what is inside - District 120

D 1 2 0 T OA S TMA S T E R S

HUMANS OFD120

WHAT IS INSIDE

TABLE OF CONTENTS

#BACK TOHOME

EDITORIAL TEAM

DISTRICT PRM ADDRESS

HISTORY OF D120

VOICE OF MEMBERS

DID YOU KNOW ?

EVOLUTION OF D120

D120 INITIATIVES

MEMBERS SURVEY

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WISHES FROM 120NATIONALITIES – BEHIND THE SCENES

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ISSUE #1 | OCTOBER 2020INTEGRITY | RESPECT | SERVICE | EXCELLENCE WWW.DISTRICT120.ORG| |

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EDITORIAL TEAM

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BABY STEPS ARE A BIT WOBBLY !

elcome to the new district’s newnewsletter! We are taking our baby steps and hencewe are a bit wobbly! We are a start-up byall means. We have taken sincere efforts toput together a new team to get thingsrolling. While we have got a hang of whatwe need to do, we are still learning. This newsletter is one such attempt. Theteam has worked tirelessly toconceptualize, design, fetch articles, andfinally deliver it to all of our inboxes. I am certain that the entire team wouldhave some amazing experiences to share.What I loved is the indomitable spirit eachof these team members possessed. Thiseffort of putting together this first issue ofour newsletter is beyond their otherpriorities in life- family, profession, andToastmasters meetings, in that order! I wholeheartedly thank each one of thecontributors of this newsletter. If not foryou this newsletter wouldn’t have seen theshape it is in now! Some of the articles Ihave gone through are deep and haveprofound messages.

May I request each one of you to share thisnewsletter with your friends and family.Perhaps, this might get them tounderstand the value that Toastmastersprovides and may persuade them to joinany of our clubs. I promise, that the PR team will keepimproving the quality of the future issuesof our newsletter. So please bear with us ifthere are any inadvertent misses in thisissue. Warm Regards


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JAYAN NARAYANAN, DTM

DISTRICT PR MANAGER, D120

“The most important thing incommunication is hearing what isn’t said” –Peter Drucker ince evolution, one thing that set mankinddifferent from the other species is the abilityto communicate through words of differentlanguages. In today’s era, it is almostimpossible to communicate without words,be it texting our loved ones or sending anofficial email to our manager.

WORDS take the prominence!But words – do they communicate everythingone has to say? I deem it a great privilege toreach you all through this space. Sincechildhood, I have heard many times from mymom that my very first communication wasunspoken and unheard, yet she understoodand felt special. It was only on August 7th, Iunderstood the power of unspoken wordswhen I held my baby for the first time. Forthe kind of training I went through in the lasttwo months, I think I should be given a PhDin unspoken communication. Whether you are a speaker, or a leader orboth, power of unspoken words is alwaysfelt. Good speakers go on to become greatspeakers by understanding and respondingto the audience’s emotions.

Likewise, great leaders understand theunsaid problems/needs of the members andguide them in the right path. Communication is beyond the spokenwords. “In some studies, nonverbalcommunication has been shown to carrybetween 65% and 93% more impact than theactual words spoken” – Forbes. Everyrelationship in our lives evolve around activelistening. Are we listening to the unspoken words? –smile, an applause, a firm handshake, or asimple nod. Every non-verbal communicationhas a powerful hidden message. Unspokenwords can be decoded by awareness andpaying attention to the person. District 120, a new offspring in theToastmasters world, sees a good number ofnew member influx so far this year. As yourDistrict Director, I request you all to reach outto those new members, listen to theirunspoken words and mentor them in theright direction. Together, let us build strongrelationships and evolve as one large family.Stay safe and stay healthy!

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THE POWER OFUNSPOKEN WORDS

TM PRAVIN MANI

DISTRICT DIRECTOR (D120)

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n July 1st 2020 , the new District 120 tookshape . We are in fact new only by numberbut in terms of legacy , it is one whichspans across 2 decades . We started off asDistrict 82 for whole of South India and SriLanka and over a period of time , each ofthe states became separate Districts andnow in 2020 , we are the newest kid on theblock. We may be the youngest but wehave a vast depth of knowledge andexperience within the Toastmasterscommunity here in Tamil Nadu. In factsome of the leaders who started erstwhileDistrict 82 are now part of District 120. It isthis rich knowledge and legacy which weneed to capitalize on and build thefoundations for a successful District. People join Toastmasters for variedreasons. Some stay on for an extendedperiod of time while some exit after coupleof years or less. People who have stayed onwith Toastmasters have said that itprovides them a platform to betterthemselves as individuals , week over weekand they can see the change coming intothemselves and in the world around them

It is that positive energy which all of usneed to imbibe as we start and continueon our Toastmasters journey. Learning is acontinuous process and not all learningcomes from books. A large part of it alsocomes about when we broaden ourhorizons , let go of the misconceptions andfears which we have, listen to the otherperson’s point of view and connect withpeople. Toastmasters is the right forum forus to practice all of these and become abetter version of ourselves . The focus of the District this year willbe to enrich member and club experience.To achieve that we have built educationalprograms which would cater to all aspectsof members and clubs. With Pathwaysbecoming the only mode of Toastmasterseducational program , we have lined upeducational sessions every month formembers on Pathways . The online modehas helped us connect with more membersand we look forward to maintaining thatmedium till things get back to normal andwe are able to meet in person. InToastmasters, everything begins at theclub level and also ends at the club level .

CHANGE IS INEVITABLE CHANGE IS CONSTANT

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Clubs are the core of the movement andour District endeavour this year is to equipthe clubs and members with all the righttrainings and tools to become better atwhat they do. Clubs are the core of themovement and we will ensure that theyremain that way and continue to getstronger. The Leadership and mentorshipjourney for each one of us starts here inToastmasters and I encourage each one ofyou to grow beyond your boundaries andwork towards building a culture that livesthe Toastmasters values of Integrity,Respect , Service and Excellence . Let us together build a Great District 120.

TM SATISH MENON

PROGRAM QUALITY DIRECTOR, D120

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RESPECTRESPECT

INTEGRITYINTEGRITY

SERVICESERVICE

EXCELLENCEEXCELLENCE

ISSUE #1 | SEPTEMBER 2020WWW.DISTRICT120.ORG ISSUE #1 | OCTOBER 2020INTEGRITY | RESPECT | SERVICE | EXCELLENCE WWW.DISTRICT120.ORG| |

P D PARTHASARATHY, DTM

CLUB GROWTH DIRECTOR, D120

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GROWTH IS THE EVIDENCE OF LIFE

Dear Toastmasters, common but profound form of literatureis poetry, especially couplets. We haveTirukkural in Tamil and Doha in Hindi.Though they are just two lines, we find theexplanations for their core message run inpages. Same is the case of the Club Growthteam in Toastmasters. At a face value, itwould seem straightforward, however adeeper analysis would reveal the multipleelements involved. Apart from startingnew clubs, running campaigns to add newmembers and retain existing members alsocome under this umbrella. In all this, ourfocus has always been to ensure maximumbenefit for our members. This year as part of the Smedley Awardprogram, we had special #BacktoHomecampaigns to reinstate our past memberswho had taken a break from our fraternity.We were overjoyed not just because oftheir inspiring presence in the meetings,but also the wealth of Toastmastersexperience they bring back. The traditionalClub Coach assignment is now backed bypreliminary training and progress trackingsystem. Similarly, new clubs are supportedwith the New Club Mentor chairs.

The current season also featured twofocused editions of Mastering clubCampaigns designed especially for Vice-Presidents Membership and Public-Relations. The interactions from thesession brought great insights and stillcontinue on Whatsapp groups. We also hadan Open House on Membership moderatedby the present leaders of District 120. Itwas a casual forum to facilitate one-on-one interactions and answer queries fromthe members. The next quarter promisesto be exciting with sessions planned onStarting New Clubs and more Memberengagement activities. The mission of ToastmastersInternational is to empower individuals tobecome more effective communicatorsand leaders. Hence, the first step would bewelcoming the individual into thefraternity to realise its benefits. The ClubGrowth team, through all its sublimefacets, serves as the perfect launch padand a guiding beacon for everyToastmaster who takes this first step inthis exciting journey.

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DTM HALEEM GHOUSE

DTM BALRAJ ARUNACHALAM

DTM CA CHITTOR SUBRAMANIAM

DTM Balraj Arunachalam joined the club later and under his leadershipToastmasters movement took wings to reach out through corporateand community clubs. His leadership is well recognized by theToastmaster’s fraternity globally and he became the President ofToastmasters International in the year 2017-18.

