Toastmasters Club

Guests are Welcome!!!

When: 1st and 3rd Mondays of the month from 7:00pm to 8:30pm.

Where: St. Joseph’s Residence, 1365 Enfield Street, Enfield, Connecticut

For directions and room location, you can visit our directions page.

Since 1924, Toastmasters International has helped millions of men and women become more confident in front of an audience. Our network of clubs and their learn-by-doing program are sure to help you become a better speaker and leader. Why pay thousands of dollars for a seminar when you can join a Toastmasters club for a fraction of the cost and have fun in the process?

Toastmasters will give you the skills and confidence you need to effectively express yourself in any situation. Whether you are a professional, student, stay-at-home parent or retiree, Toastmasters is the most efficient, enjoyable and affordable way of gaining great communication skills. By learning to effectively formulate and express your ideas, you open an entirely new world of possibilities. You’ll be more persuasive and confident when giving presentations, and you’ll improve your one-on-one dealings with others.

Don’t worry! Everyone in a Toastmasters club was once at the level you are now. The environment is friendly and supportive, and the self-paced program allows you to build confidence with each speaking assignment. And you’ll love the applause! Constructive evaluation is the heart of the Toastmasters program. Each time you give a prepared speech, an evaluator will point out strengths and suggest improvements. At first you’ll be applauded for your effort; later you’ll be applauded for your skill.

You won’t regret it. Toastmasters currently has more than 200,000 members in 80 countries. Our club is just one of the more than 10,000 clubs located around the world. For membership meeting information, please see our membership information page.

June 6, 2011 - Speech Weavers' Meeting Highlights

Kevin began the meeting with a joke about two nuns – one who is mathematical and the other who is logical. They were being followed and the 2 nuns differed on how to deal with this. The punch line was “a nun can run faster with her skirt up than a man can with his pants down”. YOU GO, KEVIN! Elaine chose the word VET as the word of the day. It is a verb which means “to examine, investigate, or evaluate in a thorough or expert way”.

Marsha’s “YOUR BODY SPEAKS” speech was entitled “REST DAY”. She told a great story about a rafting trip she took, often referring to herself in the third person. Her exclamations, word usage, facial expressions, body language, and eye contact were awesome. Her speech was purposeful and funny as she gestured her way through a very animated story about a difficult rafting journey on Kicking Horse River. Elaine evaluated her speech and thought the only improvement would have been to show snapshots of herself when her ride was finally over. Bob said he would have liked to learn more about why the River had such a unique name.

Kevin’s speech, called ”The 3 Little Pigs”, was delivered after first advising us to pretend that we were once again 3 years old. This made us all pay closer attention to the story, as if hearing it for the first time. It was told with great inflection, as if the pigs were actually real. None of us remembered that there was actually a moral to the story. Bob loved Kevin’s version of the story and praised him for asking us to listen as if we were children. It made us all “hear” the story in a brand new light!

As Table Topics master, Kevin chose a question from a special deck of cards and picked his “victim” to provide the answer. Joe spoke about his favorite Wonder of the World, Elaine talked about her memorable hiking trip, and Sally talked about naming Snow White’s 8^th dwarf “OPTIMA”. Bob told us about the fantastic time he had at the recent Spring Conference in East Windsor, Marsh said she would name the next hurricane “IVAN the Terrible” (after her cat IVAN), Blanche told us about the order in which she reads the Sunday newspaper, and Valerie explained why her favorite hobby is watching Black and White movies. Valerie was thrilled and surprised when she won infamous and coveted Table Topics Award!

Joe evaluated the meeting and thought it was a good time. The word VET was only used by Kevin and Marsha. During the New Business portion of the meeting, Marsh spoke about our club’s expected DISTINGUISHED designation. The meeting was adjourned at 8:32. Our next regular meeting will be on Monday, June 20^th at 7 P.M.

Future Events:

Next Officer Training is at Church of Christ Church in Manchester, CT on Saturday June 25.