FAQ

1. What is Toastmasters?

From a humble beginning in 1924 at the YMCA in Santa Ana, California, Toastmasters International has grown to become a world leader in helping people become more competent and comfortable in front of an audience. The nonprofit organization now has nearly 220,000 members in 11,300 clubs in 90 countries, offering a proven – and enjoyable! – way to practice and hone communication and leadership skills.

Most Toastmasters meetings are comprised of approximately 20 people who meet weekly for an hour or two. Participants practice and learn skills by filling a meeting role, ranging from giving a prepared speech or an impromptu one to serving as timer, evaluator or grammarian.

There is no instructor; instead, each speech and meeting is critiqued by a member in a positive manner, focusing on what was done right and what could be improved.

Good communicators tend to be good leaders. Some well-known Toastmasters alumni include:

* Peter Coors of Coors Brewing Company
* Debbi Fields, founder of Mrs. Fields Cookies
* Tom Peters, management expert and author
* Linda Lingle, Governor of Hawaii

2. Educational Program

What is our educational program like?

3. How Does our System Work?

What do we do?

How & What do we learn?

Is there a trainer?

4. What happens at NUSTM meetings?

Generally, the club meeting is divided into two segments: The first is dynamic, and the second is more or less fixed.

The first segment consists of either Table Topics (which is impromptu speech training), Games (which train you in various aspects of speech and presentation), or special segments (this can be a special speech from a well known toastmaster or any other Toastmasters related activity).

The second segment comprises of project presentation. A project is simply a prepared speech. This speech will be presented by any of our members who have booked a slot with the host of the meeting (called the TME, or Toastmaster-of-the-Evening), prior to the meeting. These projects are then evaluated by our exprienced members, pointing out the strenghts of the speaker and areas for improvements. Other parts of the meeting are also evaluated at the end of the segment, like language and meeting progress.

5. What are Projects?

A project is simply a prepared speech. Projects are taken out of the Toastmasters Project Manual. The Communication and Leadership Project Manual consists of 10 projects, each emphasising a different aspect of public speaking. Each project states objectives that have to be acheived and guide a speaker through the aspect of speaking being addressed.

Once you have completed 10 projects, you will be awarded a Competent Communicator Certificate (or CC status) by Toastmasters International. This status and certificate is recognised worldwide as an indication of your speaking capabilities. After achieving this certificate, you can move on to achieve the status of Advanced Toastmaster-Bronze (ATM-B), Advanced Toastmaster-Silver (ATM-S), Advanced Toastmaster-Gold (ATM-G), and so on.

6. What is evaluation of Projects?

Anyone who does a project will get an evaluation. This is usually done by a senior Toastmaster, who will point out the good points displayed in your speech, as well as recommend areas of improvement for you. This evaluation is done in front of the whole club to allow other members to learn from every speech and every evaluation.

7. How do we measure our progress?

You don’t have to worry that you will be behind everyone if you miss a meeting. Everyone does projects at their own pace. For example, in one meeting, we can have people doing Project 1, Project 3, Project 7, all at one go!

You are encouraged however, to keep up with your progress of doing projects. This is important as once you have not done projects for a long time, there is a chance that you will become rusty, and this is counter-productive towards your achievement of public speaking skills. The club does not require attendence, but you can only get from the club as much as you put into it.