Information for guests
Visitors are welcome! Come along and enjoy an entertaining and educational evening with us. You may prefer to contact us prior to attending a meeting, or you may simply turn up on the night. There is no need for you to bring anything to the meeting – except your desire to learn new skills!
Most Toastmasters agree that this first step is often the hardest. But by simply turning up for one of our meetings, you are on the path to improving your public speaking skills.
About our club
We are a club of around 20 members of various ages and backgrounds who come together on the second and fourth Thursday of each month to further develop our public speaking skills. The club has a vibrant nature and our meetings are full of enthusiasm, excitement and fun.
By joining our club, you will have the opportunity to:
- Practise speaking confidently in front of individuals and groups
- Improve your presentation skills for work or for pleasure
- Develop invaluable leadership skills
- Socialise and make lifelong friends
- Achieve better results in all facets of your life
- Gain that competitive advantage
Toastmasters is open to anyone wanting to improve their presentation and leadership skills for work or pleasure!
What happens at a meeting?
Our meetings generally consist of three parts:
- Impromtu speeches
- Prepared speeches
- Evaluations
Impromptu speeches, or "Table Topics" in Toastmasters jargon, allow you to improve your ability to think on your feet. You may be asked to speak on a variety of topics for one to two minutes, but without preparation! Although this may be a daunting task at first, most of our members agree that the table topics experience is the most of enjoyable part of the evening.
Prepared speeches, on the other hand, allow you to speak on topics of your choice. By working through the Toastmasters speech manuals, you focus on different aspects of speech making and learn how to make your speech more interesting and impactful by using appropriate body language, vocal variety, humour, props and other techniques.
All speeches, including table topics, are evaluated. Evaluations assist the speaker by highlighting one or two areas for improvement and providing positive feedback on aspects of the speech well done. Evaluations are carried out in an encouraging and supportive manner. By joining Toastmasters, providing effective evaluations is another skill you will acquire.
You do not have to present a speech or participate in Table Topics at every meeting. Our club aims to work around your work and life schedule. You are encouraged not to allow too much time between prepared speeches, but you can nominate a time that best suits you to present them. Even when you are not giving a speech, you can still participate in a meeting by taking on one of the meeting roles:
- Evaluator
- Timer
- Table Topics Master
- General Evaluator
- Toastmaster
- Grammarian
- Gruntmeter Master (Ah-Counter)
These roles are a great way to further develop your leadership and presentation skills and actively participate in our club. The details of these tasks are explained during the meeting. If you would like to read more about club meeting roles, click on the link to Toastmasters International.
What are you waiting for? Check out the calendar and come along and join us at our next meeting!