Introduction to Toastmasters

Did you ever realize that communication with other people is the single most important way we interact with the world around us? Did you ever realize that nearly all the greatest people in life have had one thing in common-- leadership? Wouldn't it be nice if there was a magic pill you could swallow that would simultaneously boost your communication skills and leadership skills? Unfortunately, there are no magic pills. But there is an organization where, with lots of practice, support, and feedback, you can gradually increase your communication and leadership skills. That organization is Toastmasters International.

My friend introduced me to Toastmasters about half a year ago and it has given my communication and leadership skills a tremendous boost. So what is Toastmasters? Simply put, it's a public speaking club. Typically, a Toastmasters club meets once every two weeks or so, and at a meeting, members give speeches and perform various leadership roles. Some of the roles are of a feedback nature, so every meeting is a place of great growth and self-improvement. In this article, I'll outline some of the major positions in a typical meeting.


PUBLIC SPEAKER

The core of a Toastmasters club meeting is the arranged speech. Depending on the club size, a number of members will present speeches they've worked on since the last meeting. These prepared speeches follow various "Speech Manuals" which I'll describe more below. Speaker is the most fundamental position at any Toastmaster meeting.

Speakers are introduced by the Toastmaster of the evening, and then they give their speeches. After giving their speech, they return control to the Toastmaster. Throughout the speech, they are being evaluated by a pre-chosen Evaluator. They're also being evaluated by the club as a whole, and at the end of each meeting, an award will be presented for the best speaker.

Although the speaker does not have any official leadership position assigned, he or she is still integral to the smooth flow of the club meeting. If too many speakers flake out at the last minute, or try to "wing" their speeches, the meeting won't go very well. Any individual speaker has the power to add quite a bit to the overall quality of the meeting.


EVALUATOR

The next most basic element of the club meeting is the Evaluator. There is an Evaluator for every Speaker, as well as a General Evaluator for the meeting as a whole (that's a separate position I'll discuss below).

Evaluators play an important role, they are the seed that allows the speakers to grow stronger through time. A good evaluator will give the speaker lots of support and feedback (including an appropriate level of constructive criticism) and nurture the speaker to grow in their speaking stature. This position is what sets Toastmasters apart from, say, a teaching position. I've been speaking in front of calculus classes as a part time job for several years, but that hasn't boosted my communication skills nearly as much as Toastmasters has, in part because Toastmasters has the Evaluators.

The Evaluators are introduced during the Evaluation portion of the meeting, which takes place after all the prepared speeches have been completed. They're introduced by the General Evaluator, and after they give their evaluations, they return the podium to the General Evaluator. Although everyone takes their turns being Evaluator, I've noticed that most frequently, the role is played by the old veterans of the club, who have been through a lot of meetings and are in very solid positions to offer excellent feedback and support.

At the end of the meeting, the club votes to award a Best Evaluator ribbon to one of the evening's evaluators.


TABLE TOPICS MASTER

I introduce the Table Topics Master next, not because he is a particularly "core" element of the club, but because his introduction will complete the coverage of the three main speaking parts of the club. The Table Topics Master runs Table Topics, the contemporaneous speech part of the meeting.

During Table Topics, the Table Topics Master gives a general theme. Then, either speakers volunteer, or the Table Topics Master calls them up, and they give speeches with no preparation. This allows clubmembers to practice speaking in those unrehearsed situations which life seems to be so full of. I find participating in Table Topics greatly improves my performance in social situations. After all, having a conversation with friends is nothing more than giving a particular type of unrehearsed speech.

Bear in mind that, whether or not you join Toastmasters, you'll be giving "Table Topics" speeches throughout your life. Any time you run into an unexpected acquaintance on the street, any time you meet a nice girl or boy at a bar, any time you introduce yourself to a new friend, indeed any time you speak at all without having prepared in advance, it's "Table Topics". An unrehearsed speech. Better to get all the nervousness and jitters out of your system at a supportive Toastmasters club than suffer them in "real life".

There's even a vote, at the end of the meeting, and a Best Table Topics Speaker Ribbon is awarded to one of the Table Topics speakers.

The Table Topics Master, who is given control by the Toastmaster, presents Table Topics Speakers, either calling them out, or letting them volunteer. After the speakers give their deer-in-the-headlights, unrehearsed speeches, they return control of the lectern back to the Master. After the Table Topics session, the Table Topics Master returns control of the meeting to the Toastmaster of the evening.

Obviously the role of Table Topics Master puts you in a leadership position. The cool thing about Toastmasters is that while, in a leadership role, you have power and authority, you can volunteer for these powerful roles even on your very first night as a member. It's never too early to start working out those leadership "muscles".


TOASTMASTER

The meeting is run and coordinated by the Toastmaster of the evening. The Toastmaster introduces just about everybody; handles voting for Best Speaker/Evaluator/Table Topics Speaker; makes sure everything goes according to plan; keeps the meeting running on time and on schedule; and gives the meeting an overall theme. The latter task can be pretty tough, since the core parts of the meeting- the prepared speeches, the evaluations, and the table topics, are entirely up to other people.

