Sinclair Community College students wishing to improve their public speaking and communication skills, build their confidence and meet new people, may want to venture down to Conference Room A in Building 8.
That is where the Toastmasters club meets every Friday at 1 p.m.
The club was created in June 2009, to provide its members an opportunity to practice public speaking in a no-pressure atmosphere while evaluators “point out strengths and suggest improvements,” according to a Toastmasters brochure.
Sinclair Toastmasters President Shaun Campbell believes the club both helps put students at ease and fosters a welcoming environment for newcomers.
“For those who are shy and have a hard time speaking in public, not just public speaking, but speaking at all to people, Toastmasters is a safe environment where you can come and speak and not be judged on any faults that you may have” Campbell said. “Everybody who participates is rewarded. It’s not a competitive atmosphere.”
Campbell said new members begin a 10-step program called the Competent Communicator module. The module begins with an impromptu speech called “The Icebreaker,” where new members will stand in front of the group and talk about themselves. When members return to the following meeting, they will perform a new speech as the module progresses.
Successively, members can progress to the “ultimate prize” of Toastmaster, Campbell said.
He also said the club features the Competent Leadership program that allows members to assume different roles such as Toastmaster, meeting facilitator or timekeeper. The roles rotate for each meeting and members can earn credit toward completing a module by fulfilling one of the many roles.
Campbell said the process of joining Toastmasters begins with a student filling out an application and paying a one-time $20 new membership fee. The cost of becoming a member of the club is $36 every six months. That cost can be reduced to $20 every six months if a student qualifies for a newly implemented leadership grant, started by Chris Bridges, former manager of Student Leadership Development and Judicial Affairs. Campbell said the grant could potentially carry over to the second consecutive six-month period of membership, costing a student only $20 for a full year.
Campbell explains, however, that Toastmasters affords students additional speaking opportunities after their time at Sinclair is finished.
“If you decide to stay in Toastmasters, as you decide to leave the college (Sinclair), Toastmasters is layered to where there are a lot of competitions later on,” Campbell said. “There are speaking competitions, humor competitions, debate competitions and roasts.”
Engineering major Brandon Tener has seen firsthand how Toastmasters directly relates to his education and career field.
“Toastmasters has provided me the ability to speak in front of others,” Tener said. “A typical problem is that engineers can’t talk in front of other people or groups of people. So by joining Toastmasters, you get a topic or you choose your topic. It’s almost like taking a public speaking class. You go in front of people and you present for that time period, people critique you, and it gives you real world experience on your public speaking and how you can improve upon it.”
Tom Roberts, adviser of Toastmasters, said the club not only develops stronger public speaking skills, but emphasizes leadership as well.
“Toastmasters teaches you soft leadership skills,” Roberts said. “Feedback is critical listening. Timing the speech is time management. The Toastmaster of the Day is learning how to chair a meeting. It’s teaching you how to be organized and how to run a meeting and run it in a timely way. Toastmasters will give you that confidence to make those presentations as a student leader in any environment and with any group.”
In addition, Roberts said students, faculty, staff and alumni are welcome to attend meetings.
More information on Toastmasters can be found by visiting the Student Leadership Office located in Building 8 Room 025 or by calling Roberts at 512-2284.