Shoot for the Moon

The Eagle has landed, or it did, on the moon forty four years ago on July 20^th, 1969. 

President Kennedy did not have a dream, nor a vision, nor a vague idea, or a hope to get to the moon.  He had a goal.

President Kennedy told the country in May 25, 1961,

 “…this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before the decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth.”

President Kennedy set a tangible, achievable goal and the country responded.

 

If you own any type of computing device, you are a beneficiary of the 1960’s space race to the moon.

The country carefully measured and observed President Kennedy’s goal through the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs. 

The Katy Toastmasters club theme this year is “Measure your progress towards achieving your goals.”

Setting tangible, achievable goals and measuring progress towards those goals helps us reach them whether in Toastmasters, professional or personal.  Shoot for the moon.   

 

2013 Fall Club Contest

By Andy Paultanis

 

Competition.

The Olympics.  The  World Cup, the Stanley Cup, the Ryder Cup, the World Series, the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals and the NCAA National Championships.

Competition isn’t limited to athletics.  Turn on any cable television and most reality shows are predicated on competition from Dancing with the Stars, American Idol, Survivor, Toddlers and Tiaras, to cook-offs, fashion design competitions to MXC (Most Extreme Elimination Challenge).

Who can forget their spelling bees in grade school?  Several members of Katy Toastmasters help score high school academic decathlons and speech debates. 

Competition is important because it brings out the best in those who chose to compete.  Participants compete because it is fun.

Each year Katy Toastmasters has two speech contests in the Fall and Spring.  This year our Fall Club Contest will be on Thursday, August 15^th.   We start early because the winner of the club contest then competes against other Toastmaster Clubs at various stages of Area, Division and District levels. The Fall Club Contest will be "Tall Tales."

Everyone seems to have a tall tale about the gigantic fish that got away, the time they climbed Mount Everest with one hand tied behind their back, the time they saw a Big Foot at McDoanlds, their chance encounter with a Mermaid at Galveston or the time Uncle Bob was abducted by Aliens on Highway Six.

 

My Tall Tale would be more cultural, being from Michigan, about how Paul Bunyan and his blue ox Babe, engaged in a shoving match and created the Grand Canyon in Arizona.  I still believe this to this very day.

 

Below is a link to Toastmasters International with more information about  “Tall Tales”  (thanks Jody White for the link).

Toastmasters Tall Tales

The other venue for the night will be an Evaluation Contest.  One member will give a speech and other members will compete to give the best evaluation of the speech. 

Evaluations of prepared speeches are a critical component to Toastmaster meetings. Prepared speech presentations receive immediate positive and constructive reviews based upon the speech project of a member.

Another component  of the Fall Club Contest is not competition but cooperation.  As with every Katy Toastmaster meeting, it is a team effort of individuals supporting each other by participating in various important roles such as judges, to ballot counter to timers. 

It should be a fun night.  Join us.

 

Dear Prospective Parents

 Presented by Daisy Huang

Competent Communicator Manual
Project 2: Organize Your Speech
Time: Five to Seven Minutes

 





Miss Daisy! Miss Daisy! Look what I did!  Miss Daisy, I need to go to the bathroom! Miss Daisy, my shoes are untied! Miss Daaaaaisy!

Ah, the daily trials of a kindergarten teacher. Such was my life.

Fresh out of college, I joined a program called Teach for America, where I spent my days teaching underprivileged children. I was assigned to teach kindergarten.

I had absolutely no idea what I was getting into. What was I thinking? Nothing forces you to mature faster than controlling the chaos created by 30 kindergarteners, all while trying to cram vital information into their brains.

I wore many different hats other than being a teacher. I was part-time parent, when their own parents couldn’t be there for them. Part-time police officer, busting the candy black market on a daily basis. Part-time nutritionist, making sure they didn’t blow their lunch money on doritos. Part-time nurse, bandaging up little booboos and ouchies with spongebob bandaids. And my favorite, part-time janitor, mopping up spills, accidents, and occasionally vomit and pee.

It’s not as bad as I make it sound. Despite my initial fears, I was actually a very good teacher and the kids were adorable.

I don’t have children, and after teaching young children for a few years…I have the strong urge to keep it that way.

But really, even though I don’t have kids of my own, I think I’ve learned a few things about parenting during those years. Today, I would like to reveal some good parenting practices. This is for anyone out there who is planning to spawn, keep this in mind so you don’t drive your child’s future kindergarten teacher up a wall.

Good parenting practice #1: Teach your children how to tie their own shoes. Ah yes, the challenge of tying shoes. Believe it or not, we’re too busy in kindergarten learning how to read, so we don’t have time to teach children the art of lacing up your own shoes. It’s also a huge safety hazard in the busy hallway if kids have their shoes untied. If you can’t teach them how to tie their own shoes, at least get them those cute little Velcro sneakers so they’re not tripping over their own feet all day.

Good parenting practice #2: Teach your children how to wash their hands. As cute as little kids are, let’s face it, they are germ factories. Their hands have more bacteria than you could culture in a petri dish! I can’t even remember the amount of times I observed a kid dig touch the floor and then stick their thumb in their mouths, ick! And then they would get sick. So parents, make it a habit for your kids to wash their hands.

