The Cicero Challenge Debate

Today is the day!

The Barristers et al Toastmasters Club and Cicero Debating Society present a Parliamentary-style debate between:

George Bach
American Civil Liberties Union

and

David Iglesias
United States Attorney for the District of New Mexico

The issue:

Whether state and local law enforcement should enforce federal immigration law.

Open to the public! Free!! Real oratory debate at its best!!!

When: Monday, February 26, 2007 at 5:45 PM
Where: The State Bar Center, 5121 Masthead Street NE, Albuquerque, NM

For more information contact:
John E. DuBois
President of Barristers et al Toastmasters
Counsul of Cicero Debating Society
(505) 768-3312
jdbuois@cabq.gov

Doing the Right Thing
and Achieving All Your Goals at the Same Time
www.mariannepowers.com

El Paso Toastmasters Leadership Institute

Lois Bursack (Toastmasters District 23 Lieutenant Governor of Education and Training) and I (Toastmasters District 23 Lieutenant Governor of Marketing) just got back from the El Paso, where we stayed with Bill Steele (Toastmasters District 23 District Governor) and presented with him at the Toastmasters Leadership Institute there. It was good to be with these friends and all the others that I have met in El Paso and all over New Mexico. Toastmasters is friendship, too! And Toastmasters know about doing the right thing and achieving all your goals at the same time.

Doing the Right Thing
and Achieving All Your Goals at the Same Time
www.mariannepowers.com

Speechcraft at UNM Continuing Education

Starting next Tuesday, February 27, for eight weeks, Roy Crawford and I will be teaching a Speechcraft class at UNM Continuing Education. Speechcraft is a program created by Toastmasters for non-Toastmasters (or not yet Toastmasters) who want to learn public speaking skills and practice what they're learning.

Here's the link if you want to sign up!

Speechcraft at UNM Continuing Ed

Doing the Right Thing
and Achieving All Your Goals at the Same Time
www.mariannepowers.com

Moriarty Library Author Event

The Moriarty Library Author Event last Saturday was stupendous! Seventeen New Mexico authors each had a table and display space along the walls of a huge room with amazing acoustics. Even the most soft-spoken person could be heard all over the room. And even though it was very large, it was only a third of the convention hall.

I highly recommend the Moriarty Civic Center to anyone planning an event!

We had coffee, sodas, donuts, hot dogs, and chips. There were lots of places to sit and eat or look at the literature and books, and plenty of room to stroll around and visit the authors, and we could all see each other.

Each author had a chance to speak. Many of us knew each other, but even we learned a lot about how we became authors and about our different genres and books. The only thing is, next year, we must have timers. We were all so enthusiastic, it was hard to get us to stop talking!

If you are an author, talk your local librarian into sponsoring an author event. It's a blast!

Doing the Right Thing
and Achieving All Your Goals at the Same Time
www.mariannepowers.com

Moriarty Library, Saturday, February 17

The Moriarty Community Library is hosting a program called Authors for Literacy featuring several (17 and counting!) local New Mexico authors. Authors will be there between 9:00 AM and 3:00 PM speaking, signing books, and talking with the public. There will be a $1 admission fee collected at the door (it can't get much cheaper than that!), which will go to the library to help buy new books. Snacks will be served!

Schedule so far:
09:00 Jonathan Miller (attorney/New Mexico mysteries)
09:20 Kathy Segura (Read "Write" Adult Literacy Program)
09:40 Diana Brown (science fiction)
10:00 Cynthia Davis (historical biblical fiction)
10:20 Jerry Davis (essayist/illustrator)
10:40 Don Bullis (western history)
11:00 David Corwell (horror/fantasy)
11:20 Sharon Niederman (southwestern fiction and non-fiction)
11:40 Ana Baca (children's books and fiction)
12:00 Paul Thompson (western fiction)
12:20 Marianne Powers (business management)
12:40 Sabra Steinsiek (poetry)
01:00 Kathy Barco/Valerie Nye (non-fiction)
01:20 Melody Groves (western fiction and non-fiction)
01:40 Sabra Steinsiek (Haiku workshop)
02:00 Gary Wilson (action/adventure)
02:20 Gail Rubin (humor/non-fiction)
02:40 Lenann Gardner (marketing)

Please join us at the Moriarty Civic Center, where the library is housed in Moriarty.

Coming from Albuquerque: Take the first Moriarty exit (Exit 194). The exit ramp becomes Main Street or Old Route 66. Continue for about 3/4 mile to Broadway on your right, just past Blackie's and May Pharmacy. Turn right and go the last (third) building on your left. There is a sign out front. Parking is on the south side of the building.

Coming from Santa Fe: On US 41, cross over I-40 to the first light. Turn right and go one (long) block to Broadway on your left (just past the post officer). Turn left and go to the last (third) building on your left. There is a sign out front. Parking is on the south side of the building.

Call 832-2513 if you get lost!

Doing the Right Thing
and Achieving All Your Goals at the Same Time
www.mariannepowers.com

Toastmasters Listen

Many people know that Toastmasters teaches speaking. But it also teaches listening. For every speech that we give, we probably hear ten. At Toastmasters, we teach each other by listening to each other. More accurately, Toastmasters teaches communication. And communication takes a lot of listening.

It seems likely that most people join to learn how to speak, so the listening part sneaks up on us. But it turns out to be one of the most valuable things that we learn. We listen with a purpose, so we listen well. We pay attention to what speakers are saying, how they organize their thoughts, if there is a good opening, substantial content, and a good close, the words they choose, how they move, use their hands, their facial expressions, and their voice, and whether they have appropriate props and handouts. We give feedback on all those things, especially what the speaker does well, and suggestions for how they can do even better.

We expect speakers, from wherever they start, to improve as they learn by doing and getting feedback, and they do. Each individual speech is not always better than the last one, but mostly they are, and over time everyone does get better. Sometimes, they even make a quantum leap. That usually happens when they get out of their own way, stop worrying about themselves, and start understanding that it is about delivering a message to the audience, for the audience.

The listener is more important than the speaker.

Doing the Right Thing
and Achieving All Your Goals at the Same Time
www.mariannepowers.com

Safety

It seems like we live in a cocoon of our making, with only bits and pieces of the world woven in it. It's kind of small and dimly lit but comfortable and safe. We created it for protection, from attack, from overload, from things that don't make sense. We can barely make out people on the outside. If we're lucky, we have a few on the inside with us. They seem real, warm, beautiful, wise, caring, different from those on the outside.

If we could set ourselves free, what would we see?

Doing the Right Thing
and Achieving All Your Goals at the Same Time
www.mariannepowers.com