Improving attendance and participation in your club:

Posted on June 2, 2015 by
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Need some ideas on how to improve membership and participating of your club. These are some notes I took from some toastmaster’s training a while ago.

– Meetings that include meals or dessert often encourages attendance.
– Need to have a nation of action mindset.
– Determine how do you manage your promises?
– Ask others to participate.
– Assign all member to a mentor.
– Think tank among you members of how to promote the organization.
– You need to create a need.
– Instead of an email to someone make a phone call. It’s more personal
– Have members be accountable if they can’t be there the next week stay at the bottom of the agenda by there will be there.
– Who are your sales types, personalities in your organization? They may be the best ones to promote the organization to others
– Once a month have an Invite a friend that day.
– Members need to see the value of Toastmasters.
– Build relationships encourage people to be there always. (good, when people stand around and visit)
– Mentors and evaluators call the speech person and discuss the goals of their speech days before they give it.
– Resist the temptation to pounce on new visitors on their first visit may be just the member and education. Maybe second visit let them know of the fees.

Other ideas from Melva
– Print out the last page of the book and share, which gives responsibilities when we signed an agreement
– When a club member does something or a club membr does a good job acknowledge them in front of everyone. If someone has to cancel but gives notices, compliment them for that courtesy so that others can see how they too need to respond.
– If you have a new member who has a speech goal or is in the same interest of a club member, personally introduce them to see if they can establish a friendship.
– As a person joins the club give them a list of all current club members contact info so if they have questions or need to cancel their attendance for a week they will know who to contact.

Do you have ideas on how to make a better club? Please feel free to share in the comment section of this blog.

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A Single Spark:

Posted on June 1, 2015 by
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I want to take a break from the book of Mormon conference notes to give an object lesson. I recently observed three people showing compassion and caring for another individual. And because of the second example, yesterday, I wanted to share it on my blog.
Hope this can be of interest to youth ministries, Sunday schools, family counselors, family home evenings.
Objects for lesson: a charged battery, some tinfoil, lint from a dryer mixed up with pieces of paper or dry grass. As I understand that Boy Scouts can start a fire by scraping a piece of tinfoil against the head of the batter and direct the sparks to kindling to start a fire. I know that the link from the clothes dryer is very combustible, so mix that up with pieces of paper should make a great recipient for the spark.
It only requires one spark to start the fire and blow gently and you can have a fire burning in a short period of time.
Several months ago at church, I saw an older brother, making funny faces and blowing into the face of his baby sister. He did so to entertain that younger sibling while they were sitting in church. I thought it was neat how this older brother was showing his lover by entertaining his sister. It was an act of compassion.
Yesterday at church a mother and teenage daughter performed a nice song. Both are very talented singers. They preformed an excellent song in church was a complex melody and a wide range of musical notes for both. At the beginning the teenage daughter had a couple of times she had to start over.
They both executed the song in a wonderful manner the very talented with a wide variety vocal ability.
Right after the song while the mother sat down the daughter continued walking down the isle and exited the church. I suspect that the reason she was embarrassed. She didn’t realize that the members of the congregation were appreciated the talent of both singers. It sounded very complicated with a variety of levels of singing and execution of the melody. But because the daughter had to start couple of times she was embarrassed.
As she walked out the side door I saw another sister race after. I did not see the conversation took place outside the church. But I have a good suspicion than older sister, sensing this teenager’s distress of making a mistake in public followed her to offer encouragement and a listening ear.
The third example I saw today. There was someone in the isles of the store who would motion for another shopper to proceed her in the crowded isle. A third lady watched the first lady’s courtesy called out to her how thoughtful she was. The Observer didn’t have to say anything, but she noticed the act of thoughtfulness and wanted to acknowledge it.
I wager the first lady appreciated the words.
These were three wonderful examples of compassion and charity.
My encouragement when you have an opportunity to see someone doing something well that we acknowledge it. Or we may often be the instigator of acts of compassion.

If you have suggestions on how to contribute to this topic, please do so in the comment section of this blog. Thanks.