In 1982, then US Ambassador to Colombo was Mr. John Reed. He wasthe prime mover of setting up this Toastmasters club in Colombo. LateTM R. B. Ekanayake is considered as the father of this club. DTM HaleemGhouse is one of the Chartered Members of the Colombo ToastmasterClub, who continues to be a member till today.

Late DTM CA Chittor Subramaniam, took the initiative to start the firstToastmasters Club in Bangalore, India after being a Toastmaster inBahrain. The first Toastmasters Club in India was chartered on 9thSeptember in 1992 in Bangalore after having the first demo meeting on14th August 1991. It is the Garden City Toastmasters Club of Bangalore.

In the first half of 2000, a few clubs were started in New Delhi, Hyderabad and Chennai. Leadersof these clubs discussed their common interest with their counter parts in Sri Lanka.A Territorial Council was formed to coordinate the activity of the toastmasters clubs of bothcountries. Within a couple of years, more clubs were started in different cities of both countries.Toastmasters International recognized the growth and contribution of the clubs of both thecountries and made it District 82 in the year 2006.

Communication explosion happened on 1st November 1983 in the capital city of Colombo,Sri Lanka. The First Toastmasters Club of South Asia, The Colombo Toastmasters was charteredon that day.

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THE H I S TORY OFTHE H I S TORY OF

D I S T R I C T 1 2 0D I S T R I C T 1 2 0

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DTM Nina John and DTM Abraham Zachariah,two chartered members of the club continue tobe active members till date. Former DistrictGovernor of District 79 DTM J P Patnayak wasemployed in CSC (formerly Covansys). He had setup the first corporate club in Tamil Nadu in 2005 .DTM Abraham Zachariah setup the third club andsecond Community Club of Tamil Nadu, in 2006which is the Chennai Wordsmiths ToastmastersClub. Initially these three clubs formed the firstArea. The first Division comprised of clubs fromKerala Hyderabad and Tamil Nadu. The Toastmasters movement caught up like awild fire and reached out to many parts ofChennai and to the Districts of Tamilnadu. Bythat time, India had three Districts, District 41, 92and 98 and District 82 was Tamilnadu and SriLanka. With the growing members and clubs,Toastmasters International created District 120in Tamilnadu DTM Nina John, DTM SastharamRavendran and DTM Suganthi Periyasamy fromTamilnadu headed the District 82.

TM Krishnan Arunachalam who was an ardent Toastmaster in Saudi Arabia.after his return to Chennai, India, he used to go to Bangalore to attendToastmasters meetings. With this initiative and support from TM ChenthilKumar, the first Toastmasters club in Chennai was born. Thus the ChennaiToastmasters Club was chartered on 22nd April 2004. This is the first clubof Tamilnadu and today it has grown to give birth to District 120

Toastmasters of Srilanka and India (later TamilNadu) had a very fruitful interaction andnetworking since 2000. It was always a joy forToastmasters to visit their counterparts in theother county at-least once a year. Change is asign of growth and in Toastmasters, it providesmore leadership opportunity. Toastmasters International created TamilNadu State of India as District 120 with effectfrom 1st July 2020. It has 151 clubs and 5018Members as on this date. The first trio of thenew Districts are, District Director: TM PravinMani, Program Quality Director: DTM SathishMenon, Club Growth Director DTMParthasarathy PD.

TM KRISHNAN ARUNACHALAM

Empowering Individualsto become more effective

communicators andleaders.

DTM ABRAHAM ZACHARIAH

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DISTRICT PARLIAMENTARIAN

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THE JOURNEY FROM A CLUB TO ATHE JOURNEY FROM A CLUB TO ADISTRICT- THE GENESIS OF DISTRICT 120DISTRICT- THE GENESIS OF DISTRICT 120

THE JOURNEY FROM A CLUB TO ATHE JOURNEY FROM A CLUB TO ADISTRICT- THE GENESIS OF DISTRICT 120DISTRICT- THE GENESIS OF DISTRICT 120

The arrival of DTM Janakiprasad Pattanaikmarked a turning point in many ways: a PastDistrict Director of UAE, he was instrumental insetting up the different systems and processes.Thanks to him, we had our first Area Conferenceand our first Speech craft, resulting in the settingup of the first CTM baby - Covansys (now DXC).Thanks to DTM Zachariah, Wordsmiths was ournext baby. DXC was the first corporate andWordsmith the second community club inChennai. Meanwhile, an interesting development wasan invitation from Bangalore- for all theToastmaster clubs to join under one umbrella andaffiliate to the international movement. TerritorialCouncil Chairman DTM Abraham Bosco once toldme that CTM was the first signatory to thatinvitation.

he year was 2003- I was conducting a workshopfor Madras Management Association when one ofthe participants walked up to me and asked if I hadheard of Toastmasters- I had not, so (The Late)Krishnan Arunachalam told me all about it. AToastmaster from the UAE, he took the initiative tostart Toastmasters in Chennai. We got started withthe help of DTM Chendil Kumar and gathered a fewlike-minded people together, meeting in differentvenues, starting with Haddows Club before movingon to Presidency Club. District leaders DTM IanFaria and others came down from Bangalore tocharter Chennai Toastmasters Club on 22 April2004. We had a diverse crowd even to begin with-techies, professionals, housewives, retiredpersonnel, students and academicians, and we hada wonderful time building up the club and justlearning how a Toastmaster club works. It wasuphill work, but immensely rewarding.

EVOLUTIONEVOLUTION

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DTM NINA JOHN

DISTRICT MENTOR POOL CHAIR

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Becoming part of the international group gave usaccess to all training materials and resources andopened a whole new world to us. We would travelto Bangalore for training programmes and meetmembers from the wide world of Toastmasters. Wewere scattered so far and wide that our firstDivision conference had clubs from Bangalore,Mangalore, Kochi, Hyderabad and Chennai! We alsohad the honour and privilege of hosting DTMGeorge Yen, First Vice-President of TMI that year.Travelling to Sri Lanka every three years was thehighlight of our Toastmaster lives, forging newfriendships that have lasted the test of time. In Chennai, we kept getting enquiries fromcorporate and individuals for setting up new clubs.Off we would go, packed tightly in one Ambassadorcar, to deliver demo meetings at every differentcorner of Chennai. If it was in another part of TamilNadu, we would travel by train, reaching early inthe morning and returning home the next morning.Remember, we did not have any payment fromToastmasters, so all these food, petrol and travelbills were borne by us. Our communication wasthrough snail mail, hand-written postcards sent outevery week, with only landlines to make calls. We often refer to CTM as the Lighthouse club ofTamil Nadu with good reason. Our early membersset the foundation for the Toastmasters movementin terms of principles, practices and processes. CTMhas produced three District Governors –I was thefirst, DTM Sastharam second and now we havePravin Mani. In terms of speakers, SridharRanganathan, Aditya Maheswaran, Rajesh Natrajanand now Aadil Ibrahim are there as districtchampions. DTM Lalitha Giridhar was DistrictSecretary, Abraham Zachariah has been DistrictTreasurer and is now District Parliamentarian; SaroVelrajan proved to be an outstanding DivisionGovernor.

The late Ravi Baskaran , C. T. Thomas and KarthikSrinivasan were mentors whose legacy lives onbeyond their time. Above and beyond all these, arethe clubs set up by CTMers- Medleys, Madras, CSF ,Towering Speakers, YMCA Kilpauk, PeramburSpeakers, Kaligi Perambur, Stanchart, Flextronics,Systech, Rising Pillars, Meraki, TCS,Articulators,IITM,CAT EDc, BACi,CCC, Ericsson,Verizon, Panimalar, Ocean’s, KCG.[CSF was formedby splitting CTM when we crossed 100 members!] A history of D120 will be incomplete withoutmentioning the contribution of DTM SuganthiPeriaswamy, who joined an almost–defunct club atTCS, when invited by John Oommen andtransformed it into one that earned 58 educationalawards in one year, and grew the TCS clubs to theirpresent strength. She also spearheaded thegrowth into cities outside Chennai. We hadCoimbatore, but with the help of DTMs Mythili,Mala, Malar, Trichy, Madurai, Virudhanagar,Sivakasi and Nagercoil were on the map. A similar story is there in VIT- we inauguratedthe club with much fanfare, leaders fromBangalore also coming down, and the club almostdied. Till DTM Ashwin Chandrasekhar took up thechallenge of revival and VIT has a division strengthnow. D120’s history is replete with the stories ofindividual champions and evangelists who havemade it what it is today. It is all the individuals whostrove tirelessly that have laid this rich foundation;it is up to each one of us to build up a magnificentfuture.Note: This article is only a quick glimpse- I knowmany stalwarts may feel left out, but due to theconstraints of time and word limit, I have beenable to put in only a few of our pillars. Perhaps ifeach club documented their history we could buildup an archive for the future, giving due creditwhere it is due.

