October 27, 2017

Congratulations to Jacob Lethbridge for a superb presentation at the Division L Table Topics Contest.

Thank you to all of the Valley Town Toastmasters who came out to support Jacob and to help run and officiate the contest.

Submitted Karen Wood ACB ALB

January 23 & 26, 2017

This is the message that Valley Town Toastmasters of Dundas Ontario brought to Mohawk College students in Office Administration.

Tony Bratschitsch and Karen Wood teamed up in January 2017, to present the value of Toastmasters skills and how to apply them to personal and business life.

Karen is shown on the far left in the photo alongside the Mohawk College professor.

The presentation included introduction to the real world of business, the power of public speaking, how to construct a speech, the importance of time management, listening skills, critical thinking and tips on presenting information in a variety of situations, at school, work and in the community.

The power of public speaking was demonstrated by sharing information concerning the very successful billionaire business man Warren Buffet. He claims that the one skill that will increase your value by 50% and boost your career is public speaking. As a young man he signed up for the Dale Carnegie course, failed, felt the fear and did it again. This time he obtained his certificate and to this day that certificate hangs on his office wall. We explained how Toastmasters is similar to the Dale Carnegie Course.

An information handout page ‘How to construct a speech’ was given to each professor for sharing with students.

Time management was demonstrated using ‘show and tell’ with a sample Toastmaster timed meeting agenda.

Evaluations were explained to demonstrate the importance of listening skills, critical thinking and how giving growth points to speakers can identify unconscious habits, improved ways of making a point or distracting body language.

Most important were tips to settle the butterflies and squelch the fear of public speaking. Breathing techniques, the simple meditation of ‘centering’ to clear the clutter and allow the speaker to focus on the topic at hand, and assuming the Superman pose in the bathroom (after that nervous pee) were among some of the suggestions to settle nervousness. Of course all the Toastmaster tips were shared as well.

As part of student participation, they were clapped to the front of the classroom to practise the art of shaking hands. A firm handshake shows confidence and helps you own your space right from the start. They then approached the lectern, introduced themselves and shared something; their favorite hobby, favorite vacation, favorite subject or why they signed up for this particular class. The act of being ‘clapped to the front’, shaking hands with someone and introducing yourself from a lectern is a simple exercise that has huge benefits. Students’ smiles said it all and they returned to their seats with a newly gained confidence.

Also included were interview questions to help students think on their feet and prepare themselves for that important first job. We treated these questions as Table Topics and timed them. Time allotment was one minute. Our timer would report the length of each student’s answer to give them an idea of how much can be said in a few seconds. This exercise provided much food for thought.

The professors and students were so impressed that further presentations were arranged for the next month.

We accepted this invitation as an opportunity to educate more students on the art of communicating and the importance of speaking with confidence. It also presented us with an opportunity to encourage other toastmasters to experience speaking outside the club.

Note: after Karen's presentation on January 26, another professor, who sat in the class, immediately requested similar presentations for her own students in February.