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We love guests!

Click here for directions to our Thursday meetings…

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Now that you’ve found our blog, we would love to have you visit Airpark Toastmasters as our guest — and would welcome you to join as a member.  There is absolutely no cost to visit.  Our club is full of fun, friendly members — but we always honor the vision of Toastmasters International:

Toastmasters International empowers people to achieve their full potential and realize their dreams.  Through our member Clubs, people throughout the world can improve their communication and leadership skills, and find the courage to change.

Click here for directions to our Thursday meetings…

Our members range from some fairly experienced public speakers to those who still find it a challenge to stand up and speak in front of a roomful of people they already know pretty well.  We have approximately 20 active members, but are diligently working to grow our club!

MEETING BREAKDOWN

If you’ve never been to a Toastmasters meeting, this is a rough idea of how it works:

• One person acts as the “Toastmaster” for the meeting.  They are the appointed MC, if you will, of the meeting, presiding over and conducting the general flow of the meeting.
• After the opening/greeting, the Toastmaster introduces the “functionaries” for the meeting — members who have special jobs within the meeting.  These are: Grammarian (watches for proper English usage; introduces the Word of the Day); Timer & Ballot Counter (uses a stop watch to time the speeches; counts the ballots for best speech, best evaluator, best Table Topic); Ah Counter (watches for distracting verbal pauses such as um, er, uh, like, etc.); General Evaluator (monitors to see how efficiently/effectively the meeting runs, overall; introduces the individual speech evaluators); Jokemaster (tells a joke to get the meeting rolling).
• The Toastmaster then introduces the first speaker (we generally schedule two speakers), who gives their prepared speech.
• The audience then takes 2 minutes to give written feedback on the speech.
• Same process for the second speaker.
• Sometimes, when time permits and enough people are promised to attend a meeting, we have a third speaker — and third evaluator.
• The Timer gives their report, stating whether each speaker has qualified to be considered for the Best Speaker vote.
• Audience is asked to vote for Best Speaker.
• The REAL fun begins with Table Topics.  This is everyone’s opportunity to participate in extemporaneous speaking — unprepared speeches.  The Table Topics Master will have prepared in advance a list of questions/subjects, and they randomly select people to give a 1- to 2-minute speech in response to the question, off the top of their head.  One criterion for the Table Topics speeches is that each speaker must work the Word of the Day into their speech in some way.  Guests are invited — but NOT required — to participate in this portion of the meeting.
• The Timer gives their report, stating whether each speaker has qualified to be considered for the Best Table Topic.
• Audience votes for their favorite Table Topic.
• The Toastmaster then introduces the General Evaluator, who introduces the first speaker’s official evaluator.  This person gives a 2- to 3-minute speech in which they evaluate the prepared speech to which they were assigned.  They offer constructive feedback — what the speaker did well, and how they can improve.
• The second evaluator then gives their speech.
• The Timer gives their report, stating whether each speaker has qualified to be considered for the Best Evaluator vote by adhering to the time parameters for their particular speech.
• Audience votes for the Best Evaluator.
• The Grammarian gives their report on any errors in language usage they noted during the meeting.
• The Ah Counter gives their report on the number of times each member used er, ah, etc. during their speaking.  (We have an “Ah Jar,” where it’s suggested that each member contribute 10 cents for each time they say “er” or “ah…”)
• Ballot Counter announces the winners for Best Speech, Best Evaluator, and Best Table Topic.

We generally try to seat visitors next to experienced members, so that if you have questions during the meeting, the experienced person can explain things to you.

AIRPARK TOASTMASTERS CLUB SPECIFICS

The Toastmaster, speaker, and functionary roles alternate regularly. The club’s VP of Education assigns the roles, generally putting the schedule together one month at a time.  It is the job of the given week’s Toastmaster to confirm that members with designated roles will attend that particular meeting.

The meetings are scheduled to run for 1 hour, 15 minutes, and we do generally adhere to that timeframe pretty well.  However, people usually stay around to chat for a bit afterwards. And at least a handful of people go to lunch together at a nearby restaurant after almost every meeting. You are most welcome to join us!

Just in case you’re wondering, the only dress code we have is that you come clothed.  Seriously, use your own discretion — but the clothing ranges from jeans to formal business attire, although the Toastmaster and those giving prepared speeches usually dress up a bit.

We meet every Thursday (barring holidays) at noon at the Devry Institute/Keller School of Management, 18500 Allied Way, Suite 150, Room 3. The Keller entrance is to the right of the main entrance of the building. (Inside the Republic building, located off of Mayo Boulevard just west of Scottsdale Road, across the street from the Scottsdale 101 Shopping Center. MAP)

Membership dues for our group are extremely affordable: $59 per half a year, plus a $20 new member fee.  The dues are paid in October and April, but if you decide to join at any other time of the year, the dues will be pro-rated.

If you’ve ever wanted to know more about Toastmasters, get over your fear of public speaking, make new friends, or just take a peek at what a meeting looks like, we sincerely invite you to come visit us!  If not this coming Thursday, then next week.  Listen, we don’t know you personally, but we do know you are wonderful and have a tremendous gift to offer the world.  And we promise that if you make this investment in yourself, it will be so worth your while.

We’re all friendly.  We won’t bite.  Many of our current members were right where you are just a few short months ago.  One member confided recently that it took him 8 YEARS to get up the courage to come to a meeting.  Please don’t let that be you …

There’s no need to RSVP — it’s OK to just … show … up.  But if you want to connect first or we’ve left any questions unanswered, we’d love to hear from you!

Best wishes for your continued success!
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Anthony Contreras