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WISHES FROM 120 NATIONALITIES – BEHIND THE SCENES

hen District 120 was announced, our DistrictDirector Pravin Mani reached out to me for ideasto make the launch of our new district reallygrand. We shared a few ideas and then luckily hitup on this interesting project. What if 120nationalities who are Toastmasters in differentparts of the world send us wishes? It soundedexciting but little did we realize what was in storefor us. The first step was to create a WhatsApp groupto add people who may be able to assist us. Wewanted to keep this project under wraps. Henceno one knew about it. Some names that came toour mind were DTM Gautam Sharma, TM VidiyaPrasanth and TM Jeevitha. These Toastmasterswere part of our District earlier but now settledoutside India. They did their best to reach out toa few they had known. As luck may have it we decided to reach outto DTM Shilpa Reddy based in Kuwait. She isprobably the most connected Toastmasters inthe world. She knows most of us in District 82than any of us. TM Shilpa immediately agreed to help us out.Being in a gulf country she had this huge networkof Toastmasters from different parts of the world.She quickly reached out to almost everynationality she knew. We learnt the power ofnetworking in Toastmasters from TM Shilpa.What was interesting is the fact that everyone shereached out to were more than happy to send usthe videos.

Some of them even dressed up in their nationalattire to shoot the video. That’s what gave us thehope that we would be able to complete thisproject on time. Our Program Quality Director, TM Satish Menonpitched in at the right time to reach out to all hiscontacts. Time was running out and we had barelyreached the halfway mark. That’s when Shilpasuggested we take help from another veteranToastmaster in Kuwait. She introduced us to DTM AV Murali Manohar. He jumped at this opportunity.He taught us the art of networking. He put up arandom post on TI’s group on Facebook. He listedsome 25 countries, some of them never heard of,asking for contacts of Toastmasters. Soon, peoplereached out to him offering to help. Soon morevideos came flowing in from countries most of uswouldn’t have heard of! We were almost reaching the deadline. We hadto stitch all these videos into one single short video.We wanted some lead time for it. So we decided toreach out to few more Toastmasters for help. ThePR team pitched in. TM Hemamalini and DTMJaichitra too joined the gang. DTM Jaichitra in turnreached out to our own WCPS champion DTMAditya Maheswaran and her mentor based in DubaiDTM Balaji Nagabhushan. With so many peopletrying to reach as many people they can, we werestarting to believe that this project can indeed becompleted. Just in time, 4 days prior to the launch we hitthe magic number of 120. We got a few extras fromthe same countries. We didn’t have the heart todiscard any of these videos. So we included everyvideo we received.

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We got hold of a freelance video editor, Siva. Sivasat through a few nights patiently meeting all ourdemands. The video went through several editsbefore we finally got the final cut done at 3:00 amon July 1st, 2020. We launched the video onYouTube the same day at 1:20 pm. Interestinglyour International president, DTM Deepak Menonwas impressed with our effort and hadmentioned about this video in his parting addressin the TI newsletter. This project taught some hidden values ofToastmasters. Glad we could complete it with thehelp of fellow Toastmasters from across theworld. We are hugely indebted to each of themwho have been part of this mammoth project!

https://youtu.be/jQWi8MocqcA

Here’s the link to the final video:

JAYAN NARAYANAN, DTM

DISTRICT PR MANAGER, D120


https://youtu.be/jQWi8MocqcA

TOASTMASTERS LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE

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he above quote signifies the tone set bythe TLI team this year for District 120. Anyindividual can perform adequately only iftrained for the role and also learn fromthe experiences of others. The TLI teamhas set itself an ambitious target ofdelivering a training session for everyweek of the year. The first step which theydid was to finalise the Training Calendarfor the entire year (July 2020 – June 2021)right in the month of July. This was naileddown to the details of the exact trainingsand in some cases, the trainers were alsofinalised. Care was taken to incorporatethe contests and District events into thiscalendar to make it comprehensive and toensure that there is no overlap with otherevents. This calendar was reviewed withthe District Trio, District Extended teamand Division Directors before beingpublished.

Trainings scheduled for this year consistsof:

"CONTINUOUS LEARNING IS THE

MINIMUM REQUIREMENT FOR SUCCESS

IN ANY FIELD"-

TLI EVENTSTOASTMASTERS LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE

Mandatory Trainings (OTP, JTP,Emergence)

Pathways Educational Sessions(one every month by seniorToastmasters)

Club and Membership BuildingSessions (Monthly)

Mentoring sessions (Monthly)

Leader’s Speak. (MonthlySession by District Leaders andabove)

Aspects of ClubManagement How to prepare forContests (Sessions by pastDistrict and World Levelcontestants and winners)

Sessions on Speech Writing (bypast District Winners)

Aspects of Conducting ClubElections

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The team is involving Senior Toastmastersfrom across and outside D120 forconducting these sessions. The Zoomplatform is being used to effectivelydeliver these sessions to a wider audience.We have seen in the past 2 months theirhas been an average count of 100participants for all the sessions conductedtill date. The online platform also allowsthe TLI Team to deliver sessions onweekdays and the attendance for thoseweekday evening sessions is also jam-packed.

The TLI team in collaboration with the PRteam are uploading videos of all events inthe D120 YouTube Channel. This will helpthe members to review the videos at alater date for any guidance orclarifications. The learning sessions will goa long way in building greater competencyand learning amongst members which willhelp them to excel in their roles at Club /Area / Division and District .

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https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJpArqotFG-rju0_YHjmMsQ

Click Here to watch videos of TLI Events by D120



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15Empowering members to grow in their Toastmasters journey and to expand theirLeadership horizons are the key focus areas for this year .

Some of the initiatives undertaken by District 120 this year:

"It will never rain roses: when we want to have more roses, we must plantmore roses”― George Eliot t District 120 this year, our aim is to provide quality member experience and to equipand train all members with the necessary tools and procedures to help them maximisetheir time and investment in Toastmasters .

D120 INITIATIVES

Creating a Mentor pool to address the needs of members and to ensure thatevery Toastmaster member has a mentor assigned.

A comprehensive TLI calendar covering all aspects of Toastmasters learningrequired to equip members for their individual Toastmaster goals , clubperformance and leadership journey . TLI sessions planned every week

Launching a CRM tool for the District to ensure that all communication betweenmembers is seamless and we action all member requests to the best extentpossible .

Having additional Zoom licenses so that clubs /areas / divisions can run theirmeetings smoothly. This has also helped in conducting new club demo meetingsonline.

Monthly reviews with the District Top 7 to review working aspects of the District

Monthly reviews with Division and Area Directors to review Divisionperformance and identify areas required for support.

Enhancing the Golden Gavel criteria to make it more inclusive towards buildingquality member and club experience.

Publishing metrics on a regular basis so that members are updated on the lateststatus

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“ ow will you sell ICE to an Eskimo?”, ourmarketing professor quizzed. A silence prevailed in our B-Schoolclassroom. We wondered why should weput efforts to sell ice to an eskimo? He lives in an environment full of iceand is aware of its characteristics hencehard pitch to sell isn’t required. That was the amateur answer we gaveto the professor. He smiled and said, “Thefirst lesson in marketing is don’t sell theproduct, sell the experience of owning it”As I think about D120’s BackToHomecampaign, I can’t stop but think about theanalogy of selling Ice to an Eskimo by myprofessor. In toastmasters, when a newmember joins, we sell the product,explain what toastmasters is, how to makebest use of toastmasters and why thetoasmasters program will improve his/herpublic speaking skills. This is a time-testedgood strategy to attract newbies intotoastmasters program. However thebiggest question infront of us is how doyou sell toastmasters to an erstwhiletoastmaster who knows how toastmastersworks, has done speeches extensively andhas benefited from the program in thepast. An erstwhile toastmaster is like aneskimo. Just like selling ice to eskimo needspecial skills, selling toastmasters to anerstwhile toastmaster need special skillstoo.

The good news is you already know thatspecial skill that can bring back themembers to your club. If you considertoastmasters as a product, selling theproduct works with new members whileselling the experience works with theerstwhile members. Experience ofparticipating in the revitalized pathwayprogram, experience of having a deepfocused learning opportunity andexperience of accelerating the success inthe real world through the newtoastmasters program. Emphasize moreabout why he/she should come back anddo a learning path, how the new learningexperience will enrich them and what thenew program will offer for success in thereal world. Fellow toastmasters, sell theexperience to erstwhile member, securehis membership and safeguard hisexperience for the benefit of the club andits members. Lets work together, to makeD120 stronger and mightier.

