Toastmasters for Tojosan

Toastmasters has been around since 1924. The nonprofit organization now has nearly 235,000 members in 11,700 clubs in 92 countries. In my area there are several active clubs, meeting just about every day of the week.

It turns out that the company I work for, Covidien, has its own club, The Covidien Communicators. The Communicators have been around just about a year, but the group has already grown to over 20 regular members. The roster now includes yours truly.

I attended my first meeting this week. The welcome was quite enthusiastic. Mike, one of the leaders, contacted me the day before to make sure I knew the date, time and location, as well as extended a personal invitation. He also briefed me on what to expect at the meeting and in general.

The meeting was run professionally with what I learned later was a standard organization. Every part is planned ahead, including who takes each role, who will speak, and what the table topics are.

The table topics was the most enjoyable to me. So what is table topics? Here’s an excerpt from the Toastmasters site:

Table Topics usually begins after the prepared speech presentations. The Toastmaster of the meeting will introduce the Topicsmaster who will walk to the lectern and assume control of the meeting. The Topicsmaster will give a brief description of the purpose of Table Topics and mention if the topics will carry a theme.

The Topicsmaster will state the question or topic briefly and then call on a respondent. Each speaker receives a different topic or question and participants are called on at random.

When you’re asked to respond to a topic, stand next to your chair and give your response. Your response should last one to two minutes.

Sounds like fun right? Well, fun at my first meeting anyway. I didn’t get called upon. I almost wish I did though. The questions were all themed around Mardi Gras and traditions.

After the meeting, the President of the club greeted me and indicated she’d been assigned as my mentor. Made me feel noticed and appreciated for joining.

I’d say the club and I are off to a good start. My sponsor had lunch with me just two days after the meeting and I’m scheduled to do my first speech. It’s a basic introduction speech. The basic idea is to get used to public speaking. If you know me, that might not seem like a problem, but I do not consider myself a talented speaker.

My goals in joining are both to learn and improve my speaking techniques, and to learn and hone leadership skills. Increasingly in my position at work, I find myself speaking in front of both peers, managers, and customers. At those times, I’m alternately coworker, project leader, and educator. It’s an interesting mix, and often taxes my current skills.

Anticipating success is key to any endeavor. That in mind, I’m kicking this off looking forward to be a speaker to reckon with one day.

Cheers,

Todd

@tojosan on Twitter