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From the Editor’s Desk

It is indeed a very proud moment for me to be releasing the first issue of Imprint for the year

2014-2015. I am thankful to President, TM Riana Pinto for pushing me out of my comfort zone

and constantly encouraging me to deliver with this task. I am also thankful to the Executive

Committee and the club members for their continuous support, feedback and contributions,

which have only helped me, enhance this newsletter.

This newsletter is of the members, by the members and for the members. It has been an

eventful first half of this term with our members delivering on their own set targets thereby

helping the club scale greater heights. We have had joint meetings with other clubs and

members shining outside the club winning us many accolades.

Get yourself a cup of coffee and enjoy as we walk past the year so far in this edition of

IMPRINT.

Jonathan Sequeira, CC, CL

VP-Public Relations

Konkan Toastmasters Club

2014-2015

IMPRINT KONKAN TOASTMASTERS CLUB

CLUB # 820149, AREA – 68, DIVISION - Q, DISTRICT – 20

2014 – 2015 / Issue #1 July-Nov

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The President speaks

Taking over as President from the successful reigns of immediate Past President TM Melvin Buthello

was truly a challenge. Hesitating, I stepped forward, taking this responsibility as a challenge but also

motivated to perform better with the able support of my strong excom officers who have been truly

supportive and worked as a team.

“Leaders establish the vision for the future and set the strategy for getting there” as quoted by John P.

Kotter, I and my excom had set the vision for the club and am pleased with the way our members are

working towards this vision through their commitment and achievements, thus moving closer to our

goals as a club.

With the end of first half of our term, I am delighted to note the progress our club has achieved.

Firstly, we successfully organized and delivered the Youth Leadership Program to young students of the

Parish Summer camp wherein nearly 35 students participated. This was very well conducted under the

leadership of DTM Dr. M.S. Babu - the main coordinator, with the assistance of TM Denzil & TM

Vanessa. Secondly, our member TM Sampath Sowrirajan attained his highest educational award and is

now a DTM – Distinguished Toastmaster. We all are very proud as he is the first DTM of our club.

Thirdly, we were able to achieve Smedley Award with 5 new members joining along with achieving

Division's Q41 award for enrolling 4 new female members.

As we reached October end, 4 of our members completed their educational goals with 2 CCs, 1 CL and

1 ACS and thus progressing in their journey of being better communicators and leaders. With their

dedication and commitment they helped the club in achieving 6 DCP points thereby attaining

"Distinguished Club" status within 4 months which is another record for our club.

As said by Les Brown, “Life takes on meaning when you become motivated, set goals and charge after

them in an unstoppable manner” is exactly what I feel now. I am truly motivated and committed to

achieve goal after goal, strengthening the club's membership base, motivating members to give their

best and helping them fulfill the vision with which they embarked on this toastmaster's journey.

I am indeed very proud of my strong excom team and their active participation along with members

who are helping us in realising this vision and keeping the Konkan club flag flying high. I owe my

sincere gratitude to each one of them. We are soon heading to our 200th meeting which is a great

milestone for our club. We, as a team, have set a few more goals which we hope to accomplish them

with the usual and continued support of our members, area and division officials.

TM Riana Pinto, CC, CL

President 2014-15

Konkan Toastmasters Club

2014-2015

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When the Student is ready!

The below Yogic saying holds a key universal truth about learning. Regardless of

age, social class or ethnic background, information can be presented to a

student, and then the student must choose to learn what is set before them.

Initially I thought, to learn better one has to go to a good school and college. To become better in life,

one should be tutored by good teachers. But life patiently taught me how to be a good student. I

found teachers everywhere, in people, circumstances, experiences, things, nature - almost in

everything and everywhere.

10 years back in United Arab Emirates, I first heard about Toastmasters when my friend casually

mentioned over the phone that he is thinking about joining a toastmasters club. 7 years back in Qatar, I

read on the church notice board about the Rosary Toastmasters club and joined immediately. The

journey did not last long as that club closed down and also my job forced me to move back to UAE.

