Second Newsletter - December 2015

December 2015 Eloquence 1

Lead With A Smile, Smile In Your Words

December 2015

Doha Toastmasters Club # 7148, Division E, District - 20

The First Toastmasters Club of Qatar www.dohatoastmasters.org


Publisher

TM YOOSAF VANNARATH

Editor TM Sandeep Kinge

Editor Support TM Satish Rao Tonse


http://www.dohatoastmasters.org/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/dohatoastmasters/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/dohatoastmasters/


Excom 2015 - 16 5

The Editor’s Desk 6

President’s Message 7

Area 28 Director’s Message 8

VP Education’s Message 9

Welcome New Members 10

Achievements 11 - 13

DCP Status 14

Past Presidents 15

Cherishing the Memories 16-17

Life 18

Investing in Yourself 19 - 21

Speak up Toastmasters 22

Changing over from Android to iPhone 23-24

Personal Achievement—TM Abdul Nassar P 25

COT 2 26

91st Anniversary of Toastmasters Celebration 27

Qatar National Day Celebration 28

Doha Gavels’ Club Contest Winners 29


Executive committee 2015-16

TM Abdul Nassar P

VP - Education

TM Yoosaf Vannarath

President

TM Rangamani Ravi

VP - Membership

TM Subair Pandavath

Imm. Past President

TM Rashid Ahmed

Secretary

TM Sandeep Kinge

VP - Public Relation

TM Kamarudeen N K

Treasurer

TM Raed A Abdeltwwab

Sgt. At Arms


Dear Members,

Happy new year to all of you!

With the begging of new year, everyone has resolutions for the new year. So, I too have

a resolution for serving the community through Toastmasters. I have experienced that

while serving the community, we learn many of our life skills unknowingly.

Learning skills reminds me of ‘The recession’. During last recession, I was anxious

along with my colleagues for our job security. I attended a training that year and the

take away for me from that training was ‘be adaptable’ and ’build alternative skills’ for

uncertain or emergency situations. These skills really help like an emergency fund for

our survival during such recessions to get different types of jobs based on our skill set.

Since then, I started volunteering more and more for different causes to learn diverse

skills. Thanks to Toastmasters, it teaches me many skills through different roles I take.

Hence, I take this opportunity to encourage all of you to take up more and different

roles to learn various skills which can become ‘alternative skills’ for any emergencies.

“Hope for the best and be prepared for the worst”

Best Wishes!

Regards,

TM Sandeep Kinge, CC, ALB

Vice President Public Relations

Editor’s Desk


New Year greetings to all the readers!

We welcome another year along with making many new decisions,

weaving new dreams, and setting fresh goals. To achieve them we have to exert hundred percent effort and determinations otherwise no

dreams and goals will come true. It is the same case when we join

Toastmasters club. We join with an aim to improve our communication and leadership skills. The club will provide necessary platform and also there will be help and support

from experienced Toastmasters, but each member has to put in their time and effort

like attend every meeting, taking up different roles and approach the mentors. Doha Toastmasters club, the pioneer club of Qatar is the best option for you to develop your

skills and abilities. So try to utilize this golden chance.

As always, Doha club is maintaining its legacy in the Toastmasters fraternity in Qatar.

The club has achieved President’s Distinguished status with 9 DCP points well before

31st December 2015. In January, Doha Club will be achieving perfect 10 DCP. Also there have been a lot of new additions to the Doha Club family. Doha club is the first

to bag the District membership achievers award from Qatar in December 2015. We

have celebrated the Toastmasters anniversary in October and aligned the second meet-ing of December to match the Qatar national Day celebration. Let me thank the club

excom for their tireless effort in the club’s achievements and thanks to all members for

their cooperation and support.

As we are fast approaching the contest season and our club contest is scheduled in the

month of February, I encourage each and every member of the club to take part in the club contest, irrespective of whether you are an old or new member, and get experi-

enced from one of the best speech contests in Doha.

Eloquence, which is published every quarter, helps us to get an insight about Toastmas-

ters and takes us through the journey of toastmasters’ achievements and all the events

conducted in Doha Toastmasters Club. Newsletter also helps new members to get ac-customed to the dealings of the club. It is a platform where you can sharpen the art of

writing and showcase your creativity. Requesting everyone to contribute and be a part

of this newsletter. I am sure you will enjoy reading this month’s issue.

With Best Wishes

TM Yoosaf Vannarath, CC, ALB

President

President’s Message


Dear President and members of Doha Toastmaster club,

At the outset let me congratulate all members of Doha Toastmasters for achieving all

TMI milestone before December 2015.