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#BackToHome

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TM RAJESH NATARAJAN

CHENNAI SPEAKERS FORUM

ooking back on the 1st day of Oct 2017when I built a positive self-image, to growup to be a public speaker for the yearsahead - Life has suddenly taken manyunexpected twists and turns bringing meinto the club ex com team for the very firstday. From there it all started, It’s so veryeasy to look at inspirational statements bygreat leaders but then I realised not thatall have to follow their path rather createmy own path to become a better leader .Since then I started to understandmembers not just in Toastmasters but alsoat all possible situations I meant to be aleader to lead as an example . I grown as tobecome a president of my club then took aresponsibility in being the Area Director forone of the Areas in our district 82 last term.Now I am a Distinguished Toastmaster(DTM) . Now I was accorded with numerousrecord breaks and titles from differentrecord holding books to become theyoungest Distinguished Toastmaster and aGrand Master. Even during this toughCovid situation.

Do we look at it as a problem oropportunity? One life lesson I ever learnedfrom him (Covid-19) is before we canchange our mindsets to embraceoptimism, we need to train our minds tofocus and revel in all of the good that'saround us. Only then can we begin to makeroom in our lives for a positive growthmindset which will then create a wholenew world of opportunities and magic forall of us to discover. That’s how I servedmy members and continue to serve thefraternity. Once a Toastmaster will alwaysbe a Toastmaster.

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AKASH D K, DTM , GRAND MASTER

KIT TOASTMASTERS CLUB

ONCE A TOASTMASTER WILLALWAYS BE A TOASTMASTER

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“Good day to the extended ToastmastersFraternity,

always feel communication plays a major rolein any profession. If we are able to express ourthoughts and idea clearly, it serves our purposewell. Toastmaster's is one such platform wherewe develop our communication and peoplemanaging skills which fosters in self-confidence.My journey in toastmasters started around 5years back when I was in my first year ofengineering. I could see a good change in me interms of thought process and way ofcommunication few months from then. I coulddevelop and good network and could improvemyself in various aspects through positivefeedback and good mentor-ship in variousmeeting.

TM YESHASWI NAGAMPALL

AREA DIRECTOR – F3

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MY JOURNEY INTOASTMASTERS

I have learnt a great trait in leadership andpeople management skills through thisopportunity. Every meeting has taught mesomething new and provided a gooddevelopment in my attitude

MY EXPERIENCEIN TOASTMASTERS

oastmasters for me are synonymous to family. Itall started from my icebreaker speech the veryfirst time I gave a speech in front of my club notknowing any member names, what branch theyare pursuing nothing. Fast forward to today andall the members have at least talked about ourlife, about our goals and ambitions and knowinglittle things about each other. It becomes a familyevery Tuesday at 6 o'clock when we meet,discuss ideas ,crack some jokes and bid farewellat 9 o'clock only to create new memories nextweek again.

I remember Toastmaster Nirav and me walkingon the road till 3 am, talking about ourexperiences in life. I remember ToastmasterMichelle giving me advice about placementsand how to crack them for 2 hours straight. Iremember Toastmaster Devyani venting outher frustration when something didn't work.And at the same time , when something worksout she is really happy about it. Everyone hascome from different states, differentbackgrounds ,different mother tongues andhave different skill sets. Yet we are there toprogress together as one, as a family. This isToastmasters to me.

TM SAMEER AHAMED

FOGO VIT

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oastmasters is more of a treasure hunt than anexperience to me. Before a year if anyone hadsaid me that I would be a writer or a publicspeaker, I wouldn’t have believed. It was a huntthat brought the other side of me. It’s been morethan a year and I have learnt a great deal from it.Toastmasters was one of the reasons that Istarted writing again before that all I wroteeveryday was emails. Couple of months afterjoining the club there was ExCom elections andbeing one of the youngest members in the club, Ihad no idea what is to be a member of ExCom orwhat leadership attributes must one have for it. Iwas hesitant to nominate myself for any role. Ithought I am too young for it. But the president ofthe club nominated me to be the SAA. All thesedays I thought toastmasters as channel todevelop my communication skills and a platformto deliver my thoughts as apublic speaker, but atthat moment I sensed a great deal of leadershipand found my capabilities as a leader. The nextterm I was confident enough to nominate myselffor the secretary role. I really feel fortunate to bea part of a great team, and serving as an ExComofficer for 2 consecutive terms. Toastmasters isnot only a platform that enhances publicspeaking and communication, it brings out a lotof hidden talents in you. Be ready to find yourown hidden talents. I am looking forward tofinding more hidden talents and having fun.!!

Happy learning ...!!!

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A TREASURE HUNT TO FINDYOUR HIDDEN TALENTS

TM S .G PRIYANKA

STAGECOACH CHENNAI CLUB

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hen I look back at my Toastmaster’s journey,it feels like I had joined my home club, ‘PayPalChennai Toastmasters Club’ just yesterday. Butit has been three and half years long years and Ican safely call myself an experiencedToastmaster, if not a veteran. When I joinedToastmasters, I thought it was all about publicspeaking. But gradually, I got exposed todifferent aspects of Toastmasters. I figured outhow Toastmasters can help one develop hisoverall personality immensely. And one canapply these learnings to his or her personal andprofessional lives. In a meeting, there aredifferent roles to grab. Each role focuses ondeveloping an unique skill. Each speech in theToastmasters journey has a set objective. As Iwent through this journey, I was able to sharpenmy existing skills and develop new ones. Everyfew weeks, we have special occasions likeOfficers Installation, Moments of Truth,Contests, Educational Speeches, VisitingToastmasters, Outdoor Meetings, Jointmeetings with other clubs, Conferences andmany more. These gave me an opportunity toget out of my comfort zone and try new things.Toastmasters is also about buildingrelationships, networking and having fun. As thesaying goes. All work and no play makes Jack adull boy.

The speech evaluation and feedback aspect ofToastmasters helps both the speaker and theevaluator. The speaker gets to know hisstrengths and improvement areas. Theevaluator develops his listening skills and art ofgiving feedback in a positive way. As Icompleted my Competent Communicatorjourney, I became aware of the different short-coming in my speech structure, organizationand delivery and was able to improve on thesame. The club provides a friendly environment,where members encourage each other. Eachmember is assigned a mentor. The mentorhelps understand your aspirations; counsel youand guide you in your journey to become agreat leader, and of course, a great speaker.

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HAPPYTOASTMASTERING

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or those who would like to get intoleadership roles, the club’s ExecutiveCommittee is the starting point. One can takeup higher leadership positions at Area,Division, District, Region and Internationallevels. I started my leadership journey inToastmasters with a Vice President –Membership role. Then I went on to take theVice President – Education. It was a verychallenging role and thought me how tomanage conflicting requirements and betterorganize myself to meet the challenges.When I became the President of the club, mygoal was to make the club a Golden Gavelclub, since it was a feat that the club had notachieved in its 10-year history.

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I put up a meticulous plan and with the helpof a committed Ex-com, we were able toachieve the goal very comfortably. That gaveme the confidence to take up District rolesand I was selected to be the Area Director forthe current term, against tough competition.In short, Toastmasters is not just aboutpublic speaking, it’s about building self-confidence, leadership skills and networking.I have personally been benefited enormouslythrough Toastmasters. Toastmasters give usa platform to try, fail, learn, improve, andexcel. So, my advice to you all is “JoinToastmasters. Get involved. Stay committed.And Give your best”.

TM DEVDATTA RIVONKAR

PAYPAL CHENNAI TOASTMASTERS CLUB

MONEY ALWAYS BRINGSHAPPINESS WHEN YOU GIVE IT !

Bhaiya, thoda jyada pyaaz dhejiye(Brother, Please give me some onions)Bhaiya, thoda jyada pani dhejiye (Brother,Please give me some water)Bhaiya, thoda jyada aloo dhejiye (Brother,please give me some masala)

esterday, I was feeling super hungry and Iimmediately cashed in to one of the panipuri shop near my locality, that wouldconvince my taste buds. While I washaving Pani Puri, I was constantly pesteringthe pani puri walla, (the guy who serves panipuri) with

Without any distortion in his face, he politelyserved with all my needs. After relishing 3plates of pani puri, I felt so contented that mytummy was filled with yummy pani puri. Andfinally, I decided to give him a tip of 10 rupees

which is actually the cost of 1 plate of panipuri. Me : Bhaiya, have 40 rupees, 10 rupee isa tip for you. He was hesitant for a moment,then I forced him to have it and he happilyput in his pocket. I just walked off handing him an extra 10rupee note with a beaming smile.Who says money doesn’t bring happiness?

