Crosswinds Toastmasters #7858

Marshalltown, Iowa

Toastmasters can help you

• Conquer the fear of speaking to a group
• Run efficient meetings.
• Become an effective speaker by improving presentation skills.
• Develop and maintain good professionalism skills.
• Improve listening skills and people skills.
• Gain confidence and develop clear thinking.
• Think quickly on your feet.
• Improve humor skills.
• Develop communication skills vital to personal and business growth.
• Become more interesting to others.
• Become more efficient with your time.
• Learn Parliamentary Procedures (Robert's Rules of Order).
• Become comfortable with last minute changes.
• Develop skills to be a Master of Ceremonies.
• Develop and refine your leadership skills.

Typical Membership Costs

• First time members pay $20 to Toastmasters International for manuals.
• First time members pay $5 to local club.
• Monthly costs: $5.50 / month (paid in six month increments) � $4.50 to Toastmasters International (includes a Toastmaster magazine subscription) and $1 to the local club.

General Info

• Meet weekly with a business meeting and an educational meeting.
• Business meetings are short (fewer than 10 minutes) � practice parliamentary procedures. Educational meetings consume the remainder of the meeting.
• Assignments rotate every week � Speaker, Grammarian, Evaluator, etc. Over a period of time each person will have the opportunity to fill each type of assignment.
• Not a lot of work � only extra effort is preparing for a short 5-7 minute speech (probably once in six weeks) and serving as Toastmaster for the Day (probably once in three months).
• Go at your own pace. There are no requirements about how often a person speaks.
• Everybody participates at every meeting � there are no spectator members.
• Start on time / stop on time � people are busy � need to stay on schedule.
• Choose any topic for speeches. Each speech focuses on a specific aspect of speaking. At first learn ways to control nervousness and organize a speech. Later learn ways to use body language and vocal variety (pitch, volume, and rate) to enhance a speech.
• There are ten speeches in the first manual. After completing this manual, move on to advanced manuals (topics include story telling, speaking on television, humor).
• Evaluating helps people increase skills in listening and speaking tactfully. Begin with numerous positive comments, list one or two constructive comments, and end on a positive note. Verbal evaluations help everyone learn quickly.
• Lots of applause! Encourages people and makes them feel good about their efforts.
• Lots of humor! Learn lots. Have lots of fun. Leave looking forward to the next meeting.

Links

Downloads

For information about files with .pdf, .zip, or .txt extensions click here