I really feel that it was the best step I took to join Doha Toastmasters and it benefitted

immensely to my communication and leadership development. The valuable experi-

ence I gained during these years from Doha Toastmasters gave me self-confidence to take up any leadership roles. I even feel proud that the members of Doha Toastmasters

consider me as a humorous speaker which I never thought I can. I realized that Toast-

masters is a movement that improves variety of communication skills.

The first step after joining Toastmasters is to create an action plan. Where do you want

to go and how do you plan to get there? You may not have the answers, but meeting after meeting you attend in Toastmasters train your mind automatically in a new di-

rection that develop your communication and leadership skills. The key to your suc-

cess always depends upon your dedication to this movement.

Being an active member of Doha Toastmasters, it gives me immense pleasure to lead

Area 28 which includes Doha Toastmasters.

I congratulate each and every member of Doha Toastmasters on this occasion. I wish

Doha Toastmasters continue their successful journey for many more years to come.

Regards

TM Dinesh Kumar A K, ACB, ALB

Area 28 Director

Area—28 Director’s Message


Dear Fellow Club Members,

Greetings !

It is proud moment and congratulations to you all on achieving seven Distinguished

Club Program (DCP) points out of the total 10 point goals set for the full year. If you

see the requirements for this award, this achievement could not have been possible

without the contribution of each member of the club.

As I used to say, I am not great fan of numbers and awards ! To me, what is more im-

portant is to achieve the self-set goals of all individual members and eventually an in-

clusive growth of the club. And indeed, when we achieve the self set goals the success

will follow. An actor’s goal is to do his best to give life and wings to the character he

plays and not to be to get Oscar award.

Let us introspect and try our best to live and rise in our life in true toastmaster values

RISE. The acronym RISE stands for Respect, Integrity, Service and Excellence. Wish

you all the best in achieving all the big goals you set in life and the success and rewards

keep flowing in all walks of your life.

Sincerely Yours,

Wishing you all the best,

TM Abdul Nassar P. ACB, ALB

Vice President Education

Vice President Education’s Message


Welcome New Members

Asma Zaghouani

Bhadrik Shah

Chandrashekhar R Dudhe

Fayqa Abdulla Ashkanani

Maru Menon

Moufid Ahmed Mostafa

Muhammed Ahmed Matter

Nagaraja Sekar Mannem

Tapan Das


Achievements

12th ICC Communication Championship 1st Runner-up Winner in “International

Category” from Doha Club TM Deepak Shivankar


District Membership Maximus Award

A special award and gift from DTM Clita Crasta for adding more than 10 members in just 6

months


Competent Communicator

TM Kamarudheen & TM Kishore Parthasarathy




CHERISHING THE MEMORIES

I firmly believe that the benefits of membership of Doha Toastmasters

Club extend far beyond simple public speaking skills.

I would say that the environment and the aura of Doha Toastmasters

Club itself facilitate acquiring of a lot of qualities required for leadership

and to be successful in life. I have met many people through Toastmas-

ters, whom I might not have otherwise had the chance to meet. I learnt

something or other from all Toastmasters. I cherish what I learnt from

them in all these years!

I take this opportunity to mention those eleven Toastmasters in this con-

text! There are many more but due to space constraint, I am restricting

myself to these eleven and also because of the fact that I joined in the

year’11!

DTM Sundaresan Rajeswar: I learnt how one should be regular to club

meetings even though one has put in number of years in Toast mastering.

I still need to learn how to be pleasant while talking with everyone.

DTM Sowrirajan : I learnt how to be truthful and blunt while giving an

honest feedback which benefits them. Of course I still need to learn how

to ‘play with the words’ to say something , without saying it!

DTM Malini : I learnt how to accept any role gracefully and deliver the

same passionately. However, I need to learn how to speak good English

like her!


TM Easwaran Natrajan : I have learnt how to go beyond the mentorship

to assist any Toastmasters who seek help. However, I still need to learn

how to be a very good listener and an observer during the meeting.

DTM Dr.M.S. Babu : I Learnt to have an ever smiling face even during

the toughest times of life. However, I need to learn how to accept any

role at the very last moment and deliver it enthusiastically.

TM Subair : He taught me how to be simple and humble through his ac-

tions. Still I need to learn how to be humorous even when I make mis-

takes.

TM Dhinesh: I learnt the importance of having noble and plain

thoughts. However, I need to learn how to control the anger and act nor-

mal during any hot discussions.

TM Anil Nair : Learnt to be an enthusiastic and motivating Toastmaster.

But, need to learn how to manage various clubs.