Again, Toastmaster is an extremely good role for hitting the ol' leadership muscles. And, again, you could do it (theoretically) on your very first night. Less theoretically speaking, I've actually seen people fill the Toastmaster role on their second or third nights. I don't think there are many other places where such a high leadership position can be filled by brand new club members.


GENERAL EVALUATOR

Besides introducing the Evaluators, the General Evaluator is in charge of evaluating the meeting as a whole. This is a mechanism which fosters long term growth in the club, and prevents it from stagnating. Remember that change will come whether you want it or not, so if it's not in the form of an improving club, it'll be in the form of a declining club. The General Evaluator role ensures that the club will always be evolving.

One of the fundamental, and most painful and difficult, parts of leadership, is stepping in and setting people straight. If leadership just meant giving orders and eating popcorn while you watched your underlings accomplish stuff, anyone could be a leader. Part of why people fear leadership deep down is they fear confrontation. Allow me to suggest a few evenings as General Evaluator (or even just regular Evaluator). This will knock that fear of confrontation right out of you, and prepare you to step into the leadership positions you were meant to fill.


GRAMMARIAN

The Grammarian has two tasks. The first is to present a Word Of The Day. The idea here is to improve the vocabulary power of the club as a whole. Some clubmembers in a given club will likely speak English as a second language (and remember, English is Hard!) For them, the Word of the Day is an extremely good opportunity to get the word in their lexicon, because everyone throughout the meeting will be trying their hardest to provide plenty of example usage. Basically, as an added "bonus challenge", speakers try to integrate the Word Of The Day into their speeches. For one thing, this adds a slight unrehearsed element to the prepared speeches, and keeps a perfect speaker from just memorizing the whole speech beforehand. It can also be pretty amusing seeing people twist and contort to get that word into a totally unrelated speech!

The Grammarian's other role is to present a report on the use of language throughout the meeting. This often includes counting filler words like "Umm", as well as pointing out and praising particularly eloquent phrases which were used throughout the meeting.

I do have one bone to pick with the Grammarian role, which is that it can sometimes come off a little bit prescriptive. Prescriptive linguistics means, rather than looking objectively at how a language really is in the real world, instead trying to make people conform to some grammatical rules, which were originally intended merely to model the language, not to control it.

But, perhaps, prescriptive or descriptive, the person who learns the most from the Grammarian is the Grammarian him-or-herself. I know it's cliche, but it really is true that you learn more by teaching than by studying. Even if the Grammarian is wrong, I think even just the act of focusing attention on the language for an entire evening, gives the Grammarian's "language muscles" a big hit.

The Grammarian's Report is presented near the end of the meeting, after all speeches have been given, including prepared speeches, evaluations, and table topics speeches.


TIMER

The Timer is in charge of timing each individual speech. You see, each speech has a certain amount of time allotted to it, and the timer is the one who checks whether the speakers stay within that time. In addition to giving the speakers signals to let them know when they pass certain thresholds (like two minutes left, one minute left, and time up), the timer also presents reports about how much time the various speeches took.

If you've been to a lot of public speeches, I'm sure you've encountered the speakers who ran over time. In mathematics we have a joke, "Ahh the bell rang, that means we have time for just one more theorem." Well, in Toastmasters, you usually don't get that nonsense, because the Timer keeps the speakers on task. If a speaker goes more than thirty seconds out of bounds, they're disqualified from winning the appropriate Prize at the end of the meeting.

Timer is a great position for training your presence, your ability to be focused in the moment. It's a position where you need to keep focused on the meeting, and you can't let your mind slip or wander, even for a second.

It's also good leadership training. It's kind of a gamble: most meetings, Timer is a relatively painless task, aside from having to stay on focus the whole time. But every now and then, a speaker does go out of time bounds, and then it's the Timer's job to present the grim news that they are disqualified. Again, like I discussed under General Evaluator, these sorts of confrontations are a necessary evil of being a leader. If you want to become a leader someday (and you should, if you want to rise above lifelong mediocrity), telling people they're disqualified is a great way to practice one of the dirtier parts of the job. It's harsh but true.


CLUB OFFICER

In addition to the volunteer roles which are juggled around every meeting, there are also a number of officer positions which are elected and served over longer periods of time. I won't go into too much detail on these, in part because I haven't been an officer yet myself, and also in part because I think of these as more "advanced" Toastmasters (although, in my club, I have seen some very new members assume officer positions, so don't rule it out).

There is of course, Club President. If you weren't Class President in high school, now's your chance to catch up. The Club President takes care of all sorts of Presidential duties at the beginning and end of the club and introduces the Toastmaster of the evening.

Then there's "Vice President of Education". This officer keeps tabs on the various club members and makes sure everyone's making progress as communicators and leaders. The VPoE does things like assign mentors to new members, suggest strategies for the club as a whole to compete against other clubs, and give advice to individual members about how they should proceed in the club.