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MERAKI

f something happens suddenly, it means itsjust an incident! What if same thing keeprepeating every time you come across eachand every possible circumstances? It was2013 I guess, I saw couple of meetup flyers onmy email box which keep coming every week.I was so curious to check, What is this groupall about, What they do? Why they meet everyweek? Which topic they discuss? Whatmotivate them to do so?! Why can't they bepublic? As usual, I just ignored like "crazy andselfish people" who can interact only withspecific times like lunch hours, leisure times,weekends, but somewhere in my heart theywere slowly taking place and left someimprints and curiosity! In all my life, I neverknew that these kind of fraternity exist in theworld! I never knew anything aboutToastmasters before I saw such crazy peoplewho are rallying the world and sculptingwonderful human leaders around the world.My first inspiration started in the year Dec2017. I was so impressed to see such anenthusiastic, inspirational and magnanimousindividuals but with very big aspirations,dream and confidence. The group is so small but their dreamsaren’t. I was so impressed by the team'sachievement and display of their trophies,certificates, badges, especially listening totheir astonishing speeches, table topics etc.Although, I was just a guest member whoparticipated in an hour meeting, but I couldsense and even now I feel such a positivevibes

STORY OF AN INSPIRATION!

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they left while they leave! Since 2017, Whateverorganization I go for work, I keep seeing thebanners in the form of flyers, emails, banners etc.but that time I didn't know this could change myentire world and perception!

TM CHANDRASEKARAN

HEXAWARE CHENNAI TOASTMASTERS CLUB

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In the late 2019, I officially became a memberof Toastmasters to improve myself as well aspeople around me. I didn't limit myself with myclub and I went on to explore other clubs in andaround in our district and participated manyspeech contests, educational programs, Jointmeetings, International contests as an audience !I was so humbled to receive the knowledge frommasters all around the world! This Giganticorganization has literally transcended andspread all over the world with the great objectiveto transform human leaders by changing theircommunication DNA! Toastmasters had inspired me to speakconfidently and they had indirectly shaped me tobring out my hidden skills like script writing,creativity, innovation, quality etc. Everything hashappened in no time. I will never stop my journeywith Toastmasters, because life never stopsteaching you! Keep learning, be the crazy, be asource of inspiration to those people aroundyou! Show the world that you're the championeach and every possible time! I truly feel like aglobal citizen when I get connected toToastmasters International!

“The thing about smart people is that theyseem like crazy people to dumb people”

– Stephen Hawking

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Embarrassing mode:The most embarrassing situation in Toastmastersis when you are the TMOD of a meeting and youexpect to be the best role player. When the bestrole player award is announced you stand up andtake your phone in your hand to take a photo ofthe best role player which is awarded to someoneelse. Another situation in the same context. Youexpect to be the best speaker out of twospeakers. Before the best speaker is about to beannounced, you put your head down. After thename is announced, you just put on a fake smileon your face and start clapping for youropponent. On top of that you continue tomaintain the facial reaction and shake hand withyour opponent.Tensed mode:The most tensed situation in Toastmasters iswhen you’re about to deliver a speech and theTMOD tries to introduce you. You don’t evenknow what he or she said about you, but you stilltry to thank the TMOD for the intro.Nervous mode:The most nervous situation in Toastmasters iswhen you hide behind your friends trying toescape from the TT topics, but your friends shoutyour name.Relaxed mode:The most relaxed situation in Toastmasters iswhen the timer says to the TT master to end theTT session.

Delightful mode:The most delightful situation in Toastmasters iswhen you are appreciated for your on-stageperformance by an unknown person.Regretful mode:The most regretful situation in Toastmasters iswhen you spoke for a TT topic and after youcome back to your seat, you feel that you couldhave finished it better.Excited mode:The most excited situation in Toastmasters iswhen you have delivered a perfect speech andyou keep waiting for the evaluation session tostart to hear your speech evaluation.Encouraging mode:The most encouraging situation inToastmasters is when you know that you will bethe best speaker, but you still try to convinceyour friend that he/she will win.Silent mode:The silent situation in Toastmasters is whenyour friends tries to make fun of you in publicfor your speech, but you remain quiet and thinkthat silence is the best answer. All the said modes are situations which aperson will have to face being a Toastmaster. Ifat all, anyone hasn’t faced any of thesesituations, then he/she must wake up and puton the TOASTMASTERS SHOES - As this is theperfect platform to learn, teach and lead.

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23 TM MOHAMMED SHAUIB

HUBBELL BURNDY INDIA TOASTMASTERS CLUB

TOASTMASTERS SHOES


LOVE YOU 3000

Dear Readers..... s an eighteen year old girl, just out of myschooling I heard something calledtoastmasters – ‘A place that can finallyhelp me with spoken English’. With allexcitement I immediately called the VPEwhose number I got through my dad’sfriend. So, I presumed and called him‘Uncle’, then he gave me his bio data as aproof that he is just out of college andthreatened me not to call him uncle. That’show exactly my journey in toastmasterstarted two years back. I was entirely newto this fraternity and had million questionsin mind which only the VPE had to sufferanswering them and make me understandthat they won’t change club timing orteach me english.

Without knowing any of this I was alreadya member because I really believed I wantto be here without knowing my purpose.From that day till now whenever I entertoastmasters I find myself energetic,grinning cheerfully all over the meeting. Ialso love being with people,communicating with them and learningdirectly from them rather than books.Hence, I was able to fit right intoastmasters. Also I have a really bad habitof quitting things in between but intoastmasters the excitement is still thesame and has only increased since the dayI joined.

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LOVE YOU 3000

Chennai Communicators Club – A placethat gave me endless opportunities tolearn communication and leadership, aplace that helped me realise I can take upresponsibilities and deliver it, a place thatgave me freedom to take decision and bearaccountability for it, a place that backedme up every time I felt low, a place that letme be happy go fun girl and didn’t forceme to be serious all the time, a place thatmade me feel secure without anyjudgements or shy me away for the flaws Ihad in speaking. Not just this, CCC alsogave me ‘AN EXTENDED FAMILY’. I neverfelt like I am in alien place, starting fromthe very first day every memberapproached to know about me, gavefeedbacks, and helped me understandwhere I have to improve. I still remembermy first speech where I was literallydancing on stage because my legs whereshivering and after that speech I had myfriends who were imitating how I danced,mentors who gave feedback on how I canimprove this next time and what theyloved in my speech. Every member is awell-wisher and since it’s a communityclub and members from diversebackground and age groups, everymeeting is fun and learnings combined.CCC always attend every events thathappens in toastmasters as a group to gainthe learning and cheer the members whoare in the organising team.

As I was excited about this whole newtoastmasters culture, I grabbed everysingle opportunity that came my way andstarted meeting more people, learningnew things, and be a part of organisingteam in toastmaster events. Being theyoungest toastmaster and an activemember, everyone I met in this fraternitymade sure I get the most experience andensured to bring the best out of me. So farin club leadership, Secretary and VPE aretwo entirely different experience I gainedin toastmaster and both these roles havetransformed me into a leader. Doing theseleadership roles made me closer to eachand every member, helped me learn howto communicate with different people andmost important lesson in my life‘GROWING TOGETHER’.Now, in this new District 120, with help ofmy fellow leaders from Area and Division Dand with the support of my extendedfamily, I have stepped into my nextleadership role – PRESIDENT OF CHENNAICOMMUNICATORS CLUB. Looking forwardto more fun and learnings in toastmastersand mutually supporting in growth of myclub members.

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TM ATHINIVEDA

CHENNAI COMMUNICATORS CLUB


TOASTMASTERS

hen I heard about Toastmasters, I thought

myself why I should not join it. As a student

who aspires to become a Data Scientist, I

know how quintessential the skill of public

speaking is. Frankly speaking, though public

speaking has inspired me from the beginning

I have never been able to deliver a prepared

speech or make a presentation in front of an

audience without stuttering or messing it up.

My biggest problem was stage fear, thanks to

it I was unable to articulate my beautiful

thoughts properly in front of a crowd. When

discussed on this matter with one of my

mentors I was suggested to use up all the

opportunities I get to climb up to the dais and

face the crowd.

A BOON IN MY LIFE

The conversation I had with him changed

my opinion about public speaking. The

President told me his personal story of

how he went from complete zero to hero in

public speaking with the help of

Toastmasters. After this conversation I had

no doubt in joining Toastmasters.

