SouthSide Speakers
Southside Speakers Pollokshields Burgh Hall 70 Glencairn Drive Pollokshields G41 4LL Every 2nd & 4th Thursday of the month Dear Guest, Welcome to this evening’s meeting of Southside Speakers, the second Glasgow branch of Toastmasters International, thank you for visiting us. Today many people are more comfortable communicating by e-mail or telephone than communicating face-to-face. Speaking to large or small groups, or even one to one, can be intimidating or even frightening. At Southside Speakers you CAN learn how to overcome these challenges and transform your public speaking experiences into enjoyable and successful ones. You will see tonight that all our meetings are conducted in a supportive and positive environment – we all help each other! As a member of this Club you will learn how to organise, express and present your thoughts and reduce the nervousness you feel when you speak. You can improve your ability to listen and evaluate other people’s ideas and learn or develop vital leadership skills along the way. Tonight, as our guest, we welcome you to sit back and simply watch the evening unfold. Alternatively, you are also very welcome to participate in sessions such as Table Topics. Whatever you choose we are pleased to have you as our guest this evening. We hope you have an enjoyable night. Yours sincerely
Jane Cameron, Avril McNeill, Oscar Merkx Club Sponsors Southside Speakers www.southsidespeakers.org.uk Tel: Jane Cameron 07837 011690 Oscar Merkx 0141 564 3988
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SouthSide Speakers MEMBERSHIP What do I get as a member? All new members to Toastmasters begin their journey by receiving their Communication and Leadership Manual. This manual contains 10 project speeches which will progressively build your speaking ability and confidence. On completion of your tenth speech, you will be presented with the award of Competent Toastmaster (CTM) – this is a great achievement! Members will also receive three manuals, entitled Your Speaking Voice, Gestures: Your Body Speaks and Effective Speech Evaluation. These manuals will provide tips on improving these aspects of your communication. In addition, members receive The Toastmaster magazine, published monthly. This periodical includes advice and testimonies from successful Toastmasters worldwide and keeps members up to date with international events in the organisation. The Communication and Leadership (C&L) Program Here are the 10 speech objectives: 1. “The Icebreaker” – Introducing yourself 2. Organise your Speech 3. Get to the Point 4. How to say It 5. Your Body Speaks 6. Vocal Variety 7. Research Your Topic 8. Get Comfortable with Visual Aids 9. Persuade with Power 10. Inspire your Audience The C&L manual contains details on how to prepare for your speeches and the speech topics are entirely of your choosing. Each project speech will build on any skills acquired in previous speeches. Additional guidance is available from a mentor, club sponsors or your fellow club members. All you have to do is ask!
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THE EDUCATION PROGRAMME Continuous practise and learning is important in developing your confidence and skills when communicating. The Toastmaster programme is extensive and allows you to progress at your own pace and following the elements of communicating which you are especially interested in. Once you have achieved your CTM, you can extend your horizons further through the Advanced Toastmasters (ATM) programme. The three levels of bronze, silver and gold enable you to specialise in varied communication topics such as Speaking to Inform, Persuasive Speaking, Special Occasion Speeches, The Entertaining Speaker and many more. In addition, the optional Competent Leader (CL) and Advanced Leader (AL) awards provide simple and effective tracks to help you develop and improve your leadership skills. ROLES IN THE TOASTMASTER MEETING The Toastmasters program is designed to help build communication and leadership skills. Besides prepared speeches, the various meeting roles at club meetings encourage different skills and thus build confidence in different areas of communication and leadership. Here is an outline of some of these roles: The Toastmaster of the Evening (TME): The main duty of the TME is to act as a congenial host and chair the entire programme, including introducing the participant. He or she also has the responsibility for ensuring that all proceedings run smoothly and on time. The Table Topics Master: The purpose of table topics is to have members “speak off the cuff” for 1-2 minutes on a given topic. The Table Topics Master prepares and issues these topics. Each speaker is later evaluated by the Table Topics Evaluator. The ‘Ah’ Counter: The purpose of the ‘Ah’ Counter is to note words and sounds such as “errs”, “ums”, crutch words or pause-fillers used by anyone who speaks during the meeting. The ‘Ah’ Counter presents a report in the second half of the meeting. The Timer: The Timer is responsible for keeping track of time. The Timer times all speakers doing table topics, prepared speeches and evaluations and presents a report in the second half of the meeting. Evaluators: Everything in a Toastmasters meeting is evaluated. This helps you to understand what your speaking strengths are and hope you can improve your effectiveness as a speaker. All Evaluators are very supportive and constructive. Evaluators are assigned for the table topics session, prepared speeches and the overall evaluation of the evening.
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SouthSide Speakers JOINING If you enjoyed your experience with us this evening we hope your final question for tonight will be “How do I join?” Joining could not be simpler. Just complete the form at the back of this pack and hand it, together with your joining fee and annual/semi-annual fee, to one of the 3 Club Officers. There is an initial one-off joining fee, currently £10, for lifetime membership to Toastmasters International. This allows you to transfer your membership to ANY club around the world. In addition, Southside Speaker subscriptions are collected annually or every six months – we provide a discount if you pay annually. The six-monthly subscription is a total of £108 (2 payments of £54 each) and the annual subscription is £90. These costs cover the running of the club (venue hire, club materials etc). We are a not-forprofit club and the club is run by the members for the members. NOT SURE? If you enjoyed tonight’s meeting but have not quite decided if Toastmasters is for you, we would encourage you to come back to our next meeting. As a guest you are welcome to attend three meetings free of charge before we would ask you to commit to becoming a member. So, as either a new member or returning as a guest, we look forward to welcoming you back again to our next meeting, details of which can be found on the club website at www.southsidespeakers.org.uk Yours sincerely
Jane Cameron, Avril McNeill, Oscar Merkx Club Sponsors Southside Speakers www.southsidespeakers.org.uk Tel: Jane Cameron 07837 011690 Oscar Merkx 0141 564 3988
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