Of course there's "Club Treasurer". A great way to increase your "financial vibrations", getting used to handling money and collecting money and so on. I don't actually have much idea what all this officer does, besides hassle members for dues once a year.

And then there's "Sergeant at Arms". The Sarge begins the meetings, leading members through the Pledge of Allegiance (in the USA- not sure about other countries), introduces the Club President, and is also in charge of bringing all the club's supplies (like name tags, the timer's signals, and voting ballots) to the meetings. Sometimes there are contests, and contestants have to wait outside so they don't see another contestant's speech before giving their own. In this case, the Sarge makes sure noone listens through the door or anything. If Toastmasters ever becomes a paramilitary organization, the Sergeant at Arms will be in charge of all the guns and ammo and tanks and helicopters.


GUEST

Guests also play a role at Toastmasters meetings. They're usually offered a chance to speak at Table Topics, so that even on their very first evening, even if it's their first taste of Toastmasters, they have an opportunity to get up and speak. And, at the end of the meeting, Guests are asked for their opinion on the meeting- once again fostering longterm growth in the club, providing a source of feedback from outside so that the club doesn't ever become "inbred".

When you go to Toastmasters, you'll probably be a guest for your first couple meetings. People are usually very eager to introduce themselves to Guests- it's a great way to meet people and make friends, especially if you're new to the city or something.

Now I'll talk a little more about the career of the average Toastmaster.


CAREER AS A TOASTMASTER

Individual Toastmasters follow a pair of parallel career paths, the Communication path and the Leadership path. Each path starts out at total beginner, and proceeds through a long series of speeches and tasks. Along each path come various titles, like "Competent Communicator", "Competent Leader", and so on. When you reach the end of both paths, they converge back together and you get the coveted title, "Distinguished Toastmaster".

When you start out, Toastmasters sends you the basic manuals for Communication and Leadership. Finishing the basic communication manual gives you your first title along the Communication path. Same with the basic leadership manual for the leadership path. After that, the two paths become harder. Meanwhile, after you've finished the basic manuals, you get some flexibility in choosing further manuals, and there are plenty to choose from. Basically, the different manuals allow you to fine-tune your communication and leadership according to what you want to get from them. For example, if you're interested in increasing your social skills, there are manuals on story-telling, casual speaking, etc. If it's your career you want to give a boost of Toastmastery strength to, there are career-oriented manuals like the technical speech manual. There are even manuals on body language and voice.


THINGS I'VE GAINED FROM TOASTMASTERS

I've gotten a lot better at speaking in front of people. These days I almost never throw out any stray "umms" or "ahhs", and my calculus students really appreciate that! (In fact, maybe I speak too well now-- everyone and their dog wants appointments with me for tutoring, to the extent I've had to start charging big bucks for people not enrolled in my classes)

I'm also better at leadership. This can be hard to quantify, and with me the improvements are small because I've been focusing on the communication path so far, but I do have a certain leadership aura which I didn't have before. And I can make difficult leadership decisions with much more ease, it seems.

I've met some really awesome people at Toastmasters. Generally, people who go to Toastmasters are some of the most positive people you'll ever meet, and they're people dedicated to developing both themselves and others. I mean, if they weren't, they wouldn't be at Toastmasters! I've met a former WWII Japanese military translator (very interesting since I'm studying Japanese myself now)... a former corporate executive officer who dropped out from the business world to follow his dreams... a successful columnist... a high school principle... and lots of others.

I love playing roles like evaluator, because it gives me a chance to provide value to people. Lately I've been more and more compelled to give value to people, which is partly tied with this blog (where I'm always striving to create and distribute value). I feel like the value I provide follows a path like a riverbed, and as I provide more value, it's like more water flows through the riverbed, which in turn widens it and allows more water (value) to flow. Providing value at Toastmasters is another way to widen that riverbed, increasing my capacity to provide value, as well as hitting my "value muscles" so I can provide greater good to the world.

The Club and the Blog play well with eachother. I've gotten speech ideas from Toastmasters, either from other speakers or from creating speeches myself. And I've gained further insight into articles I already wrote, by presenting about them at the club.


HOW TO JOIN TOASTMASTERS

If you have any friends in Toastmasters, ask them if you can go along, and they'll probably be more than eager to oblige you. If not, it's still easy. Just show up! There are Toastmasters clubs all over the world, and if you don't live in the middle of nowhere, there should be one not too far from you. When you show up, tell them you're interested in joining. They'll welcome you and you can sit in on some meetings as a guest so you can get an idea whether or not you want to join. I recommend joining, it's a very positive thing you can do to improve a lot of different aspects of yourself.

Here's where you can search for a club: Find A Club - Toastmasters International. Me, I'm in the Worthington club in Columbus, Ohio.


Here are some other articles I've written. Imagine I'm delivering these from a lectern at the front of the room :)
Researching English On Books.google.com
30 Day Article-A-Day Challenge Completed!
Training Self-Discipline
Air Force Core Values: Excellence, Integrity, and Service Before Self