Page 51 - February 2017 Voices

PERSPECTIVES
5 Ways to Beat the Ground Hog &
His Six More Weeks of Winter Ploy
by Shannon Milliman, ACB, CL
You know the old adage, “If the groundhog
sees its shadow, 6 more weeks of winter.” If you’re
like 99% of Toastmaster magazine’s readership,
you live and breath every superstition that comes
your way— you might be fretting our collective
destiny. Oh, you say, “I’m NOT superstitious?”
Have you ever avoided a crack just in case it
did, in fact. break your mother’s back? Ever
wished on a star? Ever thought your horoscope
in Willamette Week was spot on? Ever questioned
an ‘alternative’ fact? See, I told
you superstition has its place.
Punxsutawney Phil has
sentenced us with more winter.
As if a foot of rain, 6 inches of
snow, and 4,320 additional
car accidents in the
Portland Metro
area was not
enough. Well,
if you can’t beat
‘em, join ‘em.
Here are 5 tips to make the most of the
remaining winter:
1. Get your fluffy little groundhog tail to your
Toastmasters club. I know you have lots of
excuses, “It’s rainy—the snow is too bad—I’m
cold—I am not ready to commit to another
speech yet.” Not good enough. Show up and
melt the snow together with your resounding
applause supporting your club members.
2. Recommend a ground hog themed meeting.
You can go hog wild! Table Topics invited
endless possibilities. A few that come to mind:
When did you think you were headed one
way (for 6 more weeks of winter, for instance)
and life redirected and took you another
direction? Besides Punxsutawney Phil, tell
us about another pet your mother wouldn’t
let you have?
3. Write a speech about your hometown. Is your
VOLUME 3 ISSUE 8 FEBRUARY, 2017
hometown Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania?
(How’s that for a word of the day?) I would
assume a large percentage of our Toastmaster
population does not hale from this fair city
but every place has a story. Those speeches
that tap into who we are and why we are have
the potential to lift us up and unify us in a
meaningful way. Isn’t that one of the true
delights of being a Toastmaster?
4. Take a picture and post it online
of your Toastmaster club.
Preferably, could you do this
while all of you are climbing
out of a burrow? (How
else can I connect this to
this article?) Perhaps you
could schedule an
outside club
adventure
where you all
break bread, toast to
spring, share time together.
5. Invite all the Toastmasters you
know to donate their used Toastmaster
Magazines and heft them all on top of Phil
the groundhog’s burrow. If he can’t escape
his burrow, we have taken back our own
destiny and our own hope for Spring! You
could recycle them and share them with
your Membership leader to provide new or
investigating members a glimpse into the
Toastmaster potential.
51