what is toastmasters?

Toastmasters is an international education organization with local clubs that focus on communication and leadership skills.

The mission of a Toastmaster club is to provide 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.

What happens at a meeting?

The format varies slightly from club to club, but the basics include:
* the business meeting (usually very brief)
* introduction of the Toastmaster of the Meeting, who presides over the program that day and explains the meeting as it goes along
* prepared speeches from members (of which more below)
* impromptu speeches from members (also known as Table Topics, of which more below)
* oral evaluations of the prepared speeches (of which more below)
* reports from other evaluation personnel, such as speech timer, grammarian, "ah" counter, wordmaster, and General Evaluator Meetings last anywhere from one hour (especially at lunch or breakfast) to three hours (if the club meets infrequently or has long-winded speakers). Return to Top

What's a "prepared speech?"

When you join Toastmasters (see the "Membership" FAQ) you receive a basic speaking manual with ten speech projects. Each project calls on you to prepare a speech on a subject of your own choosing but using certain speaking principles. Each manual project lists the objectives for that speech and includes a written checklist for your evaluator to use when evaluating the speech. Thus, if you're scheduled to speak at a meeting, you generally pull out your manual a week or two in advance and put together a speech on whatever you like but paying attention to your goals and objectives for that speech. Then, when you go to the meeting, you hand your manual to your evaluator and that person makes written comments on the checklist while you speak. At the end of the meeting, that person (your evaluator) will rise to give oral commentary as well. The purpose of the extensive preparation and commentary is to show you what you're doing well, what you need to work on, and driving these lessons home so you're constantly improving. Return to Top

What speech projects are there for me to work on?

In the basic ("Communication and Leadership" manual), there are ten speech projects:
1. Icebreaker - 4 to 6 minutes - getting over nervousness by introducing yourself to the club.
2. Be In Earnest - 5 to 7 minutes - continue to get over nervousness by speaking about something you believe deeply in.
3. Organize Your Speech - 5 to 7 minutes - work on giving a well-organized speech.
4. Show What You Mean - 5 to 7 minutes - not a "Show and Tell" speech, this project calls on you to work with gestures and body language during your speech. Unfortunately, many members somehow confuse the issue and show up with a bag full of props that they use in a "Show and Tell" style speech. Don't do that.
5. Vocal Variety - 5 to 7 minutes - work on rate of delivery, volume, speed, pitch, emphasis, etc.
6. Work with Words - 5 to 7 minutes - work on proper word choice, avoiding jargon and generalizations, etc.
7. Apply Your Skills - 5 to 7 minutes - go back and practice everything you've learned up to this point.
8. Be Persuasive - 6 to 8 minutes - give a persuasive speech on a controversial issue.
9. Speak With Knowledge - 7 minutes, plus or minus 30 seconds - research an issue, write a speech, and then *read* that speech to the audience (as opposed to using notecards or notes or whatever you used for the previous eight speeches)... and have it well-rehearsed, so it doesn't run long or end too soon.
10. Inspire Your Audience - 8 to 10 minutes - The final speech in the manual calls on you to move and inspire your audience in a well-presented and well-prepared speech. As you can see, all ten projects above are wide-open for you to choose whatever topic you like. Even if you pick a controversial subject, most Toastmasters audiences will evaluate you on how well you presented your subject, not on whether they agreed with you or not. For further information about the speaking program, see the "Educational Advancement FAQ." Return to Top

What is "Table Topics?"

Table Topics is fun! It's also terrifying. Basically, it calls on you, the guest or member, to present a one to two minute impromptu speech on a subject not known to you until the moment you get up to speak! A member of the club assigned to be Topicsmaster will prepare a few impromptu topics and call on members (or guests, if they've given assent in advance to being called on) to stand up and speak on the topic. Topics might include current events (e.g. "What would you do about Haitian boat people if you were President?") or philosophy ("If you had no shoes and met a man who had no feet, how would you feel?") or the wacky ("Reach into this bag. Pull an item out. Tell us about it."). Return to Top

What is Evaluation?

The Evaluation program is the third of the three main parts to the meeting. All prepared speakers, as noted above, should have their speaking manuals with them and should have passed them on to the evaluators beforehand. During the speech, and after, each person's evaluator should make written notes and furthermore, plan what to say during the two to three minute oral evaluation. >Evaluation is tough to do well because it requires an evaluator to do more than say "here's what you did wrong." A good evaluator will say "here's what you did well, and here's why doing that was good, and here are some things you might want to work on for your next speech, and here's how you might work on them." It's important to remember that the evaluator is just one point of view, although one that has focused in on your speech closely. Other members of the audience can and should give you written or spoken comments on aspects of your speech they feel important. Return to Top

What's all this emphasis on time limits?

