The Art of Public Speaking.

  I am currently reading "The Art of Public Speaking" by Dale Carnegie. Published in 1915  I have never read this book before and I wish I had a lot sooner because I think it is excellent. I could have used this sound council presented in this book many years ago.  

Chapter one is entitled "Acquiring Confidence Before an Audience". 

 The fear many of us have had or currently have about getting up in front of an audience and speaking is not uncommon. "What will they think of me?" "What if I freeze up or stutter and stammer and make a fool of myself?" "Everyone will be looking at me!" These thoughts and many more have all gripped us at one level or another sometime in our life in regards to public speaking!   

There are three points I would like to highlight from what I read in chapter one" 

1.  Do not make haste to begin and speak often. 

  Not only is beginning your speech quickly, once you are in front of your audience. a good idea, I believe this also applies for us in Toastmasters to scheduling your speech. The sooner the better. We in toastmaster of course handle this in a kind and gentle manner but I believe jumping right in is a great way to overcome the fear as you have a shorter time to worry yourself about it and just get it started! 

As Mr Carnegie puts it in his book " You must learn to speak by speaking!"

2.  Have something to say and practice, practice, practice!

   You are a messenger with a message to deliver! A worthy message, that if you hold it deeply will help you to focus on that rather than undue self consciousness about yourself.  You are not the exhibit here before the audience,  you are the messenger with a worthy message for the audience. These truths are not only more important than you they are more important than the audience as well, as truth is eternal!     When you practice and are prepared this also goes a long way of alleviating anxiety. 

3.  Finally Be courageous and Face Your Fear! 

  You can do this! It is within you to overcome this fear and present the truths that you have to share. 

 I was visiting another Toastmasters club recently. One of the speakers was a young woman and she was new to Toastmasters and If I am not mistaken this was her Ice Breaker Speech.  Regardless, she was new to public speaking and when I say she was nervous that is a very large understatement! She was literally shaking! Her legs and hands shaking uncontrollably and her voice was very stressed as she spoke. She told us about her immigration from Venezuela and the hardships that she and her family faced there! She went on  to tell us about how when she got the the United States how kind and friendly everyone was to her and her loved ones as they came here to start a new life.   I am not overstating to say she was very scared to give her speech that day, but she did it anyway!  She faced her fear! We all offered words of encouragement and conducted a round robin evaluation.  I tell you this and I mean this not at all in a condescending way, I was very proud of her!    This is what courage looks like! 

 In closing I would like to quote Dale Carnegie in regards to this fear of public speaking and what he has said to overcome it:

"Is all this unsympathetic do you say?  Man, What you need is not sympathy but a push!"

  We here in Toastmasters are not drill Sargents pushing you and demanding you drop and give us fifty push ups when you make a mistake!  

  We will support you and help you along the way and we may gently push you a little as well!  I can't wait to hear your next speech! 

What should I speak about?

   In preparing Educational Moments each week, this question can certainly apply! What can I give an educational moment on?  The options are many!  What would my club members want to learn or hear about?  Where can I get ideas for educational moments? 

This for many toastmasters can be the same question about speech topics.  "What do I want to talk about?"  In researching this topic, about finding topics,  I first went to, where else, Toastmasters International Webpage.   That source alone is a great resource for this. The internet of course is also full of ideas for how to find speech topics.   Very briefly I want to share three things taken from an article by Ray Engan titled "Bests Suggestions for finding Speech Topics" I would like to offer my own thoughts on each point.    I will include a link to that and other resources at bottom of page.

1. Reflect:

  Think about your life. You are a very interesting person who has lead an interesting life! Where did you grow up? What was your family like? Where did you go to school, What do you do for a living? how did you get into that?  What is different or unique about your life story? 

  I tell a story of having two older brothers. There is 12 and 15 years difference in our age.  We all ended up marrying women with the same birthday! (August 10th)   How in the world does that happen?   

   I heard a story by a man some years back at an event, his name was "Shore". That is an unusual name. He told the story of how when he got to be a young adult he finally made his Mother tell him why they named him that!   She very reluctantly, after much persuasion, told him That is where you were conceived. 

 These are just a couple examples you are an interesting person and learning about you is always a good thing.  Live Life and Pay attention Speech ideas are all around you. 

2. Connect

 Connecting with the audience to me is the whole point of public speaking. How do I do that!?  You know those things we for some reason think we are all alone in? We all are looking for someone to show us we are not alone! Those experiences and how they make us feel can be a way to connect with our audience.  How often have you listened to a speaker and identified with the story they shared?  The same is true for you, there are people out there that will identify and connect with your stories!   People relate on many levels and especially on challenges and adversity in life. 