The first meeting I attended gave me a

grasp of the skill gap between me and

some profound speakers of my club who

were extremely skilled in their art. My first

table topic speech gave me a deeper

understanding of my fear along with some

pointers from the evaluators on how to get

rid of it.

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Being a college student I did get a lot ofwonderful opportunities to do it but at theend of the day, I still was unable to achievemy goal which is to give a prepared speech infront of a crowd without my heart throbbingat its maximum rate for the entirety of thesession. I came to know about Toastmastersat this exact moment, the exact momentwhere I had lost all hope and decided uponthat Public Speaking is not my piece-of-cakeand it never will be. Before joining aToastmasters Club, I had the privilege to talkwith its President. 26

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My Icebreakers speech gave an even deeper perspective of the problems that are preventing

me from articulating profoundly along with confidence and a strong morale boost that I will be

able to climb this ladder and be proud of myself one day. Sooner or later due to the constant

guidance from my mentors and advices from the evaluators after each meeting I came to a

final conclusion that there was a bigger problem that I had to face before getting rid of my

stage fear, which was my inherent shyness.

TM KG HAARISH KANNAN

CHENNAI ARTICULATORS

Luckily, I got rid of my shyness without even realizing how. Thanks to my club which has such

wonderful members, due to their friendly nature talking with them was way easier than I

thought and soon enough I was confident enough to start up a conversation with a total

stranger. I started giving no care in the world about what the audience might think about my

grammar, language knowledge, slang, content, or the way I look. It became clear to my mind

that the only objective I had after climbing onto the dais was to give a fabulous speech and

nothing else mattered. Thanks to Toastmasters for bringing out the public speaker in me and

for changing me into a more expressive person. Without doubt Toastmasters had been a boon

in my life.

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So, you may be wondering why we peoplewho are in WFH aren’t a Hero? Of Course,We’re are also a HERO in following thesafety guidelines to stop the VIRUS spread,by social distancing. The definition of HERO may vary fromperson to person based upon theirperspective of Life. I was curious to knowthe perspectives of my fellow toastmasterson their real superheroes. Sharing with youfew of them below. One person sees herFather’s nurse as Real Hero in taking careof his daily needs, never skips a day inwind or Rain.

As commonly understood, “superheroes”do what they do because they want to helpand expect no reward except thesatisfaction of helping. As said, “With greatpower comes great responsibility”, a smallact of kindness in words or actions canmake a big difference in this world. Let’sspread positive vibes but not the positiveVirus. Today I felt I have made a gallantattempt to sharing my thoughts on firstattempt of writing.

think Marvel Fans of Iron Man can catchit faster. When I’m thinking about theSuperheroes, starting from childhood, itwas Sakthi Man or Power Rangers fromSPD, are those two fictional charactersthat pop up first in my mind. When wegrow up, reality is entirely different. Especially during a pandemic likeCOVID-19, I think Superheroes neitherdrape Cool gadgets nor Heroic costume.All they wear, is a helping heart with Mask,a sheet and a dress. Those people stepping out of theirhome, to help and serve nation are theREAL SUPER HEROES. Starting fromDoctors, Nurse, Police, Cleaner – each andevery soul is a Hero.

Those words from another fellow TM oncommon grounds perspective - “To meanyone who helps people in hard situationis a real hero, maybe it can be fictional orpersonal. I feel real superheroes are theone who help others to Improve andsucceed in life”.“Sharing is Caring”- When her women’sassociation group, distributed groceries to60 sanitary workers during the lockdownfor their relentless effort to keep us safe.This was a moment for that person. Ibelieve this is a heroic action of helpingheart. Personally, I would like to takes abow to all the superheroes and theircommitment to help us in such pandemicsituation.

TM NARMADA

CHENNAI LOUDSPEAKERS

“ Heroes are made by the path they choose, not the

powers they are graced with. ” - Iron Man

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REAL SUPER HEROES


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he risk of going from ‘zero to hero’ needs limitless bouts of guts. You need to get out of your routinelife and comfort zone and dare to dream! It is all about going from rags to riches through sheerdetermination and underlying persistence!!

MY WALK INTO TOASTMASTERS

Here is my journey with Toastmasters !! Itwas that time of the year in 2019. Yes, yearend and partners visit. Most of us know thestrenuous planning and preparationinvolved to make the partners visit a greatgrand success in a corporate world. Beinga member of Women`s Forum at Fidelity, Iwas given the golden opportunity tofacilitate the Diversity and Inclusionsession with the CIO and other leaders.During the preparation, more thanpreparing on the content I was looking forhelp everywhere on how to overcome thefear of public speaking. I found adocument ‘How to overcome the fear ofPublic speaking’ in my personal drivewhich was created in the year 2009. Adecade gone and still I am looking for suchhelp material. That’s the moment ofrealization for me to join the Toastmastersclub in my organization.

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Believe me, if you push yourselves toattend first few sessions you have setyourselves towards the success path ofenriching your communication, publicspeaking and leadership skills. During theinitial days, you have varied thoughtscomparing yourself with others in the club.I am being a tenured person in the firm, Icould see young and energetic folks whowere delivering pitch perfect speeches inthe meetings and at the same time therewere others like me who are trying toovercome the anxiety of public speaking. Ithen realized that each one of them hastheir own purpose to be part of the cluband my focus is to become the betterversion of myself. Toastmasters club is anecosystem comprising of people withsimilar passion who are there to mentor,collaborate and of course challenge you allthe time.

Here is my journey with Toastmasters !! Itwas Toastmasters is designed in a wholisticway to make you excel in various aspects –to be a better speaker, be a better listener,better at time management including manyothers. It’s been 8 months in this journeywhich is a truly rewarding experience. I amstill nervous in front of new audience;however, I am sure of the fact that I havegained enough self-confidence (to mock itup 😊) which I would not have been able togain without Toastmasters. Dear friends, time flies over us, butleaves its shadow behind. Don’t wait forright time, just make time right by youractions !!"The goal is not to be perfect by the end.The goal is to be better tomorrow." -Simon Sinek

30 TM VINOTHINI

CHENNAI LOUDSPEAKERS FORUM

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was not an average person, at the sametime I was not an extraordinary as well. Iwas trying not to be average but wasclueless on how to be extraordinary.Everyone has within themselves acontinent of undiscovered talents. Likehow a formless clay gets the shape of theLord Ganesha on a Vinayaka Chathurthiday, the undiscovered talent got a stage toperform. Every applause showed a worldof possibilities. Every performance wasevaluated, appreciated, supported by likeminded people. That is how I transformedas a better person after joiningToastmasters. Completing Competentcommunicator manual led to selfexploration. Repeating all the tenspeeches made me supremely comfortablein stage usage. Birds of a feather flocktogether, in this forum I found birds whohave feathers of my kind. I learned the artof listening.

I learned the art of framing questions. Ilearned the art of structuring a speech. Ihave developed my confidence level. Mostimportantly I learned about people. Everyincident of my life transformed as aspeech. My perspective towards my lifechanged gradually, inside every pain Ifound a lesson. Agenda preparation forcontests and conferences introduced meto the basics of unexpected twists andturns in our life. Acting as a speech craftcoordinator helped me learn to servequality products to customers. I am feelingreally proud to be called a Toastmaster,because this word acts as the synonym forthe words caring, sharing, empathy,friends, family, goal, leading, empowering,etc....The list is endless in my dictionary. Iam enjoying every bit of thistransformation from Priya Ganesh toToastmaster Priya Ganesh.

" T h e P o t e n t i a l o f th e a v e r a g e person is l i ke a huge ocean unsa iled, a n ewc o n t i n e n t u n e xp lo r e d , a w o r l d of possi bi l i t ies wai ting to be released a n dc h a n n e l e d to w a r d s o m e g r e a t good" - BRIAN TRACY

TM PRIYA GANESH

PERISHING INDIA TOASTMASTERS CLUB

PG TO TMPG

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What next? First 6 months, we canparticipate in TAG roles, give TT speechesand follow 1+1 rule (1 speech and 1 roleplay/month), get comfortable on stage andovercome our nervousness. Next 6 months,we can volunteer for higher roles like TTMaster, Evaluator, GE and TMOD. Theseroles will improve our planning, organizingand evaluation skills.

Evaluation tests our ability to identifygood aspects and highlight improvementareas in the target speaker. We can useSandwich technique - highlight thespeaker’s good practices and includeimprovement areas in a nice way. Also, wecan apply the learnings in our ownspeeches.

CREATING THE BESTCLUB CLIMATE

ow many of us really know what do we do after we join a toastmaster club? Are we alsoapplying toastmaster skills in professional or home environment? I am sure these will bedifficult questions to answer for most of us. Also be aware that in all these environments onlythe people change but the challenges remain the same. To have a best atmosphere for learning in any club there are 8 mantras that need to befollowed.

