| Perhaps the greatest fear of coming to one of our meetings is that
you may be forced to "do something". Well, fear not!
Here's the worst than happens to you at a Toastmasters meeting:
1. At the beginning of the meeting, you will be asked to introduce
yourself - your name, where you heard about us.
2. At the end of the meeting, you will be asked to tell
us what you thought of the meeting.
Both of these requests are strictly voluntary.
Our main goal is to make guests, potential new members, and members
comfortable. We promote an easy-to-live-through, fun process, in
a safe atmosphere. No one is forced to do or say anything.
If you join, you will be asked to participate, assigned simple tasks (see
FUNCTIONARIES),
and eased into the process of public speaking at your own pace. Everything
is voluntary and you may pass at any time. You can take as
long as you like to actually participate or give a speech. This isn't
like a speech class in school, where you have deadlines, grades, or peers
who might ridicule you. Every member of Toastmasters has "been there",
in that "beginner" role. We're all here because we needed help with
the process. We've stayed members because we've grown, gained confidence,
and have learned to love the process. We gained that confidence with
practice, and the help of our fellow Toastmasters. This is like learning
to swim surrounded by a room full of lifeguards! You just can't drown!
We won't let you!
WHAT GOES ON:
Our regular meetings consist of a quick business meeting, table topics,
prepared speeches, awards, functionary reports, and evaluations of the
day's speakers.
TABLE TOPICS:
A Table Topics Master is assigned ahead of the meeting. Their
task is to come up with an interesting topic or set of topics for the day.
During this portion of the meeting, each Toastmaster is given a topic and
has 1-2 minutes to speak on that topic. Guests may also participate,
but it is NOT required.
PREPARED SPEECHES:
Speakers are chosen ahead of time and come to the meeting prepared
to give a speech.
AWARDS:
At each meeting, the members vote for their pick of the best Table
Topics presenter, the best Speaker, and the best Evaluator. This
promotes self-esteem and sets up a mild competition between speakers which
helps them to perform their very best.
FUNCTIONARIES:
This is where you start getting over those flutters of panic.
There are several positions that are assigned for every meeting, simple
tasks that get you comfortable with being here. The JOKEMASTER is
in charge of lightening everyone up with a joke. The GRAMMARIAN checks
our grammar during the meeting and let's us know what we did right
as well as what we need to improve on, and gives us the word of the day.
We're suppose to incorporate the word of the day into our speeches; we
try - really! The TIMER runs the timing lights for all speeches and
gives a timing report. The VOTE COUNTER counts votes. The AH
COUNTER counts, yes, you've got it, AH's. It might sound silly, but,
it really does help you improve to have someone count how many times you
stall by saying "ah" or "umm" while you're speaking.
EVALUATIONS:
Each of the speakers is evaluated. This sounds pretty frightening
to most of our guests, but is the most valuable part of the entire meeting.
All advice given is constructive, given by members who have become very
adept at evaluating speeches, and helps the speaker learn to improve the
style, vocal quality, gesture, audience rapport, and over-all general technique.
Here is where you learn to become the consummate speaker. |