3. Resonate

  Meaningful messages.  We are all on this journey of life and we are all learning.  What difficult lessons have you learned along your path?  What is something while going through it that you did not enjoy and yet it taught you some great life lessons?     What story of persistence do you have to tell. Something you were in pursuit of and refused to give up! Has there been anyone in your life that refused to give up on you?  All these type of things and many more will resonate with your audience.  We are all more alike than many of us want to acknowledge!   Seeing someone else that has similar struggles, challenges and victories resonates inside of us. 

 This is just a very small sampling of information that is available on this topic of "What should I speak about" Please do some of your own research by searching Toastmaster international page and other sources on the internet. 

 Reflect, Connect, and  Resonate . 

Link to articles:

https://www.toastmasters.org/magazine/magazine-issues/2021/may/speech-topics-are-everywhere 

https://www.toastmasters.org/magazine/magazine-issues/2023/apr/back-to-the-basics-speech-topics

Meeting Roles for Toastmasters

Meeting Roles:

Most of us even the newer members are familiar now with the roles we have during a toastmasters meeting.  This list is taken directly from the Pioneer Toastmasters web page. It is under the Members only tab and then select Meeting Roles:   I would like to add a few comments about each roll very briefly: 

The following roles are assigned to members each week, each role exercising a different area of one’s public speaking muscle. Visitors are welcome to participate in Table Topics, but the rest of the roles will be filled by members.

 

Toastmaster The person filling this role is a meeting's director and host. This person will preside over the meeting, calling up each person to fulfill their role when it is time.

 Very important role one of the things we like the toastmaster to do also is on sunday or monday go to the meetings agenda page on the Pioneer Website and click on the email icon under that weeks agenda. This will tell the system you wish to send out an email with the agenda attached.    This is a reminder to the membership about the meeting the coming Wednesday and what is going on. 

Grammarian/Inspiration/’Outspiration’ The Grammarian helps club members improve their grammar and vocabulary by taking note of exceptional usages of words and phrases, as well as the overuse of words or filler sounds. The Grammarian also brings two inspirational quotes to share, one at the beginning of the meeting and one at the end.

  Great roll. Have fun with the Inspiration and Outspiration.  We emphasize the filler words and word of the day well but there is also the element ot proper or improper use of grammar.  Like I mentioned in a recent previous educational moment use the clicker for filler words.  

Timer, Word of the Day, and Jokester Each prepared speech must stay within a predetermined time frame, and the timer is in charge of recording the length of the speech. In addition, speech evaluators and participants in table topics responses are required to stay within a certain time. In our club, the timer delivers a joke at the beginning of the meeting, and brings us a word of the day we try to use at least once in the meeting.

 Fun roll  remember to not get so enthralled with the speaker and forget to start or stop the timer. :) 

Speakers In our club we try to have three prepared speeches delivered at each meeting. Each member of our club will begin with the Competent Communicator manual, a book with 10 speech projects that focus on different aspects of public speaking (organizing a speech, vocal variety, using visual aids, being persuasive, etc).

  What we are here to do. Value these speaker rolls! We only have so many of them and this is an opportunity to improve in your public speaking abilities.  Be sure to fill in the introduction and speech information for your toastmasters on the pioneer web page. 

Table Topics Each week a member will bring a set of questions to the meeting, and ask for volunteers to come up and answer a question, on the spot. This exercise develops impromptu speaking skills, and is open to both members and visitors.

So much fun. Be creative with the way you do this role. In visiting a recent club the Table Topics master had a list of questions and had the members roll dice for the number of the question they would use.  They also threw in another option for "extra credit". That was they listed a few different accents they could use and it was awesome. One lady used the southern accent and it was awesome! Another member used the Rocky Balboa accent. SO much fun!

  Evaluators Constructive evaluation is central to the Toastmasters philosophy. Each time you give a prepared speech, an evaluator will point out strengths as well as suggest improvements. Receiving - and giving - such feedback is a great learning experience.

 This is a very important roll. Sometimes difficult when you have such good speaker. It is important to give positive feedback for sure but honestly we are here to try and help each other improve! SO be looking for things to suggest they can do better and some suggestions to take the speech just over the top in quality 

Quizmaster In Pioneer Toastmasters, we believe that listening is as important as speaking. The quizmaster will test how we’ve listened throughout the meeting by quizzing us on what was said during the course of the evening.

 Not totally unique to our club but not every club has this. It's important to listen as well as to speak. 