Every new member who joins the clubneeds to follow 3 important guidelines -pathway selection, mentor selection andattend club meetings regularly. There is ananalogy to these 3 criteria. In the 3 rosesadvertisement, they mention 3 criteria oftea which improve its quality– color, tasteand smell.

MEMBER ORIENTATION

MENTOR ORIENTATION

ROLE PLAY ORIENTATION

EVALUATOR ORIENTATION

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2

3

4

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Next, we will be assigned a mentor. But arewe effectively utilizing this opportunity?Many of us think that mentor comes topicture only when we are planning to giveour speech. But this is not the only reason.Mentor is like our coach – have weeklydiscussions with him, correct ourweakness and continuously improve.

CREATING THE BEST CLUB CLIMATE 03

We can listen to contest speeches duringthe ISC and TT contests held in the clubsduring Mar-Apr every year. Most of theworld’s great leaders have honed theirskills in these kind of public speakingforums. We can also participate in contestslater and compete.

Many of us think that we join toastmastersto reduce stage fear and improve ourselvesonly. But this also gives an opportunity toencourage and applaud others likeclapping hands, sharing our feedback andappreciation with others offline.

Apart from speech and role play tracks, theclub also provides leadership roles. We canalso volunteer for contest master roles andperform Ex-Comm roles (S A, Treasurer,Secretary, VPPM, VPPR, VPE, President)and grow in the leadership path.

Finally, we also need to practice thetoastmaster skills outside the club. Thenext time we try to give feedback on ourhome dishes, use sandwich technique tohighlight improvements. The same way wecan apply this in our professionalenvironment. In summary, please follow the above 8mantras and create a best club climate.

CATALYST ORIENTATION PRACTICAL ORIENTATION

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6

7

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TM SRIRAM THIYAGARAJAN

MADRAS TOASTMASTER CLUB

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CONTEST ORIENTATION LEADERSHIP ORIENTATION


As a VP-M you never know who could bethe next potential member of the club. SoIt's very important to talk to all the guestsand explain to them the benefits and whatToastmasters can do to them. At thebeginning the Guest to Membersconversion rate was indeed dishearteningbut it was important to get in qualitymembers who could get the best benefit ofwhat toastmasters had to offer. Likewise Inthe professional front I started to reachout to more customers and developed awhole new customer base for a newproduct that I was promoting. I was able togauge what the customer wanted andserve them with better products andservice.

Very often when we hit a roadblock ourregular strategies hit a standstill. Insteadof losing hope we can try to look at newavenues. During the last term when thepandemic set in, I was very worried aboutthe March renewals since we had goneonline. But then I started to wonder whomdoes this online platform benefit? Andthere came the answer. I started to talk toInterested members who were from far offplaces and past members who was findingit difficult to reach the club meetingpersonally. They immediately obliged andagreed to renew. Similarly, a product that Iwas selling in the Textile Industry alsofound a new application in the foodprocessing Industry. This opened up awhole new market for me.

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he first half of 2020 was indeed a rollercoaster ride. I took up the role of VP membership ofCoimbatore Toastmasters club and I had to live up to the high standards set by mypredecessors. Having been a salesman of capital machinery I had to revise the strategiesand learn new skills for the VP-M role. Some of them are as follows:

T

HOW TAKING UP THE VP

ROLE REVIVED ME AS ASALESMAN

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MEMBERSHIP


There's someone out there whoneeds what you're selling

Knock Every Door

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There were a few enthusiastic members inthe past who had lost track ofToastmasters and discontinued. Havingsuch members are a true asset to theorganisation. I reached out to a few of suchmembers and struck a chord with them.With a little bit of persuasion I was able tobring them back to the club. Likewise, Ireached out to a few customers from thepast and during a general conversation Irealised that they had a need for a specifickind of product. With some marketresearch I was able to add a new productto my portfolio since I already had a stablecustomer base.

Taking up a role in Toastmasters hasalways been rewarding, engaging andenlightening. During this present term Ihave stepped forward to serve as the clubPresident of Coimbatore ToastmastersClub. I am sure there are a lot more lessonsto learn from this experience as well.Therefore, every activity that we do inToastmasters adds to our armour of skills,Its just the enthusiasm that matters.

DTM MAYUR VENKATESH S

COIMBATORE TOASTMASTERS CLUB

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My regular hair stylist name is Sarath. Heknows exactly where to cut and moreimportant, where not to cut. He cannot cutmy hair from certain places on my head. Ifhe does, then I will get exposed, So, hewould never do so. Sarath was not in townthat Sunday. I must look for a new personas I had a wedding reception in theevening to attend, and I cannot wait for ahaircut. By the way, wedding reception on aSunday evening is the best thing tohappen. You get free entertainment, A/C,light music, photographs taken and icingon the cake is the sumptuous food. If thereception is on weekdays, then I miss allthese. I do not know for what reason theymust get married on a weekday. Too much.But, this friend of mine is very sweet guyand kept his reception on a Sundayevening, which I do not want to miss. Iwent on the streets, in search of a newhairstylist. landed up to a sign board thatblew my mind away. The board read ‘LifeChanging haircut’. My god, I never knewthat a haircut could change your life. Thisguy must be awesome.

GET THE BEST OUT OFYOUR MIRROR

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nce, a guy walks into the Salon. Hairstylistasks, "What style do you want today?"O


The guy says, "well I want my hairs to belittle uneven. Short on one side, and denseon the other side. More hair on the top ofthe head. Make all the hairs out of shapeand mess it up”Hair Stylist (wondered. To reconfirm whathe heard) : “can you repeat?”Guy: “Listen, I want my hairs to be littleuneven. Short on one side, and dense onthe other side. More hair on the top of thehead. Make all the hairs out of shape andmess it up”Hair Stylist :"For heaven sake, why do youwant such a hair-cut."Guy (out of anger): "Man, that’s how youcut it last time" I laughed out loud after reading thisthis joke in a magazine. The salonexperiences are hilarious, though it is aserious act. My salon experience last yearwas an adventurous one. On a Sunday afternoon, I decided to doa haircut. We have special days for almosteverything - Father’s Day, Mother’s Dayand even mother’s mother day, every year.But Sunday is my unofficial Hair cuttingday.

I got shocked as soon as I entered. In salonshops, you will see the pictures of Rajni,Kamal, Surya etc., with fancy hair styles.That is quiet usual. Yet, in this shop, theyhad the picture of Gaur Gopal Das. I wascurious why they had Gaur Goal Daspicture there. May be, he came there for ahaircut which made him so popular. The hair stylist disrupted my thoughtsand received me with a smile. As he is newto me, I explained him how I want myhaircut to be. I spent lot of time inexplaining him, where not to cut. Yes,where not to cut. He nodded his head, as ifhe understood everything, did not speakeven a word, and took a scissor to beginthe job. I had my own doubts if this guyunderstood what I need or not. I wasgetting tensed until he finished his job. He took only 15 minutes to completethe haircut. I looked at the mirror. Wow!Nice haircut and I looked so handsome,somehow. But I must admit that the salonmirrors are awesome. They make you look100% extra handsome. I thanked the hairstylist and stepped out, with utmostsatisfaction.

On my way back, I realized that everyoneneeds those salon mirrors. Once, I said mymentor ‘Saro Velrajan, thank you so much.Whatever am today in Toastmasters isbecause of you’. He refused and said‘Palani, I am only a mirror, I reflect what isin front of me’. But trust me, a mentor is like a salonmirror, who elevates you by 100%. I oftenstand in front of my mirror to groommyself. The magic happened always. I getout of the mirror every time with 100%extra elevation. You too need those mirrors, to upliftyourself. Where is your mirror? Are youstanding in front of your mirror often?

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DTM PALANIAPPIAN

PAYPAL CHENNAI TOASTMASTERS CLUB

0138

"TO REACH MORE PEOPLE , LISTEN TO THEM"

ccording to Wikipedia, a newsletter is aregularly dThis was the exact line in mindwhen we commenced on our District levelsurvey for the members. Any organizationcan only function effectively if we knowwhat the stakeholders needs and wants areand we at District 120 are no different . As anew District , we wanted to align ourdeliverables to the members to be in linewith their expectations . We were alsoaware that members do not have acommon forum to share their experiencesand expectations from Toastmasters. Wealso wanted to tailor our events andtraining programs in line with membersexpectations .

This data gave us a good insight tomember needs and have held us to tailorour training programs in line with theserequirements. We plan to publish thefindings of the survey and also the actionstaken on the basis of the same.

