A new Toastmasters Club has a name befitting its members.
Most of the 23 members of White River Word Millers are from Noblesville or the surrounding area, Noblesville resident Clay Hoover said.
“Our club was chartered back in June, so we are very new and have not had a face-to-face meeting since becoming official,” said Hoover, who is the club’s vice president of public relations. “Toastmasters is where all different kinds of people come together to become better speakers and leaders. At a Toastmasters meeting you can expect to learn, practice and grow in your skills.”
The team had met earlier in the year in person before the coronavirus pandemic forced the group to go virtual due to social distancing.
Hoover said the group is meeting for an hour at 7 p.m. every Thursday on Zoom, so it has people joining using their laptops or phones for the 1-hour meeting.
“The online meetings have been going very smoothly and everybody seems to enjoy them, though it is a little different,” Hoover said. “We have two speakers that give their prepared speeches, and then we move on to the table topics portion of the evening where people can volunteer to give a quick impromptu speech if they want. Each meeting has a theme and word of the day that we try to include within all of our speeches, so that is always fun.”
Toastmasters International is a nonprofit educational organization that operates clubs worldwide for the purpose of helping members improve their communication, public speaking and leadership skills. Through its thousands of member clubs, Toastmasters International offers a program of communication and leadership projects designed to help people learn the arts of speaking, listening and thinking.
Hoover said a Toastmasters meeting is a learn-by-doing workshop in which participants hone their speaking and leadership skills in a no-pressure atmosphere. There is no instructor in a Toastmasters meeting. Instead, members evaluate one another’s speeches. The feedback process is a key part of the program’s success.
For more or for a meeting invitation, email [email protected].
