Speakers of the House Toastmasters Club recently received a prestigious national award. This club, sponsored by the Fort Worth Housing Authority, received a Merit Award from the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials (NAHRO), a professional membership organization of housing and community development agencies.

Club President Shannon Kimble says their award “was for programs to innovate professional development as well as public relations. These are highly sought after awards in our field. We are very
proud to have received it.”

Some excerpts from their successful award application:

“During one of our meetings our executive staff noticed that some of our highly trained, tenured employees had difficulties when getting up in front of a large group of people and giving a presentation. Toastmasters International was brought up because one of the executives was familiar with the club and thought it might be something that could help employees with self confidence and speaking
skills. . . . By October 2010 we were officially a club.”

“All this structure and organization during the meeting provides excellent training for the employee with their duties at the Fort Worth Housing Authority as well as working as a team.  Everyone . . . has benefited in some way or another. Whether it was improving their vocabulary or speaking in front of a large group. It has all been beneficial to our Housing Authority since communication is an enormous factor in providing a service to our clients.”