Marylee Mims Lt. Gov. Marketing 　 An Excellent Toastmasters Experience is something all members deserve. You can make that happen by ensuring that your club always has a dynamic meeting. An excellent meeting demands pre-planning, cooperation and participation by your club members. Here are some proven ideas – Create a friendly environment. Be postive, supportive and encouraging. Set an expectation of excellence. Manual speeches are a MUST! Family, travels, hobbies, professions (the topics are endless) can be matched to the objectives of a manual speech project. Be creative with Table Topics. Make them fun! Have them match the theme for the day....

Gary Lee Webb, DTM You have advertised and now have a group of students who are eager to learn through Speechcraft. What are you going to do to keep it interesting as well as inspire them to not just lose their fears but to embrace the idea that speaking can be fun and they should keep learning? In my home club, we do a Speechcraft seminar twice a year. By teaching Speechcraft to many employees, typically half become Toastmasters. Let me share some of our techniques and lessons learned.   The first lesson is to be gentle. Many students are truly...

Julie Cosgrove ACS/ALB Two years ago, an area governor in my home club approached me and asked if I would consider being a test speaker for his area contest. I gulped. I had just completed my CC manual, but that was within the safety net of my own warm and fuzzy club, Top Notch Toastmasters.  This was different. I would be speaking to strangers, and several of them – maybe three, five, more?- would be judging that speech with a fine tooth comb so they could evaluate me and impress the judges. Forget the soap box, to me it felt like the...