Chippewa Valley Toastmasters’ new club year is underway with a new set of club officers. You can find them in the column on your right. We have experienced leaders in our club this year as well as a few new officers like myself.
I have been with Chippewa Valley Toastmasters just a few months but I want to share with you what I think is the single largest value of participating in our club: You learn to think on your feet.
This is a tremendous advantage if you participate in any group or if you regularly volunteer yourself in community projects. You may not know it but most of us begin our lives on an equal playing field when we graduate from high school. We have no money, no place of our own, no material possessions, and no experience. Twenty or more years later, *poof!* we find that we have had careers in an industry, we now have experience, a little money, material possessions ( too many!) , and a place that we call home.
One thing that we learn from our experience is that those who are comfortable talking with groups usually appear to have just a little more of everything than those who do not. This ability to comfortably speak was not acquired at Office Max or your local bowling alley. It was ‘learning by doing’. For many of us, that speaking experience was tough to learn on our own and it was often fraught with humbling and embarrassing moments. There is no need for that when you have Toastmasters to help you acquire and develop your own natural speaking style.
Everyone speaks differently. Your own style will emerge as you work your way through a Toastmaster program that guides you through mastering your own voice and your own body gestures that reflect you… at your best.
The speaking experience at the club is relaxed and your club members provide you positive feedback on what worked well and then, perhaps, they will give you a little challenge to do more of something the next time you speak. As a CVT member, watching and listening to other speakers gives you role models to follow but not to mimic. And one of the greatest learning tools available is an environment that permits you to model after your peers.
And then one day it will happen. You will find yourself in a group of people and you will have something to say. The words will flow effortlessly from you and, as you are talking, you realize that it is because of all the practice you had at Chippewa Valley Toastmasters. When you have finished, you will see people nodding their heads in agreement with what you said and you will then know that you have acquired a new skill.
Chippewa Valley Toastmasters provides the experience for you to learn how to think on your feet.
Come visit us. You can attend as many meetings as you like as a guest. Listen to the speeches and the evaluations. When you are ready, become a member and begin learning to think on your feet.
Dale
