This weekend we had a Brilliant Toastmasters session. As per always, we have our meetings at Pearson Institute in Midrand on a Saturday morning and it’s usually every second week. Our club is called Midrand Extraordinaires, and we’re on a mission to make ordinary folks extraordinary. And this weekend we lived up to it, because not only did we demonstrate how we’ve grown as a club, we always demonstrated to others how well we run things.
Our club launched on 23rd June 2018, and having been a Toastmaster once before and knowing the of value Toastmasters, I didn’t hesitate to sign up. And signing up that day meant I was officially a founding member of the club. That was no big thing for me, because I only wanted to get better at publicly engaging with people and this was the perfect platform. But before I knew it, I was the Treasurer of the club and on the committee. How fast things move!
Over the past ten months, I’ve seen us move through growing pains and spurts of growth as we tried to become sustainable and get chartered. We’ve changed venues twice, we’ve changed our name once, we’ve seen people come and go, but one thing has remained the same; we have consistently kept at developing our club with the great people we have on board. Even with some frustration here and there, this consistency is paying off.
Since about three months ago I’ve started seeing the operational side of things come together beautifully. Our core members are significantly more comfortable in their roles, we handle mistakes easily, and our focus now is delivering value for our members. This weekend I saw some massive results. This was the third time I handled the Toastmaster role; previously I rather get hit by a bus than be an emcee. I saw my team mates not only give speeches, but be inspirational. And I saw the youth respond to not only what we were saying but what we were doing!
As much as Toastmasters is about talking, I’ve discovered that its really about action! It’s about doing things consistently; getting up on stage every week and facing your fears whether you fail or succeed. Its about constantly putting in the practice till speech becomes second nature; it’s about working together with like-minded people who want to makes things better; and it’s about improving peoples lives!
I have always said, that I am a proud to be an Artist; I am proud to be a Vegan, and I’d like to add to that list; I am a proud Toastmaster!
Photo by Miguel Henriques on Unsplash