Monday, May 18, 2015

Mentor the Member Webinar

Register Now for the Mentor the Member Webinar at https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/3287340022403229186 

You Have A Mentor……Now What?
You’ve been paired up with a mentor in your Toastmasters club.
Now what do I do?
Learn how to get the most from your mentor check-ins work with a few simple ground rules: Showing up, staying on track, knowing what you want to get done, sharing your vision for success. It’s that simple!

This webinar will also have a live demonstration of a mentor-mentee session (also called a “buddy conversation”)

When: Thursday May 28, 2015

Time: 7:30-8:30 p.m. Eastern Time, USA (GMT-5) recording will be available after webinar

Cost: FREE

Who can attend?: YOU!

Presented by: Marilyn Jess, President, Last Word Toastmasters, and Tom Fitch, District 53 Mentor Coordinator.

Three reasons to attend this webinar and participate:
· Discover next steps after you’re paired with your mentor
· Learn ways to stay accountable to one another
· Learn tips and techniques to giving powerful feedback

Friday, April 24, 2015

Remembering Ray Bell, DTM

Longtime District 53 Toastmaster Ray Bell, DTM died on April 4, 2015 following a long illness.  

Ray’s legacy lives on at the club he founded in 1996, Bethlehem Toastmasters Club #542, and in the good work he has done for the District, helping and encouraging countless members to become better communicators and leaders. 

It is with profound sadness that we mourn the loss of this mentor and guide to so many Toastmasters, and with immense pride in remembering him as one of our own.

 A memorial service for Ray will be held at the First United Methodist Church of Delmar, 428 Kenwood Ave, Delmar NY, on Saturday April 18, at 1:00 PM.  You can read a full tribute to Ray on the Bethlehem Toastmasters Club website.

Thursday, March 20, 2014

Useful Websites, Information and Applications for Social Media


Social Media Overview for Toastmasters Powerpoint

Sample Social Media Calendar 1


Sample Social Media Calendar 2


Blogging Setup Checklist

Twitter Setup Checklist

Facebook Club Page Checklist

Primary Social Media Channels

Facebook
  • Offers personal and business pages, you may not advertise a business on a personal profile. You do need a personal profile to administrate a business page.
  • There is no limit to the number of business pages you can create or administrate.
  • Personal accounts have friends.
  • Business pages have “likes” formerly labeled as “fans”.
  • Posts can be send automatically to Twitter through the Facebook platform.

Twitter
  • Can be personal or business or a combination of both. You can have multiple accounts on twitter but you need separate email addresses to administrate.
  • Accounts have followers.
  • Posts can be send automatically to Facebook through the Facebook platform.

Linkedin
  • You need a personal account to create and maintain a business account (you must have an email that goes through a domain name associated with the business in order to register a business page, i.e. janedoe@janedoestore.com).
  • Personal accounts have contacts.
  • Business pages have followers.

Blogging
http://www.blogger.com  (a Google product)
  • Can be personal or business or a combination of both.
  • Posts can be set to automatically go to Twitter and Facebook through the blogging platform.

Google+
http://www.google.com/local/add/businessCenter (for use if you are a brick and mortar business)
  • Offers personal and business pages, you may not advertise a business on a personal profile. You do need a personal profile to administrate a business page.
  • There is no limit to the number of business pages you can create or administrate.
  • Business and personal pages have circles and likes (for both the pages/accounts) and posts.

Pinterest
  • Can be personal or business or a combination of both.
  • You can have separate accounts for personal and business but you need separate email addresses to administrate, if you have a personal account you can convert it to a business account.
  • Business and personal pages have followers.
  • Pins have “likes” and “repins”.
  • Pins can go to Twitter and Facebook as you Pin something.

Youtube
https://www.youtube.com  (a Google product)
  • Pages have subscribers and videos on the page/account have “likes”.

CutePDF (create PDFs from any type of document or file) - FREE
Make sure you download both the file and the converter. The converter will show up as a Gray G on your desktop; make sure you install it first, or the program may not run properly.