MEMBERS SURVEY

THE TLI TEAMHEARD YOU !,,

,,Need for MentoringGuidance for writing Speeches Mentoring on Pathways How to run effective club meetings

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A


In this regards , we launched the MemberSurvey in the month of July . 735 membersreplied to the survey which was aconsiderable achievement. The top 4outcomes from the survey were :

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120120120

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tammering since the age of 4 has been a challenge in various stages of my life and the transition fromprimary to secondary school was not an easy move. The fact that there were many pupils in secondaryschool was a daunting concept; because it meant that I was more likely to be bullied about mystammer. I was often teased about my stammer which at times made me feel angry towards myselfand that somehow I was at fault. My father was a political orator. My parents used to tell me to calmdown and speak slowly ,they were quite understanding and patient . I finished my high school and graduated as a mechanical engineer from Infant Jesus College ofEngineering with my disability but I never gave up. I aspired to become a great speaker and startedreading books on the mind and it’s ability to transform a person’s life and career. I was rejectedopportunity to training sessions in colleges and schools.

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This gave me an inspiration to become a self-motivated person. I decided to set up my ownStammer Support Sessions - Mind Garden forpeople with the same disability. I motivated them with the uses of the power ofthe mind as a superpower which motivates yourinner strength and overcome your personaldisabilities. Till date I have transformed about 600stammers and brought light into their lives. I joined Tuticorin Tostmasters last year whichhas given a boost to my communication skills andnow I can confidently speak in front of any schoolor college students. The members have beenmentors and family to me in my journey ofToastmasters. I’m happy to introduce very own You TubeChannel CHANDRU AKASH with more than 6,700subscribers.

TM CHANDRU VELMURUGAN

TUTICORIN TOASTMASTERS CLUB

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MIND GARDEN

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oastmasters is the perfect platform toenhance our leadership and communicationskills. But apart from this, Toastmasterstouches our lives in many ways. When I was ill 5 years back, the doctorprescribed a medicine. Unfortunately, thismedicine, was not available in my localityand neither at Sholinganallur or Tambaram.However, toastmasters staying in Annanagar, helped get this medicine. I was onmedical leave and was having severe bodypain. but the medicine reached my house. ACouple of Toastmasters got this medicinefrom Annanagar and handed it over to aToastmaster from Infosys SholsToastmasters Club who in turn gave it to alady staying near my house and she broughtit home for me. Once again, when I was facing somemedical issues, I called up a fewToastmasters for good specialist doctors. Itwas Toastmaster Nagaraj who helped thistime by referring me to a good specialist.A friend in need is a friend indeed. We havemany folks in Toastmasters who have goneout of their way to help me or cheer me in mypersonal endeavours. Though I had taken a license to drive, atthe age of 21 I never drove a car until age 39.I was very nervous about the way driverswere overtaking from left and right

So I never could summon the courage todrive in Namma Chennai. Once, DTMGayathri(DXC), gave me a lift in her car,from Siruseri to my home and shementioned that having a car of her ownreally helped her with her leadershipjourney as it gave her lots of flexibilitywhile ensuring personal safety. So motivated by her pep talk, I toowent and bought an automatic car on aloan, ofcourse with the intention of drivingit. However, For the next 3 months, the carwas never taken out. I was petrified withfear of facing the traffic. Then I went asChief Judge to Caterpillar Toastmasterswhere TM Sabha and TM Rajesh and othersencouraged me to take the car out anddrive. I confided in them my fear that thecar may get scratches. I had belief in myskills to navigate but the fear of someone coming and hitting me was too much.Then they told me that no one ever learnsto drive without getting a scratch or two ontheir cars. They told me that next time Ivisit their club, I must drive and come.They also said that they have everyconfidence in my ability to drive. This wasa perfect inspirational speech material andthis bolstered my confidence so much sothat the same night i took the car out of myapartment compound for the first time.

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THE OTHER SIDE OFTOASTMASTERS

41

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Then like we did our icebreaker speechesand other speeches of the CC manual, Istarted driving each day atleast for 10-15minutes. I always took care to drive onlyafter 10pm in the night as by then trafficwould be down to a trickle For the first fewdays, I could not keep the windows closed.I was used to riding a two wheeler. So I felt comfortable with the windowsrolled down and hearing the other vehiclesbuzz by. Then I graduated to the next stepof windows being closed and AC being on.Still I could neither talk or listen to musicor others' conversation while driving. SoonI was into my cc3 when I could listen toradio and drive. I completed Cc4 when I drove in therain at night on a highway (Perangaluthurto Porur) operating the wiper. I finishedCC5 when I was able to give lift to a groupof gaveliers including my son. I completedcc6 in flying colours, when I could listen tothe gaveliers and respond to theirquestions while smoothly changing laneson a highway. Multiple Toastmasters towhom I have given lift were all encouragingme just like the evaluators in theToastmaster Meetings. This greatly helped.Some of them also gave me tips. Whiledriving to a Division contest, I had a frontalcollision with a speeding mini truck whichhad overtaken a school van. It was the presence of mind that welearnt by handling numerous crisissituations in Toastmasters that helped meapply break and stay calm.

I messaged my brothers from Caterpillarand they egged me on. They said that isnothing you have to stage a comeback.After a month of repair both for the car andmy confidence, I was back on the roadagain. Toastmasters is a place where you canimprove not just your communication orleadership skills but it is a place full ofpositive minded people who coax you topursue your dreams and are there tosupport you when you go through toughtimes.

I am indebted to my first club Infosys SholsToastmasters Club and current home clubOcean's Toastmasters club and my newclub Dynamic Leaders Forum for beingthere to support me, through thick andthin, and for encouraging me to pursue mydreams. Toastmasters helps bring out thebest in me. Toastmasters community, withso many genuine mentors, helps unleashmy full potential. Toastmasters is indeed

my other family. This is indeed thebest investment that I have evermade. Get the best out of life by joining Toastmasters.

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DTM MANJU K MANOHAR

OCEAN'S TOASTMASTERS CLUB

42


orn and brought up in a village.Communication was always a challenge forme. Having completed my schooling in aTamil medium , it has made me feelinferior. English seemed to be an alienlanguage. I had to undergo a lot of shamewhenever I tried to articulate. My Englishwas horrible. A motivating mentor made me believethat English is within my reach. A selflessperson indeed, his unconditional act ofsparing time for students has always beenadmirable. Witnessing such a genuineteacher and motivator inspired me to learnand befriend English language. Thusstarted my journey of learning English andhere I am completing my highest degree inEnglish and went on to become an Englishprofessor. The spring of sharing myknowledge, with the kind of experiences Ihad, has always been pricking me toenlighten the rural students, who wouldundergo a similar situation like mine. Thisthought made to quit my profession andtake up Training Language, especially tothe rural students. Most of my students arefirst generation learners.

In the past 3 years I've closely touchedupon 3000 students' life teaching themLanguage skills. Adding feather to mycrown I joined Toastmasters. Here I had areal rollercoaster ride and I was able tounderstand the importance of publicspeaking. Even to this fraternity I wantedto give what I learnt so took up the AreaDirector's role. Now I am helping many ofmy students to join this wonderfulfraternity so that they bounce to the nextlevel. I am a giver, giving back to thesociety.

Do you want to be a one? The choice is yours.

. | |

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TM PRINCELY SAMUEL

AREA DIRECTOR, H3

GIVER, NOT A TAKER

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DidDidDidYouYouYouKnowKnowKnow???ARTIST TM Sowmia S

(Chennai Loudspeakers)

POEM TM Durga ,

Asst. Admin Mgr D120,

FLUTIST TM Athira (Dynamic Leaders Forum)

DOODLE ARTIST TM Jayanthi(Meraki)

PENCIL SKETCH TM Ameer AbbasThasthahir (Speak to Lead

Toastmasters Club)

SILAMBAM Practitioner

TM Hariharan (Pyrocity)STORY TELLLING THROUGH

ABHINAYAM, TM Sridevi (Dynamic Leaders Forum)

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DidDidDidYouYouYouKnowKnowKnow???ARTIST, TM Karthick

(Qrators)

FOOD BLOGGER TM Varun AD(H1)

MUSICIAN TM Jonathan Samuel

(MAMCET)

BEAT BOXER ,TM Anish (Ocean's Toastmasters Club)

MANDALA ARTIST DTM Priya

Muthukumar

(Chennai Champions

Toastmasters Club )

45

CYCLIST, TM Gandhi (Tirunelveli Toastmasters Club)

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Nagercoil

Hosur

D120TAMILNADU

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what is inside - District 120

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