DTM Mansoor : Learnt to be creative and innovative in presentations.

But, need to learn how to make the role which, I take, lively.

TM Jayakumar Menon: Learnt to pay keen attention to all the sessions

of a meeting. But, need to learn how to evaluate to motivate.

TM Yoosaf : Learnt how to be proactive and systematic. However, I

need to learn how to manage several leadership roles effectively and effi-

ciently.

Penned By

TM Rangamani Ravi, CC, CL

Vice President Membership


Life

Life is a mystery cake

Ingredients are invincible

Recipe unknown

A bowl of hope

A twinkle in one’s eyes

Here we come

With flavors of positive

A pinch of love

Heart full of prayers

Sure to make a destiny of our own

-TM Maru Menon


INVESTING IN YOURSELF

“Only a mediocre person is always at his best”

― W. Somerset Maugham

It is vital to make investments in yourself. Warren Buffett

said it best: “Investing in yourself is the best thing you

can do”. Everyone has to make investments in their own career that will successfully

equip them to become more relevant and valuable to the organization. Greatness of

employees will be defined by the skill set and technical sophistication they possess to

adapt to the needs of the organization.

There are myths about personal growth that one should take precaution to avoid get-

ting into:

The Assumption Gap - I will automatically grow

The knowledge Gap - I don’t know how to grow

The Timing Gap - It’s not the right time to grow

The Mistake Gap - I am afraid of mistakes

The perfection gap - I have to find the best way

The inspiration Gap - I don’t feel like doing it

The Expectation Gap - I thought it would be easier

The facts on the above are different:

Growth is not natural- It’s intentional and responsible

Ask Big Questions- What to know to grow yourself

Do it Now

Face your Fears

Start with simple steps- Be patient with the process

Master yourself, not just job or position

Lifelong – growing beyond the goal

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5040334.Jaachynma_N_E_Agu


The first and foremost thing to ascertain is; Are you in a GROWTH ENVIRON-

MENT?

A growth environment fosters the following:

A place where the atmosphere is affirming, continually challenged, often out of

comfort zone, people around desire change, others are growing and growth is

modeled and expected.

Who you spend time with determines about 95% of success or failure. The

combined average of 5 people we hang around is the reference group which act

as accountability partners who have a desire to help you to succeed. It is im-

portant to associate with people larger than self.

Continuous growth need strategies and reflection is the key to develop strategies.

Develop simple strategies that are personal, repeatable and transferable. An ef-

fective system considers the big picture, prioritizes, measures, takes action and

promotes consistency.

Growth Path Diagram:


WHAT NEXT?

Pursue excellence: Don’t settle for being good but pursue excellence in

everything we do. The business climate is dynamic and hence we should be constantly evolving, learning new skills, attributes and adapting.

Whatever the challenge, the requirements, the goals - not just meet them

but try to exceed them.

Continuous learning: Approaching every new experience with an open

mind and passion for learning will expand work effectiveness. Often one

has to take several learning courses to perform job at the highest level.

Passion for continuous learning propels ones growth

Make your own breaks: “A wise man will make more opportunities than

he finds” – Francis Bacon. Opportunities are offered only if one takes un

-relented efforts to grow and develop even in unrelated areas. Don’t knowingly cause opportunities to present by itself, increase visibility and

actively create new ones.

Be relevant: Employees should look for ways to add value to the organiza-

tion. They should challenge themselves to find ways to gain leadership

support especially if there are some who are skeptical. Become the team

member colleagues just can’t get along without.

Develop courage: Rising above the fear of failure can be the greatest moti-

vator for success. This requires encountering adversity that demands in-

ner strength and tenacity.

Make investment in one’s own career that will make you more relevant and valuable. One sure and certain program to help in invest in yourself and

grow is through toastmasters. Take Toastmasters program seriously to reap

the right benefits

- DTM Rajeswar Sundaresan


Speak Up Toastmasters!!!!!

You want to be a good speaker

But you have fear to take ice breaker

Leave your hesitations

Forget your frustrations

To leave back things like

What will be people’s reactions?

Speak up 1st!!

Let’s not put break, speak up, leave the fear

And put speaking career in top gear

There is no one here to put you down,

If you develop your speaking and leadership skills

You can wear the badges for competent communicator, competent leader

and Triple Crown

Fellow toastmasters will appreciate your speech as nice

And they will give you some advice

This will work as a confidence booster

And you can get correct path for your dreams to foster

Here there is no king or queen

Everyone is equal and they are here to win

So speak up and conquer the fear,

such that all of us can admire!!!!!!!!!!!!!

