Questions People ask

Table of Contents

• What is Toastmasters?
• Is it a lodge or a secret society?
• What is the format of the meeting?
• Why Toastmasters over other organization?
• How can this club benefit me?
• How can I join?

What is Toastmasters?

Toastmasters International is a nonprofit educational corporation headquartered in Rancho Santa Margarita, California. Its mission is to improve communication and leadership skills of its members. Mainly, this works out to "improving public speaking skills" but there is also a valuable leadership and management aspect to the organization if you aspire to reach that level. The organization includes approximately 180,000 members in 54 countries, including Australia, the Bahamas, Canada, Ireland, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, the United Kingdom, as well as the United States of America. There are, at present, over 8,000 clubs around the world, and most of them are in the United States.

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Is it a lodge or a secret society ?

The name "Toastmasters" is a holdover from the founding of the organization, when during formal occasions, speeches would be engaged in after dinner speaking, a.k.a. toastmastering. In our local club meetings, it is very rare that formal drinking and toasts take place. This is only done at the annual installation banquet or at scheduled dinner meeting. Membership is open to anyone who is 'of the age of eighteen and literate'. Many of our members are from various Christian persuasions, including Seventh Day Adventists, Anglicans, Moravians, Catholics and Pentecostals. Their professional background includes, civil servants for example teachers and other private sector employees such as secretaries, bankers, lawyers and managers.

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What is the format of the meeting ?

The format in Barbados consist of a business session and an educational session. The business meeting usually last for forty minutes. It is this aspect of the meeting that affords members the opportunity to develop and practice the use of parliamentary procedure. The Business session is presided over by the President while a member, who is referred to as the Toastmaster of the Meeting, is responsible for the educational session. .

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Why Toastmaster over other organization?

All Toastmasters members belong to one or more clubs. Clubs consist of at least eight members and generally go up to forty or more. The recommended size for a club is twenty or more. While there are other avenues that persons may develop their speaking skills the approach of Toastmaster, because of the support grouping in the club is different .Courses in public speaking usually involve the students sitting through lectures followed by one or two speaking opportunities to which a grade is then given. 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. Toastmasters is constant reinforcement and constant improvement. Always remember, we learn by doing and improve by practicing.

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How can this club benefit me?

When you join a Toastmasters club you receive a basic speaking manual with ten speech projects. Each project calls on you to prepare a speech on your own using certain principles. Each manual assignment is evaluated by someone assigned to do so. The purpose of this is to indicate to the speaker where he is doing well, what areas of his speech development needs to be worked on with the ultimate aim being continuous improvement.
Another area where member can develop is in the art of impromptu speaking through Table Topics. Basically, in two minutes the speaker is asked to present an impromptu speech on a subject not known to you until the moment you get up to speak.
Evaluations is the last area of speech development that is fostered.  Evaluation is a skill in what you focus on the speaker and his delivery without an emotional attachment to the speakers view. In other words speeches are evaluated and not the speaker.
In summary the greatest benefit is to develop the skills to be able to clearly, concisely and attractively convey your thoughts to your listeners.

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How can I join?

Once you have visited a club, rest assured you will be welcomed. The club has three Vice-presidents one of which is the Vice-president for Membership. This person will speak with you and inform you of the procedure for becoming a member. A small fee is involved, but certainly it is worth to develop the confidence which comes with having a good command of listening, thinking and speaking skills. 

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