THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 12, 1996 TAG: 9609110138
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 03 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: THUMBS UP!
SOURCE: BY SHIRLEY BRINKLEY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SUFFOLK LENGTH: 117 lines
WHEN GRACE BROWN joined the Suffolk Toastmasters Club 12 years ago, she never dreamed how great a part the organization would play in her life.
One month after becoming a member, Brown was elected to her first club office. She rose through the ranks, served as president, and further developed her leadership skills by being elected to the top three positions in the district. This culminated in being elected district governor for 1991-92.
After a year of intensive campaigning, Brown was elected to the board of Toastmasters International at this year's International Toastmasters Convention in St. Louis. Her husband, Frank Brown, is a former member of the international board.
``I'm the first wife of a past international director to be elected and the first woman from District 66 to be elected,'' Brown said. ``Also elected at the convention in St. Louis was a man whose wife had served on the board, so we are the first two couples to have served on the international board.''
Before Brown announced her candidacy, she was required to have the District Council's endorsement. There are 88 clubs in District 66, which includes the greater part of Virginia covering the western counties, Richmond, Rappahannock and Hampton Roads.
``I made phone calls all over the world seeking clubs' votes and did massive letter-writing,'' she said. ``I arrived at the convention early, shook hands, passed out brochures and gave campaign speeches. This year more women were elected to the board.''
As an international board member, Brown will help create and implement policies, procedures and education programs for over 8,000 clubs throughout the world. She also will serve as a trainer, mentor, motivator and adviser to all districts in the region.
``I'll attend board meetings in sunny California in February,'' she said, smiling. ``I'll also make visits to all of the districts each year and will chair the regional conference in 1998.''
Brown said Toastmasters helps its members to develop ``poise, polish and professionalism.'' An added bonus for Brown, however, was an introduction to fellow member and future husband, Frank.
When the couple married five years ago, the entire wedding party consisted of club members. The minister was a past president of Suffolk Toastmasters. And Brown's son, Charlie Haines, who gave her in marriage, was a graduate of Toastmasters' Youth Leadership Program.
Then the couple spent their honeymoon at the 1991 International Toastmasters Convention in Atlanta.
``Frank said, `If you marry me, I'll throw a banquet and invite 2,500 of our closest friends,' '' Brown said, laughing. ``True to his word, we stayed in a luxury hotel and were recognized by the international president at the convention.''
A native of Atchison, Kan., Brown spent the first five years in Pisa, Italy, with her mother and grandmother. When she returned to the United States, she spoke fluent Italian although she remembers little of it.
Brown earned a bachelor's degree in journalism and commercial art and a master's degree in art history at Mississippi University for Women in Columbus, Miss. She was married while attending the university and a year later, her son was born. Charlie is now a senior at Virginia Tech.
Later, Brown was divorced and moved to Suffolk where she worked as an advertising representative at the Suffolk News-Herald. She left the paper to join the Suffolk bureau of The Virginian-Pilot as a graphic artist and later became an advertising representative.
Former advertising manager Maurice Trotman, who founded Suffolk Toastmasters, encouraged all advertising representatives to become members of the club. Brown admits, however, that she had to be pushed to join.
``Joining Toastmasters was not high on my list of priorities, but because of the career I had chosen, I do have to deliver presentations to businesses,'' Brown said. ``The Virginian-Pilot promoted Toastmasters as a training vehicle to fine-tune those presentation skills.''
When she was called to present her first speech, Brown said she was ``scared to death'' and reluctant to share her thoughts with an audience.
``The first speech is called the `icebreaker' and you introduce yourself to the club,'' she said. ``I had to write and rehearse it, and the four to six minutes that I talked felt like four hours.''
Today, Brown is a professional speaker and has been invited to speak in several states. Two of her topics include ``Working with Difficult People'' and ``Marketing and Public Relations.''
``The club has four speech contests a year and I really liked competing,'' Brown said. ``Having a child gave me so much humorous material. I talked about Charlie's birth, his short-term wrestling career, girlfriends, and the woes of a pre-college parent.''
Brown said her funniest speech won second place in a districtwide ``Tall Tales'' contest.
``I told the true story of my Christmas morning surprise,'' she said laughing. ``I came into the kitchen to find that my Siamese cat had crawled into my Christmas turkey.''
Brown, who has a particular fondness for cats, once gave a speech using every word that begin with ``cat'' - from ``catatonic'' to ``catastrophic.'' The speech took her through three levels of speech contests.
Brown's hobbies include her cat - she has cat jewelry, a shower curtain featuring cats and kittens, cat costumes, both soft sculpture and cross-stitch pillow cats - and sewing and decorating. Recently, she designed and made curtains for every window of the house in Blacksburg that her son shares with three housemates. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by MICHAEL KESTNER
Grace Brown says Toastmasters helps develop ``poise, polish and
professionalism.''
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AT A GLANCE
What: Suffolk Toastmasters Club
When: 12:30 p.m. Tuesdays
Where: Main Streets Restaurant, North Main Street
What: Speaking Power After Hours Club
When: 6 p.m. Tuesdays
Where: Allied Colloids, Wilroy Road
CLUB HISTORY
In 1924, Dr. Ralph C. Smedley launched the first Toastmasters
Club in Santa Ana, Calif., recognizing that communication crucially
affected almost every phase of life.
The program presents the fundamental principles of public
speaking and helps develop leadership skills.
Today there are more than 174,000 members in 8,300 clubs
throughout more than 50 countries. by CNB