EUNOIA
Words Have Power So as Toastmasters.
By Ruddra Dev Roychoudhury , TCS Maitree Kolkata Toastmasters Club
Continued...
They keep a healthy inflow of
new talent into the club.
VP Public Relations maintains
the image of the club, and
keeps people inside the club
interested.
VP Education ensures that
every Toastmaster in the club
gets what they need to grow.
If they have enough mentors,
and if the club has a balanced
amount of talent in all skills.
The President is the one who
gives direction to the club.
They are responsible to put
out every fire that can
possibly sprout. They are
mostly senior Toastmasters
who guide the other officers.
And all this, is just the basic
level. As we move up, we are
able to manage more and
more clubs. 4 or more clubs
form an Area. 4 or more Areas
form a Division. Many
divisions form a district.
Moving up from the club has
its perks. We help lead a
bigger demographic with
growing challenges, and till
you are not satisfied, there is
no upper limit to the
challenges you can take up.
There are tens of awards to
be won, and competition for
completing the goals happen
worldwide at all levels. The
best performers are
recognized by the leaders
with shiny pins and trophies.
Also you get the chance to be
part of training programs
exclusive to District leaders
that grow in intensity as you
move up the ladder, with all
expenses paid by
Toastmasters International.
does anything out of compulsion. We
follow a simple rule. If something you
do here does not help you grow, don’t
do it.
Another highlight of every
Toastmaster’s year is contest season.
Here speech contests are taken very
seriously, because people grow the
most during contest season. They are
held twice a year, and normally go on
for about 2 months, while we move
But only leading and no
through various levels. We have
speaking or listening makes
different contests for different types
Jack a dull Toastmaster. The
of people. We have evaluation
stop in the journey of
contests, where people listen to
leadership is to be able to
express your thoughts clearly. speeches, and give feedback
immediately after.
And to express, the first step
is to listen. We think we are
great listeners, but we face
The one, who is able to give feedback
difficulty making any use of
that helps them improve the most,
the information we have.
wins. Then we have table topics
Often we are caught offhand
contests, where you get a topic, and
or lost in thought during a
have to speak on it immediately, for 2
crucial conversation. Even
minutes. People who want to make
more frequently, we find that
others laugh, can give a try to the
even though we listen, we
humorous speech contests, it's a laugh
take a lot of time to
riot where a well-structured speech
understand.
that will make people laugh the most
At Toastmasters, we
wins. But all this is pale compared to
encourage active listening,
the grand prepared speech contests
while the speaker is speaking. called the International Speech
While one person speaks, the Contests. People all over the world
rest of us listen, and provide
prepare and deliver 7 minute
valuable feedback that helps
speeches in every round.
us improve. So everything
here is a win-win, and nobody
CONTD.
SEP 2016
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EUNOIA
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