Monday is the big launch of the new Minnesota Challenge.  Now is our chance to join together as a club and take home the glory while participating in making change and getting healthier.  Theresa will be sending out an email with a link for members to join in.  The YMCA will be tracking the progress of local service club participants ad we can check where we stand as a team.  Remember, we participate as a group, no one member's progress is advertised.

• Social features that allow you to communicate more easily with team members and rival teams
• Mini-challenges to help you keep up the momentum throughout the 12-week competition
• Three categories for points on the leaderboard: exercise minutes, pedometer steps and/or weight loss
• Activity tracking by SMS text or mobile browsing on your smartphone

The tradition of the Willmar Lakes Rotary Club is that the weekly Greeter is responsible for giving the Club Invocation at the start of each club meeting, after which they give a brief biography about themselves.  For some, the invocation can be an intimidating prospect, which need not be the case.  On the club website, there is a Invocation Handbook, published by the Rotary Club of North Colorado Springs, which can help members come up with ideas.  In addition to actual invocations for many occasions, a nice quote from this book helps those Rotarians who are unsure how to frame an invocation:

Suggestions for Preparing an Invocation 

• Use your own style, in a manner consistent with your convictions.   
• Express hopes and aspirations common to all. 
• Make a statement of gratitude. 
• Acknowledge the activity or occasion, such as the meal, the opportunity to meet with friends, or to serve the goal of the group. 
• Model respect for all traditions, to invoke the largest spiritual context.   
• Petition the Deity only for things that every person in the group would endorse without hesitation.   
• It may be appropriate to request the speedy recovery of an ill member, or the success of the group or a sponsored or affiliated group. 
• Never advocate special political or religious beliefs. 
• Close with “Amen,” or “Peace,” “Thank you,” “Namaste,” or a similar phrase, to create closure to the invocation.  

Most occasions call for a short invocation.   Some situations may allow for an inspirational reading or poem, provided that it is reverent.  This Handbook contains many brief quotations which one might choose to incorporate into an invocation.  For example, one might quote an inspirational thought, and express the way in which it fits the goals of Rotary, or the assembled group.  

I'm a professional psychologist, a member of Rotary, a book author (on achievement motivation), a résumé writer and career coach, and someone who has heard an endless number of professional and non-professional speakers for over 30 years. I've seen how it's the little things that make a big difference. Here are seven "little things" you can do that will instantly improve your public speaking dramatically.

    1. TALK TWICE AS SLOW. Most speakers (even professional ones) talk too fast. Have you ever listened carefully to professional speakers on TV? They talk slower than in normal conversational speech. Slow down. Take your time. Don't rush through individual words. Linger on them. It may feel unnatural, but just listen to a tape recording of yourself. It will undoubtedly sound a lot better.

    2. TALK TWICE AS LOUD. Most speakers talk too softly. Speak up. It may seem to you that you are screaming, but (again) a tape recording will prove that it sounds fine.

    3. ENUNCIATE THE CONSONANT SOUNDS CLEARLY. When we listen, we hear clearly because of the consonant sounds (the "hard" sounds - sss, t, d, p, m, and so forth), not the vowels (a, e, i, o, and u). Pay attention to those hard sounds. Make sure they are clear and distinct. Exaggerate them.

    4. USE SHORT SENTENCES. You may like speaking in long, long sentences, but your audience doesn't. Break up your ideas into short sentences. "One idea per sentence" is as good a rule for speaking as it is for writing.

    5. PAUSE OFTEN. Forget the ummmms and the aaahhhhs. Dead silence for a few seconds may seem like an eternity to you, but an audience doesn't mind it at all. Take your time. Pausing creates interest and anticipation.

    6. ORGANIZE YOUR TALK AROUND 3 TO 5 BULLET POINTS. No matter what you may think of off-the-cuff speeches and how entertaining they may be, nobody appreciates a speaker who rambles on and on. Whatever you have to say, put it in the form of 3 to 5 bullet points. You'll make listeners out of your audience.

    7. SAVE THE BEST FOR LAST. What is the most important, the most dramatic, the most impactful thing you have to say in your talk? Figure out what it is, and PUT IT LAST. That's the most effective way to end a talk.