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ATT Chicagoland Club Region 5 Club1526
District 30
August 2007 VOL 2, No 8
Fellow Toastmasters What an exciting end to the
summer and the Toastmaster year! We had a great
party, and were sad that some of you were unable
to attend (including me!) See page 2 for a recap
and enjoy the pictures attached! Nancy Corbige
will be helping this month and next with the
newsletter. She has great ideas, and Im sure you
will enjoy a little change! We are moving ahead
with some fast-pace speech makers and are looking
forward to a great Fall Contest in September! We
hope to see some good competition in the humorous
contest. WOW! Weve seen some great ones
already! We are encouraging everyone to come up
with a humorous speech we sure dont lack any
funny people in our group, do we? We are always
having FUN! The Evaluation Contest will be held
along with the Humorous Contest, so get out there
and practice, practice, practice! Thank you The
Editors Nita, Elizabeth, Tami Nancy
Member Highlight
Do You Know Ruben Agosto?
Ruben is our Sgt at Arms, he is very close to
achieving his CC! He has consistently brought
fresh ideas to our meetings and we all enjoy his
attention-getting Meeting Openers!
Get to know Ruben
What is the best thing you have learned from
Toastmasters? That becoming a good speaker is
about exploring who you are and bringing that
out. That to progress in Toastmasters is not to
become more like other Toastmasters, but to build
your strengths and improve your weaknesses so
that you can be the best communicator and/or
leader that you can be. What a bor-ing world this
would be if we all strove for the same ideal. I
practice my Toastmaster skills out of the office
by I play in a band and often asked to emcee at
occasions. Since I've joined Toastmasters, I've
become conscious of avoiding filler words, having
an opening, a body and a closing, and thinking
about the overall message I'm trying to convey.
If you want to know more about the band, go to
www.powerplayfyi.com. What is your ultimate
Toastmaster goal? Honestly, I've not thought past
completing my CC and CL, but I think my ultimate
goal is to always improve and to help others do
the same. If that gets me further down the
Toastmasters path, that's great. What has been
the highlight of your summer? Playing a band
performance with my son, Dan. Dan's an
accomplished composer, recording engineer, and
multi-instrumentalist. He sat in for our bass
guitarist who was on vacation. He did a great job
learning "his dad's" music and I was very proud.
How long employed what is your job at ATT? I
have been with the company for 28 years in
August.I liked the people, liked the pay and
decided to stay. How long have you been a Member
of Toastmasters? I joined in November of 2006, so
it's nine months now. What made you decide to
join Toastmasters? I've always admired the
ability of others to speak purposefully in an
organized manner to get a point across. Good
story tellers, talented comedians, great teachers
and gifted speakers all understand that effective
speaking is much more than words strung
together. The "Role" I enjoy most in Toastmasters
is .. Sergeant at Arms. It gives me the
opportunity to get people's attention and set the
tone at the opening of each meeting as well as
give a good first impression to our guests. I
also like to send people off with a closing
remark that ties everything together or gives
people something to think about. I really enjoy
finding ways to tie in the theme of each meeting.

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Speaking Tip 101 . . . Attend a Party! By Elisa
Aiello You ask how can a party help me
speak better? The Toastmaster Summer Picnic was a
blast!! First of all, on behalf of everyone, we
thank Ruth and Tom Pedrick for their wonderful
hospitality, for hosting the party at their
lovely home. Second, to the party committee
members, who took the time, the effort and made
it all happen. The moment the party
started, 430 on Friday, August 24th, fun was in
the air. The theme for the party was Hawaiian.
Many of us showed up in bright, flowery
shirts/skirts. Ruben Agosto placed leis on all of
us and best of all, I can't tell you enough about
all the delicious food! The evening was about
being with friends, family and just having a
great time with the TM agenda the committee had
put together. We had several wonderful
speeches presented that kept everyone
entertained, but I think my favorite part of the
party was when Table Topics started. I laughed
enough for a week! Dave Evans, our Table Topic
master for the evening, led us into a story. He
went on to talk about a young man named Bob,
living in Cow Town, bored, nothing to do, no life
to live and how he would love to change it all.
The story continues and Dave now passes it
along to the next person. Well, I must say, we
have some pretty talented individuals in this
group because the stories were getting more and
more interesting, full of drama and suspense. Add
a little romance and you have a story that keeps
you guessing and on your toes because you don't
know when you will be the next person to add on
to the story. For those that hid, next time, the
doors will be locked and no access to any room of
the house will be allowed unless you contribute
to the story! Even though Bob, our poor
cow-town-living man died off early in the story,
Gary Millers wife Peg was able to bring him back
to life. It was a horrible dream! The drama
continues and now Bob has been all over the
country, met so many people, yet Bob was missing
something in his life. This is where the story
comes to a conclusion by none other then me. Bob
needed to find his true love and the story ends
that he did because anything can happen on a full
moon. And so, he found his true love and lived
happily ever after in a NON-COW-TOWN-living
place! We have learned even more by joining
the experience, the laughter and seeing the
expressions on everyone's face! This is a great
way for family and friends to see what we have
accomplished and what we do!
