Any Toastmasters here?

[turbosaab]

I am just starting out in a local Toastmasters group. I have been going to meetings since the beginning of the year and just gave my first speech a couple of months ago.

Anyway, just wanted to say hi to any other Toastmasters who may be out there.

[Scott H Young]

Toastmasters is awesome! I'm on speech #7!

[Henry]

Originally Posted by Scott H Young

Toastmasters is awesome! I'm on speech #7!

I haven't joined yet. I read your post Scott. It's what's convincing me to join.

[zpivat]

My dad keeps pushing me to join Toastmaster.....
and so I shall ask you: how do I join?

[Erin Pavlina]

I'm a member of Toastmasters as well. I'm enjoying it way more than I ever thought possible, being a previous scaredy-cat when it came to public speaking. It's helping me with my oral communication immensely.

Go to the Toastmasters site and find a club near you. You can go to club meetings as a guest just to check it out, with no committment to join. Some people attend as a guest for months before they join. You might have to try a few local clubs to find the one with the right flavor for you.

[Greg]

I just got my CTM... errr. CC - Toastmasters is a great organization and I would strongly recommend anyone who has not heard of the organization to learn some more about it and join!

[andrew]

You guys have also convinved me to join (will be soon at least). It looks like a great experience and I was suprised to see multiple groups in my area.

[zpivat]

So is Toastmaster also a good club in which to socialise/mingle/get together with others then?

[Scorpio]

I've been thinking about joining them for ages, mainly to get over my fear of public speaking. I keep putting it off though because I'm a wimp

[Erin Pavlina]

There is a club here in Vegas called the Bachelors and Bachelorettes. They do meet with the idea of mingling in social aspects. In fact, I know two people hooked up in the club and got married and actually had to find a new club. No marrieds allowed.

[geofones]

After reading Steves blog about Toastmasters a while ago I looked up their site and discovered they held meetings a few hundred feet from my house. Oh, and I live in Cambridge UK

[DanielBrenton]

Yes. I'm in Vegas, and I've been a member since late 2002. I've learned a lot from the whole experience. I've backed off pretty much lately due to other things. I do have to say it's been extremely valuable to me and probably helped me get my current position with my employer.

(Hi, Erin.)

[Erin Pavlina]

Hi Daniel, glad to see you on the boards.

Daniel is a wonderful speaker and toastmaster. Award winning as well.

[DanielBrenton]

Thank you, Erin.

(You've left the door open for me, you realize.)

I've written extensively about my 2004 contest season, and thanks to another Toastmaster and Google Video have a video posted on my website of my "tall tale" speech, "The Ordeal of the Fish." (Erin, I don't know if you've seen this.)

Writing as much as I did about that Toastmaster contest season frankly may sound kind of dweebish, but the experience changed me enormously as a person -- I literally became a winner for the first time in my life. If you're interested, you can go to "The Gallery" on my site and you'll find the video and links to all the articles.

[Scott H Young]

Originally Posted by Henry

I haven't joined yet. I read your post Scott. It's what's convincing me to join.

Glad you enjoyed the post, nice to see I have a few readers amidst this forum.

The article he's referring to is here:

Scott H Young » Why You Should Join Toastmasters

It's my recommendation for why you should join Toastmasters.

[DanielBrenton]

Scott --

Good post. I especially have to agree about keeping with it for six months. I think for me it was probably closer to a year. The best thing that's happened to me overall is to step outside of the club. The main venue for that stuff is the contest arena. There are also educationals usually associated with what they call "TLI" -- club officer's training, basically, though not all the presentations associated with those are necessarily focused on officers training.

See what you started, Erin? You won't be able to shut me up now.

[Steve Pavlina]

Great to see you here, Daniel! Glad you could join the party.

I just got back from a Toastmasters meeting this evening. I gave a speech called "Create Your Own Budget Recording Studio" and brought in all my podcasting equipment. I'm currently an ATM-Bronze and just finished my 2nd speech towards Silver. It's a great organization, and tonight's meeting was a lot of fun. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to build their communication skills.

[turbosaab]

Lots of you! That's awesome, thanks for all the replies.

I forgot to say in my original post that it was thanks to Steve I signed up - I'd heard about it before, but reading about his Toastmasters experiences in his blog got me interested enough to give it a shot. Thanks Steve! I didn't expect to hear from you personally amidst the whirlwind of activity you've created with these forums... keep up the good work!

