Toastmasters can help in personal, professional life

If someone would have asked Colleen Francisco about Toastmasters prior to her joining the club two years ago, she would have guessed that it had something to do with learning how to give toasts at weddings. Ask her today, and Colleen will attribute her recent professional promotion to the presentation and communication skills she learned from the club.

“When Toastmasters was suggested to me, I just thought it was about giving speeches, and I was surprised to learn that it was so much more than that,” says Colleen, who was recently promoted to district manager for the Social Security Administration. “I gained a lot professionally, but also a lot personally from Toastmasters.”

Started in a California YMCA basement in 1924, Toastmasters has grown to an international organization with more than 20,000 members in 10,000 clubs in 80 countries, including five clubs in North Idaho.

But despite its size and growing popularity, misconceptions about Toastmasters abound in the mind of the general public, says Mark Cochran, president of Coeur d’Alene Toastmasters.

“Many people don’t understand what the Toastmasters club is about,” he says. “People may think that it is just giving speeches, and we do that, but is also about developing overall communication and leadership skills.”

Toastmasters’ main purpose is to help members improve their communication skills – largely through public speaking – in a supportive and constructive atmosphere.

All Toastmasters clubs follow a manual called the Communication and Leadership Program, which provides guidelines and objectives for 10 speeches on any topic. After members complete all 10 speech projects, they may apply for their Competent Toastmaster award and then choose from any combination of 15 advanced manuals, which range in topics from professional to entertainment. There are also optional speaking competitions throughout the year that start at the club level and move up to the international level.

Cochran and Francisco are quick to point out that the communication and leadership skills members develop in Toastmasters can not only help them become more competitive in the workplace, but also help them in other aspects of life, they said.

“Most of our members never give speeches outside of the club, and never will,” says Cochran. “However, anytime someone asks a question, we are basically giving one- or two-minute impromptu speeches all day long.”

The one- to two-minute impromptu speeches, or Table Topics, are an integral part of the Toastmasters curriculum, which is designed to help people formulate efficient, well-structured responses on the spot. Depending on the size of the club, there are also four to six prepared speeches at each meeting on topics of the individual speaker’s choosing. Members evaluate the speeches to point out strengths and make recommendations for improvement.

“One of our members joined specifically because of Table Topics,” say Mark. “She had been at a meeting and was called upon to answer something, and she wasn’t able to do it effectively. As a result, her client lost a lot of money.”

Toastmasters is open to anyone seeking to improve their communication and leadership skills.

“We have seasoned professional speakers to brand new members who joined to overcome their fear of speaking,” he says. “To those who claim they don’t need to belong to Toastmasters because they already have a lot of speaking experience, I say, champions train constantly – even Barry Bonds takes batting practice every day.”