Two and a half years back I resumed my toastmaster's journey with Konkan Toastmasters club. As if I

was ready this time for learning, I continued to improve my communication and leadership skills. The

universe offered all the possible opportunities for me to learn from it. As club member, role player

during meetings, speech contestant, President of the club and area governor, every role offered a new

change, new challenges. But with time I have become a better student and choose to learn from what

is set before me.

Today I am thankful to the TM fraternity and to all fellow members and friends who have supported me in my

toastmaster's journey. In this journey I met people, who sincerely care about self-improvement and others

well-being.

I urge all of you, to bring new members to toastmaster meetings because if the student in them is ready,

Toastmasters platform will surely act as the best teacher for them and they too will reap rich dividends.

TM Melvin Buthello, CC, CL

Area 44 Governor, Div E, District 20

Immediate Past President

Konkan Toastmasters Club

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The New Elects

After an eventful year (2013-2014) for Konkan Toastmasters Club that was led by the dynamic and

perceptive president TM Melvin Buthello, it is now time for a newly elected Executive Committee to

have the club sailing forward with greater zeal and enthusiasm.

The Club, held the installation ceremony of its new executive committee for the term 2014 - 2015 on

Monday, June 23rd, 2014 at Ghanem Gardens Clubhouse. TM Mou Bera, Area ‘68’ Governor conducted

the installation ceremony. She is now also joined our club as a member. TM Shyam Sundar, Division ‘Q’

Governor was the guest of honour.

President, TM Riana Pinto, will head the newly elected committee. The other members of the

committee are: TM Jovita Pereira-DSouza (Vice President Education), TM Vanessa Pereira (Vice

President, Membership), TM Jonathan Sequeira (Vice President Public Relations), TM Sweta

Bhradwaj (Secretary), TM Timothy Veigas (Treasurer) and TM Denzil Fernandes (Sergeant – At –

Arms).

The Outstanding Toastmaster Award is determined by a point system based on Attendance,

Participation, Contribution and Presentations done within & outside the club. The award was bagged

by TM Riana Pinto (First Place); TM Jovita Pereira D’Souza (Second Place); TM Vanessa Pereira (third

Place).

The tremendous support from Mr. Wilfred Fernandes, Manager, Ghanem Gardens was whole

heartedly appreciated by presenting a flowering plant which was accepted on his behalf by his wife TM

Mable Fernandes. DTM Sampath Sowrirajan’s incessant support and mentoring was appreciated and

he was presented with a bouquet of flowers as a token of our gratitude.

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The perfect Handover. Thank you!

The outgoing executive committee of Konkan Toastmasters club has given the incoming team a running

start with a lot of accolades and achievements earned in their term!

Outgoing Executive Committee was led by President, TM Melvin Buthello The other members of the

committee were: TM Riana Pinto (Vice President Education), TM Jonathan Sequeira (Vice President,

Membership), TM Jovita Pereira (Vice President Public Relations), TM Vanessa Pereira (Secretary),

TM Sundeep Matthais (Treasurer) & TM Roque D’Souza (Sergeant – At – Arms).

The club has seen tremendous success and has reached great heights under the efficient leadership of

TM Melvin Buthello and his team. The Distinguished Club Program helps clubs promote quality,

ensure productive meetings, provide structure and guidance and increase the enthusiasm of the club.

Every year, Toastmasters International recognizes high-performing clubs. This year the club has

achieved the President’s Distinguished Club stature. The District presented the VP – Education, TM

Riana Pinto, with the Club DCP Achiever award. The club has seen a tremendous growth in the

membership as well and bagged the Smedley and Beat the Clock awards.

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Achievements Galore

The Konkan Toastmasters Club has always been known to have members of great calibre and talent.

However, the last year has seen out members shine brightly not only within the club but outside at

Area Level and Division Level. Below are a few to be mentioned in no particular order.

1) TM Joseph Shabu Stanley, a member of Konkan Toastmasters club is

currently serving the Division as the Assistant Division Governor

Education and Training, Division – Q, District 20.

TM Melvin Buthello, our immediate past president is serving as the

Area Governor for Area - 44, Division – E, District 20.

2) TM Christopher Almeida, a past president who had in his time set

new standards for our club with his achievements is serving as the

Area Governor for Area - 52, Division – Q, District 20.

3) TM Mou Bera, who is currently serving as the Area Governor for Area

- 68, Division – Q, District 20 has joined our club as a member.

