...but I already know how to speak!

Toastmasters has been teaching people the art of public speaking since 1924. During this time, they have assembled a set of projects designed to teach people how to effectively communicate to a group of people, large or small.

When you join, you will recieve the Competent Communication manual. This manual is comprised of ten projects which teach you to organize your thoughts, learn how to use your voice, teach you how to use gestures, and how to persuade among other skills. Each project provides comprehensive and well written instruction on how to accomplish the objectives for the project.

As with anything in life, you get out of this what you put into it. Therefore, when it is your turn to give a presentation, take the time to study the objectives and do the best job you can when giving a presentation. You will be rewarded by learning from the experience and rewarded a second time with the feedback provided by the club and your evaluator.

Our club meets in a fabulous venue with a raised stage, projection screens, white boards, and flip charts which supports our membership's quest to become more effective communicators. By taking advantage of these tools, you will become a competent public speaker in a relatively short amount of time, building confidence in yourself while having fun.

The meeting roles that emphasize speaking skills are Toastmaster, Table Topics, and prepared Speaker. However, the Evaluator role requires you to listen, follow instruction, and give a three minute presentation with no prior practice. All of these help you become a better communicator.

Listening Skills

Communication is a two way street. It takes both someone who speaks, but also one who listens. Listening skills are something we tend to take for granted in our everyday lives. The Toastmasters experience helps to exercise this skill. Several of the meeting roles require the abilty to listen carefully, then report on what you heard. The General Evaluator and Speech Evaluator both have to listen carefully as they are reporting on what they hear and how well the participants accomplished the tasks at hand. In the case of the speech evaluator, you have a list of objectives and questions to answer and, while listening to the presentation, determine how to answer the questions. It's a great exercise.

The role of Grammarian is difficult because it requires that you listen more to how things are said and the words used rather than to the whole message. The role of Ah Counter is similar in that you are now listening for crutch phrases and sounds (Ah and Ummm).
By performing these duties, you become a better listener.