The goal of a Toastmasters club is
to provide a supportive and constructive environment in which people can
practise public speaking, and develop leadership skills.
This is achieved by having a programme
which covers the following areas:
- Prepared speeches
- Eduational
presentations
- Impromptu speaking
- Evaluations and
feedback for each speaker
- Other items related to the development of
public speaking skills
If a club member is not actually giving a
presentation, they may be asked to take on a leadership role for the
meeting such as chairman, timekeeper, or providing topics for the
impromptu speaking session.
Everyone at a Toastmasters meeting is given an opportunity to
speak in some form or another during the meeting. Public speaking is a
practical skill that you can only learn by doing! Sorry folks you can't
learn this one by correspondence!
Guests are welcomed on arrival and seated
next to an existing club member so that they can ask questions about
what is happening in the meeting. Although guests are not required to
speak we do encourage them to participate by giving a brief introduction
about themselves to the group.
1. Prepared Speeches
Every one who joins Toastmasters is given a
selection of helpful notes, which includes a manual outlining 10 simple
speeches. The manual provides graduated advice on public speaking and
speech techniques to assist you in preparing and presenting those
speeches. For example the 5th speech in
the manual encourages speakers to experiment with vocal variety. It
gives tips and hints on ways you can use your voice to make your speech
have more impact or become more interesting.
New members to Toastmasters
are often assigned a mentor who can guide them and help them prepare
their first few speeches.
Once you have completed all 10 speeches you
receive a Competent Toastmaster Award. You can then choose from a range
of advanced manuals that are aimed at refining your speaking skills in
more specialised areas, or that help you gain further leadership skills.
2.
Educationals
Club members
who are working towards advanced awards may give an informative
presentation to other club members on a variety of topics. Educational
topics could include: how to give effective, yet constructive feedback
to speakers or perhaps ideas and tricks you can use for impromptu
speaking.
3. Impromptu Speaking (otherwise
known as Table Topics)
These
short 1-2 minute speeches are aimed at giving members an opportunity to
develop the skill of being able to think on your feet. These sessions
are generally a lot of fun as people come up with all sorts of ideas
based on their experiences and different backgrounds
4
Evaluations
One of the main
reasons that people join Toastmasters is to become better public
speakers. In order to improve, it is useful to gain feedback about where
your strengths are and what you still need to work on. This is the aim
of evaluations. Everyone who gives a speech is evaluated by one of the
other club members. Evaluations have a suggested format that require
evaluators to find things to commend the speaker for, as well as
recommendations for improvement. The goal of a good evaluation is to
instill confidence in the speaker for the things they have done right
and inspire them to continue to work on areas that aren't quite working
yet.
5 Competitions
Toastmasters also
runs competitions in four speaking categories throughout the year
(Table-Topics, International, Evaluation & Humorous). These are run
firstly at Club level and then the winners progress to Area, Division
and National levels.