One of the ways Toastmasters helps you overcome your fear of public speaking is through humour. The impromptu speaking sessions called “Table Topics” are always fun and only last between 1-2 mins. Here’s a funny video I found that may look familiar. We’ve all seen speakers who stumble over their words and fumble like this. Well it doesn’t have to be like this. Contact your nearest Toastmasters club today.
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A year ago, I was assisting a garage owner with a noise problem. The garage is located in a small historic Cape Town and the owner wanted to open an exhaust repair business. Local bed and breakfast owners objected, primarily to the perceived noise of the welding and cutting as well as to cars with failed exhausts.
We did a noise-control design and sent the drawings back to the owner, who asked me to come for a site visit.
I got there. We discussed the drawings. Then he said, perhaps, I might go and discuss the matter with the town committee. So I said, fine, and drove with him to the town hall. He led me into a lobby and told me that the committee awaited behind the door on the left.
“Just knock,” he said, “and go in.” And I did.
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Last week I attended my first club meeting in a while because of my travel schedule. What is really awesome to observe at CIS Toastmasters is the constant growth in new members since the website has been re-launched. There is a regular number of new people coming to meetings, joining the club because of this website. Unlike the typical Toastmasters meeting I believe the number of speakers exceeded the usual quota. And for the first time that I know of the prepared speaking session was conducted before the table topics.
One of our newest members won the prepared speaking session: Stone Chirwa. It turns out Stone is a magician by trade and performs regularly. You may contact him directly on 073 6499595 if you are in need of some solid entertainment and filled with a bag of tricks. I was the evaluator for his speech and it was beyond the usual first time speeches I’ve heard. Stone was in character for the most part. He used a brilliant piece of structure to build up tension linked to his title, My Masters Degree. Every section in his story was a new level of education from the school of the hard knocks, or the school of life. His elocution was clear, his articulation great and his pacing was incredible. He even came out from behind the podium to do a quick magic trick with some small pieces of rope. This was unexpected and bodes well for future speeches where props are required. His use of gestures was good and also his body language was for the most party in tune with the message he was trying to convey. As with most speeches in front of a new audience he made one glaring mistake: he rocked from side to side throughout his speech. This was the only sign of any nervousness in his entire delivery. And on a minor note he thanked the audience, which you will learn in Toastmasters is not necessary.
Tim Verity won the best impromptu speech. I can’t recall exactly what he talked about but I can assure it must have been both witty and poignant knowing Tim. Tim has been one of the best reasons to be part of CIS Toastmasters because he brings so much enthusiasm and humour to the club meetings. He is one of the long standing members and an invaluable resource for new members to tap into. His words of encouragement has been a great inspiration for me from the beginning.
To my great surprise I won the James Ballentine Award from my club. This is an annual award for the person who’s made a big impact on the club. Its been a complete surprise to me to see how well this website has been received since I took over the reigns late last year. According to Rob Douglas DTM, this website was runner-up to the winner to Cape Town Toastmasters. Over the last 18 months I believe I have introduced at least 6 or more people to Toastmasters. At least one of them, my friend Israel Noko, has signed-up as a member, although he has yet to make his first speech.
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A good measure of laughs, learning and lingo were the order of the day at CIS Toastmasters meeting on Tuesday March 12. After all the formalities were tended to, with Corne van der Nest as the evening’s toastmaster, Marc Rees, the grammarian, explained that the “words of the day” would be French terms/words that have made their way into spoken English. And after that, voila, the speeches kicked off with the table topics, led by Cyril Chessex. Subjects included “Is there such a thing as having too much money?”, “What would your ideal career be”, and “Is there a market in South Africa for another telecommunications provider?”. All the speeches were interesting, fluid and well handled.
For the prepared speeches, it was up to four femmes fatales. Nando Mohaule did her first speech since joining the club, the CC1 or Icebreaker, showing us her joie de vive in both speech and personality. Elise Roscoe followed with her 2nd speech or CC2, a fascinating speech about the language of dogs, and how to deal with them to ensure a happy pet and a good relationship with them.
For her 3rd speech, the CC3, Tanya Kovarsky spoke about cats, and their wisdom, intuition and intelligence. Deleen Levy, the club president, did an advanced speech from the television manual, ACB1, where she played the role of a newsreader and spoke about an Eskom-related issue.
The rest of the meeting showed much esprit with superb evaluations, many more laughs (and hugs) and words of wisdom. The best speaker award went to Elise Roscoe – felicitations! Everyone said au revoir… until the next rendezvous…
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Many people have degrees and have done training in how to do their jobs. But anybody in business will tell you that your skills are only half the job. The other half is communicating with colleagues, suppliers and customers.
Toastmasters International offers what amounts to a masters degree in Communication and Leadership. The DTM qualification takes as long to complete as some MBA courses. But instead of focusing on case studies and theory, DTM students have to prove that they can communicate effectively and be inspirational leaders.
“It’s the most difficult kind of leadership there is,” says Keryn House.” DTMs have to start new Toastmasters clubs or rescue clubs in trouble. But unlike my day job where I am a manager and pay my staff a salary, at Toastmasters everybody is a volunteer. Only the most motivational and inspirational leaders can get things done under those circumstances.”
House, who has an MBA and is working towards her DTM says that the DTM has taught her self-motivation. “There’s a lot of encouragement from other people, but it’s up to me to manage my time and my self-motivation to get this qualification. House credits her Toastmasters studies with helping her land her role at the Parkmore Community Association, as well has her job as the CEO of an NGO promoting call centres in Gauteng.
Only around one in one thousand Toastmasters qualify as DTMs in any given year. This award is recognized internationally among over 200,000 members in 10,500 clubs around the world.
Toastmasters Southern Africa will be hosting open days in shopping centres around the country on 27 October 2007.
For further information please contact:
Rob Douglas douglas.home@telkomsa.net
Cell. 082-773-5840
www.toastmasters74.org or marketing@toastmasters74.org
About Toastmasters International
For over 80 years, Toastmasters International has been and remains the undisputed world leader in public speaking, training, with over 10,500 clubs and more than 200,000 members in approximately 90 countries. Over three million people have benefited from its Communication and Leadership programmes world wide. In Southern Africa Toastmasters is represented in nine countries: Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia, Zimbabwe. Toastmasters is a Section 21 company non-profit organization.
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