one of judges at Area H3 contest, I found it hard to select two winners from each contest, as all contestants had their strengths and weakness in their own ways. Nate Murray (Price Cutter) talked about his bargaining experiences in China. Jason Liu (Be Quiet) talked about looking for a quiet place to study in the city library for his examination. Kenny Chang (What's the Boy) talked about the career path of a software engineer to elementary school kids. Maria Kang (Two Devils) talked about her two sons as two devils to punish her. Tim Cheng (Facial Expression) used all kinds of facial expressions to add impact to his speech. Vincent Chuang (My Dear! Why?) talked about the shopping behaviors between men and women. When Area H3 Governor Christine Liu announced the winners, I noticed that some judges exchanged looks at one another. I'm sure each judge had their winners in their minds, but it's no use protesting after the contest result was announced. On top of that, there was no issue of legibility and originality.

Target speaker Paul Lee told a touching story about his college classmate Winnie who went to the US bare hand not being able to speak a single word of English. She started working at a restaurant with only food and shelter, no salary. Then she got a job at the casino. Her house got bigger and bigger with the advancement of her job at the casino. It was a motivational speech. Many thanks to Paul Lee, a long time no see friend in Toastmasters! 

A Contest Master--Joint Area H1& H2 Humorous Speech & Evalution Contests

Many thanks to three Huangs, Area H2 Governor Kendrick Huang, Area H2 Assistant Governor Alex Huang, and Division H Governor Lawrence Huang for an entertaining and educational Saturday afternoon, October 12th. At noon, Kendrick and I met at Starbucks Cafe' near Mackay Hospital to discuss about the contest proceedings, including opening and conclusion of the contest for an hour.

After a quick lunch rendezvous, we walked to the Lecture Hall on the 15th floor at 1PM. To my surprise, I saw the contest chief judge Toastmaster Ron Chen sitting alone waiting for us. As the contest master, I was happy to be able to go over our  responsibilities with Ron to make the joint Area H1 & H2 contest successful! Chief Judge Ron was responsible to brief the judging criteria and the protest. I announced the contestants order, speaking area, and timing rules.

Area H2 Governor Kendrick Huang must be very popular in Toastmasters. He was successful in recruiting NINE judges to the joint Area H1& H2 Humorous Speech & Evaluation Contests. It was without doubt that Kendrick and Alex spend a lot of time and put a great amount of efforts to make the joint contest enjoyable and fair for contestants and the audience.

As much as I love to join humorous speech contest to hone my sense of humor, I'm not entitled to participate in any speech contest in 2013-2014 as a Toastmaster District Officer. Fortunately, Toastmaster Jennie Chen from Grand Toastmasters Club came to me for advises. Was I happy to I help her with the speech contents, deliveries! When I saw Jennie deliver her speech "Blind Dates or Not"on stage, I experienced another dimension of speech contest and I felt good for Jennie and for myself. Even both contestants Jenny Chen and Simon Hsieh from Grand didn't place, but they gained valuable experiences for their future performances on stage. MOFA claimed all humorous speech and evaluation trophies. President Charles was proud to announce, "At MOFA, we don't cultivate speakers, we attract speakers". 

Millions of thanks to Kendrick and Alex for organizing the contest and making a lot of laughter as single and available gentlemen at the match making episode with two single and available Jennies, Toastmasters Jenny Chen from Grand and Toastmaster Jenny Tzeng from MOFA during 5 minutes preparation time for evaluation contestants. The target speaker and the audience enjoyed a happy break before the evaluation contest reconvened!

At the end of the contest, Division H Governor Lawrence announced the Division H humorous speech and evaluation contest at Tatung University Sunday afternoon, October 27th, followed by Division H New Members Orientation and Costume Party at Mackay Hospital in the evening. I was happy to know that Lawrence and I were born on the same month, the same day, but different years, two decades apart. Hooray, two libras are on the way to make Division H a president's distinguished division in 2013-1014.

I'm 58!

As far as I can recall, I never miss my birthday. When I was a little girl, I insisted on sitting between my parents on my birthday dinner, when other young kids sat at another table. When I grew older, I loved to receive birthday presents. It had been a headache for my mother to purchase a birthday present in gold when she was alive. I insisted on a gift in gold from my parents because it last forever. Now, I don't like any birthday presents, because I've already had more than I can need. I like birthday parties just the same. It is a special day for me to think of a new resolution for my life on my birthday. It feels good to be surrounded by family and friends.