The Destination
The goal of Seamasters is to provide a friendly, mutually supportive and positive environment in which every club member
has an opportunity to observe, develop and practice communication and leadership skills, which foster self-confidence
and enhance personal growth.
Toastmasters International (TMI) is an organization dedicated to improving the ability of men and women to communicate and lead effectively.
Through member clubs (like Seamasters), TMI provides a structured program to educate people in the arts of thinking, listening, and speaking -- fundamental abilities that support self-actualization, expand leadership capabilities, encourage interpersonal communication, and contribute to the enrichment of mankind.
Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other - John F. Kennedy
The Toastmasters program consists of a proven formulea for guiding you through the preparation and delivery of a sequence of speeches to the other members of your club. The topics and content are generally up to you, but the suggested time limits and objectives of each speech are described in a series of manuals. You, as a new member will probably start with the "Competent Communicator" manual. This manual details ten speechs, starting with a 4 to 6 minute speech, (the "Ice-breaker") about a subject you know well - yourself. The goal of this speech is simple -- Help us get to know you. Subsequent speeches add more challenging goals: use vocal variation, use body movement, use props, try not to use notes. Through mentoring, encouragement, guidance and an empathic understanding born of having "been there", other club members will help you fulfill your goals. You will develop or discover talents you may think you don't possess. Your tenth speech has time limits of 8 to 10 minutes, and by that time, you'll be wishing you could keep going for another 5 minutes!
When you have completed your first ten speeches, you will have earned the title "Competent Communicator", or " CC" Congratulations! You are now on the path of self-improvement which can, with diligence and commitment, take you to the top! The highest award in Toastmasters is called "Distinguished Toastmaster" ("DTM"), and takes some people years to achieve. The amount of work is intense — Some members never reach this plateau, but still distinguish themselves personally and professionally.
Only the curious will learn and only the resolute overcome the obstacles to learning. The quest quotient has always excited me more than the intelligence quotient. — Eugene S. Wilson
At Seamasters, we make every attempt to begin and end our meetings on time. This is valuable practice for learning how to respond to dynamic business situations. Time is an essential commodity which, for most of us, is in short supply. We learn how to pace ourselves, and our meetings, to not waste your time or ours. Another component of Seamasters meetings is: fun! We're not a bunch of stuffed-shirts who take ourselves too seriously! We're in this to learn, help each other, and have a good time doing it! When we laugh, we relax, and we're better listeners and speakers when we do that.
Our meetings start at 12 noon, every Tuesday at the Seagate facility in Longmont (see the Meeting Location link for more info). The person in charge of the meeting is "the Toastmaster". A different person has this role every week. His or her responsibility is to introduce the other participants, and keep things moving forward and on-time - the emcee. Each meeting has up to three speeches, prepared and presented by club members, using the guidelines established in one of the Toastmasters speech manuals. For each speech, another club member is assigned as the speech evaluator. This is an experienced member who analyzes the speech within the context of the specific goals, as outlined in the manual. This person will will present a brief synopsis of the speech later in the meeting, highlighting things the speaker did well, and indicating where more practice or attention might be in order. It's not really possible to "fail" a speech, but if the speaker exceeded the time limits by a large amount, or ignored the documented goals, they may be asked to think about reworking the speech, and presenting it again at some time in the future - but this rarely (if ever) happens.
After the prepared speeches are done, there is usually a few minutes for something called "Table Topics". This portion of the meeting is conducted by the "Table Topics Master", who has prepared topics or questions before the meeting. The Table Topics Master will ask people to come to the front of the room and talk for 2 to 3 minutes on one of these subjects. The person doing the speaking has absolutely no warning that they will selected, and no idea of the topic until they are standing at the front of the room! As scary as seems, it is excellent practice for learning to "think on our feet", and speak extemporaneously. After one or two attempts, most people actually find it stimulating, and then it becomes fun! Everyone present at the meeting, including guests and visitors, will get a chance to vote (in a secret ballot) for the best speaker, the best Table Topics speaker, and the best evaluator.
During the meeting, there is a member (the Timer) assigned to time the speeches, the speech evaluations, and the Table Topics, and indicate with a set of lights when the speaker has meet the minimum time requirement, or is about to exceed the maximum time limit. Another member (the Grammarian) is listening for proper sentence structure, language usage, and incorporation of the "Word of the day", which was announced at the beginning of the meeting. Another member (the "Ah" Counter) is listening for those troublesome "crutch" and "filler" words — "ummmm", "ahhhhh", "so", "and", "ya know" — that creep into the speech of even the most experienced of us! Each of these "helpers" will give a brief report near the end of the meeting.
One more role is that of "General Evaluator" This person (another experienced member) delivers a short presentation on the overall running of the meeting, and has the task of evaluating the speech evaluators - that's right, even the evaluators get evaluated! Toastmasters has well documented guidelines for how to evaluate a speech -- how to listen effectively, and how to offer helpful advice and suggestions. The General Evaluator will also get the vote totals, and hand out awards for best speaker, best Table Topics speaker, and best Evaluator.
You must be the change you want to see in the world - Mahatma Gandhi
As a member of Toastmasters International and my club, I promise ...