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Most popular commencement address in 2014:

Posted on May 29, 2015 by
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http://news.utexas.edu/2014/05/16/admiral-mcraven-commencement-speech

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Spelling Erupted:

Posted on May 28, 2015 by
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Bad: errupted
Good: Erupted

A volcano eruption only has to erupt once to cause damage. Thus, the word requires only one R.

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History and Folklore:

Posted on May 27, 2015 by
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A great panel at Life the Universe and Everything SF/F symposium. This topic is on history and folklore.

– It is important for you to be familiar with the topic that you want to write about. To do so. You need to research the topic and there are multiple ways to do that. One source might be the Internet. Another might be asking experts. Experts love talking about what they know. You only have to say the Golden statement. “I’m writing a book and I have a question.” And often, people will be overly eager to give you information about what they specialize in.
– Other sources of knowledge can be a call up a museum of the item or time. You want to ask questions about. People are eager to tell you what they know. Check out the website, the minimum wage historian.
– In Wikipedia articles will provide sources of where they got their information. Check those sources for further research.
– An additional source of knowledge is to go to original/primary source.
– Another idea is to check out is Google the word scholar. Then look for the more option and scholar
– You can make a scene seem plausible by providing a couple of accurate details. You can even base a story on the culture element. For example, the word bye actually came from the Christian culture of when people would say goodbye. There is a God be with you. That was shortened to the foreword bye.
– When you share your story with 10 people, and eight of those people accept and like it then the story works. If less than eight accept the story, then the story needs further work. You need to get feedback to find out what works in story and what doesn’t.
– Don’t use any element that does not move your story forward.
– World building can be done even by what type of food and lifestyle. The culture and society are influenced by if they have a steady source of food and resources. If the world does not have metal than their society has to find other ways to evolve without medal. They wouldn’t have the mindset to even think of metal as it never existed in their world, so they don’t miss it.
– When writing, If you have an important detail you need to put into the book; some authors will put a note with [] brackets as a reminder, to act as an anchor to remind them of that detail. Please be added later in the rewrite. If you come up with a new plot element then go back to the earlier part of the story and add important details. Nice to be foreshadowed or insert note and put in brackets. There are actually write the additional information. So the story can have that right detail when you know they need it
– ARN: is the word for a hand span Lang of the sun traveling across the sky
– Want to create a map? Choose a spot on earth and twist that landscape and angle and you have a new map
– Plot idea: lots of the timekeepers: a society has measured their time by the number of bamboo notches of a plant that grows everywhere around the world. It is from that of their society is based. Then that particular plant start dying and it becomes chaos because the very foundation of where they have based the society is crumbling. The eventual solution is on the brink of extinction. They create artificial bamboo in painting or metal work.
Have something to add to the list? Please do so in the comment section of this blog.

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Defining a Purpose in your Business Path:

Posted on May 26, 2015 by
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Over a year ago, I attended a seminar on business and one of the topics was on choosing a business path.

Before you start a business, you need to determine the primary aim of your business, your reason for being, the reason it up in the morning

Ask these questions
– 1. Do you feel a sense of balance in your life?
– 2. Do you regularly enjoy belly laughs?
– 3. Do you live your dreams?
– 4. Do you take time for solitude?
– 5. Do you have three nutritious people in life who are good for your life that challenge you and you enjoy being with?
– 6. Do you feel the energy of optimum health.
– 7. Do you feel your life and business matters
– 8. does your recreation time you recreate you?
– 9. Do you have the courage to say no?
– 10. You have a spiritual practice in your life
– A shift of intention changes the entire game
– When you build anything. There is a certain order to building it
– If you skip a step on element. You will never build what you intended
– if you are going to build a house where would you start?
– What is the plan then add the foundation.
– Why would building a business be any different?
Have something to add? Please do so in the comment section of this blog.

