Membership in Toasmasters of Greater Burlington, Vermont is FUN and EXCITING. Not only will you learn the basics of public speaking, but you will also learn to be a better leader. All of this is done in a very supportive and encouraging environment. If you would like to break through the barrier of being afraid to give a speech, or would like to become a better speaker or leader, please join us.

 

 

A typical meeting consists of a business portion, during which each member and guest identifies him or her self, whether they are an officer, a member or a guest and what roll they are playing in that meeting if any. In addition, other toastmaster business is discussed. The President of the club is the leader of this portion of the meeting. Some of the officers give reports about where the club stands financially, and what happened at the last meeting.

 

When the business portion is finished, the education portion begins. The toastmaster is the leader of this part of the meeting, and he or she introduces the speakers, evaluators and the people filling the other rolls in the meeting. They give a talk that usually lasts about 5 to 7 minutes, with some speeches lasting longer and some shorter. Usually there are three to four speakers during an evening, each of which has an evaluator that speaks later giving the speaker vital information on what he or she does well as a speaker and what ways the speaker can improve. In addition to our featured speakers, there are several other rolls that must be filled, not the least of which is Table Topics Master, which involves thinking of 4 to 5 questions and then selecting a member or guest to ask that question. This tests our extemporaneous speaking skills. In addition, there is usually a Word Master that gives us the word of the day, a humorist who tells us a joke, a Quizmaster that keeps track of all the facts in the meeting and then asks us as a group at the end of the meeting to see how much we can remember and an overall evaluator who evaluates the entire meeting, especially the evaluators and the Toastmaster. Two other rolls that require less speaking are the Timer who keeps track of the times of all the speakers, and the Wizard of Ah's, who counts the ah's and other non-words that we utter. The fine for these is 5 cents with the maximum fine of 25 cents.

 

Usually a meeting will last between 1 1/2 hours to 2 hours depending on how much business we have and how many speakers we have.

 

 

There are a lot of benefits to joining our Toastmasters club. First is that you will gain a lot of public speaking experience in a supportive and encouraging environment. This helps you overcome the number 1 fear, that of public speaking. It also helps you develop leadership skills that will help you in your career by allowing you to participate in the club leadership as well as leadership at the area, district and even international level. In addition to the many speaking and learning opportunities offered at our club, Toastmasters has a number of area and district speaking events that allow you to see some great speakers and learn from them.

 

When you join our club, you will get a membership list to contact other Toastmasters with any questions. You will also get information and a book from Toastmasters international that has the first 10 speeches you will be asked to compete. You can complete them at our own pace. The first speech is always a fun one because it lets you talk about the subject you know best, yourself. The other nine speeches help you work on the other aspects of our speech, such as gestures, vocal variety and trying to convince an audience to do something. When you complete your first 10 speeches, you will be given the CTM (Competent ToastMaster) Designation. Below is a table of the speeches and speaking skills that you will practice for the first ten speeches.

 

Speech 1	Introduce Yourself	Speech 2	Speak with Sincerity
Speech 3	Organize Your Speech	Speech 4	Show What You Mean
Speech 5	Vocal Variety	Speech 6	Work with Words
Speech 7	Apply Your Skills	Speech 8	Add Impact to Your Speech
Speech 9	Persuade with Power	Speech 10	Inspire Your Audience

 

After these Speeches, you can choose from a number of different manuals with 5 speeches. Each of these manuals has a specific topic. Among others, there is a "Technical Speaking" manual for those who wish to give talks about technical topics, a "Speaking to Inform" manual to help you organize your thoughts more thoroughly, as well as a manual to help people develop strong presentations in front of their manager. 

 

If you have questions or would like to join, please see our VP of Membership at our next meeting.

 

 

All of this is available for a small semi-annual fee of $50. This consists of $27 for Toastmasters International which subscribes you to the Toastmaster magazine and allows you to participate in speaking contests at the area and district levels. The other $23 is for our local club.

 

Applications for New Members:

• Membership Application for Districted Clubs (400) 

 

Site Maintained by: Mark Kirby

 

Last Updated: July 12, 2007