MGS conducts Toastmasters Speechcraft Programme

MUSCAT: Muscat Gujarati Samaj (MGS) conducted a Toastmasters Speechcraft Programme for 20 women members of MGS ranging in the age group of 30 – 60 years, starting from April 10 to 27, in association with Morrison Muscat Toastmasters Club. This programme is an internationally acclaimed programme by Toastmasters International with its presence in 141 countries having more than 16,400 clubs and over 352,000 members.

Toastmasters Speechcraft Programme is a formal course in the art of developing public speaking skills and is one of the best programme available for driving away apprehensions and building confidence amongst participants, so as to bring out the best in them. Speechcraft Programme helps participants organise their thoughts correctly, develop effective scripts for their speech topics and eventually helps them in boosting their confidence levels.

Every year Muscat Gujarati Samaj organises the Youth Leadership Programmes for children in the age group of 11 – 15 years but this time, Muscat Gujarati Samaj evolved a novel idea of running a Speechcraft Programme for the lady members of MGS so as to drive away any inhibitions that the women may have about expressing their thoughts and empowering them with the skill set required for speaking in front of group of people and expressing their thoughts confidently.

As in the past years, this Toastmasters Programme was organised in association with Morison Muscat Toastmasters and was spearheaded by Rajendra Varma, Mentor of MMTC and was ably supported by six other coordinators namely Manoj Ranade, Sparsha Vyas, Meenakshi Natan, Chetan Shah, Suryakant Kirloskar and Natan Subramanian.

Seven sessions of two hours each were conducted where the women participants were coached and mentored on speech writing and delivery as well as impromptu speaking. Several educational sessions were conducted on basics of public speaking like the selection of speech topic, organising the speech, use of gestures in speaking, voice and vocabulary etc.

The grand finale was held on April 27 where the women showed their skills acquired during the Speechcraft Programme. The women conducted the full programme, which consisted of prepared speeches, evaluations and table topics, totally where all the skills acquired and practised in the programme were on display. The Best Speaker Award at the Grand Finale went to Harsha Jethmalani, the Best Evaluator Award went to Farzana Nyas and the Best Table Topic Speaker Award went to Deepika Tailor. Toastmasters Speechcraft Program Certificates were awarded to all participants.

The chief guest for the event, Sushma Pandey showered praise on Muscat Gujarati Samaj and appreciated the variety of programmes conducted for the benefit of its members.