Sincerely,
Franz

[shant121]

Thanks to Steve mentioning how Toastmasters has helped him in many many posts , I am attending a Toastmasters' meeting this Thu evening

[dalante]

I recently joined and gave my ice-breaker speech. I loved it.
The club that I go to is the London Business School one.

[Fusebox]

I just got back a couple of hours ago and did my first ice breaker too!

Lets just say I stuffed up the first one. But I eagerly await to make the second one.

[moviestar]

I want to join but I'm afraid of what sort of people will be there. What age group are there, what the people do? I don't want to be in a room with a bunch of 40 year old salesmen.
Also I want to practice stand-up comedy, is that a good place to do it?

[DanielBrenton]

Moviestar --

Here in Vegas, the crowd does tend to be older. It's a cross-section of occupations otherwise -- teachers, engineers, and so on, let alone a noted master blogger and his psychic medium wife. Maybe even some salesmen.

Scott Young's article on what Toastmasters offers is a very good one, and worth a look, in my opinion.

As for practicing stand-up, there are roles in the typical meeting that lend themselves to comedy, though these are minor roles. Most clubs have a "humor master" or "joke master" close to the opening of the meeting to help warm things up a little. The speech contest scene might be your best bet for a larger audience, but you would need to be mindful that contest speeches are just that -- speeches, a presentation or performance with a beginning, middle, and end. A stand-up set doesn't work as a speech.

That said, there's a plus in this -- Toastmasters would give you an opportunity to work with an audience, and I think we're pretty spoiled in the Toastmaster community because we're the best audience in the world. At meetings or at contests you have a room full of people who are actually listening to you, as opposed to an "open mike" environment where you have to fight the audience for attention.

If I may offer, I have a contest-winning speech up on my blog you could look over to give you an idea of what you can do in that arena. It's called "The Ordeal of the Fish" and it went all the way to the top of that contest for the season (club - area - division - district). (To see it, click on this link to my "Gallery" page and and scroll down a bit until you see the Google Video window.) This was for the "Tall Tales" contest, which is a specialized form of humorous speech. On the same page you'll find links to a number of articles I wrote about that contest season.

I'm afraid I'm not aware of any other contest speeches on the internet as examples I could point you at.

Not all districts do the Tall Tales contest, but there is another contest, the Humorous Speech contest, that all of them do (this is in the Fall season).

One thing we have here in Vegas is an improv comedy group that's always open for new members. Maybe you have something of that sort in your area. There is some overlap between the Toastmaster community here and some other groups including this improv group, so maybe your local Toastmaster community can point you.

All the best,

[Erin Pavlina]

Moviestar, that's why you want to go as a guest initially. Literally you just go and sit there. You can check out the club and the people and when you're ready, sign up or try other clubs. There are usually several clubs in your area. Eventually you'll find one that works for you.

We apparently had a lady who attended our meetings as a guest for a year and a half before joining! So don't worry on that score.

[munish]

Movie star,

If you believe in subjective reality system,then joining TM is not going to be a problem.

I am also working hard for my ice breaking speech.

Failure is not the opposite of success ,it is the part of success.-steve pavlina.

[moviestar]

Thanks for the replies and article. I think I'm gonna go as a guest, no problem with that as I see.

[Prometheus]

I'd like to add another endorsement of Toastmasters. I have been a member since August of 2006 and I am giving my fifth speech tomorrow. It has been a great experience.

I am applying to business schools and in one of my interviews I had the opportunity to discuss Toastmasters and how it has helped prepare me for business school, so it is a very useful activity to have on your resume and provides great talking points in interviews. However, the best thing about it may be the positive environment - personally I always feel good leaving a Toastmasters meeting.

[wildthunder]

One of the people in my Toastmasters group put me on to a fun public speaking resource you may find interesting. It is an audio training put out by The Freeway Guides and hosted by Susan Leahy. She is a totally awesome speaker and really breaks it down into easy to apply steps. For those of you who are curious check out: http://www.freewayguides.com/home.php.

Happy speaking!

[neil007]

Yes, I am a toastmaster. Its the best way to learn public speaking in my opinion. My results have been amazing. You can learn at your own pace and its a very welcoming environment.

Try it.

[soccer7]

hi guys, after reading steve's post on "Overcoming Fear of Public Speaking" i decided i would check out if there was any close by clubs, i found one that is 15 minutes to get to from my house.

my question is why do the clubs only go for twice a month, i wanted to developed my courage at least once a week, but i just missed all the club meetings in my region this month just by 2 days.

i would love to go in as a guest and watch what goes on in the meetings but now i have wait till next month, is this really how it works? cuase i only know what i read off their site.