Tri-County Toastmasters #5682

The Tri-County Toastmasters club met on Thursday 3-5-09 at the Virden Area Community Center. Club members present at the meeting were: Les Apps, Todd Austin, Jim Blankenship from New Berlin, John Davidson, Bill Fulstick, Casey Tom and Bill Watkins.

Billy Watkins served as the meeting’s master of ceremonies. Les Apps served as the Topicmaster, who is in charge of the impromptu speaking portion of the meeting. Todd Austin was the evening’s General Evaluator.

The evening’s prepared speaker was Casey Tom. Tom delivered his first ever speech as a member of Toastmasters, which is officially referred to as an ‘Ice Breaker’ speech. His 4-minute presentation was about golf and public speaking. Jim Blankenship evaluated Austin’s speech.

Todd Austin, the public relations officer and a founding member of the Tri-County Toastmasters Club also embarked upon an exciting project since the last meeting. He is coordinating and conducting a Speechcraft program with the assistance of a handful of other Area 1 Toastmasters members in Springfield. The first session (out of four total), was held on 3-12-09. Six central Illinoisans received training on how to improve their communication skills from Austin, assistant coordinator Kelly Anderson from Springfield’s AIG (company) Club, and Jackie Rakers who is currently the president of the Montgomery County club which meets in Hillsboro.

At Speechcraft session # 1, Austin gave a presentation about “The Importance of Good Communication Skills” and Rakers delivered a very informative and entertaining PowerPoint about “Selecting A Speech Topic”. Anderson doubled as the Topicmaster and Speech Evaluator, while Rakers also served as the General Evaluator. By the time the Speechcraft concludes next month, all Speechcrafters will have introduced and evaluated other speakers, will have participated in an impromptu speaking exercise on four occasions and will have delivered a total of three prepared speeches.

The Tri-County Toastmasters club, will next meet on Thursday March 19, 2009 at 6:30 p.m. at the Virden Area Community Center located at 105 West Jackson Street. For more information about how the affordable Toastmasters program can help you to become either a better leader or communicator, or for information about attending a meeting or scheduling a Speechcraft program for your organization or community, please call (217) 965-3100 or e-mail draustin@royell.net.