How to introduce a Prepared Speaker

From the 2023-2024 Toastmasters International Speech Contest Rule Book Chapter 5 General Procedures Letter F "F. For the International, Humorous, and Tall Tales contests, the contest chair must introduce each contestant by announcing the contestant’s name, speech title, speech title, and contestant’s name." This is how in the speech contest people are introduced. It is very specific! It is this way in an effort to give as equal a chance for the contestant as possible. So for example if I was giving a speech lets say the name of the speech was “How to change a Tire” The proper way to introduce myself and my speech would be by saying. Pease welcome our next speaker (contestant) Clap Clap Clap.   Chris Pine, How to change a tire. How to change a tire, Chris Pine. No Clapping Speaker now has the floor Now this is specific on the part of the introduction but also on the part of the audience. "Why all this nit picking Chris!? I just want to have casual introduction."     Well As I mentioned for the speech contest there are specifics so everyone is treated as equally as possible. The introduction is the same for everyone. I have said all of what I have so far to say this.  I challenge and encourage us all when we are Toastmasters to introduce our speakers in this manner. Bring them up first and we all clap Name, Speech Title, Speech Title, Name. They begin

The Grammarian Role and the Form used during meetings

We talked about the Toastmasters Agenda form last week and I wanted to do a quick talk about the Grammarians report form and that role in general.  The form like most of our forms is relatively self explanatory.  The Grammarian will listen for filler words and the word of the day and record who used what in the form.  Also listen for proper or improper use of  grammar.  What we have gotten into the habit of not doing and I think it has definite value is the use of the clicker. So when someone uses a filler like Um or ah they will hear a click from the clicker.  This is to alert the speaker they are using a filler word. As you may have noticed, especially when you first started in toastmasters you often don't even realize you are using filler words.  This is a mechanism to alert you that you re doing that. 

  With that being said, if you find this too distracting "Mr Um" is the little black sheep that you often see up on the lecture. If you do not wish to be clicked you simply take him down from view and the grammarian will know to not click you.  

 This form along with the Agenda and the Timers report will be filled out at the bottom accordingly and turned into the Secretary. This will be filed away as our minutes for the meeting. 

 

The "Pioneer Toastmasters Evening Agenda" Form

  The Pioneer Toastmasters Agenda form is a form we use during the meeting to record  the different roles and who actually served in those roles. When the toastmaster arrives that evening you will fill in the appropriate names in each section and this will be used by the different people for reference during the meeting. This is fairly self explanatory.  

  This form is also helpful to referencing general time lines as the meeting progresses. Aa example is Toastmaster is introducing the Table Topics Master and let's say the meeting is running a little behind and it is 10 minutes before 8 o'clock. It would be a good idea for the toastmaster to remind the Table Topics Master please be aware table topics must end by 8 pm.  This will keep the meeting on track and hopefully finishing on time. 

  Towards the bottom of the form the Toastmaster will fill in the winners of the different events and after the meeting is over enter his name in the Toastmaster of the Evening block and sign the form. This form will be turned into the club secretary to be filed as this is serves as the minutes for our meeting. 

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Distinguished Club Program

  The Distinguished Club program is in short are the goals that we have each year as a club. There is a Distinguished club Report that is on Toastmasters International Website and is updated throughout the year. This is a tool we as a club use to track our progress on a variety of goals.  You can see with this report, here for reference, what we are looking at and that we get points for achieved goals.

The report is fairly self explanatory. For example the first Goal is Level 1 Awards. When our club members have achieved 4 level one's in the Pathways program we will achieve that goal. It goes down the list Level 2's and so on.  There are other areas in this list for membership, Training, and administrative things.

The different awards for achieving these goals is listed in the upper right of the report.   

Distinguished = 5 Goals met

Select Distinguished = 7 Goals met

Presidents Distinguished = 9 Goals met

 In the Upper Center of the report is a membership block. Requirements for this are a membership of 20 or net growth of 3 new members. Our club will need to have 20 members Coincidentally we are at 17 so I suppose we need both net growth of 3 as well. 

 When the club is recognized by the district as distinguished they will send us a ribbon that we will place on our club banner. If you look at the banner you will see many ribbons that recognizing decades of toastmasters achievements. This is not just about the ribbon. It is a recognition of the hard work and effort that all of you as members have put in over the year.   It is also the sign of a healthy club. We have struggled the last few years with the membership piece. We seem to regularly achieve many goals, even to the presidents distinguished level but just fall a little short on the 20 members needed to qualify.  I say let's shoot for Presidents distinguished this year and more than 20 members in the club!  I look forward to a great year fellow Pioneer Toastmasters!