About Early Risers
Meeting Format
We are very pleased to have you as a guest. Toastmasters is the place to be if you are interested in gaining more confidence in your public speaking skills. Here you can practice your speech craft in a supportive environment with lots of encouragement and helpful feedback.
How Our Meetings Are Run
Our club follows the format adopted by almost all Toastmasters clubs. Here is a brief overview of our meeting. Please feel free to ask any member if you do not understand something or would like more information.
Our meetings start promptly at 6:30am and last till 8:00am. The meetings are held at Unity Church, 3391 Middlefield Ave in Palo Alto. (We are not affiliated with the church.) We begin with a short BUSINESS MEETING, which is the appropriate place for any announcements.
The business meeting is followed by TABLE TOPICS, where we have the opportunity to practice impromptu speaking skills.
Table Topics is usually followed by three PREPARED SPEECHES given by club members.
The prepared speeches are followed by CONSTRUCTIVE EVALUATIONS of both the meeting and the speeches which were presented.
The format may vary for special tutorials or other items to allow for variety. Club members take turns fulfilling the various roles needed to run the meeting.
As the meeting ends you may be asked, as a guest, to give your impressions of the meeting. Feel free to give a few short remarks or to pass if you would prefer not to say anything.
Joining Our Club
Joining the club is easy! Attend three meetings as a guest and then fill out a membership application. You will receive information about how to make your first "Ice Breaker" speech, and then will be mailed a packet from Toastmasters International. Please see the current Vice President of Membership for more information.
Thank you again for being our guest at Early Risers Toastmasters. We hope that you will come back again and become a member.
All About Toastmasters
How Toastmasters works
At Toastmasters, members learn by speaking to groups and working with others in a supportive environment. A typical Toastmasters club is made up of 20 to 30 people who meet once a week for about an hour. Each meeting gives everyone an opportunity to practice:
- Conducting meetings. Meetings usually begin with a short business session which helps members learn basic meeting procedures. Giving impromptu speeches. Members present one-to two-minute impromptu speeches on assigned topics. Presenting prepared speeches. Three or more members present speeches based on projects from the Toastmasters International Communication and Leadership Program manuals. Projects cover such topics as speech organization, voice, language, gestures, and persuasion.
- Offering constructive evaluation. Every prepared speaker is assigned an evaluator who points out speech strengths and offers suggestions for improvement.
The Tools You Use
Upon joining a Toastmasters club, each new member receives a variety of manuals and resources on speaking. Members also have access to other books as well as audio and video cassettes on speaking and leading. They also receive the award-winning The Toastmaster, a monthly magazine that offers the latest insights on speaking and leadership techniques.
Toastmasters and Leadership.
Leadership cannot be learned in a day. It takes practice. In Toastmasters members build leadership skills by organizing and conducting meetings and motivating others to help them. Club leadership roles and a leadership development program also offer opportunities to learn and practice. Just as Toastmasters members learn to speak simply by speaking, they learn leadership by leading.
Company Benefits
A company's success also depends on communication. Employees face an endless exchange of ideas, messages, and information as they deal with one another and with customers day after day. How well they communicate can determine whether a company quickly grows into an industry leader or joins thousands of other businesses mired in mediocrity.
Toastmasters provides the tools that enable employees to become effective communicators and leaders all at a very low cost. Toastmasters training helps employees:
- give better sales presentations hone their management skills work better with fellow employees effectively develop and present ideas offer constructive criticism
- accept criticism more objectively
Toastmasters produces results. Around the world more than three million men and women of all ages and occupations have benefited from Toastmasters training, and more than one thousand corporations, community groups, universities, associations, and government agencies now use Toastmasters training.
Community Benefits.
Toastmasters has helped many members in their community service activities. Using the speaking and leadership skills developed in Toastmasters, people have become more active in business, churches, and service and charity organizations. Toastmasters members are able to organize activities, conduct meetings, and speak in public as their organization's representative. Some even become active in local, state or national government.
About Toastmasters International
Toastmasters International is a non-profit organization governed by a Board of Directors elected by the membership. The first Toastmasters club was established on October 22, 1924, in Santa Ana, California, by Dr. Ralph C. Smedley, who conceived and developed the idea of helping others to speak more effectively. More clubs were formed, and Toastmasters International was incorporated under California law on December 19, 1932.
Toastmasters International's business and services are administered by its World Headquarters, located in Rancho Santa Margarita, California. It employs no paid promoters or instructors. It has no salaried staff except the Executive Director and World Headquarters staff, who provide services to the clubs and Districts.