Speak Stratford Toastmasters offering a safe environment for public speaking

Speak Stratford Toastmasters is looking for more members to join their organization and ensures a safe space to practice speaking for anything from speeches to job interviews to day-to-day conversations.

 "Besides a ton of fun, you can expect practice speaking at every single meeting,” said club president Morgan Gingerich.

Meeting every Monday evening at the Sobey’s community room on 581 Huron St. from 7-8:30 p.m., Speak Stratford Toastmasters offers casual conversation opportunities including literary corner, where one member reads a piece from a book, magazine, or newspaper aloud each meeting, and table topics where participants can speak in a group off the cuff and without preparation. Although speeches are encouraged, they are not required at Toastmasters meetings.

The chairperson of a Speak Stratford Toastmasters evening will pick a theme for the meeting, and past topics include tomatoes, potatoes, rubber ducks, the sky and the movie Frozen. Meanwhile, the Grammarian will introduce the word of the day and keeps track of the use of filler words such as “um,” “ah” and “you know.” Both roles rotate weekly.

"It's really important to essentially have that exposure therapy,” Gingerich said. “I joined myself to reduce my use of filler words and I stuck around in the group, well because I had so much fun, but also because I'm developing a lot of other skills – leadership, clear communication, increasing my vocabulary, so those have been key takeaways for me."

Gingerich added that the Speak Stratford Toastmasters offers a welcoming and supportive environment for all, even for those who are terrified of public speaking.

“The first time I joined a meeting I was so scared I actually got to the door and I was so afraid to go in, that I went all the way back out to my car before I got the courage to come in and when I did join, everyone was so welcoming,” she said.

Aleah Graff, vice-president of membership, said the club helped her with her public speaking skills in her role as community engagement coordinator at Avondale United Church and her day-to-day conversations.

“I find that even that not within my job, just being able to interact with a variety of people with a variety of live experiences is something that I struggled with in the past and I feel like Toastmasters is helping with my overall confidence, not only in public speaking but making small talk as well,” Graff said.

Anyone looking to check out Speak Stratford Toastmasters can attend three meetings, either consecutively or non consecutively, before deciding if they would like to be a member. Once they become a member, they pay a membership fee every six months. More information can be found online by visiting speakstratford.toastmastersclubs.org.