As noted above, speeches have time limits, Table Topics have time limits (1-2 minutes, usually) and evaluations have time limits (2-3 minutes, usually). This is in order to drive home the point that a good speaker makes effective use of the time allotted and does not keep going and going and going until the audience is bored. In the real world, quite often there are practical limits on how long a meeting can or should go; by setting time limits on speeches and presentations, participants learn brevity and time management and the club meeting itself can be expected to end on schedule. Time limits are rarely enforced to the letter. In only a few situations will you find yourself cut off if you go too long, and that's up to the individual club. Most clubs don't cut speakers off if they go overtime. It is common for clubs to use a set of timing lights to warn the speakers of the advance of time. All speeches and presentations have a time limit expressed as an interval, e.g. 5 to 7 minutes. A green light would be shown at 5 minutes, amber at 6, and red at 7. In Table Topics, the lights would go 1, 1.5, and 2 minutes respectively. When the green light comes on, you've at least spoken enough, though you need not finish right away, and when the yellow light comes on, you should begin wrapping up. If you're not done by the time the red light comes on, you should finish as soon as possible without mangling the ending of your speech. The only times you're actually *penalized* for going over or under time is in speaking competition; in speech contests (see the "Contests FAQ") you must remain within the interval or be disqualified. Some clubs hold an audience vote for "best speaker," "best topic speaker," and "best evaluator" during the meeting and it's a practice in some clubs to disqualify people who go over or under time from these meeting awards. Check with the particular club to see what they do. Return to Top

Why all this structure to the meeting?

If meetings sound complicated, we're sorry. Meetings generally are not complicated once you get used to the timing lights in the back and the different roles members of the group play. Since the average club is expected to have 20 or more members, you need a lot of roles for people to play in order to involve everyone. And, since meeting assignments vary from meeting to meeting, everyone gets practice doing everything over the course of several meetings. One meeting, you'll be assigned to give a speech; the next, you might be timer; the next, you might be the Toastmaster of the Meeting, running the whole show. It keeps you flexible and it keeps you from having to prepare a speech EVERY meeting, which would get old quickly. Return to Top

I'm scared to death of speaking! Why should I look into Toastmasters?

EVERYONE is afraid of speaking. In poll after poll, "public speaking" comes up as more feared than "death." Public speaking is the nation's #1 fear. You are no different. Even if you think you're really good at speaking, there will come times when your heart stops and your palms sweat and you freeze before an audience. Toastmasters can help with that. Remember that EVERYONE in a Toastmasters club is there because at some point they realized they needed help communicating and speaking before audiences. Almost everyone will remember how wretched they felt when they gave their first speech. You may be startled to find out how supportive a Toastmasters club really can be. [The author of this FAQ recruited a friend to Toastmasters who was so overwrought and nervous that she sobbed as if her heart was broken after her first speech. Ditto for the second. Some tears after the third. Eventually she realized that we weren't going to eat her alive and she came to enjoy it. By the time she earned her CTM, she consistently won "best speaker" votes at our meetings.] If you're aware how nervous you are but aren't convinced that you should do anything about it, stop and think what skill is more important than any other when it comes to getting and keeping a good job? Think you're already an excellent speaker? People who think they're really good sometimes come into Toastmasters and find out how unstructured and sloppy they really are. Being comfortable doesn't mean that you're actually GOOD. Even if you ARE good, you can always get better. Toastmasters can give you a lot of skills and keep good speakers improving. If you still don't know whether you'd like Toastmasters, why not visit a meeting? If you still don't think it's your cup of tea, we'll still be happy you came by. Return to Top

How is Toastmasters more beneficial than other forms of speaking improvement?

College and high school courses in public speaking usually involve the students sitting through dozens of lectures followed by one or two speaking opportunities. When the speeches are over, you get a grade. Often, you get graded on what you did wrong. This isn't a way to build reassurance and motivation. Then too, you rarely get much of a chance to practice by doing. You get up at the end of the semester, give your speech, and sit down. Toastmasters is constant reinforcement and constant improvement. You learn by doing, not by sitting there while someone lectures for hours. For-profit courses such as Dale Carnegie can be very good for their participants. They also cost a lot and when they're over, they're over. Toastmasters costs $36 per year (plus club dues, if any) and it can last a lifetime. Return to Top

Where should I go for further information?

Visit our club on Tuesday mornings at 7:00am OR fill out our e-mail contact form to have someone contact you OR Call Toastmasters International at 1-714-858-8255. Write Toastmasters International at P.O. Box 9052, Mission Viejo, California, 92690-7052. Return to Top

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