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Joining ToastMasters: A club for public speaking
Toastmasters International is an organization of clubs around the world which help members in public speaking. The clubs tend to be small in size to ensure everyone gets a chance to speak.
Late Jan 2008, I went ahead and attended the Yahoo ToastMasters club in Sunnyvale, called Yapsters as guest. It was definitely worthwhile and I became a member and have delivered my first speech.
It is obviously about public speaking, however it is useful in many ways:
- The core approach is to do a series of 10 speeches with each focusing on a certain aspect of speaking (Speech organization, Body language including eye contact, Vocal variety)
- You will automatically find your own areas which need focus, be it planning for a speech, english language, fear of being in front of an audience.
- There are stories to hear and things to learn from other’s speeches. I enjoyed one about the Mexico desert where the stars touch the ground at the horizon and look forward to others.
- You become part of a highly motivated and ambitious group.
- There is a leadership track with 10 activities, which you choose to go on that instead of or in addition to the public speaking track.
I would recommend it and am glad I added it to my todo list when Steve Pavlina mentioned it in his blog. It has become one of the things I look forward to.
If you would like to find a club near you, please use the following link: http://www.toastmasters.org/find/default.asp
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Hey Amit, nice post. I’ve always wondered what the Toastmasters folks do. I took a communications class in college and we had a few speaking assignments. I remember the feedback was that my voice was monotone and that I should speak louder. Good speaking is definitely a powerful tool. A lot of Barack Obama’s charisma is due to his speeches. I’ll add Toastmasters to my to-do list in the future.
Comment by Chris — February 24, 2008 @ 2:39 pm