Toastmasters Club #1307

Even though I am a teacher and I should be comfortable talking before an audience the idea to attend a meeting with speakers and contemplating the idea of speaking in public for a number of strangers was something that I was not looking forward this week.

I went as a guest to a Toastmaster meeting near my house on Thursday from 6:15 pm to 7:30 pm.

I was greeted by one of the members and the president, Irene, introduced herself giving me information about the Club “Diagonals Toastmasters Club #1307”. We had a chat while waiting for the rest of members. At 6:15pm most of the members were there.

The meetings started with the president welcoming everyone. The Pledge of Allegiance was directed by one of the members. Next came the introductions from every member, including me, saying our names, who we were, and something about the day or our professions. That was a nice and simple ice breaker. Then they introduced the Functionaries, and the overview of table topics, evaluators, “Ah” counter/grammarian, and timer rules.

The meeting was not one with prepared speeches. The next step was the presentation by the Table Topic Master informing about the topic for the day. The members received a card where they need to write what was for them the best or worse job. The cards were collected and distributed to a different person who needed to give 3 minutes speech about why he/she thought that job in the card was the best or worse job in the world. The Timer-teller showed the speaker a green card at the one minute and a half, a yellow card at 2 minutes, and a red card at 2 minutes and a half to notify they have 30 seconds to wrap up. One by one every member participate talking why they believed that being the assistance of 007 was the best job, or why the Apprentice of Donald Trump was the greatest job. Each of the speakers was funny and very entertaining. All of them showed an introduction, a body, some personal examples, and finishing connecting and wrapping all together.

After the table topic speeches, the evaluators commented in every speech which they believed were the strengths and the weakness points. I found this part very informative.

We all voted for best speech and best evaluator and the same person won both awards.

The “Ah” counter/grammarian report the number of times each speaker made a mistake and the numbers were very low, just once or twice.

Here was when my turn to speak came as comments from members and guest. I thanked them for the opportunity to attend the meeting and shared that I had such a educative time.

They adjourned the meeting after those comments around 7:30pm.

I really enjoyed going to the meeting. It was not as bad as I thought. I had to speak in front of strangers but they made me feel comfortable and welcome. I was familiar with many of the ideas and points that they mentioned in their evaluations, as gestures, standing positions, so knowing the material was very helpful. Dr. D prepared us well!!!