What is Toastmasters?

Published 5:00 pm Saturday, June 30, 2007

What is Toastmasters?  When hearing the term for the first time, many people conjure an image of a group of people around a table, glasses raised in a toast.  Not quite accurate, but one can understand why the term would be confusing.

 In actuality, Toastmasters is an international organization comprised of individual speaking clubs, one of which is right here in our area.  The mission of Toastmasters International is to make effective oral communication a worldwide reality.  It does this by helping women and men learn the arts of speaking, listening and critical thinking – vital skills that promote self-actualization, enhance leadership potential, foster human understanding, and contribute to the betterment of humankind.

Through weekly meetings your local club, Coastal Communicators (Club 775), provides a mutually supportive and positive learning environment in which every member has the opportunity to develop communication and leadership skills, which in turn foster self-confidence and personal growth. 

We accomplish this by working through a series of manuals that lead the club member through projects that develop effective and persuasive communication and leadership skills. 

Club members begin with the Communication and Leadership Program basic manual.  This manual contains ten speaking projects.  Each project is an opportunity to develop a five to seven minute presentation, on a topic of the speaker’s choice, which focuses in on a particular aspect of effective communication.  Some of the projects include speech organization, body language, using visual aids, and persuasion. 

In addition to learning to speak effectively, every member learns leadership skills.  One of those skills is giving effective evaluations.  Being assigned to provide an evaluation gives the member a chance to hone that skill and gives the speaker honest feedback about what worked and what could be improved.  

As many of you know, it’s often difficult to get critical feedback on your presentation skills, and it can be too intimidating to ask.  Toastmasters provides a safe environment for speakers to get feedback from other members of the club.  The greatest benefit I’ve received from Toastmasters is this evaluation process. 

Where can you be in the same room as a pirate, a park ranger, a web master and a duck? Only at Toastmasters! We meet every Monday night, 6:15pm to 7:30pm, at the Fidelity National Title Company in Astoria. Visitors are welcome!!

Julie Tennis is a member of Astoria Toastmasters. Readers may contact her by emailing juliejt@pacifier.com, and should include “Toastmasters” in the subject line.