What Toastmasters International is all about
MANY people would have heard of Toastmasters International, but not many would really know ongoings in a Toastmasters club’s training meeting.
First, what is Toastmasters International and what does it do?
Toastmasters International, as its name suggests, is an international organisation dedicated to helping its members become better communicators and leaders. It was established on 22 October 1924 by its founder, Ralph C. Smedley, and is currently headquartered in Mission Viejo in California, USA. Currently, there are 15,900 clubs in 142 countries, serving 345,000 members.
Members undertake a selfpaced journey to complete the requirements in the Toastmasters programme, which comprises a communication track and a leadership track. In the communication track, members deliver speeches, which are peer-evaluated, while in the leadership track, members assume leadership roles. A member works at completing four educational modules in the communication track and three in the leadership track. The completion of each module renders the member an award. All the awards combined eventually confer on the member the Distinguished Toastmaster (DTM) Award, the highest educational recognition awarded by the organisation.
Near to home, Toastmasters International took root in Sabah in March 1990 with the chartering of the first Toastmasters club in Sabah, the Kota Kinabalu Toastmasters Club. From this one club, there are now thirty-two Toastmasters clubs in Sabah, Labuan and Brunei, which together form Division K. The Kota Kinabalu Toastmasters Club helped to charter many of these clubs.
Division K combines with seven other Divisions in Sarawak and Indonesia to form District 87. Prior to 2010, Indonesia, East Malaysia and Brunei together constituted a part of the larger District 51, which at one time also included West Malaysia, Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore and Macau. These countries have since gone their separate ways. District 51 currently covers just the southern part of Peninsular Malaysia.
Many of these Toastmasters clubs hold fortnightly training meetings of two and a half hours each. Most of these training meetings are held in the evening at a set and convenient venue from 7.30pm to 10.00pm. In-house clubs, clubs which are affiliated with organisations, usually hold their training meetings during lunch hours.
What happens during a Toastmasters club’s training meeting?
Keeping to time is the hallmark of Toastmasters. The training meeting starts sharply with the Assistant Sergeant At Arms calling the members and guests to observe meeting decorum. He or she requests them to be seated, after which he or she reminds them to switch off their handphones or put them into silent mode. He or she then requests them to stay clear of religion, politics, race and sex when speaking. Considering that Malaysia is a multiracial and multiracial society, the reminder is practical.
In Toastmasters’ lingo, “pass or hand control” means to invite another member to speak in turn. The Assistant Sergeant At Arms then passes control to the Invocator who, in turn, conducts the Invocation. The Invocator invites all present to charge their water-filled glasses, rise and join the Invocator in proposing three Toasts. The first Toast is to the Yang DiPertuan Agong, for which the response from the crowd is “Daulat Tuanku.” The second Toast is to the Yang DiPertua Negeri Sabah, which receives the response, “Tuan Yang Terutama,” while the third and final Toast is to Toastmasters International, for which the response is “Toastmasters International.”
After the Toasts, the Invocator requests the audience to be seated, following which, he or she shares a Thought for the Evening, which is usually a short but uplifting message. He or she then passes control to the Club President to address the training meeting.
The Club President takes control, and requests all guests, if any, to introduce themselves by mentioning their names, their occupations and introducers to the club. The Club President then updates the members on the club’s latest news and events. He or she sets the mood for the training meeting with some inspirational words before introducing and passing control to the Toastmaster of the Evening or Facilitator of the Evening as the role is called in an advanced club.
As the Toastmaster of the Evening or TME, in adherence to guidelines set by Toastmasters International, he or she takes charge over the proceedings of the training meeting. The TME starts by warming up the audience with simple activities such as dividing the members into two groups, and engaging them in a competition of general knowledge. To ensure the success of the training meeting, he or she is assisted by a team of role players, comprising club members, all of whom are requested to verbally explain their respective roles. Club members take turns playing the various roles at the training meetings.
