Toastmasters 101
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| Karen Powers explains how to begin your speech |
One of the
advantages of belonging to multiple clubs and attending numerous Toastmasters meetings
throughout the week is that you learn how other Toastmasters clubs conduct
their meetings. You end up with a lot of good ideas that you can “steal” or bring
back to your “home” club. I highly recommend that you take advantage of
attending a Toastmasters meeting outside of your club anytime you’re able to do so.
Recently at one of the meetings of “Texas Wesleyan
Spellbinders” they conducted a “Toastmasters 101” meeting. This is a tradition
with their club. Either quarterly or twice a year, they conduct a meeting that
explains all the “ins and outs” of how Toastmasters and their club work. I was
very impressed with the idea and decided to take it back to my home club, “Top
Notch Toastmasters”. TNT’s executive team loved the idea and we scheduled our
own “Toastmasters 101”.
TNT’s “Toastmasters 101” meeting had the following components
on the agenda:
·
Julie Cosgrove, TNT’s President, covered all the
acronyms that Toastmasters love to use.
For a guest or a new member all those letters can be very intimidating.
·
Frankie Rike, TNT’s Vice President Education, covered
the Toastmasters educational program and the requirements on completing each
level.
·
Jeff Wigness, TNT’s SAA, covered the components of the
Competent Leadership Manual (CL). We felt this was important to highlight since
there is so much focus on the Competent Communication Manual (CC) and the CL
manual in usually forgotten. In fact there are some that call the CL Manual the
“Rodney Daingerfield” of Toastmasters manuals since it gets no respect.
·
Karen Powers, TNT’s Vice President Public Relations,
presened a “Better Speaker Series” module “Beginning Your Speech”.
·
Chuck Mencke, TNT’s Vice President Membership, covered
the three websites, Toastmasters International, District 25 and TNT’s club
website. Chuck covered the resources that are available on each of the sites.
The meeting was very well received and guests, new members as
well as our “seasoned” members gained new information and learned some new tips
and tricks.
Every once in a while it’s good to “shake things” up and change the
normal format of your club’s meetings. In the future think about putting on a
“Toastmasters 101” meeting. Your members and the presenters will gain from the
experience.
