Toastmasters Club - Learnings

An inspiring Tamil orator and a writer, Ms Bharathi Baskar left us with several take aways on the last day of our District 120 Conference - Discover 2023. Since knowledge is meant for sharing, here we go with the summary. 1. She was all praises for the Toastmasters fraternity for not only developing great speakers, but also great listeners. She firmly believes that listening equally requires intense training like speaking. As the Internation Speech Contest was in progress, she had to wait for the speaker to conclude, to enter the hall, as per the contest rules. She was fascinated and explained the importance of how a speaker should be treated like a teacher on stage and how it is seldom followed. According to her, chief guests entering the hall while the speaker speaks, might be an intended distraction caused that will demotivate the speaker. 2. She believes that, 'Communication is a path to victory, not only on stage but also in life'. She recalled the incident, where she d...

How it Started In 2015 I enrolled myself in my organization’s Corporate Toastmasters club. A corporate club is limited to the employees of a particular organization. So, I always wanted to be a part of a community club to network with people from various backgrounds. That is when I got to know about Madras Toastmasters Club, where people from various age groups and professions meet during Sunday mornings to improve their communication and leadership skills. My husband became a member and had good feedback to share about the club. Little did I know that, this club was going to be a second home for me in the next few years and was going to bring about a big change in my timid and introverted personality. My Home Club During the 2015 floods in Chennai, when it was raining heavily and the streets were water-logged, my husband started on a Sunday morning to attend the Toastmasters meeting. I was pretty sure that the meeting was not going to happen and most probably the building migh...

It was 4 hours before the most awaited division contest 2022. I was one of the humorous speech contestants and for the first time, I was going to face the live audience at this level of the contest. This year our division had planned to have it in the hybrid mode. Suggestions After recording my rehearsal speech for the 28th time (believe it or not :)), I came out of my room to see a few eager faces. My 11 year old came running to me and said, "Amma shake your hands this way, when you talk about 'Black Pink'. It is their signature move"  My husband said, "When you talk about our younger one's eating habits, keep your mouth exactly the way she keeps. It will emote laughter among the audience" My mom came quickly with a pair of long ear rings and said, "This gold stud is not going well with your western outfit. Wear this." My 4 year old also wanted to add on to the excitement, "Amma don't talk in Tamil, you will be disqualified" (LOL...

Every year after a Toastmasters' contest, I  have a bunch of learnings to progress as a better speaker and a better person irrespective of winning or loosing in the contest. This year was quite interesting because even before the contest I learnt a few lessons. The Rehearsal Recordings When I was listening to my rehearsal recordings during the first few days, when I was not too confident with the script it sounded humorous. However when I was too much familiar with the script, I could feel a sense of overconfidence exhibited as slight arrogance when I listened to the recordings. Voila! this turned out to be a lesson for this year. No evaluator would dare to point this out to a speaker. How Humour Works on Stage In a humorous speech the audience should recognise the speaker as one among them and relate to each and every word uttered. A tone of over confidence or arrogance will spoil the whole show. So I had to work hard to underplay my tone and body language to bring back the humour...

Raariraroo oraariro.....(Tamil song) This is the lullaby I sing for my 4 year old to put her to sleep. Evolution of my voice: When I was in 4th standard, my music teacher told me that I have a thin and soft voice. Little did I know that after 30 years my voice was going to become loud and boisterous.  Are you puzzled? Let me introduce myself as a mom of 2 daughters. Contest master Toastmasters and my dear friends, welcome to the world of parenting. If I am in the kitchen and I have to call my elder one, expecting a response from her, this is the normal volume I can use. TANUSHRIIIIII I am not blaming my daughter for that. If there is one person I can blame it is none other than j.k Rowling. My kid has completed reading the 7 books around 100 times. But when she is reading she enters into Hogwarts. If you are a Potter head you will understand what I mean. But still I have no clue why kids read the same book again n again when it comes to harry potter or wimpy kid or dork diaries. Th...

1. What is Toastmasters? It is a non profit US-head quartered educational organization operating clubs world wide, to promote communication, public speaking and leadership. 2. What is the fee? 20$ is the membership fee(one time) and 45$ is the renewal fee to be paid every 6 months to TMI. New joiners will pay 20$ +45$. However the club might receive an extra amount from the members to account for the expenses like, hall-rent, projector, milestone meeting expenses, zoom expenses, gifts/eatables to members etc. 3. Should I come every week? What if I miss a meeting? It is recommended to be regular, take up roles, speeches and be active in the club. 4.  If I enroll in Toastmasters will I really become good at communication and leadership?  Enrolling is only the first step. Coming regularly to meetings, taking up roles, speeches and excom ownerships, participating in contests, interacting actively with mentors and networking with people from various backgrounds are some of the key ...