10 REASONS TO JOIN TOASTMASTERS

When you join a Toastmasters club you will have the opportunity to:

1. Develop valuable communications skills
* Employers value, seek out, hire, and promote people who communicate effectively. Customers are also drawn to good communicators.
* Here’s what business guru Tom Peters had to say: “Join Toastmasters. Oral communication skills count enormously. A lot of managers aren’t bad at public speaking. But “aren’t bad” ain’t good enough, not if you’re wise – and especially these days when jawing with the same old gang from year to year is becoming rare. Height and hair color may be in the genes. Public speaking isn’t. It’s a skill that can be studied, polished, more or less perfected. (Toastmasters) does a fabulous job of helping people shape up their communication skills.” (Tom Peters, The Pursuit of WOW, 1994)

2. Develop valuable leadership skills
* As a Toastmaster, you have an opportunity to take advantage of a range of leadership opportunities. You can do so within the club from week to week (e.g. Chair, Toastmaster, and General Evaluator).
* You’ll also have the opportunity to move beyond the club and exercise leadership in the broader Toastmasters Community: e.g. Area, Division, and District.

3. Develop valuable teamwork skills
* Teamwork skills are extremely important.
* How do you inspire and motivate people to achieve a collective goal?
* How do you pull a team together to implement a vision? In Toastmasters, you’ll learn how to do this and other aspects of team building.

4. Develop listening and interpersonal skills
* A good Toastmaster is a good listener. He or she learns to be sensitive to an
audience’s needs.
* As a TM Evaluator, you also learn to be tactful in conveying feedback to others.

5. Form great contacts … and some new friends!
* Through Toastmasters, you will have a chance to meet people from various walks
of life – people you probably wouldn’t have had the chance to meet otherwise.
* Some long-lasting friendships have originated at Toastmasters!

6. Develop and grow as a speaker
* Ever had a ‘peak’ speaking experience?
* Ever really ‘connected’ with an audience? Find out what’s it is like!

7. Gain valuable feedback on yourself
* It’s not easy to gain an understanding of how we come across to others.
* In Toastmasters we will help you become more aware of how others perceive you.

8. Think through issues – and a captive audience to get things off your chest!
* The act of preparing a speech is a wonderful way to focus the mind.
* What better way to vent your spleen or share your passion about something than having a regular forum for sharing it with others!

9. Feel better about yourself – and you’ll be making a difference to those around you
* Toastmasters does wonders for our self-confidence and our self-esteem.
* You will come to appreciate yourself more, to have greater confidence in yourself.
* Those around you will begin to look to you as a mentor and a leader.

10. Take advantage of these opportunities week-in-and-week-out –
at a fraction of the cost of other forms of communications skills training

~Thanks to Tillicum Toastmasters, New Westminster, BC