By Heather Aveson | “If I am to speak ten minutes, I need a week for preparation; if fifteen minutes, three days; if half an hour, two days; if an hour, I am ready now.” This quote has been attributed to Woodrow Wilson, Mark Twain and Winston Churchill. It may be that they all uttered some variation on a common theme.
Lexington Toastmasters Club newest club member, Liam Walsh shares the sentiment with me as he prepares his first speech, a slender 4 – 6 minutes. The local club is celebrating 25 years of helping its members improve their public speaking and leadership skills.
“Toastmasters changed my life. They really did. Put me on the stage. I don’t know what I would have done without that positive boost.”  ~ Chris Matthews on Toastmasters
Chris Mattews is a well-known author and journalist who hosts MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews and The Chris Matthews Show.
Lexington Toastmasters Board of Directors: Left to right Peter Ash, Sargent-at-Arms; Victoria Ngo-Phat, Treasurer; Bhavana Laad, President; Mary Roberts, VP PR; Robert Isenberg, VP Education. Missing: Duncan Stewart, VP Membership, and Sue McKittrick, Secretary.
We all know how to talk, but can we speak? Can we persuade, communicate, impassion, inspire? Some are born with a gift for public speaking, but most have to work at it. And some are truly paralyzed by the prospect of standing in front of a crowd. Many can remember “oral reports” in school and the terrible fear of getting up in front of the class.
In today’s competitive work climate it can be argued that speaking persuasively is more important than ever whether you are selling yourself in a job interview or presenting your ideas to clients or colleagues.
Toastmasters International began in the basement of a California YMCA in 1924 when Ralph Smedley realized that many of the young graduates with whom he worked could use “training in the art of public speaking and in presiding over meetings.” He styled it after a social club to suggest a comfortable, pleasant atmosphere that would attract members. It was originally a “men only” group until it was expanded in the early 70s to include the huge numbers of women entering the labor market.
Toastmasters International now has more with 12,500 clubs with over 260,000 members in 113 countries. Smedley’s original 15-project manual Basic Training for Toastmasters still serves as the backbone of the club’s skill building. Toastmasters has many famous members including Chris Matthews of MSNBC’s Hardball, Debbie Fields Rose founder of Mrs. Field’s Cookies, Carl Dixon, Rock Musician, former lead singer for The Guess Who, Peter Coors of Coors Brewing Company, actor Tim Allen and Leonard Nimoy, Mr. Spock in Star Trek.
The Lexington Toastmasters Club began as a corporate club in the D.W. Heath publishing arm of Raytheon Corporation in 1986. Lexington resident Arthur Fox was a member of the original club when it was known as the ISBN club. “It was called the ISBN club because of it was run by a publishing company and it stands for International Standard Book Number, but we also called it, “I Speak Better Now.” When D.W. Heath was sold and moved in the 1990’s the club was left behind. Members, including Fox, adopted it and brought it to Lexington center, first meeting upstairs in the Visitor’s Center and then renting space at various churches. Eventually they found a permanent home in the conference room of Cambridge Saving Bank where they meet weekly.
Arthur Fox remembers trying to keep the club going through tough times. “Toastmasters Clubs go through a lot of transformations. At some point this club fell into decline when we only had twelve members and maybe only four came. You have to be very careful about electing officers. Success really depends on them.” The club is in great health now with a strong slate of officers and approximately forty members. Between twenty and thirty members show up to any given meeting.
“Public speaking is like any sport. When you have honed your public speaking skills to a certain point, if you don’t continue to do it, work at it, it starts slipping.”
~ Arthur Fox, Lexington Toastmasters member
Meetings follow a specific agenda that offer both structure and flexibility. incoming President Sue McKittrick says, “The structure takes you through the things you’re supposed to learn.” The flexibility comes from subject matter and the ad lib section of the meetings, the Joke or Thought of the Day and Table Talkers, which are topics put out to the group for short spontaneous discussion by the group. Sue continues, “Table Talkers are great. Everyone participates in every meeting and it leads into other topics.”
For new member Karen Georgio “Table Talkers almost feel like better preparation for real life. You have to come up with something right on the spot.”
