A Little About Toastmasters
This week has been a busy one. I publish my blog on Sundays, usually around 11:00 a.m., but it’s normally written by Saturday night at the latest. Today is Sunday. It’s 9:46 a.m. and I’m just now writing. I’ve got a ton of stuff to do today, so I’m trying to get this finished and posted. I’ve been sitting here for the last hour, staring at the blank page on my computer, typing a few sentences, deciding I hate the sentences, deleting them, and then starting over.
I didn’t even have a topic, and I was stressing when I suddenly got an idea… I could cheat! I could go through the speeches I’d written for Toastmasters, find a good one, tweak it a little, and post it. I mean, it’s not like I’d be doing anything wrong… I wrote all my speeches. Then, when I looked through my speech manual files, I changed my mind; I saw all the useful projects and decided to write about Toastmasters.
I’ve mentioned Toastmasters before. I told you about my first speech and how I cried during the whole thing. I told you that after giving a lot of speeches, I gained confidence. What I didn’t tell you is what Toastmasters is all about, so I will share information about it with you today.
First, Toastmasters is a club. There are over 15,000 Toastmasters clubs all over the world, so it’s likely there’s one close to you. They’ve recently started a new educational program and I’m not as familiar with it as I am the former program, but the general concept is the same: Toastmasters helps with speaking and leadership skills. Many people think it’s all about public speaking but there’s really so much more to it.
When you start Toastmasters, you learn the basics. There are a bunch of core competencies you learn in the beginning. You learn how to perform certain roles in a meeting, like timing speeches, evaluating speeches, and being the Toastmaster (host) during the meeting. You give different speeches, each having a specific purpose, like learning how to use visual aids, body language, how to inspire and motivate your audience, and how to use vocal variety.
Once you’ve finished the core projects, you get to choose from specialized, advanced projects. They’re called “paths” now, but when I was doing them, there were manuals to choose from. A few examples of the manuals I chose: Storytelling, The Entertaining Speaker, and Special Occasion Speeches–giving a toast was my favorite from that one. These examples I gave you involve the speaking side of Toastmasters. Leadership projects involve things like being an Area Director for a year, organizing and running a speech contest, and giving educational presentations.
Some people enjoy the leadership side of Toastmasters while others prefer the speaking side; both are invaluable. The way I look at it is that regardless of what field you’re in, you’ll benefit from the communication and leadership skills you learn from Toastmasters. A lot of people think if their career doesn’t require them to speak in front of a group or audience, they won’t gain anything from Toastmasters, but that’s not true: What if you want to say something at a PTA meeting? What if you have a job interview? What if (like me) you have written a book and will have to give talks at book signings?
It costs around $100 a year to be a Toastmasters member, which is very inexpensive, considering what you learn and gain from the program. If you’re interested in finding out more about it, you can visit a meeting with no strings attached. To find out more, you can visit Toastmasters International website here: https://www.toastmasters.org
Well, that’s this week’s blog. I know it isn’t the kind of thing I usually write about, but because I’ve talked about Toastmasters before, because I’ve gained so much from the program, and because I was at a loss for a topic this week, this is what we ended up with.
I think one of the new paths is blogging, so once I finish the latest project I’m working on, I plan to start that path. I hope it helps with coming up with topics.