4) Last but not least and most importantly, our guide and club member

TM Sampath Sowrirajan has now achieved the pinnacle of the

toastmaster's journey by becoming a DTM – Distinguished

Toastmaster. He should now always be referred to as DTM Sampath

Sowrirajan.

For the new members, who do not know what a DTM means – See

the below schematic

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Empowering our Youth Our Club feels proud for successfully conducting its first ever Youth Leadership program (YLP)

combined with a Personal Development program (PDP) for the children and is grateful to the Parish

Summer Camp Organizers for giving us this opportunity.

Konkan club has conducted two similar programs on Public Speaking for the summer campers in the

previous years. The participants have very actively participated this year in the PDP/YLP program and

our club members have conducted 8 sessions including the grand finale. We had arranged good

speakers who gave their presentations on 8 different topics through this program imparting

communication and leadership values. The young participants were actively involved in these sessions

as they were given group activities through which they got the message clearly. There was active

participation, commitment and dedication of the young children to their roles and enthusiasm in taking

up different roles, the interest in learning and most of all delivering their speeches or performing their

roles without any fear. A big change in the children was evident and their great delivery surprised the

seasoned toastmasters too. It is indeed a fulfilment of our club objective to impart good

communication skills to the next generation who will carry on the leadership qualities implanted in

them at this young age.

Konkan Toastmasters Club takes this opportunity to thank

the Summer Camp Organizers, volunteers and our Chief

Coordinator DTM Dr. M.S. Babu, Speakers from Doha

and Indian Toasmasters Club, coordinators TM Denzil

Fernandes, TM Vanessa Fernandes, the Konkan club

ExCom and members for their contribution to the success

of this PDP/YLP. Most importantly, special thanks to

Immediate Past President TM Melvin Buthello for taking

the initiative and igniting the fire of this program amongst

us. A special YLP newsletter was released to

commemorate the occasion. This was prepared by TM

Jovita Pereira.

Congratulations to all the budding speakers for your active participation and wish you good luck in your

studies. Hope to see you as the future sparkling leaders of our community.

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My Fantastic Journey

A year ago I started my journey in Toastmasters by giving my ice-breaker speech.

This has for me been a really great and fantastic journey where I have learnt a lot

in my past 10 speeches and this has definitely improved my communication

skills. I still have a lot to learn, but I will continue my journey – as one of my

favorite quotes says “Dripping water can hollow out stones, not by force, but by

persistence”

I like to thank this club for giving me much more self-confidence and the necessary tools to stand up

and express myself – I am thankful that I got the opportunity to meet you all and that we together with

a common target work towards being better communicators.

A year ago I didn’t know much about my own un-locked potential within communicating. I can frankly

say that, I had the opinion that communicating was something taught by my parents when I was a

child, and I didn’t have to train and develop myself later on in life. That is wrong. But meeting

toastmasters, this view totally changed and I realized how important communication in our daily life –

whatever we are doing and where we are.

Looking back into my toastmaster's journey, I must admit I have enjoyed each project in the competent

communication manual. It is fascinating to learn how the manual simply builds your self-confidence

and teaches you how to communicate and make it possible for you to grow and achieve higher goals.

On being asked which of the 10 projects I found most exciting - it is difficult for me to answer, because

they all are a great learning process and are valuable. But I would like to highlight 4 projects that I feel

are very important to make a good and interesting speech:

1. Organize your speech, Opening – Body - Conclusion

2. Eye contact with audience

3. Body language

4. Vocal variety

What things will makes you be a better communicator:

• Your manual will guide you

• Spend much time for preparation

• Meetings will make you grow

• Evaluation will give you feedback how to grow

• Training, training and training

One of the things I find most interesting coming to the club meetings is to see how members are

striving to deliver higher achievements by taking different roles or by giving their various speeches. I

am convinced that my toastmaster’s journey has motivated and challenged me to adopt higher noble

values by working with myself and joining the meetings.

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I am proud to say that I now understand why "Toastmasters International" since it was founded in 1924

has more than 300,000 members spread across 15,000 clubs in 126 countries – this really shows the

popularity and that people found it worth spending time on.