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Ancient heartland discoveries using LIDAR:

Posted on May 25, 2015 by
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I recently attended a Book of Mormon evidence conference. I listened to a number of panels that gave chronological evidence of where certain things could have occurred in Northern America that matched the Book of Mormon. It was a great conference. Today’s topic is using Lidar scanning to discover new chronological sites. I’m sharing my notes in my Teaching Embellishments blog as it’s a great topic.

– Lidar is geos special imaging mapping program were playing wise over the land and uses laser light pulses to record the height of the landscape. Lidar is used to determine the health of the forest, used to determine the material composition of the ground can see the subtle changes of words. Appoint class with a collection of laser pulses that can map out a section of land in the last 38 a lidar.
– Voices from the past leading the way.
– Ancient heartland discoveries using lidar. I
– Website solely views is a great place to see great photos of archaeology sites.
– To be more effective in recognizing new archaeological sites is to recognize the patterns of currently discovered sites. A man by the name of George E Squire wrote a book of the discoveries of Mississippi, where he recorded a lot of the great Native American archaeological sites before, many of them were destroyed. Some of the places that have been mapped a and are recognized as current archaeological sites are:
– Quincy, Illinois: Quincy’s Mount arch
– surface mount, Ohio: 40 acre enclosure that reaches about 1 ½ miles in size
– Fort Hill Ohio is a 200 acre complex
– Maim for Ohio near the Miami River.
– Hopewell mount group is a fortified city that has raised earth in a ditch
– Holton earthworks.
– Paint Creek Valley: is 121 acres. It contains earthworks and the 10 foot wall.
– Scip noun complex: this is the artifacts have been found of a dog eating a human head. It’s called the effigy pipe. Some people may compare this to Mosiah 17:2 where the Prophet Abendi warns the priests of Noah about them being eaten by dogs. If they don’t repent.
– Neware earthworks: might be considered the land of bountiful
– Flint Ridge Ohio
– Southern Illinois fortification.
– Stone fortification, Illinois presents a fortified hilltop. May be considered to be fortifications against the gadiation robbers
– Ponds Escarpment: has a place of influence and has fortified walls of 70 feet high. This place is to once be used by car stays.
– Stone Fort at giant city.
– Southern Indiana hasmann Hopewell site. At the site. The man has picked up 40,000 artifacts. The occupants are known to have done dismissing. Mount is 300 by 225 also has responsible wall.

Mississippi:
– Ethogy mounds
– This island on the Mississippi. That is littered with mounds.
– Malchow mounds preserve

Iowa:
– Have additional mounds.
– Illinois: mounds of earthworks.
– Nauvoo has not yet been scanned by lidar.
– Email publisher@somereviews.com
– free e-books
– If you want to see the samples of blind are scans and information on these sites. One of the site also references much of the book by George E Squire presented up on the web Check out the following websites:
– http://science views.com/Squire (I tried this site but had trouble accessing it)
– http://science views.com/lidar (I tried this site but had trouble accessing it)
If you also took notes at this lecture, or have additional knowledge, please feel free to share it in the comment section of this blog. Thanks.

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Being a Toastmaster officer can move your career forward:

Posted on May 21, 2015 by
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This coming Wednesday, we will be having elections for main streamers officers. I want to discuss some ideas of how being an officer can help move your personal career forward. Even if you’ve been a member for a short period of time your talents are needed.

Resume specifics: From various job interview trainings, I know that the more specific examples we give in our resumes of leadership and communication skills the more seriously employers will consider us for a position. If you can provide specific skillsets acquired as president, secretary, Sgt. at arms or VP of public relations, etc. employers will see you as a doer.

Skills outside of work: The skills that you acquire as an officer in Toastmasters can be used in multiple applications outside of you job. It can empower you in your involvement in the community. If you have a job title of supervisor, then you may already see how public relations, organization and communication skills can empower you in your various duties.

Your personal contributions to success: Employers want to see how your personal influence has made a specific situation better. One way to do that is to show the status of a situation prior to your involvement and then how it is improved as a direct result of your influence. It is often tempting to just concentrate on speeches, but Toastmasters provides more than that. Toastmasters are a great way to learn leadership skills not only by fulfilling the tasks in the leadership manual but also by actually being a leader.

