Rich joined Toastmasters back in January of 2001 and connected up with a great community of fun people all with a desire to learn how to be a better speaker and help others along the way.

In the fall of 2009 I earned my Distinguished Toastmaster recognition at the District Conference in Corpus Christi. I was thrilled and delighted that Casey was able to participate and walk on stage with me to be recognized.

While on the journey to DTM recognition I have given over 60 different speeches. Since then I continued to do speeches in competition and just for fun  and practice. Speeches ranged from the serious to the silly, from motivational to educational, from short 7 minute speech to a 45 minute keynote speech at an IBM Test Symposium.

My favorite speeches were:

2011 District 55 Fall Conference Humorous Speech Competition.

2014 Division L Fall Humorous Speech Competition.

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Other fun speeches were:

• The Perfect Gift – A Christmas present gone terribly  wrong- humorous story
• My First Kiss – Do you remember your first kiss, I did – humorous story
• Perfectly Still – Lessons learned on the golf course with my dad – humorous with a message
• Five Tips – How I applied 5 principals to improve my life – humorous with a message

I have given over 60 speeches in my years with Toastmasters. Each has been a learning experience and helped me improve my presentation skills. Here are some of my other speech titles.

•    Engineer Rich – Who is Rich Bassemir
  
•    Why I want to compete in a Miss America Pageant
  
•    Chicken Cannon – The story behind the chicken cannon
  
•    Kid in You – We all have a little kid in us
  
•    The Phone Call – The phone call that changed my life
  
•    Linux – Technical presentation on how to install Linux
  
•    Love Sex Money – How to pick a speech title
  
•    More Time – If I only had more time
  
•    Millionaire – So you want to be a millionaire
  
•    Where would we be without testers – Symposium keynote speech
  
•    Duke – The best practical joke ever
  
•    Battle Road – History lesson from the Revolutionary war
  
•    Pets – Why  kids are like pets
  
•    Why – The importance of the word “why”
  
•    The Future – You can not predict the future
  
•    Kids and Money – Ways to teach kids about money
  
•    Winners – Are you a winner or a whiner
  
•    Teen Logic – Teenager logic
  
•    Paul’s Retirement – A retirement roast
  
•    Scramble Eggs – How to make scrambled eggs
  
•    Pooped – A tall tale about being pooped
  
•    Love – A wedding toast
  
•    Making Pens – How to make wood pens
  
•    Lets Go Golfing – Inspiration to get out and golf
  
•    Frank and Eursala Otter – A story with a moral
  
•    Casey At the Bat – The classic story of Mudville
  
•    Top 10 Reasons – 10 ways to improve giving evaluations
  
•    The Peanut – Ways to use the mighty peanut
  
•    Virtualization – IBM’s advanced technology
  
•    No Place Like Home – Lessons learned after traveling
  
•    Slow Down – The need to slow down our pace of life
  
•    MADD – Mothers against drunk driving
  
•    Less Stress  – 4 ways to reduce stress when flying
  
•    Thoughts – How thoughts influence your life
•    Are you spontaneous?