THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, May 25, 1995 TAG: 9505230088
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 03 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY VICKI LEWIS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 91 lines
THIS WEEKEND, Frances Briscoe will address members of an organization that has sent her around the world and has given her the opportunity to do things others only dream about.
Those opportunities include presiding over the annual Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington and being a judge at the Miss America Pageant in Atlantic City.
Briscoe, a Norfolk resident, will be the keynote speaker at the regional annual convention of International Training in Communication, formerly called the International Toastmistress Club, in Williamsburg.
She is a life member and former world president of the non-profit organization. Its objective is to prepare its members for leadership and community service by giving them opportunities to learn speaking and leadership skills, build self-confidence and raise self-esteem.
During her tenure as world president, Briscoe traveled widely, visiting Canada, Mexico, the Bahamas, Great Britain, South Africa and Paris, in addition to most of the United States.
In addition to traveling the world, as a representative of ICT she once interviewed Pat Nixon in her private quarters at the White House while her husband was in office. In 1970, she presided over the Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington and selected the queen, and in 1977, she was one of seven judges in the Miss America Pageant in Atlantic City. Other judges included included Gail Brown, an actress of the soap opera ``Another World,'' Frank Deford, then a writer for Sports Illustrated,'' and opera singer Eileen Farrell.
``It was posh living for a week,'' she said. She and her husband, Hurley, who is now deceased, were chauffered around in a stretch limo, stayed in a luxurious hotel, and she even had her own hairdresser.
At the end of her presidency for ICT, Briscoe opened her own business, Universal Training Concepts. As part of her business, she gives seminars and workshops on self-development and interpersonal skills development.
For 46 years, Briscoe was on the professional staff of Epworth United Methodist Church and for the last four she has been president of the United Methodist Women at the church. She was also chairman of the churches' centennial, raising $32,000 for the event and spending two years on planning and fund-raising.
Four years ago, Briscoe discovered that she had cancer and underwent surgery and a year of chemotherapy. Fortunately, the form of chemotherapy that she received did not cause a lot of bad side effects and she was able to keep busy throughout that year. She's now cancer free and says that she is ``proud to be a cancer survivor.''
Briscoe said the values that she grew up with helped her during that period of her life.
``I was raised in a remarkable home,'' she said. ``I was taught never to give up.''
Because of this, Briscoe said that she was able to keep up with her business, her work with the ICT and her church.
``I have adored my church life,'' Briscoe said, adding that she has learned a lot from the ``highly cultured and educated'' ministers that she has worked with.
In fact, it was because of Briscoe's career at Epworth United Methodist Church that she became involved with the ICT.
One of the ministers she served, she said, wanted a staff that was proficient in leadership skills and would be able to represent the church in a public capacity. After a friend told her about the Toastmistresses, she decided to join. A few months later, she won first place in a public speaking contest, and ``soon got lost in the excitement'' of leadership skills and public speaking, she said.
After serving various leadership roles on the local and regional levels, she was elected to the international board as secretary, then vice president of public relations, then first vice president, president-elect and finally president in the mid-'70s. At the end of her term, she was designated a lifetime member.
What's the key to public speaking? Knowing your audience, she said.
Briscoe said that when she first got into public speaking, she was asked to speak to what she thought was a group of senior citizens, so she had prepared a speech geared just for them. When she arrived, however, she found out that her audience was a group of young people, so she had to wing it.
Although her improvised speech was successful, she said, ``Disaster. That's how you learn.''
Being nervous, too, has its advantages.
``Nerves give you the momentum to do this job,'' she said. MEMO: If you know someone whom you feel is deserving of a Thumbs Up! feature,
call Vicki Lewis at 446-2286.
ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by JIM WALKER
Frances Briscoe is the keynote speaker for the regional convention
of International Training in Communication.
by CNB