It’s been over 1 year since I joined the Startup Speakers Toastmaster. I had completed 10 speeches in the first 7 months. Then I become the VP of Education, responsible to schedule duties for all the members. In that role, I used Doodle to poll for availability and used Google spreadsheet to setup the schedule, with automatic generation of the agenda for each meeting. For the various special events, such as Speech Contests and Pitch sessions, I encouraged members to take lead to run the event, which enabled them to work toward their Competent Leadership goals. My duty as VP of Education has since ended and I decided not to pursue officer roles in order to focus my time on MOOC classes and other endeavors.
Why did I join Startup Speakers?
Recently, I found my speaking skills degrading. I recalled how Toastmasters had helped me to become a competent speaker who can manage an audience of several hundred people. Prior to Toastmasters, I would sweat a lot when I had to speak in front of an audience and I was too nervous to come up with meaning words to engage the audience. Over 10 years of Toastmaster had helped me become a much better speaker.
In the mid 2000’s, I was presented to customers every week, so I did not have to attend Toastmaster to maintain my speaking skills. In 2012, I felt it was time to practice public speaking again. I visited a number of clubs and found this dynamic and enthusiastic group that comes together at 7am in the morning to practice speaking and leadership skills. Many of the folks are much younger than I but I fit in well.
Now I continue to work on speeches at this Toastmasters.
Startup Speakers Toastmasters meets every Wednesday morning 7-830a at Plug and Play Tech Center in Sunnvyale. Info is available at the meetup.
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