August 11, 2017December 4, 2017

4 Ways to Celebrate Icebreakers

in Good Advice

People join Toastmasters for a variety of reasons, but one of those reasons is to gain confidence in public speaking. For those people especially, it is important to celebrate the Icebreaker speech (Competent Communicator project 1 and on Pathways, Ice Breaker Level 1 Project).

Celebrate Ice Breakers by

  1. giving the speaker a standing ovation. If your club decides to institute this, make sure everyone knows about it beforehand. The first couple of times you are going to do it, you might want to send an email out to everyone (except the speaker) reminding them of this celebratory response.
  2. awarding the speaker the Icebreaker ribbon. If your club gives awards, you can include the Ice Breaker during this time, perhaps with a drum roll. Or, as Clearly Speaking Club 5440 does, you can have the new Toastmaster’s mentor award the ribbon.
  3. presenting the speaker a box of the candy called Icebreakers. This can be done by the Toastmaster, the VPE, or the mentor. Take a picture of this and post it on your club website or Facebook page. I first learned about this celebration at Energizers Toastmasters Club 2564.
  4. taking a picture of the speaker with a CC manual, maybe in front of the club banner, after the meeting. Make sure you post it on your club website or Facebook page, as Electronic Allied Spellbinders Club 6572 does.

    Jay Mall of Allied Electronics Spellbinders