And now for something completely different!

 

Thursday's regular meeting was cancelled in favour of a joint evening meeting with the Cambridge Toastmasters Club 2728 Area 92 Division T District 86 Region 6 in Cambridge Ontario Canada

 

There were 44 people in attendance, including 35 Toastmasters, 8 Rotarians, and Brian May.  Thank you for attending goes out to Heidi P, George S, Larry B, Rena H, Brian W, Tom E, Matt L, and Todd L.

 

2 or 3 years ago, Rotary International and Toast Masters International formed an alliance, where by both organizations could help each other out.  Rotary offering Toastmasters members an opportunity to join us in our fundraising and community efforts, and Toastmasters offering Rotarians the opportunity to improve their communication skills.

Two Rotarians did a great job of introducing Rotary to our Toastmaster friends - Dr. Mike Lawrie, and another long time Cambridge Sunrise member Scott Hebert.

 

We were taken through what would be a typical Toastmasters meeting - including a 'word of the day' from this week's Grammarian, and two prepared 'speeches' from Scott Hebert (who, I believe, also belongs to Toastmasters) and Nola.

 

Nola is a newer member to their group, and it was very interesting to see the progress she has made in her few months of being there.  She spoke to us about her own anxiety with public speaking, and some of the things she has learned with Toastmasters.

 

Both speakers are then evaluated by two of the other members - they are told what they did well, and what they could work on next time.  Then, both of the evaluators are they themselves evaluated by the 'General Evaluator' - where they are given feed back on their evaluations.

 

A quiz master then asks 5 'trivia' questions, taken from the speeches given - this is to test member's listening ability.

 

Before wrapping up, the 'Ah Counter' gives a report as to how many 'filler' words were used during the evening.  This will include words such as ah, um, repeated words, etc. and also provided a count for the number of 'word of the day' usages.

 

An additional focus of their meetings is time - it is crucial to stay on schedule - so there is also a 'time report' given, outlining the exact time spent speaking by each person throughout the meeting - it is up to the Chair to keep things moving, and ensure the meeting ends at precisely 8:30pm.

 

I found this meeting very interesting - I've certainly heard of Toastmasters, but was not aware of the excellent structure and procedures they have in place to assist with one becoming more comfortable speaking in public.

 

Anyone interested in more information will be able to find it on their club's website here.