Captured Melody Blog

Archive for April 28th, 2011

Hello everyone and I hope you are doing well. I’ve currently have been a Toastmaster for almost a year now and I’m really excited to share with you my recent experiences with you. For the past few months, I have been heavily involved in the group which has made an impact on my life and others in a positive way.

What is Toastmasters?

Toastmasters International is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping people improve their public speaking and leadership skills. The organization has existed for more than 75 years and has chapters in more than 50 countries.

While being a member I have meet many great friends and new people. What I like most about Toastmasters is being able to listen to stories and providing critiques. Although it is not the theatre, it really reminds me of watching and directing actors. I also enjoy the chance to speak and inspire people to think critically and be engaged. That in itself is a very good talent to grow because having the ability to communicate clearly publicly is a skill. I know that in order to be the Director and Leader I want to be that I must be a great speaker that moves people; shaking the water to make splashes!

Some of you may or may not know that each prepared speech that is given in Toastmasters is evaluated by another member and a winner is chosen each night in three categories.

The winning categories are as follows:

1. Table Topics, where members are chosen at random to speak on a created topic and answer a question at the drop of a hat.
2. Best Speaker, members choose to speak on a prepared topic
3. Best Evaluator, members who evaluate the speakers

Having stepped up for the second time to do an evaluation for a speaker, I was pleasantly surprised to win Best Evaluator on April 13th!

The next week I decided to put my Voice and Movement skills together to do a class as my speech. I was able to lead a group of more than 30 people in a circle to do stretching exercises as well as basic voice training in a short 10 minute seminar. It was fun to see the group get involved in the process to enjoy themselves while learning to improve on their enunciation, volume and breathing. The point of the class was to make members aware of their bodies as an instrument. I wish I had a picture to show you what went on!

Last night on April 27th. I took on the leadership role of Table Topics Master. As the TTM, I came up with a subject that pushed fellow members to use their imagination muscles to tell tall tales. I was very happy to receive a lot of great responses from members telling me that I pushed the envelop with my topic just enough that made others have fun with what may be for some an uncomfortable subject. This evening I was also presented with the Honor of becoming Toastmaster of the Month for my active participation during the month of April, presented to me by the chapters President Aye Aung.

Overall this month of Toastmasters has been great! And I look forward to participating in the months ahead. If you are interested about learning more about my club the Westside Toastmasters visit www.westsidetoastmasters.com