August Speeches
Table Topic Winners
Thur 8/9 Shaun Offord 5 Ruben Agosto
8 Elizabeth Purnell 9 Tues 8/14 Gus Reyes
2 Dave Evans ATM Special Occasions
1 Thur 8/23 Syed Habeeb 1 Gregg Thompson
3 Bryan Nugent 6 Fri 8/24 Gus Reyes 3 Gregg
Thompson 4 Lisa Dempski 7 Tues 8/28 Laurie
Halasz 4 Robert McKenzie 6 Tom Pedrick
ATM Special Occasions 2
8/09 - Srinivas Saineni 8/14 - Nita
Kaczorowski8/23 - Patrick Oriatti8/28 - Grant
Stephanson
Word of the Day
Taciturn Betrothed Devour
Dilatory
Welcome New Members
Suresh ArumugamLiang Chen
See the website for the Newsletters and Agendas!
The ATT Chicagoland website has been updated
and improved to help us communicate better!! Go
to http//sbccenter.freetoasthost.org/ and check
it out! Go to the Club Calendar and choose the
day of the meeting and the Agenda will appear.
You can view all the archived newsletters, see
how weve changed and grown! Learn about
Toastmasters within the club and the outside
network of Toastmasters through the links. View
the pictures from events! We will soon be
updating member information so watch for an email
asking for your bio. A MILLION THANKS to
Michael Nguyen and Srinivas Saineni for doing the
design work and teaching the officers how to use
it! Keep checking the website for more
improvements as the year progresses!
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August 30, 2007 Fellow Toastmasters Can you
believe that August is over and the Labor Day
holiday is next weekend? It doesnt seem
possible that summer is nearing an end already.
Not sure about you, but I know that I wont miss
the bugs and all of the rain! This has been a
great month for our club! If we keep up this
pace, we will definitely reach our club status of
Presidents Distinguished as well as
accomplishing our own personal goals. This
month, we added two new members (Suresh Arumugam
and Liang Chen), held the end of year party at
Tom Pedricks house, planned our Humorous and
Evaluation club contest and are engaged in the
upcoming United Way presentations that will be
conducted in the month of September. I am
really proud of the motivation I see in our
newest members and for all of you that are so
supportive. Every meeting brings new ideas and
raises the bar even higher. Syed Habeeb, who gave
his icebreaker just last week, showed us that his
name really does mean the leader. He touched
our hearts while telling us about his culture and
how he wishes to change the way his village sees
opportunities, all without using notes! As I
mentioned in July, we have introduced committees
to help us all keep involved in the club success.
For the month of September, we have three great
ways for you to step up and support the club in
addition to our regular meetings. Suresh
Sundararajan is leading a membership drive, Lisa
Dempski is leading the United Way Speakers
Bureau, and Elisa Aiello is leading the Club
Contest. By volunteering your time at the
membership table, being a speaker or evaluator in
the United Way presentations, or competing in the
club contest, you will be inspiring many more
people to make a difference, and youll be
getting credit in your manuals as you go.
Please see any committee lead if you are
interested in participating, supporting or if you
simply have an idea that you would like to see us
implement in the club. Have a great month! Tami
Durbon ATT Chicagoland President
Submitted by Nancy Corbige Nuts In The Cemetery
On the outskirts of a small town, there was a
big, old pecan tree just inside the cemetery
fence. One day, two boys filled up a bucketful of
nuts and sat down by the tree, out of sight, and
began dividing the nuts. "One for you, one for
me. One for you, one for me," said one boy.
Several dropped and rolled down toward the
fence. Another boy came riding along the road on
his bicycle. As he passed, he thought he heard
voices from inside the cemetery. He slowed down
to investigate. Sure enough, he heard, "One for
you, one for me. One for you, one for me." He
just knew what it was. He jumped back on his
bike and rode off. Just around the bend he met an
old man with a cane, hobbling along. "Come here
quick," said the boy, "you won't believe what I
heard! Satan and the Lord are down at the
cemetery dividing up the souls." The man said,
"Beat it kid, can't you see it's hard for me to
walk." When the boy insisted though, the man
hobbled to the cemetery. Standing by the fence
they heard, "One for you, one for me. One for
you, one for me..." The old man whispered, "Boy,
you've been tellin' the truth. Let's see if we
can see the Lord." Shaking with fear, they peered
through the fence, yet were still unable to see
anything. The old man and the boy gripped the
wrought iron bars of the fence tighter and
tighter as they tried to get a glimpse of the
Lord. At last they heard, "One for you, one for
me. That's all. Now let's go get those nuts by
the fence and we'll be done." They say the old
man made it back to town a full five minutes
ahead of the boy on the bike.