DG John Hutcherson's February Message

TOASTMASTERS and ROTARY! Unique Combinations!
 
In early 1985, Pinky Janek took me to a meeting of Business and Professional Toastmasters in San Antonio. There were about 35 people there and they enjoyed each other and a nice lunch at a restaurant in North Star Mall. On this day there was one speech from a very experienced Toastmaster and I was very impressed. 
His speech seemed flawless with great vocal variety and eye contact with each person in the room. I was further impressed when the evaluator stepped up to the lectern and gave a positive analysis of the speech and made some suggestions about how the speech could be improved. And the fun part of the meeting was Table Topics, where random members of the Toastmasters Club were assigned topics for short extemporaneous speeches. I joined that day and have been an active Toastmaster ever since. When we moved to Fredericksburg, I organized a Toastmasters Club and remain an active member of the Babblin Billies Toastmasters!
 
In the Competent Communicators manual 10 speeches are outlined starting with the Icebreaker. A few weeks after I joined I gave my Icebreaker speech and I remember my knees shaking as I stood to speak. I got through it and my evaluator was very positive about the good points of my speech and gave me some suggestions. At each meeting I dreaded being called for Table Topics as I was terrified to stand up and say something for fear of great embarrassment of my ignorance. After a few speeches it was my turn to be the evaluator and give positive feedback to the speaker and suggestions for improvement. All this time my confidence improved a lot. After a few years I began to win Table Topics contests and Evaluation contests. All this is to say that I really grew in my communication and leadership skills in Toastmasters.
 
We were in Evanston for the District Governor Nominee training when I heard Rotary International President Barry Rassin announce that he was working on a partnership between Rotary and Toastmasters where each organization could benefit in this relationship.  Needless to say I was eager to participate.  
 
There are several Toastmasters in Rotary that I know and probably lots of Toastmasters in Rotary I do not know.   Over the next few months we will seek relationships with Toastmasters Clubs in our District and see if we can build mutually beneficial relationships.   District Conference on May 2 will feature Rotary and Toastmasters.   Look for more detail.