Table of Contents
Five Ways to Contact Us (Grand Terrace Toastmasters)
10 Tips for Successful Public Speaking
Lecturn or Podium, which is it?
What is Toastmasters?

10 Tips for Successful Public Speaking
<From Toastmaster's International Website>

Feeling some nervousness before giving a speech is natural and healthy. It shows you care about doing well. But, too much nervousness can be detrimental. Here's how you can control your nervousness and make effective, memorable presentations:

1. Know the room.
Be familiar with the place in which you will speak. Arrive early, walk around the speaking area and practice using the microphone and any visual aids.

2. Know the audience.
Greet some of the audience as they arrive. It's easier to speak to a group of friends than to a group of strangers.

3. Know your material.
If you're not familiar with your material or are uncomfortable with it, your nervousness will increase. Practice your speech and revise it if necessary.

4. Relax.
Ease tension by doing exercises.

5. Visualize yourself giving your speech.
Imagine yourself speaking, your voice loud, clear, and assured. When you visualize yourself as successful, you will be successful.

6. Realize that people want you to succeed.
Audiences want you to be interesting, stimulating, informative, and entertaining. They don't want you to fail.

7. Don't apologize.
If you mention your nervousness or apologize for any problems you think you have with your speech, you may be calling the audience's attention to something they hadn't noticed. Keep silent.

8. Concentrate on the message -- not the medium.
Focus your attention away from your own anxieties, and outwardly toward your message and your audience. Your nervousness will dissipate.

9. Turn nervousness into positive energy.
Harness your nervous energy and transform it into vitality and enthusiasm.

10. Gain experience.
Experience builds confidence, which is the key to
effective speaking. A Toastmasters club can provide the experience you need.

Lectern or Podium, which is it?

The second definition for podium indicates that it's okay to swtich the terms around (definitions from www.dictionary.com).

po·di·um 1) An elevated platform, as for an orchestra conductor or public speaker.
2) A stand for holding the notes of a public speaker; a lectern.
Synonyms: Synonyms: belvedere, dais, floor, podium, pulpit, rostrum, scaffold, scaffolding, skidway, staging, table, terrace

lec·tern 1) n. A reading desk with a slanted top holding the books from which scriptural passages are read during a church service
2) A stand that serves as a support for the notes or books of a speaker.

Take a look at theses and lecterns for sale at www.folding-tables-chairs.com/lecterns.html
Both of these are labled as "Lecterns." They are however on the "Podiums" page.

Manual Height Adjustable Lectern	Table Top Lectern

What Is Toastmasters?
(Speakeasy Toastmasters club 8704 is a member of District 12, Division C, Area 2 of Toastmaster's International Organization. )

The purpose of Toastmasters to give you the opportunity to develop your communication and leadership skills within a supportive environment of like-minded people. The generally more experienced speakers and leaders are role models demonstrating the fundamentals of communication. The primary venue for this experience is within the club, of which there are some 9,300, world wide.

You practice and improve your skills by following the assignments in the Communication and Leadership and advanced manuals. You get to practice your skills in a wide variety of roles: as a meeting participant, as a speaker, as a club officer, and as a leader at some of the different levels necessary for an international organization of some 195,000 members.

Through practice within the "laboratory of communication" that your club provides, you gain confidence in your abilities to prepare presentations, speak"on your feet," use visual aids and body language, increase effective listening, and passing on what you have learned to others. The educational material has been rigorously and professionally prepared, used by hundreds of thousands of men and women over the past decades, and has been improved upon based on their feedback

About Toastmasters International

Toastmasters International is an international nonprofit educational organization dedicated to making effective oral communication a worldwide reality. With its headquarters in southern California, the Toastmasters International organization is governed by a Board of Directors representing various clubs and regions around the globe. District 12 Toastmasters is a part of this organization, as summarized by the hierarchy listed below:

Regions (e.g., Region II, which includes the southwestern United States and Hawaii)
Districts (e.g., District 12 in California, the area of Southern California from Diamond Bar to Temecula to Indio to Barstow which includes San Bernardino, Riverside and East Los Angeles Counties)
Divisions (subdivisions of a district, of which District 12 has four, i.e., A, B, C, and D. Grand Terrace Toastmasters is Division D.)
Areas (subdivisions of a division, i.e., D1, D2, D3, and D4. Grand Terrace Toastmasters is in area D2.)
Clubs (the core unit of the Toastmasters organization. Grand Terrace Toastmasters is Club 290.)
Individual Members (the participants - and benefactors - of the entire organization. This is YOU when you join Toastmasters!)

Every group within this structure exists solely to improve the activities offered by the Toastmasters program, and each of the larger groups is dedicated to helping the more local groups and individual clubs realize the Toastmaster vision of effective oral communication.

The Mission of Toastmasters International
Toastmasters International is the leading movement devoted to making effective oral communication a worldwide reality. Through its member Clubs, Toastmasters International helps men and women learn the arts of speaking, listening, and thinking -- vital skills that promote self-actualization, enhance leadership peotential, foster human understanding, and contribute to the betterment of mankind. It is basic to this mission that Toastmasters International continually expand its worldwide network of Clubs, thereby offering ever-greater numbers of people the opportunity to benefit from its programs.