A spontaneous discussion may appeal to Karen right now because she just gave one of the most difficult speeches for most members, The Icebreaker
This is the first presentation by new members. They are given 4 -6 minutes to introduce themselves to the group. Education is central to Toastmasters and so new members are paired up with a mentor to prepare for their Icebreaker.Longtime member and Lexington resident Robert Isenberg, has been the group’s unofficial mentor for years and is now the Vice President of Education. He mentored Karen as she prepared for this first speech. “I was on a business trip to California so I had all this time on the plane. I wrote an entire speech that I tossed. Then I had time to write another one.” Although she got most of the way there, Robert’s input brought the speech where she wanted it to be. “That last twenty percent of tweaking made a huge difference.”
How does she feel now that it’s over? “It was the last week of school, I was crazy busy. I couldn’t psycho obsess about it. If I had spent too much time worrying about it I don’t think it would have come off as well as it did.”
The group’s newest member, Liam Walsh, is preparing his Icebreaker for the fall. Liam was a member of the Glendale, Arizona club in the mid-90’s. Liam says back then he concentrated on self-improvement and practicing public speaking. This time he looks at it as more of a hobby, “I always wanted to go back. It was a lot of fun. Watching somebody improve is a lot of fun.” As an accountant Liam says, “I never really sat down and wrote a speech. I just talked about numbers.” He’s not sharing what he’ll talk about during his Icebreaker, but he will share the process that helps Make the Butterflies Fly in Formation, as the Toastmasters Manual puts it. “I would do a speech in the car on a tape recorder. I’d practice it over and over to get to time. I was surprised at how much I improved. The process really worked for me.”
Getting over the fear of speaking and improving communication and leadership skills is at the heart of Toastmasters. Arthur Fox says, “Public speaking must arouse a really primal kind of reaction. It doesn’t have to be that scary. Basically the process desensitizes you to the fear by giving you the tools.” The simple learning-by-doing method has helped millions of men and women become more confident in front of an audience.
Speaking publicly in your native language is scary enough for most of us, but the Lexington Toastmasters attracts a lot of foreign speakers looking to improve their communication skills as well. Arthur Fox is thrilled. “The influx of foreign speakers is one of the flavors that we have. I think it’s remarkable when you’re learning to make the quantum step from just talking during a conversation to speaking publicly.” Their subjects bring a new dimension to the club as well. “Their stories are fascinating stories. One of our members had escaped the war in the Balkan States, another person in the club went through the Khmer Rouge.”
Members find their way to Toastmasters in many ways. Sue McKittrick followed the path of many others. “I was starting my own business and thinking about how to grow a business. One thing I wanted to do was speak publicly. It’s been very good. Speeches are short. I’ve learned to speak in small snippets. It’s helped me build routines. Because of what I’ve learned I’ve gotten some speaking engagements. It’s helped me build credibility.” Karen Georgio felt a similar tug in starting her new business. “I didn’t want to get all my ducks in a row and then realize, ‘Oh, yeah. I have to present this,’ I absorb a lot just being there. I start to listen differently.”
Some members join when they take a new job and know they will be called upon to present or when they lose a job and want more confidence putting themselves out there, others join to improve a specific skill or work their way through the speaking and leadership process and then leave. No matter how long members stay the group builds a special connection. Arthur Fox notes, “You build an intimacy in a safe, structured environment. Topics are often very close to the person. So you learn a lot about people’s lives. You feel like you know them on a level that you wouldn’t in another organization.” Liam Walsh sees the Icebreaker as the first step in opening up. “It’s an opportunity for people to get to know you a bit. Talking about yourself is the easiest subject you can pick.” And Karen Georgio appreciates connecting with members, “I feel like I’ve found a group of very interesting people—a real cross-section that I wouldn’t have been exposed to. You get to know people by what they chose to talk about.”
Lexington Toastmasters sees about a ten percent turnover in membership every year. For Arthur Fox and other long time members there’s a real benefit to putting your skills on the line year after year. “Public speaking is like any sport. When you have honed your public speaking skills to a certain point, if you don’t continue to do it, work at it, it starts slipping.”
Lexington Toastmasters Club meets Thursdays at noon in the basement of Cambridge Savings Bank on Massachusetts Ave. in Lexington center. For more information on the club, contact Mary Roberts at 617-653-0370.
For fun, log on to some Toastmasters Podcasts at: http://www.toastmasters.org/Members/MemberExperience/ToastmastersPodcast/Podcastsfrom2010.aspx