Good parenting practice #3: Teach your children that they are responsible for their own homework. The earlier your kids take responsibility for themselves, the more self-motivated they’ll be and the better they will do in school. Routine is important, set a designated “homework” time. Excellence is the result of developing good habits, and before long, you’ll notice your child automatically doing their own homework without supervision, simply because they are accustomed to the routine.

Good parenting practice #4: Don’t tell your children they’re smart. This goes against everything we know as parents, but praising your child with “Oh Johnny, you’re so smart,” will end up crippling him. And I’ll tell you why. They’ll get it into their heads that they need to appear smart all the time, and thus will go to great lengths to avoid anything that might make them look stupid. They’ll shy away from trying new things, and be more prone to giving up easily. So when Johnny does something correctly, instead of saying, “Wow, Johnny, you’re so smart,” tell him “Wow, Johnny, I liked how you worked hard on that. I like how you didn’t give up until you got the correct solution.” Kids who are told this work harder, have more persistence, and don’t back down when they encounter new problems.  This will set them up for success in life.

So those are my four parenting tips for getting your child ready for kindergarten, for school and life. Follow these and not only will teachers thank you, but your kid will most likely grow up to be well rounded and successful.

 



A Word From Your New Sergeant At Arms

 
By Sherry Han

Members of Katy Toastmasters are great at jumping in at the last minute to fulfill a meeting role when other members are unable to attend a meeting due to unforeseen circumstances.

As many members are working on their Competent Leadership manuals, as a convenience to members, Sherry Han (2013-2014 Sergeant at Arms) will store the CL manuals in the meeting room to help members to be evaluated in their role and receive the credit due them for their participation in the meeting.

(Thanks to getinternetexposure.com for allowing us to embed this video within this post.)

Tale of the Big Bang

 
Presented by Andy Paultanis on June 6, 2013
Advanced Communication Series: Storytelling
Project 1: The Folk Tale
Time: Seven to Nine Minutes

 

Bam….[Andy gets to slam unto a table top the “Cosmos” picture book by Carl Sagan to get everyone’s attention.].

The earth was created….According to the 17^th Century  Bishop James Ussher in the year 4004, BC, October 23rd,  at exactly 9 a.m.

Almost every human culture has their “tale” on the creation of the universe.

I think most people in this room believe in the  “The hypothesis of the primeval atom.”  Most people know it as the “Big Bang Theory.” 

The Big Bang Theory is one of the best known scientific theories of our time.  Just to do a survey, how many people here know the name of the scientist who is the  father of The Big Bang Theory?

If you don’t know, don’t feel bad.  You’re not supposed to know.  When he created the second most watched PBS Series of all time, Cosmos, in the 1980’s, Carl Sagan was extremely careful not to talk about the father of the Big Bang.

His name was George Lemaitre who as a young man served with the Allies in the Belgian army as an artillery officer in World War I.  He was awarded the equivalent medal to the United States Silver Star for bravery.

After the war, Lemaitre earned a doctorate in Mathematics from the University of Louvain in Belgium.  He went on to graduate study in astronomy at Cambridge University in England.  After Cambridge, he spent a year of study at the Harvard College Observatory. In 1927 he earned a PhD in Physics from MIT.  

George Lemaitre was also a Roman Catholic Priest. 

At the beginning of the twentieth century,  actually beginning with Aristotle, Galileo, Isaac Newton, and Albert Einstein all believed the universe was stable and an eternal universe.  Einstein used a “cosmological constant” to plug his various equations to maintain an eternal view of the universe.      

Lemaitre was intrigued with Einstein’s theories.  The first thing Lemaitre did was to toss out Einstein’s cosmological constant. Then he worked Einstein’s equations backwards.  In 1927, Lemaitre was the first person to publish a paper asserting  the universe was expanding. Lemaitre calculated the rate of expansion of the universe from observations of faint nebulae. This calculation today is known as Hubble’s Law?

 

Einstein didn’t believe the universe could expand and Einstein was not happy with Lemaitre.  In late 1927 when Einstein met Lemaitre at a scientific conference, he told Lemaitre to his face, “Your mathematical computations are correct but your physics is atrocious.”   

In 1929, Edmund Hubble published a paper identical to Lemaitre with additional observational evidence of new galaxies in an expanding universe.

In the early 1930’s,  Lemaitre learned Einstein was going to visit Edmund Hubble and flew to California. According to Stephen Hawking, it was in this meeting of these three great minds, Einstein, Hubble and Lemaitre,  modern Cosmology was born. 

 

Personally, I believe Hubble and Lemaitre slapped Einstein around, knocked some sense into the man, who came out of the meeting convinced the universe was expanding.  Einstein admitted his use of the cosmological constant was “the greatest blunder of his career.”

In 1931, Lemaitre published his paper on the “Hypothesis of the Primeval Atom”. Lemaitre calculated the universe began from a very tiny point where time, space and matter was created.  An event so violent  it would echo background microwave radiation throughout the universe.  As with Albert Einstein, it took a great deal of courage to challenge the existing scientific establishment.

