Toastmasters makes learning fun!
This non-profit organization offers a proven – and enjoyable – way to practice communication and leadership skills. Here's how it works:

A Toastmasters meeting is a learn-by-doing workshop in which participants hone their speaking and leadership skills in a friendly atmosphere. A typical group has 20 to 40 members who meet weekly or biweekly to practice public speaking techniques. The average meeting lasts one hour.

Members learn communication skills by working in the Competent Communication manual, a series of 10 self-paced speaking assignments designed to instill a basic foundation in public speaking. Participants learn skills related to use of humor, gestures, eye contact, speech organization and overall delivery. When finished with this manual, members can choose from 15 advanced manuals to learn skills related to specific interests.

Members also learn leadership skills by taking on various meeting roles and serving as officers at the club and district levels, and by working in the Competent Leadership manual and the High Performance Leadership program. In our learn-by-doing approach, we don't lecture our members about leadership skills; we give them responsibilities and ask them to lead.

What is a Freethinker meeting like?
We're here to help! Let us help you!

Perhaps the greatest fear of coming to one of our meetings is that you may be forced to "do something". Well, fear not! Here's the worst than happens to you at a Toastmasters meeting:

1. At the beginning of the meeting, you will be asked to introduce yourself - your name, where you heard about us.

2. At the end of the meeting, you will be asked to tell us what you thought of the meeting.

Both of these requests are strictly voluntary.

Our main goal is to make guests, potential new members, and members comfortable. We promote an easy-to-live-through, fun process, in a safe atmosphere. No one is forced to do or say anything. If you join, you will be asked to participate, assigned simple tasks (see FUNCTIONARIES), and eased into the process of public speaking at your own pace. Everything is voluntary and you may pass at any time. You can take as long as you like to actually participate or give a speech. This isn't like a speech class in school, where you have deadlines, grades, or peers who might ridicule you. Every member of Toastmasters has "been there", in that "beginner" role. We're all here because we needed help with the process. We've stayed members because we've grown, gained confidence, and have learned to love the process. We gained that confidence with practice, and the help of our fellow Toastmasters. This is like learning to swim surrounded by a room full of lifeguards! You just can't drown! We won't let you! Be our guest and visit us for a meeting!

Our regular meetings consist of a quick business meeting, table topics, prepared speeches, awards, functionary reports, and evaluations of the day's speakers.

TABLE TOPICS:
A Table Topics Master is assigned ahead of the meeting. Their task is to come up with an interesting topic or set of topics for the day. During this portion of the meeting, each Toastmaster is given a topic and has 1-2 minutes to speak on that topic. Guests may also participate, but it is NOT required.

PREPARED SPEECHES:
Speakers decide ahead of time whether they would like to give a speech and have at least two weeks between meetings to prepare.

AWARDS:
At each meeting, the members vote for their pick of the best Table Topics presenter, the best Speaker, and the best Evaluator. This promotes self-esteem and sets up a mild competition between speakers which helps them to perform their very best.

FUNCTIONARIES:
This is where you start getting over those flutters of panic. There are several positions that are assigned for every meeting, simple tasks that get you comfortable with being here.
The JOKEMASTER is in charge of lightening everyone up with a joke.
The GRAMMARIAN checks our grammar during the meeting and let's us know what we did right as well as what we need to improve on, and gives us the word of the day. We're suppose to incorporate the word of the day into our speeches; we try - really!
The TIMER runs the timing lights for all speeches and gives a timing report.
The VOTE COUNTER counts votes.
The AH COUNTER counts, yes, you've got it, AH's. It might sound silly, but, it really does help you improve to have someone count how many times you stall by saying "ah" or "umm" while you're speaking.

EVALUATIONS:
Each of the speakers is evaluated. This sounds pretty frightening to most of our guests, but is the most valuable part of the entire meeting. All advice given is constructive, given by members who have become very adept at evaluating speeches, and helps the speaker learn to improve the style, vocal quality, gesture, audience rapport, and over-all general technique. Here is where you learn to become the consummate speaker.