The Timer keeps track of the use of time during the training meeting. Everyone who speaks is timed, to ensure that he or she does not exceed the time allotted to him or her. The Timer uses a device called the “traffic lights,” by which the green light signals to the speaker that he or she has used the minimum time allotted, the yellow light alerts the speaker that the time allotted to him or her is about to expire, while the red lights tells him or her to stop talking. The Timer reports the use of time by every speaker at the end of the training meeting.
People have the tendency to insert crutches in their speeches, which spoil the otherwise smooth flow of their speeches. Crutches such as “Ah,” “Em,” “OK,” “Er,” “You Know, You Know,” and the likes are called “pause fillers.” An Ah Counter counts everyone’s pause fillers, and presents his or her report at the end of the training meeting. The report challenges any speaker who utters too many pause fillers to make a conscientious effort to reduce his or her pause fillers in the future.
First and foremost, effective communication takes centre-stage at a Toastmasters training meeting. Correct grammar ensures clarity of purpose in communication. The Grammarian and Word Master observes the use of language during the training meeting, and reports on incomplete sentences, sentences that change direction in midstream, incorrect grammar and inappropriate use of word in a context, among others. While he or she ignores slangs and twangs, he or she highlights glaring mispronunciations. The report does not name the persons committing the errors. As the Word Master, he or she introduces the “Word of the Evening,” encourages everyone to use it during the training meeting, and names the persons who used the word in his or her report. Finally, he or she records sentences uttered during the meeting, which create vivid images in people’s minds, and report them together with the names of the persons who uttered them.
A typical Toastmasters club’s training meeting is divided into two sessions. The first session is known as the Manual Speech Session, where assigned speakers, usually four or five, deliver their prepared speeches in succession. Most of these speeches, depending on their speech objectives, are five to seven minutes in length. A speaker and his or her presentation are peer-evaluated by an assigned speech evaluator, guided by a set of guidelines, whose feedback the speaker may use to improve his or her next presentation.
Upon joining a club for the first time, a member is given the Competent Communication Manual, which contains ten speech projects, each with its own speech objectives. In preparing a speech for each of the ten speech projects, the member uses his or her own speech material while adhering to the corresponding speech objectives. These speech projects, which address speech organisation, getting to the point, choice of words, body language, vocal variety, research and use of visual aids, among others, equip the members with the basics of speech making. By the time the member reaches the tenth speech project, he or she will be able to inspire his or her audience, for which he or she is presented with the Competent Communicator Award if he or she succeeds in doing so.
After receiving his or her Competent Communicator Award, the member may attempt fifteen advanced manuals, each containing five speech projects with their corresponding speech objectives. These advanced manuals address specialised subjects which include the entertaining speaker, speaking to inform, public relations, facilitating discussion, specialty speeches, speeches by management, the professional speaker, technical presentation, persuasive speaking, communicating on video, storytelling, interpretive reading, interpersonal communication, special occasion speeches and humorously speaking. The completion of every two advanced manuals confers on the member an advanced communicator award, starting with the Advanced Communicator Bronze Award, then to the Advanced Communicator Silver Award before ending with the Advanced Communicator Gold Award. Every member during a Toastmasters training meeting is addressed by his or her Toastmasters award title such as Distinguished Toastmaster Richard Gontusan, Competent Communicator Syed Nabil Syed Abdul Nasir or Advanced Communicator Bronze Sylma Jepin. A member who has yet to complete any educational award is addressed simply as, for example, Toastmaster Harbiah Arman.
The first session ends with the last manual speech for the evening, after which the training meeting breaks for a simple dinner, giving time to the members and guests to interact and enhance fellowship among them. The dinner lasts for thirty minutes before making way to the second session of the training meeting.
People wishing to enhance their skills at thinking and speaking while standing on their feet, or in short, impromptu speaking, will find the second session of the training meeting interesting and challenging. It is the Table Topics or Impromptu Speaking Session.