- TM Tapan Das


CHANGING OVER FROM ANDROID TO iPHONE – A MODERN

DAY STRESS

Recently I came across this quote “You must learn to let go. Release the stress. You were

never in control anyway”. This brought flood

of memories of my not so recent attempt (half successful one!) to change over from an An-

droid Phone to iPhone6!

I had one Android Phone with which I was pretty happy and then the mod-el went ‘out of fashion’ (these days new models come every few months

and make those having old model phones feel ‘out of sync’ with the pre-

sent!)! Whenever I took out my phone, I felt that people around me started giving looks (like the one you give to the guy driving an Ambassador car in

Indian roads these days!). I felt it was high time for me to change over to

the latest iPhone6.

I went on a mission to hunt for an iPhone6 and I wanted a Gold colored

one. I am always fascinated by Gold and am of the view that Gold can nev-

er go out of fashion! But this place appears to be full of guys who hold sim-ilar views and Gold colored iPhone6 was simply not available. After quite a

difficult search in the summer months in Doha (Qatar), I was finally able to

get a Gold colored iPhone6 (and that was the last piece in that store!). Then it came with a free phone cover. Now I was in quite a dilemma over using

the phone cover which will hide the true color of the phone for which I had

put in quite a bit of effort! But when I opened the package containing this iPhone cover, I found that the cover is a transparent one and people would

still be able to see the true color of my iPhone – thank God for small mer-

cies!


The events leading to stress began from this point: First was to get my Mi-

cro SIM changed to a Nano SIM. My wife and I ran down to the Service

Centre of the mobile service provider in the middle of the night (just after purchase of the phone) as these centres are open till very late during Rama-

dan. But found out that there were huge numbers of people of awaiting

their turn at this service center in that unearthly hour! So I had to go back next day for the Nano SIM. Once I had the Nano Sim, next challenge was

to get my contacts loaded on to the new phone and here I managed some-

how but had to some manual entry. Surprisingly changeover of ‘WhatsApp’ was quite easy. Then came mails and calendars. Personal mail was easily

transferred to iPhone but my office mail was a different cup of tea. I had to

take the help of the IT guy in the office for that. Apps had to be download-ed again but thankfully, some apps like ‘Runkeeper’ (which I use quite of-

ten) behaved quite well and took off from where I left!

Getting the music transferred from Android phone to iPhone6 was the next

major challenge. I went through lots of material available on internet on

how to do this but could not succeed. Ultimately, I had to depend on my

son to do the needful during my visit to Bengaluru last month!

But finally I said enough is enough and will NOT try anymore to get other things (mainly apps and photographs) from Android phone, as that phone

will anyway stay within the family! I let it go realising that I was never in

control anyway! I never used most of the features of this Android phone

and am sure that it will be the same story with iPhone6!

Post script: Ultimately, I do concede that iPhone6 did have some pretty good features which add value (apart from being ‘in sync’ with modern

times!). It has a very good camera, finger print scanner, and nice apps. But

still I miss that all familiar whistling noise and utility to go back to what I

was doing by just tapping on bottom right!

Apple came out with iPhone 6S and I have successfully made my transition to this new one. This transition, though not as difficult as the previous one,

did have a few anxious moments!

-TM Satishrao Tonse, CC, CL





Qatar National Day Celebration


Table Topic Contest Winners

Humorous Speech Contest Winners

Speech Evaluation Contest Winners

Doha Gavels’ Contest Winners

International Speech Contest Winners


Important Contest Dates


MISSION OF THE CLUB The mission of the DOHA Toastmasters Club is to pro-vide a supportive and positive learning experience in

which members are empowered to develop communica-tion and leadership skills, resulting in greater self-

confidence and personal growth .

A TOASTMASTER’S PROMISE

To attend club meetings regularly

To prepare all of my speeches and leadership projects to the best of my abil-

ity, basing them on projects in the Competent Communication and Leader-

ship Program manuals, Advance Communication manuals or competent

leadership manual

To provide fellow members with helpful and constructive evaluations

To prepare for and fulfill meeting assignments

To help the club maintain the positive, friendly environment necessary for all

to learn and grow

To serve my club as an officer when called on to do so

To treat my fellow club members and our guests with respect and courtesy

To bring guests to club meetings so they can see the benefits Toastmasters

membership offers

To adhere to the guidelines and rules for all Toastmasters educational and

recognition programs

To maintain honest and highly ethical standards during the conduct of all

Toastmasters activities.

Please contribute articles & send your feed back

to: [email protected]

Documents

Second Newsletter - December 2015