Being an elder in the family – I feel it is important to transfer valuable the knowledge to my kids and

grandchildren based on what I have gained during my life. And I must admit that toastmasters

meetings are always on my lips when talking to either my kids or friends, because I really feel that this

is such a great place to improve one's self as either communicator or simply - a better human being. To

explain how enthusiastic I am about toastmaster and its values – I am planning to give my grown up

kids in Denmark a free toastmaster membership as a christmas gift this year.

I have during my fantastic journey also had to work hard with myself and have spent a lot of time

preparing each speech – but I feel that it had all been worth it. As has been said many a times, “it is

important to get out of your comfort zone” and challenge the brain, which we all do here in

toastmasters. Only by doing this, you will train yourself to achieve higher goals and levels of skills. All

communication consists of a "sender" and a "listener" and both must be on the same page! Otherwise

misunderstandings will crop up! That’s why, we as toastmasters are being trained to be both good

speakers and listeners/evaluators.

Clear and direct communication is really a great achievement that must be trained to avoid

misunderstandings leading to wrong conclusions by the receiver.

TM Bjarne Jensen, CC

Member

Konkan Toastmasters Club

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From Talking to Communicating

If anyone ever asked me, what job do I do? I would smile and reply, saying

‘I am paid to Talk’! That’s actually what I do, I am a safety instructor …

literally paid to talk.

Three years ago, I had just finished a training session and I was saying goodbye to the delegates when

one of the delegates came to me and asked me if I knew about Toastmasters. I had no clue what he

was talking about. So he gave me his number, gave me a location and told me to come and attend one

the meetings and see it for myself. I slept over it and in a few days, completely forgot about it. Two

years after this incident, I met the same gentleman once again and after the training session, the topic

came up once more. This time he used a different approach. He took my number and my email address

and contacted me. Unable to say no, I decided to give it a try. So there I was attending my first

Toastmaster’s meeting.

The meeting started with a small safety briefing after which the President came up to open the

meeting. He gave a small speech where he talked about the difference between the Chicken and Duck

eggs. He highlighted the need to showcase and improve our skills because if we don’t, no matter how

good we are, it would amount to nothing. Not only did it catch my attention, it also helped me make a

decision, perhaps one of the best I made in a long time … the decision to join Toastmasters.

The fact is, I am good at talking and after I joined, there were times when I would wonder, what kind of

improvements would I see? Would it really benefit me? As the days passed and I started doing my

projects, the gaps started showing up. One by one as I started to patch the gaps up, I started to realize

something: anyone can talk, but not everyone can communicate.

Communication is a skill which is made of various components, being able to talk is just one of them.

There is so much more to communication. Each project would highlight one of the components and

challenge you to take it up and incorporate it in your speech; there was a template, a flow, transitions,

gestures, voice modulation, using visual aids and so much more.

But that is just one side of the story. After you gave the speech, a group of very friendly and supportive

people would tell you what you did well and most importantly where you could change or do better.

There was so much room for improvement, such a lot to learn. As I started learning, I could see the

positive impact it had on my professional career. I was not only talking … I was communicating!

Very recently I completed all the Projects in the Competent Communication Manual. It was a beautiful

experience, a wonderful journey! But I know this is not the end, rather it is just the beginning. There is

still a lot of ground to cover, still a lot more to learn, still a few miles to be run … in my journey from

Talking to Communicating!

TM Denzil Fernandes, CC

Sergeant at Arms

Konkan Toastmasters Club

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The 6,000 words Journey

Five years after I first heard of Toastmasters I finally joined this distinguished club

network. Typically, the first project I pursued was to enhance my communication

skills by following the CC (Competent Communicator) Manual and deliver 10

speeches with different objectives for each speech.

The first speech objective was to break the ice with audience and introduce myself. Being unaware of

how the audience can actually affect me, I was not worried about it. What really thrilled me was the

overwhelming question, “Who am I?” At that time, I was a job holder for the last 8 years in Qatar, I

almost did nothing else and facing the question about who am I actually turned to “Whom I was”! It is

true for many of the expats here that they become occupied by the work and gradually disconnected

from their social base in home country and eventually become machines. This icebreaker speech

opened my eyes to something I knew but I did not realize i.e. how deeply it was affecting my

personality.

