Monday, September 06, 2004
Superheroes?
Today I wanted to register to go to the Toastmasters District 66 conference in Roanoke, Virginia, so I went to www.district66.org to see if there was information there. There was enough to at least make a hotel reservation, but the registration forms were not out yet. But I found the theme of the convention, and I am not too sure I am keen on it: "Toastmasters Superheroes!". I.e., each Toastmaster get a skin-tight blue and red uniform with an emblem containing an S, or rather, a T on it, and a cape, and fly off to Roanoke to give superspeeches. Of course we know that we can't be superheroes; we are only human. We only want to get up in front of an audience and give a speech well. So I would have liked to have seen a different theme.
I went to the theory of Spiral Dynamics to see what themes might be available. There are eight levels to this system, including those that we can roughly call Traditional (Blue), Modern (Orange), and Postmodern (Green). The "Superheroes" theme is definitely Red, which is the third level. This is because superheroes in history are normally associated with Red civilizations, such as the ancient Greeks and Romans with Hercules, Perseus, and other superheroes. In this "meme", Toastmasters are encouraged to do everything impulsively and to grab for all the Toastmaster gusto they can get, and save poor weak Toastmasters in distress. But if we changed the "meme", how would the title change? Here are the possibilities:
Beige - Toastmasters Survival
Purple - Toastmasters Magic
Red - Toastmasters Superheroes!
Blue - Toastmasters Rules
Orange - Toastmasters Opportunities
Green - Toastmasters Community
Yellow - Toastmasters Networks
Turquoise - Toastmasters World
Certainly I would prefer Toastmasters Opportunities to Toastmasters Superheroes. I don't know if I would like Toastmasters Rules. One advances in life most by defying the rules. Toastmasters Community sounds really appealing to me. That is, we achieve something good, rather than have it just be limited self-action. The one I prefer the most is "Toastmasters Networks". This implies that it is the networking or web of Toastmasters life that unites all Toastmasters, and that the right actions in Toastmasters can be done by analyzing the big picture and see what is best. "Toastmasters World" might even sound better, but some more explaining would have to be done, as to what a "Toastmasters World" would actually look like.
Let's hope that the next conference consider either "Toastmasters Community" or "Toastmasters Networks" for its theme.
I went to the theory of Spiral Dynamics to see what themes might be available. There are eight levels to this system, including those that we can roughly call Traditional (Blue), Modern (Orange), and Postmodern (Green). The "Superheroes" theme is definitely Red, which is the third level. This is because superheroes in history are normally associated with Red civilizations, such as the ancient Greeks and Romans with Hercules, Perseus, and other superheroes. In this "meme", Toastmasters are encouraged to do everything impulsively and to grab for all the Toastmaster gusto they can get, and save poor weak Toastmasters in distress. But if we changed the "meme", how would the title change? Here are the possibilities:
Beige - Toastmasters Survival
Purple - Toastmasters Magic
Red - Toastmasters Superheroes!
Blue - Toastmasters Rules
Orange - Toastmasters Opportunities
Green - Toastmasters Community
Yellow - Toastmasters Networks
Turquoise - Toastmasters World
Certainly I would prefer Toastmasters Opportunities to Toastmasters Superheroes. I don't know if I would like Toastmasters Rules. One advances in life most by defying the rules. Toastmasters Community sounds really appealing to me. That is, we achieve something good, rather than have it just be limited self-action. The one I prefer the most is "Toastmasters Networks". This implies that it is the networking or web of Toastmasters life that unites all Toastmasters, and that the right actions in Toastmasters can be done by analyzing the big picture and see what is best. "Toastmasters World" might even sound better, but some more explaining would have to be done, as to what a "Toastmasters World" would actually look like.
Let's hope that the next conference consider either "Toastmasters Community" or "Toastmasters Networks" for its theme.