Print Friendly- turn any webpage into a PDF- FREE

Converter: PDF to Excel or Microsoft Word - limited use by time frame

Teach Parents Tech: http://www.teachparentstech.org/ - FREE
The folks at Google put this together to help their parents, but I have found the tutorials are great for any age!

WorkFlowy - Organize your brain: https://workflowy.com/ - FREE
A free way to organize your to do list online

Free photo editors - lets you edit all your photos online, from one easy place. If you don't have a desktop photo editor these are great.
§       http://splashup.com/
§       http://www.citrify.com/

Nutshell Mail: http://nutshellmail.com/ - FREE
NutshellMail from Constant Contact tracks your brand's social media activity and delivers a summary to your email inbox on your schedule. A terrific tool for keeping track of your social media.

EverNote: http://www.evernote.com/ -the free version does quite a bit.
"Remember everything, capture anything, access anywhere, find things fast." Very useful if you come across interesting things on the internet and want to keep searchable track of it, as well as other uses as well.

Foxit Reader: http://www.foxitsoftware.com/Secure_PDF_Reader/  - a quicker PDF reader- FREE

Faststone Photo Resizer: http://www.faststone.org/FSResizerDetail.htm - FREE
A great application for mass resizing photos, works quicken then Photoshop, and you can also custom watermark them as well as add borders.

Video file converter http://video.online-convert.com/- FREE

File Sending Services- FREE
§       http://wikisend.com/
§       http://streamfile.com/

File Hosting and Sending Services- FREE
§       http://www.adrive.com/
§       http://www.dropbox.com
§       http://www.box.net/

Prescheduling Options



Twitter Specific Links
§       Twitterfeed: feed your blog into twitter and Facebook  http://twitterfeed.com/
§       Twitter search and advanced twitter search: http://search.twitter.com/ and https://twitter.com/search-advanced
§       Tweetdeck  http://www.tweetdeck.com/ twitter management tool
§       SocialOomph: pre-schedule tweets, set up keyword alerts by email, the pro version has more options for scheduling posts to other networks as well  http://www.socialoomph.com/
§       Friend or Follow: An easy way of finding out who is following you, and who you are following who is not following you back http://friendorfollow.com
§       Twellow: a good twitter person/business directory  http://www.twellow.com/
§       Twibs: a twitter business directory http://www.twibs.com/
§       Twitwall: extend the length of your twitter post http://twitwall.com
§       Buffer: http://bufferapp.com/ tweet scheduler, up to 10 scheduled tweets free at a time, there is paid version as well.


Hyper Alerts: http://www.hyperalerts.no/- FREE
Hyper Alerts is a feature for everybody who wants email reports of posts and comments on a Facebook Page. You don’t have to be an administrator of the page to get email alerts, and you can have as many subscriptions as you want. You can get the alerts within minutes, or a digest every hour, day, week or month.

20 Blogging Ideas for Toastmasters
(also useful for things to tweet about or content for Facebook Club Pages or Google+ Pages)
Remember social media doesn't have to be a novel, a blog post can consist of a paragraph or a picture with a caption.
  1. Guest or visitor to your meeting comments and feedback about the meeting.
  2. Speech failures with a funny story (only written in the first person).
  3. Your TM club in the News.
  4. A member in the News.
  5. Member achievements.
  6. Why did each of your members join Toastmasters.
  7. Every speech has an inspiration behind it, get your members to describe briefly what gave them ideas for speeches.
  8. Write-ups of speakers, in person or in the media that you and you club have found inspiring, helpful or knowledgeable.
  9. Pictures of your meetings and/or club contests.
  10. A brief FAQs and answers.
  11. What does your club do to differentiate itself from other clubs or even from other organizations.
  12. Speech ideas
  13. Table topics ideas and if you have tried them, write about how they work out.
  14. Bios of your members (if you have 15 members = 15 blog posts).
  15. What each of your members thinks about Toastmasters and how it's helped them.
  16. Articles about public speaking, leadership and improving skills. You can post these links directly to twitter and Facebook. If you are using them in a blog, make sure you give proper attribution and make a point of saying "why" the article was worth referencing.
  17. Meeting schedules, comments about "Congratulations to John Smith, this is his first time taking the role of Toastmasters for the evening", are good for both readers and members, as both like the fact that members are being acknowledged.
  18. Thank yous, to the place where you hold your meetings, a local paper that gives you free ad space, etc. Links/website URLs to venues or resources are always appreciated and help your SEO (search engine optimization) as well.
  19. Toastmaster videos, both your own and Toastmaster IT's and other club's videos can be embedded in blogs and the URLs sent our both in twitter and posted on Facebook, comments accompanying the links are always helpful.
  20. A relevant book review about public speaking, leadership or other applicable skills.