As I went through the process of delivering further speeches, I enjoyed the fact that I was the

ambassador of Arabs among my beloved group of Indian fellow toastmasters in Konkan Toastmasters

Club. I was the only Arab in the club and this inspired me to make a theme for my journey, I tried to

introduce Arab ideas in my speeches. This brought a lot of joy and cultural interaction as I spoke on

camels, deserts and Arabics poems. In the background, I was facing stunning facts every time I worked

on a speech or even as I delivered some jokes or facts in the various roles that I played in meetings.

No! Ice cream was not invented in Damascus; it is actually a 3,000 years old Chinese invention. Shisha,

a daily habit for many Arabs and an outstanding feature in our cafes is actually an Indian invention. The

largest population of the Arab camels is living a wild life in Australia that was brought from India! The

list goes on with unusual discoveries that only reveal how small and lively our planet is.

Delivering the tenth speech was another experience in itself! I wanted to deliver it in October but I was

travelling. So I did it in a country I have not been to for the last 32 years, in front of a group of people I

have never met and yet it was as fun and educational as it is in any toastmasters club that I usually

visited in Qatar. I learned that being a Toastmaster, I actually have friends and fellows in all over the

world and they are all ready to welcome me and provide assistance whenever I pop into their town.

Can you imagine how great this is?

Delivering the 6,000 words in the 10 speeches journey with Toastmasters was not easy but it was

enjoyable. I had to cut out time for it from my busy schedule being a full time contractor and a

dedicated family man. On the other side, I cannot count the blessings. I made many friends, my mind

grew and my soul became more vibrant. I gained many skills, be it the organized thoughts in the flash

of a second before I talked on any topic or the presence of mind in any meeting, the unleashed English

language or the exposure to spectrums of people otherwise I could have never met and knew this

deeply. My view to life matured at such a fast pace. When I look at all this, I become more confident

that every word of the 6,000 words was worth all the efforts.

TM Anas Ahmed, CC

Member

Konkan Toastmasters Club

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Joint meeting with IIEE-SQC Toastmasters Club

Meeting# 193 of Konkan Toastmasters and Meeting# 63 for the IIEE- SQC was celebrated together as a

special joint meeting. The meeting started with an informal introduction so that the members of the

two clubs could be better acquainted with each other.

Our TM of the Evening (TMOE), TM Melvin Buthello, took the reins of the meeting with the theme,

‘How to better the world’. The role players were split across members of both clubs. We had a packed

Educational session with 3 prepared speeches. We all laughed till we had tears in our eyes thanks to

our Joke Master TM Anas who shall from this day forth be known as Mr. Coffee. The table topics

session and general evaluation segment was even more interesting considering the mix of members

across the 2 clubs. The Evening ended with a lively photo session where TM Sundeep went on to prove

how committed Toastmasters are to being good listeners.

In all it was a successful joint meeting. One where we made new friends and leant a lot, that will most

certainly help us become better communicators. We look forward to many more such eventful

meetings. Thank you to IIEE-SQC for accepting our invite and joining us at our premises for this

meeting.

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Induction Ceremony of New Members

We are pleased to welcome the 4 new members in Konkan Toastmasters Club:

1. Vanessa Pearl Pereira

2. Kavya Nidhin

3. Ashik L Lobo

4. Mou Bera

5. Aloysius Dsouza

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DCP Points Status

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ExCom Contact Details

Konkan Toastmasters Club meets every 2nd and 4th Monday of the month from 7:00 - 9:15 p.m. at the Ghanem Gardens Club House.

Role Name Email Mobile

President Riana Pinto alria301@gmail.com 55915002

VP-Education Jovita Pereira joviann@gmail.com 66020816

VP-Membership Vanessa Pereira Vanessa.Pereira@maerskoil.com 55764120

VP-Public Relations /

Secretary Jonathan Sequeira jon.seq@gmail.com 55115653

Treasurer Thimothi Veigas veigasthimothi@gmail.com 66032017

Sergeant-At-Arms Denzil Fernandes denzil.fernandes@outlook.com 66760914

Immediate Past

President Melvin Buthello melvinbuthello@hotmail.com 55823478