We have seven positions that need to be filled. For some of you who are just joining the club, we may also be looking for individuals who can act as lieutenants to the person holding an office. There was one point in our club where we had two lieutenants helping the VP of Education. The advantage of this is that many hands make a light load, but it also provides the benefit of all three powerful individuals gaining skills in the same area simultaneously. The officer and his/her lieutenants mentor each other from their strengths.

I invite each of you to seriously consider becoming an officer or lieutenant.

The following is a brief description of each job title. Please come prepared to present your desires of a position at this next Wednesday’s meeting. To access officer tutorials,
1. Log into the toastmaster web site
2. Select Leadership Central
3. Club Officer Tools.
4. Club Officer Roles.

And of course we also have a potluck, which is always fun. Look for to seeing all of you. Thanks

President

Vice President Education

Vice President Membership

Vice President Public Relations

Secretary

Treasurer

Sergeant at Arms

Thanks

Melva

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Spelling Rough:

Posted on May 20, 2015 by
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Bad: rouf
Good: rough

It’s the second half of the word I trip over. So think of the raw Grain of wood that is Hard or sharp to the touch. Have a better idea? Please share it in the comment section of this blog.

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Writing Science Fiction:

Posted on May 19, 2015 by
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It was another great year at Life the Universe and Everything. These are the notes I took from the panel on writing science fiction.

– you can use the events today to become stories for science fiction. For example, a story of a veteran being a war and he comes home to find his home has changed. So he leves his home to find a new life and in this case. A story of a veteran moving to the frontiers of space to find his new life.
– The new scientist magazine does articles on the developing science that is currently being researched. The articles can make great topics for fiction for inquisitive authors. One article was talking about how sound waves can act as particles. So take the idea from an article and then extrapolate from it to make your story. During this process as yourself how the society respond to this new technology. It will affect society, motivations, and economics.
– Don’t show all the details of the science. If you’re not an expert and you want to present an idea that you don’t really know about, here’s an idea. In the early part of the story present information about a scientific principle that can have all the information completely accurate on it. The reader will see that you know you’re talking about in the science in the early part of the story. They will be more likely to find your idea plausible later in the story with the unexplored science. Think of the science idea as a drop in the pond of the story.
– With how expensive space travel can be. Products shipped into space must be enormously valuable to be worth the transportation to space to make it cost effective
– One challenge in writing the tech components in a story is to avoid information dumps. One way to combat this is that you might just provide the central points of science in a moment of when is needed. And while the characters are doing something. Maybe something has to be explained briefly so that they can be understood why it’s important in being done. The point is to get the information only and not of what is needed and when it is needed. Maybe just have a brief dialogue during an action scene between characters to briefly inform someone about the technology being used
– If you want to use previously created technology such as a lifesaver. And don’t use copyrighted terms that you can use the technology in a different way than a lifesaver, and with a different name.
– Sometimes technology grows beyond its origins. For example, in airplane control technology was created to provide capabilities for flight control centers. it was written decades ago and modified multiple times. The original code has been lost.. There came a point of time when new developers had to create entirely new code to provide stronger capabilities and replace the original code that was lost
– One good way to help with pacing of the story is to enter seen as late as possible, and exit the scene as quickly as possible so that you touch upon a conference just of interesting point without having a lot of talking heads.
– Sources of ideas are not only come from science magazines such as scientist, but you could also consider other magazine articles that can often be found in the library.
– Stories are about people you don’t have to be an expert on science. Even just a cool setting can be the basis of a science fiction story science fiction is near implementation of that. What if question. On a story of technology, ask who benefits and who is hurt by that technology and that can create a story. Technology may even become the source of the conflict in the story.
– Plot idea: have a light javeline (looks like a lifesaver without a handle ) you throw it and where reaches can either sever whatever it hits or creates a form of the plate that can cut to the floor and create a hole as a possible escape rout or can create a path to a different dimension.
Have an idea to add? Please do so in the comment section of this blog.

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