The Table Topics Master goes to the front, armed with several questions which are topical, contemporary, mind-boggling or philosophical in nature. He or she reads out a question twice and waits for a volunteer to respond. If no one is forthcoming, he or she picks a respondent from among the crowd at random, who will answer the question from one to two minutes. If one participates frequently in the session, one will acquire the readiness to tackle impromptu questions when they arise elsewhere, including in one’s line of work. At the end of the overall training meeting, an assigned evaluator, again guided by a set of guidelines, peer-evaluates the Table Topics Session. He or she evaluates the session based on the performances of the Table Topics Master and respondents, and the questions posed.
Following the Table Topics Session, a Humour Master takes control over the Humour Session, and attempts to tickle everyone’s funny bone. The purpose of this session is to allow the evaluators sufficient time to complete their evaluations, and to train members in delivering humour. Jokes and humour shared during this session stay clear of sex, politics, race and religion.
Towards the end of the training meeting, the General Evaluator takes charge. He or she receives, for everyone to hear, the verbal reports of the Timer, the Speech Evaluators, the Grammarian and the Ah Counter. Guided by a set of guidelines, the General Evaluator comments on the verbal reports, and suggests for points for improvement, if any, not only on the reports received but on the preparation and general proceedings of the meeting.
The General Evaluator then hands control back to the Toastmaster of the Evening, who in turn thanks all the role players and then invites the Club President to officially close the training meeting. Prior to closing the training meeting, the Club President invites selected guests to share their thoughts about the training meeting. He or she then leaves the members and guests with some uplifting and encouraging words to keep the Toastmasters spirit vibrant in them.
Members undertake the Leadership Track to earn their leadership awards. They work at playing twenty-six roles during club training meetings to earn their Competent Leadership (CL) Award. After the CL Award, to achieve the Advanced Leader Bronze Award, they need to serve in the Executive Committee of the club, which includes the posts of President, Vice President Education, Vice President Membership, Vice President Public Relations, Secretary, Treasurer or Sergeant At Arms. From the Advanced Leadership Award Bronze Award, members progress to the Advanced Leader Silver Award, the attaining of which requires them to serve as an Area Director, that is, to be in charge of a handful of clubs; chairs and completes a team project; and be a mentor or sponsor of a new club or be a coach of a weak club.
Combining the Advanced Communicator Gold Award and the Advanced Leader Silver Award confers on the successful member the Distinguished Toastmaster (DTM) Award which is the highest educational recognition awarded by Toastmasters International. By the time a member obtains his or her DTM Award, he or she would have benefited tremendously from the Toastmasters programme.
Every Toastmasters term, which starts from 1 July and ends on 30 June the following year, a new Executive Committee, which has been duly elected, takes office. The Executive Committee, led by a Club President, will administer the club for one year, ensuring that, through effective planning, the members benefit from the Toastmasters programme.
Recently, the Kota Kinabalu Advanced Toastmasters Club, of which the writer is a member, held its 17th Installation Dinner. The event was attended by the Division K Director Shane Ho, who is from Sandakan, as the guest of honour. He installed the club’s new Executive Committee which is led by Syed Nabil Syed Abdul Nasir, a pharmacist, as Club President. The other members of the Executive Committee include Immediate Past President Sylma Jepin, Vice President Education Adelina Adna Adenan, Vice President Membership Paul Tang, Vice President Public Relations Ahmad Dhiyauddeen Abdul Shukor, Secretary Kenneth Chong, Treasurer Grace Tang and Sergeant At Arms Harbiah Arman. Jess Vun was named Toastmaster of the Year for the Term 2016-2017.
Anyone who is eighteen years old and above, and wishes to benefit from the Toastmasters programme is to free to join any Toastmasters club near him or her. To find the club nearest to one, one needs to visit the Toastmasters International’s website at www.toastmasters.org. Now that one knows the ongoings in a Toastmasters club’s training meeting, one is encouraged to be a part of an organisation that will bring out the best in one in the areas of communication and leadership under the Toastmasters International’s slogan of “Where Leaders Are Made.”
Note: The writer has been a Toastmaster for nineteen years, has won many speech contests, and is a Past District Governor of District 87 which covers over 160 clubs in Indonesia, East Malaysia and Brunei.