Because Lemaitre was a Roman Catholic priest, many people thought he was trying to prove the story of biblical creation.  Not true.  Lemaitre was an accomplished scientist who had a firewall between his scientific beliefs and his religious beliefs.  Lemaitre became very upset with the Catholic Pope who wanted to use his theory as proof of biblical creation.    

In 1949, Fred Hoyle, a brilliant British scientist was so upset with this obscure theory, went on BBC Radio to argue with the general public against it. Hoyle coined the phrase the “Big Bang Theory.”

When I hear the phrase, “Big Bang Theory”, I hear little children taunting  naa, naa, naa big bang theory. Ha..Ha..Ha!

The term Big Bang was intended to be a put-down and an insult. Fred Hoyle was mocking and tying to make fun of Lemaitre.

In 1964, two radio astronomers by the name of Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson  accidentally and I mean accidentally, because they were never taught as students about the Big Bang, discovered the background microwave radiation of the Big Bang.  This was the smoking gun proving the theory. 

They were given use of a radio telescope just outside New York City and as they were trying to calibrate it, kept hearing a buzzing noise no matter where they pointed the feed horn of the telescope.  They reached a point where they thought the noise was from pigeon droppings on the feed horn.

 

Being nice guys, they trapped the pigeons and set they free a hundred miles away. Soon, the pigeons were back, they were homing pigeons.  In the early 1960’s they did what many American men would do, they took out shotguns and solved the pigeon problem.  It didn’t solve the buzzing noise.

They eventually realized they had discovered the echo of the Big Bang.  They should have won a Noble Prize for cleaning pigeon droppings but instead in 1978 won the Noble Prize in Astronomy. 

Everyone in this room has heard the echo of the Big Bang.  If you ever tuned a radio or television and heard some static, one percent of that noise is from the Big Bang echo.  

In 1966, as George Lemaitre lay dying is a hospital, they told him, “George, they found the background radiation  of the Big Bang.  Your hypothesis of the Primeval Atom is now irrefutable scientific fact."

A few days later George Lemaitre died

[Special Thanks to Jim Harrington for video taping this speech.]



Happy Holidays in July

By Andy Paultanis

My grandmother Rose Haggerty had six children and 28 grandchildren.  She began her December holiday shopping in July.  My grandfather and her lived on a fixed pension so she took advantage of as many sales as she could to buy gifts for her family.  She planned ahead.

 

This year in Katy Toastmasters we are also planning ahead for the Holidays.  The President of the club always hosts the party.  I have taken the liberty to book the clubhouse of my subdivision, Deerfield, for Saturday, December 14, 2013.

Book your calendars now.

This is two weeks after Thanksgiving and two weeks before Christmas, both national holidays.

It is a very pleasant facility with ample space and amenities plus plenty of parking.

(My family tends to host parties at the community clubhouse since we had an incident when I placed my Golden Retriever, Vegas, in the master bedroom, away from guests.  Vegas believes everybody loves her and wants to pet her. She is about one hundred pounds.  She proceeded to rip the door apart trying to get out creating such damage to the door lock she locked herself in and we had to call a locksmith to open the door.)

 

Measure your progress towards achieving your goals.

By Andy Paultanis

Many toastmasters clubs have themes for their fiscal year of which ours run from July 1^st through June 30^th.

In the 2012-2013 year, we had a great club theme of “No action, no results, it’s just that simple.” It was a challenge to our members and guests to initiate  real action to turn dreams and hopes into tangible goals whether it involved toastmasters or issues in our professional or personal lives.

Trying to select a theme for the 2013-2014 was a challenge although it only seemed natural that once we were motivated to do something, began some action, then to achieve our goals we need to measure our progress. Our theme this year is a quote from the motivational speaker, Jerry Bruckner:

“ Measure your progress towards achieving your goals.”

One of my personal goals is to develop and practice my writing skills.  One of my great passions is Katy Toastmasters and there is a great deal to write about the activities of the club.  I am amazed week after week with speeches given by members regardless of their public speaking experience or backgrounds.  Many speeches are emotionally moving, interesting, informative and humorous.  There is little doubt many individuals have done significant research, soul searching and have written, re-written, then re-re-written their speeches. They continually practice the delivery of their speeches.

 

One of my greatest disappointments in Toastmasters are speeches that I have missed because I was unable to attend a meeting.

I am so impressed with so many of the speeches, I hope that many of the speakers will give us permission and allow us to post their written speeches on this blog so members who (for reasons beyond their control) miss a meeting will not miss out on the content of a speech. Unfortunately  they will miss out the public speaking delivery of the speech, table topics and the all important evaluations.  

We hope this blog can be a medium for sharing important, creative and sometimes just fun speeches with members, family, friends, colleagues and potential guests.  We also want to share concepts and ideas involving toastmasters and public speaking in general.

We realize what goes on the Internet, stays on the Internet. It’s understandable some speeches are too personal to be posted on the Internet.

One of my goals in the 2013-2014 toastmaster club year is to post to this blog at least once a week in an effort to share some of the “magic” that occurs at Katy Toastmasters each week. 

 

We’ll measure my progress in achieving this goal.