Social Media News and New Developments, sign up for the free newsletters
§       Mashable: http://mashable.com/
§       Social Media Examiner: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/


Thursday, March 13, 2014

Webinar: Toastmasters Youth Leadership Program Overview

Wednesday, April 2, 2014
7:30 PM - 8:30 PM
Webinar login: 7:15 PM

Hosted by Jeff Raia, DTM, District 53 Youth Leadership Coordinator

Has Toastmasters helped you develop your communication and leadership skills?

Would you like to share what you have learned with today's youth?

Consider organizing a Toastmasters Youth Leadership Program!

Jeff Raia's webinar will cover:
•Why schools and youth programs need the Youth Leadership Program?
•How do you organize and run a program?
•How can you celebrate achievement?
•What are the costs?
•What obstacles might you encounter?

Webinar access instructions will be emailed to all registrants
Questions? Contact Jeff Raia, DTM, Youth Leadership Program Coordinator raia1@verizon.net

Registration: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/district-53-toastmasters-youth-leadership-program-overview-webinar-2014-registration-10800431381

Webinar: A Social Media Overview for Toastmasters

Thursday, March 20, 2014
7:30 PM - 8:30 PM
Webinar login: 7:15 PM

Hosted by Heather Turner, District 53 Social Media Chair
Learn what's new, what's hot and how social media has changed in the past year.
Learn the importance of creating and using a content calendar for your club
Identify why your club needs to use social media
Find out which social media channels best fit your club's promotion needs.

This session will include an in-depth review of:
  • Facebook 
  • Twitter 
  • YouTube 
  • Google+ 
  • Blogging 
  • and will touch briefly on Pinterest and LinkedIn.

Webinar access instructions will be emailed to all registrants

Questions? Contact Heather Turner, ACS, CL, District 53 Social Media Chair

Monday, February 18, 2013

Call for Presenters!-District 53 Spring 2013 Conference


District 53 Spring 2013 Conference
Saturday, May 18, 2013 at 8AM
Crowne Plaza Hotel
100 Berlin Road
Cromwell, CT 06416

Call for Presenters!
Interested in sharing your best practices? Want to encourage others to take use of your innovative tools that’s helped you succeed? Are you eager to advise any actionable reflections and insights centered on Toastmasters’ values? If yes, then we want to hear from you! We are accepting presentation submissions for the District 53 Spring 2013 Conference! Download the form athttp://d53.toastmastersdistricts.org/District53Conferences.html and follow the completion/submittal instructions.
For more information, contact Tom Fitch: SC2013.edu@district53toastmasters.org

Remember. Share your knowledge. Make a difference.
For more information about the Spring 2013 Conference, including registration, go to:
http://d53.toastmastersdistricts.org/District53Conferences.html

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

D53 News


District 53 Toastmasters Leadership Institutes TLI (Club Officer Training) To register, please visit http://d53tli2012.eventbrite.com/

District 53 Toastmasters Fall 2012 Conference
Saturday, November 17, 2012 at 8:00 AM (ET)
Marriott, 189 Wolf Rd., AlbanyNY 12205

To register for the Fall 2012 Conference, please visithttp://d53fc2012.eventbrite.com/

District 53 Toastmasters 2012 Spring Conference Photos up on our Facebook and Google+ Pages!