TM provides speakers with confidence

Toastmasters Provides Speakers With Confidence

by David Uhler
San Antonio Express-News

August 22, 2002

For more than 75 years, Toastmasters International has been a place where even the most terrified speakers can get the butterflies out of their stomachs while honing their public speaking and leadership skills.

Alfred Herzing, the president of the International Organization, says the biggest benefit of Toastmasters is self-confidence.

"Through the power of our program, we literally make a transformation in their personality," says Herzing, whose office is in Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif. "To give them the self-confidence to speak up in business, to speak up in personal situations, to share their views."

Toastmasters calls this "teaching people to talk turkey without turning chicken."

Greg Ramsey, a 38-year-old technology manager who joined the San Antonio Toastmasters just this past February, says the training has already paid off. "I can recall a time when I was asked to stand up and accept an award from my company, and I was struck with fear," Ramsey recalls. "I went up there and mumbled a few words, 'Mmmm and mmmm,' and headed back to the back row.

Now, I would approack that totally differently. I've enjoyed gaining that sense of self-expression."

The global organization is holding its annual convention in San Antonio this week. Toastmasters International has nearly 185,000 members in 8,300 clubs in 70 countries.

Toastmasters was founded by Ralph C. Smedley, an education director at a YMCA in Bloomington, Ill. Realizing that older boys who visited the club needed training in speech communications, Smedley established a public speaking group. He called it "The Toastmasters Club," choosing the name because the club offered kids opportunitites to make toasts and speeches such as those given at banquets.

Smedley's career with the YMCA took him through several Illinois cities, where he launched Toastmasters clubs that folded every time he moved on. Eventually, Smedley moved in California, where he founded a club at a YMCA in Santa Ana in 1924 that flourished. With Smedley's encouragement, men who lived in the area visited the club and set up their own clubs. Toastmasters International was incorporated in 1932.

Most Toastmasters clubs meet weekly or biweekly. Some gather for lunch or dinner in restaurant banquet rooms. Others meet in conference rooms or meeting halls. According to Toastmasters tradition, all members are required to speak at each meeting. The format of regular meetings give members several ways to take part.

Only one member serves as "toastmaster." He or she will serve as host and introduce the speakers and other participants, all the while making sure the meeting follows Robert's Rules of Order, the last word on proper parliamentary procedure.

Toastmasters' educational program has two paths: a communications track and a leadership track.