Many people, with some justification, are petrified at even the thought of having to stand up and address a crowd of people. Speaking in public is not an easy thing to do no matter who you are, whether you are the Best Man at a wedding, a senior manager at a customer gathering, or a tour-guide in a theme park. However, there is a more positive aspect to consider, and it is this: public speaking is a skill. It is something that can be learned and improved. The challenge for most people is in finding a place to practice and develop the skill of public speaking, and Toastmasters offers just a forum to do this.

Toastmasters International was founded in the 1920s in California, USA, by Ralph C Smedley to 'afford practice and training in the art of public speaking and in presiding over meetings, and to promote sociability and good fellowship among its members'. Over the intervening years, it has grown in strength - as of this writing comprising nearly 10,000 clubs and 200,000 members in 80 countries. Despite the somewhat ungainly name, which conjures up an image of gentlemen in dinner jackets toasting the latest fox-hunt, the organisation does not discriminate on the lines of sex, race, nationality, creed or social status; there are no secret oaths or passwords; and the vast majority of clubs are open to anyone over the age of 18. It is mostly run by amateur members on a non-profit basis. Membership fees are usually quite reasonable - a year's membership is often far cheaper than a two-day professional course in public speaking.

The Toastmasters Club

The main activity of Toastmasters is organised around the local Toastmasters Club. The club meets regularly - usually one evening every two weeks, often in a hotel. The size of the club will vary from 20-40 people, and not all will be present on any one night. The meetings last two hours, and tend to follow a programme of activities, which will usually involve an introduction, an impromptu speaking activity (the Topics Session), the prepared speeches, the speech evaluations, the general evaluation, and the meeting close.

The Introduction

The meeting is normally started by the Club President¹, who quickly passes control to the Toast Master. The Toast Master is charged with running the meeting for the night². The Toast Master will speak briefly about their role, introduce the members in other roles, summarise the agenda, welcome the guests and, finally, he or she will introduce the Topics Master, who will kick off the Topics Session.

The Topics Session

The main purpose of the Topics Session is to encourage people to think on their feet in a public forum. The Topics Master introduces a topic to be discussed - for example, 'Is Reality TV a good thing or a bad thing?' or 'If you were a colour, what colour would you be?' - and he or she will select a member of the club to discuss the topic. The chosen member must stand up and ad-lib on the subject for two minutes. After that, other members can chime in with their opinions. If there are no further takers, the Topics Master will select another topic for another club member. Guests will not be asked to speak on a topic³ but they are more than welcome to speak if they have a viewpoint on it. The Topics Session will normally last 10 to 20 minutes.

The Prepared Speeches

The Toast Master will then introduce the prepared speeches. These are given by club members who typically will have had a number of weeks to prepare the speeches in advance. While they can choose the subject of the speech themselves, they will be expected to emphasise certain aspects of their speaking style in accordance with the guidelines for that speech. For instance, if the aim of the talk is to emphasise vocal variety, the speaker will be expected to raise and lower the tone of their voice throughout the speech. If the aim of the speech is to work with words, the speaker will be expected to carefully choose the words they use to deliver maximum impact. Speeches normally last between four and eight minutes, depending on the speech being delivered. See the Basic Speech Programme section below for more information.

The Speech Evaluations

After all the prepared speeches have been delivered, other club members are given the role of evaluating the speeches. The Evaluator is normally a more experienced speaker who has completed a similar speech some time before. They are required to refer to the speech guidelines in delivering their evaluation, and they must deliver a brief talk on what they enjoyed about the speaker's style, and what could be improved in the next speech. The evaluation for each speech normally lasts two to three minutes.

The General Evaluation

Because Toastmasters is dedicated to practice and improvement, an experienced member is assigned the role of General Evaluator to review the entire meeting. The Toast Master, the Topics Master and each speech evaluator will be given some personal advice on what worked and what didn't work that night, and how they can do it better the next time. General Evaluations should normally only last a few minutes, but this will vary depending on the personality of the General Evaluator!

The Meeting Close

After the General Evaluation, the Toast Master will thank all the people involved in the meeting. The Toast Master will then hand control over to the Club President, who may alert members to other items of business, such as competition nights. The meeting then ends, and club members often go to the bar for a nightcap before returning home.

Basic Speech Programme

Although there are a large number of 'long termers' in any Toastmasters club, most members of Toastmasters are relative newcomers who are working toward achieving a basic qualification in public speaking, known as the Competent Toastmaster, or CTM. When a new member joins the club, they are given the Basic Manual, which provides them with the guidelines they need to achieve the CTM qualification. The Basic Manual is divided into ten stages, and each Toastmaster needs to deliver ten speeches - one for each stage. How long they take to deliver all ten speeches is quite up to them⁴.

The first speech is the icebreaker speech. The aim of this is to introduce yourself to the club, and to control your nerves in front of a group of people. The second speech is not much different: you are asked to select a topic that is close to your heart, and to expound on this for five minutes or so. Again, the focus of this speech is very much on controlling your nerves. The next four speeches are more technical. They concentrate in turn on organising the speech into a logical structure, using body language effectively, raising and lowering the tone and rate of your voice, and selecting the right words to maximise the impact on the audience. The later speeches focus more on the art of speech craft - bringing all your technical skills together, using props and flipcharts, designing a persuasive speech, and finally, delivering a speech that inspires your audience.

This programme can seem daunting, but it is actually quite a lot of fun. The main thing to remember is that you are among friends, so if you freeze up, or forget your lines, or miss an entire section of the speech midway, nobody will belittle you or laugh at you. As you go from speech to speech, your style will improve. You will be told about things that are effective in your speaking style, and you will be alerted to unconscious distractions. You will become more confident about your speaking ability and less afraid to speak coherently in front of a large audience.

Advanced Speech Programmes

After achieving the CTM qualification, the member can choose to go forward and earn an Advanced Toastmaster (ATM) qualification. There is more specialisation at this stage, and there are dozens of speeches to choose from. The idea is to simulate more real-world environments, to help equip the speaker with the tools they need to address very different situations. More experienced Toastmasters may also be required to speak in public at outside forums and take responsibility for the development of clubs in the local area.

Other Activities

A number of competitions are held each year which help club members assess their ability compared to others. There is a humorous speech contest, a serious speech contest and evaluation contests, where the winners go ahead to participate against members of other clubs. The top speakers each year will deliver their speech at the World Speaking Contest in California.

Benefits

The principal benefit of Toastmasters for many people is the self-confidence gained from the experience. This self-confidence tends to manifest itself in different situations outside the realm of public speaking, because if you can conquer the fear of standing up and speaking in public, you often may feel more confident in meeting other challenges in your work and social life. Toastmaster meetings tend to be very sociable and friendly occasions, so it is a good place to meet people and have a bit of fun for a while. In addition it is a good learning experience - not just in terms of what you learn from your own speeches, but also from what is to be learned from others when they deliver their speeches.

Further Reading

More information on Toastmasters International can be found at www.toastmasters.org.

If you're worried about speaking in public, your fellow Researchers have some words of wisdom for you:

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