New club raises glass
Toastmasters comes to campus
March 12, 2008
Alison Madden
Scared of public speaking? Want to persuade others? Then Trinity Western University’s newly formed Toastmasters Club may be the right place for you. Held each Thursday from 12:00 to 1:00 PM in RNT 125, the club is part of an international organization that helps its members improve their speaking and leadership skills.
“You learn how to speak in public in a friendly atmosphere,” said Francisco Grajales, the organizer of the club.
Toastmasters helps its members give prepared speeches, impromptu speeches and everything in between. Grajales joined the club to develop his impromptu speeches.
“In real time you don’t have time to think,” he said. “Public speaking is necessary in the academic and business world,” says Grajales. Toastmasters, according to him, is a great way to “interact with people on different levels. You are there to have fun and learn while at it.”
Toastmasters, a non-profit organization, started in 1924 in Santa Ana, CA. The club has members in 90 countries who meet weekly in a casual environment where speeches are discussed and critiqued.
Toastmasters was founded in a basement of the YMCA by Ralph C. Smedley. The name of the club refers to the early 1900s when the person who would propose toasts and give speeches at banquets was known as the “toastmaster.”
A similar club to Toastmasters at TWU, called the Trinitykbitzers, disbanded in 2006.
The TWU chapter of Toastmasters is in its beginning stages, and its members are mostly comprised of staff and faculty. The members are enthusiastic about the club and the public speaking training they receive.
Members at the beginner’s level work through a series of 10 speech assignments from the Toastmasters’ Competent Communication manual. The manual teaches the members about the basics of public speaking, and then allows them to put it into practice. Skills learned include vocal variety, humour, gestures, eye contact, speech organization and delivery.
There are no instructors within the group; everything is taught, mentored and critiqued by one’s peers. Members attain the level of “Competent Communicator” at the end of the 10 sessions.
The system is widely recognized: companies and government agencies use the Toastmasters organizations as an effective way to train employees in the art of public speaking.
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