Today I read the following Facebook friend status update: Just ordered E-Myth...now I just need to join Toastmasters!I turned to my wife and asked if she knew what Toastmasters was. She replied, "Yeah, isn't that where you learn to give speeches?" She was right.
I learned that Toastmasters International is a non-profit educational organization that teaches public speaking and leadership skills through a worldwide network of meeting locations. The organization has more than 260,000 members in over 12,500 clubs in 113 countries.
The first meeting was held in 1924 by Ralph C. Smedley in the basement of a YMCA in Santa Ana, California. While working at the YMCA, Smedley observed that many of the young patrons needed “training in the art of public speaking and in presiding over meetings” and he wanted to help them. He decided the training format would be similar to a social club. During the early 1900s the word “toastmaster” referred to a person who proposed the toasts and introduced the speakers at a banquet. Smedley named his group “The Toastmasters Club” because he thought it suggested a pleasant, social atmosphere appealing to young men.
I am currently a public speaker and I love it-- but my dream is to eventually get paid for speaking. I keep telling myself I need to join Toastmasters but it's easier said than done. One day!
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