Do you remember giving talks? (page 4)

Amnesty Vendor

After leaving, I became involved in several secular & professional organizations.
Among the many is a local chapter of ToastMasters.
Many of the TMS topics are very similar to those we use to train professionals in public speaking.
When I first joined, they were all amazed at my 'natural' speaking ability. (Yeah right!)
I am even considering joining a speaking circuit for profit.
I recommend that as ex-JWs, we use this to our advantage.
Don't let those years of TMS training go to waste!
It's a great way to network for other business opportunities.

Check out these sites:

http://www.toastmasters.org
http://www.nsaspeaker.org/
http://www.professionalspeakersguild.com/
http://www.professionalspeakers.org/

juni

I hated getting up in front of people to give a talk. Felt like I was going to puke. But I always got good marks and the nerves went away after I was up there.

Sometimes I would volunteer for a last minute cancellation. I felt the pressure was off 'cause I was doing the school overseer a favor - otherwise he had to give it. So that wasn't bad.

Yes, I didn't stick to my outline sometimes and I would "lose" my hh. I'd have to prompt them. And then get back on track to keep it within the allotted time.

God I'm glad those days are over. I have no problem being conversational w/people, but being on that stage frightened me. I felt like they were scrutinizing my every word.

Juni

purplesofa

I never liked giving talks. I was never like all the other sisters that gave talks. I just could not make myself be so rehearsed and proper. Several talks I gave brought laughter from the congo, which was nice.

One talk I got in trouble for when I was working on informal witnessing. The setting was me walking through the mall after a Dr's appt.(they have eye docs in the malls here) and I ran into an old friend. A talk started and it just so happened to be something I had just read in a WT that I took with me to the docs to read in the waiting room. That's all I had was the WT.

I got counselled for not using the bible since this was a bible school.

I said well, I don't always have my bible with me, and I wanted to show how informal witnessing might really be.

You know, instead of standing in the checkout line at the grocery store, and have a 5 min presentation with the bible and reasoning book and the "study" reads from the bible back to you........yeah right!!!

purps

juni

Like you can carry all of that stuff in your purse? What an idiot. Prolly should've had a little fold out chair too so you could sit down and conduct a formal study!!

NewYork44M

I remember when I was too small to see over the podium. The attendant would have to dismantle the podium so I could see the audience. That always embarassed me a little. I was so proud the first time I was tall enoughh to see over the podium.

As an adult I enjoyed giving talks. Some, not all, were very good. Towards the end I included some very subtle statements about my true belief system.

NewYork44M

I gave a talk this week.

Amber, how did you do? Did you get a "G?"

Amber Rose

Amber, how did you do? Did you get a "G?"

No, they don't grade that way anymore. Now you have a textbook that has excercises for each lesson and they just mark off if you completed the assignment and did the excercise. Actually, my husband who is a regular on this board wrote the talk for me. HeeHeeHee!

skyking

I use to give at least one part a week I could give a talk without even looking at the information before arriving at the hall. I had the gift and everyone loved my talks. If someone was not there I substituted This was a matter of pride for me because my dad was the worst speaker and put everyone to sleep. I loved hour talks they were the funnest and always got to eat out for nothing after the meeting. I miss giving talk but nothing else.

Farkel

:Hi everyone, I'm trying to remember the process for giving a talk. I remember getting a slip with a topic on it, but what else was on that slip? Did it tell you what scriptures you should cite, or what book the talk was based on? I'm also trying to recall what marks you could get for your talk. I think it was either "good" or "needs improvement" but people very rarely got anything other than "good"! It's amazing how much I've forgotten! :)

You are talking about KMS talks. For whatever it is worth, I was the 2nd KMS Conductor in my Hall, so I got to grade all the poor slobs who gave shitty talks. I marked them "good" on everything, even when they slobbered or were drunk when they gave their talks. Even when they talked about something that had nothing to do with with the subject of their talks. The main KMS Conductor (my dub "boss") said I did an amazing job of whipping folks into shape (based upon the report cards I faked for them). He said, "Jack Zablonkowsky can barely speak English and no one can understand a fraction of what he says, and you gave him a "good" on "diction" and "speaking clearly?" I said "yes, I did." He asked, "Why?" I said "Holy Spirits." That was 30 years ago. To this day Jack Zablonkowsky cannot speak decent English, but he aced my KM school. Why? It was all bullshit, that's why.

Often enough, the speaker for the Service Meeting Instruction Talk would not show up (drunk, usually), so the PO would ask if anyone would like to give it. More often than not, I would volunteer and spend the entire 15 minutes dazzling the audience who wondered how I could tackled such a "spiritual" subject on NO notice. I was more amazed and wondered why I could make up semi-dazzling bullshit and they wouldn't even know the difference when I did it.

Same thing with hour talks. We had a single page (two sided) outline of hour talks back a million years ago when I was giving them. When someone who was scheduled to give the "Public Talk" in our Hall (probably drunk or at least hung over, but who never called in sick) I would raise my hand, take the Theocratic Outline(tm) for the talk from the PO and bullshit for an hour.

There are enough Watchtower cliches to allow anyone to speak for an hour, and out of the maxium of 25 scriptural verses most of us knew, we could probably bullshit for several hours.

Farkel

reneeisorym

Ok throw darts at me. I actually liked it.

Do you remember giving talks?

Share this