Before we begin today's Blog, I think a hot cup of coffee is in order. Here's my favorite from Barrrista!
I attended the Chartering Ceremony of the Chennai Covansys Toastmasters' Club today at their offices in the Madras Export Processing Zone.

For those of you who don't know what or who a Toastmaster is here's a brief Intro:

Toastmasters International is a nonprofit organization with its world head quarters in Rancho Santa Margarita, California. Founded by Ralph C. Smedley in 1924, Toastmasters is today a worldwide organization with 211,000 members and 10500 clubs in 90 countries.

At Toastmasters members learn by speaking to groups and working with others in a supportive environment. A typical Toastmasters club is made up of 20 to 30 People who meet once a week for about an hour. Each meeting gives every one an opportunity to practice Communication and Leadrship skills. Members learn about

• Conducting meetings
• Giving Impromptu Speeches
• Presenting Prepared Speeches
• Offering Constructive Evaluation

At Chennai we have Chennai Toastmasters (CTM), the club to which I belong and Speakers Club. We also have Wordsmiths which was recently started by CTM. We also sponsored a Corporate Club at Covansys. This club is the brain child of a senior and Distinguished Toastmaster (DTM) Janaki Prasad Pattanaik (JP) who works at Covansys. JP is a walking encyclopaedia of Toastmastering.

Today the Covansys ChennaiToastmasters Club (CCTM) was chartered. I was invited by JP to this. I was also asked to address the audience.

Members of the Covansys ChennaiToastmasters Club

A gist of my speech is given below:

Respected dist. Gov. Bosco Abraham, Lt. Gov. Education and Training M. Venkat, DTM JP, Madam President Indira Jayaraj, TM Ravi Bhaskaran and of course my beloved members of the Covansys Chennai Toastmasters Club,

I want to begin with just one word, "CONGRATULATIONS!"

CCTM is our baby! A baby of the Chennai Covansys Toastmasters Club, of which Club, I have the honor to belong. We from the Chennai Toastmasters were privileged to be part of the process of forming CCTM. I can remember those early days when CTM Members used to visit Covansys on JP's invitationfor runni8ng the Speechcraft program.

We met some great human beings like Jayan, Kumar, Satyanarayana and Chrles. It's so fulfilling for us to see these very same people performing superbly and running the meeting so efficiently and effectively. So, Congratulations first. (I requested all present in joining me in applauding the CCTM members.)

Friends, All of us want to become Eloquent; (Applause, because this was word of the day!)

All of us have the potential to become eloquent;

but, all of us need the environment to learn, nurture and develop our communication skills.

This is exactly what Toastmasters (TM) provides. A corporate club like CCTM would obviously provide great opportunities for improving your communication skills as well as leadership and teamworking skills.

TM helps us to learn the art of giving and accepting both praise and criticism. When praised we accept it with grace. When a better approach or way is suggested we accept it and try to apply it.

The seventh habit in the 7 Habits of highly effective people propunded by Stephen R. Covey is "Sharpen the Saw". TM is an excellent method for sharpening the saw. Time spent at a Toastmasters meeting is always a second quadrant, high value added activity that helps you to practice continuous self renewal and build your production Capability.

I hope to attend your meetings more often and request you to attend ours on the 1st, 3rd and 5th Sunday of every month at the Presidency Club.

I Wish you all the best.

I could interact later with Dist Gov. Bosco and LTEG Venkat over a superb lunch hosted by CCTM.

Here are photos of me with them:

Tm. Srikanth,DTM JP, LTEG Venkat, TM. Jayanthi (Director HR, Covansys) CTM Indira (Pres Chennai TRoastmasters), Dist Gov. Bosco Abraham.