Third speech

The Toastmasters chapter that I belong to has a club goal for all members to give at least three speeches. I and one other new member both gave our third speeches tonight.

One feedback I got after giving my second speech last week was to print my notes on a one-pager instead of on multiple index cards. Doing so would free up my hands so I could better express myself and would prevent the danger of dropping my cards and having them all go out of order.

I followed that advice tonight. I still created the index cards to help me memorize my speech and then I typed in my notes from the index cards into a one page document in my word processor. Although I had my one page notes with me at the lectern I did not refer to them. At one point I had to pause to remember where I was supposed to go next but I didn't have to look at my notes. That's a good thing because one of the objectives of Speech #3 is to give it without refering to notes.

My speech #3 is now done and delivered before the end of the year as per the goal I set myself last week. Tonight was our last meeting of the year. Next week we have a Christmas get-together and then we resume our regular meetings in January. My goal for 2010 is to complete the Competent Communicator maual and the Competent Leadership manual. That means giving seven more speeches.