Toastmasters International is a nonprofit educational organization that operates clubs worldwide for the purpose of helping members improve their communication, public speaking and leadership skills. Through its thousands of member clubs, Toastmasters International offers a program of communication and leadership projects designed to help men and women learn the arts of speaking, listening, and thinking.
There are actually two toastmasters clubs in Lebanon, one is in Beirut and the other in Tripoli. And I got introduced to Toastmasters Lebanon a while ago via Nour’s blog “Sunken Treasure 6”. Nour is a member of Tripoli’s club and she posts frequent updates on her blog about what goes on in the meetings and sometimes shares with the tables topics that she’s going to be speaking about.
Per my readings of her blog posts, Toastmasters evaluation system helps the individuals identify the weaknesses in their communication skills and of course work on improving them. One thing I have been wondering about though is when do members decide that they got enough practice and no longer need what Toastmasters offers and thus choose to just stop attending. I think Nour can answer this by commenting on the post!
Anyway, you can get to know more about Toastmaster Tripoli through the below reportage by Mounzer Al-Merehbi which was aired on TeleLiban few days ago.
I’m not Nour :), but I know people who have been been part of Toastmasters for over a decade.
Part of continuing to go to the meetings is to give back to something they feel has changed their lives, hoping that they too can change the lives of others.
Hi Rami! Thanks a bunch for the post! Toastmasters (TM) is, like you said, an international non-profit organization dedicated to helping members improve their public speaking, communication, and leadership skills…
At Toastmasters, we have a self-paced educational program. Once you become a member, you are given two manuals, a Competent Communicator Manual and a Competent Leadership Manual. (In answer to your question) In each Manual, you have 10 project requirements which you need to fulfill. For example in the first manual, the first project speech is called the “Ice Breaker” in which you’re to give a 4 to 6 minute speech about yourself, to help the audience get to know you better. The next Speech’s requirement is to “Organize Your Speech” in which you’re to give a 5 to 7 minute speech about a topic of your choice but in an organized manner that leads the audience to a clearly defined goal. And each Speech has a different objective. After you complete all 10 speeches, you receive a “Competent Communicator” Award from the TM Head Quarters in California…
Each meeting, members have different roles to play. The roles include The Toastmaster (the host of the meeting), The Table Topics Master (a speaker who asks other members and guests questions about a particular topic, and they have to answer in a specified period of time. In the end we all vote for the best speaker), A General Evaluator (who evaluates the meeting as a whole), A Timer (who times each speaker’s speaking time and warns them when they’ve reached their minimum required speaking time and when they’ve surpassed it), A Grammarian (who corrects other members’ and guests’ grammatical mistakes, and encourages them to use a Word Of The Day), An Ah-Counter (who takes note of filler words you might use when speaking, like Ah,Um, or Arabic words like Ya3ni/Innu), There are of course Speakers, Speech Evaluators, A Joke Master… and the thing is that there is no instructor. We all take on different roles each week with the aim of helping each other improve in such matters…
But I guess the best way to understand it is to visit a Toastmasters Club yourself! Come as a guest (completely free of charge) and see how a Toastmasters Club works in a very friendly and supportive environment…
The AUB (Speakers & Leaders) Club meets every Wednesday from 6 to 7:30 p.m. in Westhall and The Tripoli (Loudspeakers) Club meets every Monday from 6 to 7:30 p.m. in the BAU Alumni Association on Mitein Street. And if you’re not in Lebanon, you can still find a club near you: http://reports.toastmasters.org/findaclub/default.cfm
Rami,
you are awesome. I think this would benefit me greatly since I intend to become the minister of education in the next 10 years lol Joking (maybe). But, this could be exactly what I need. Actually, I found one club in London like just 2 minutes walk from where I live.
oh maybe i should join too, i am good with speech giving, i just suck at ice breaker! I just say my name, and barely the related position of myself and shut up! Nour shou you can help?
Nice project! hmmm ahhh I like the Ah-Counter 😉
Yup, it’s really brought such a bright side to my usually mundane weeks 🙂
hehe you should have seen me when I first started out, I’d stand up and mumble some incomprehensible jargon and sit back down… now (about eight months later), as I look at where I was and were I am now, I see that the difference is HUGE!
It’s funny, even in my everyday life when I’m talking with people I can’t help but think about the ahs and ums that I’m not supposed to be making, and how long it takes me to get my point across…
M, Posh, Liliane, (and Rami!), I really encourage you all to attend a meeting; I’m sure you’ll love it! 🙂
Thank you all for your comments! 🙂
@Nour K
.. and thank you for your great feedback!
I lack the communication skills too, and I gave joining TM a though last spring but my MBA kept me from doing it since my courses were taking lot of my time back then. However Nour is doing a good job at making us excited to at least attend some session as guests, so I think I might be doing it sometime soon.
(Attending a session in Tripoli will be more convenient to me since I’m familiar with the group there due to SunkenTreasure6’s posts!:P)
Yalla rami, amtin mnotla3?
Hi,I am interested in public speaking. Do u still meet every Wednesday at AUB from 6 to 7:30 p.m. in Westhall and every Monday from 6 to 7:30 p.m. in the BAU Alumni Association on Mitein Street?
hello,do i need to reserve a seat or i can just show up ?
Still didn’t get a replay. do i need to reserve or Something??
Hello everyone,
I saw the posts by chance and I am glad to read the discussion. My name is Jana Jabbour, I have been a member of Loudspeakers for over a year ( Tripoli chapter of Toastmasters International). I am currently the president of the club.
Nour has very thoroughly and clearly explained the Toastmasters program!
Anas I don’t know if you’ll be able to read my post now, but let me give you reply to your question. We are meeting on Saturdays at 5.15 pm in the Beirut Arab University Alumni Union, Mitein Street, in front of Afran Lobnan EL Akhdar,building of Farah rent a car, 1st floor. You don’t need to reserve a seat ahead of time.
For further info feel free to visit our website: http://loudspeakers.freetoasthost.org/ or contact me at janajabbour@gmail.com
hope this is helpful
Jana
Hi!
I’m William, the current acting Area Governor of Lebanon (through June 2010). We actually have three clubs in Lebanon now and hope to have a fourth some time soon. Here they are:
1) Speakers & Leaders (Beirut at AUB on Wednesdays at 6:15 – open to all)
2) Loudspeakers (Tripoli at BAU Alumni Union on Saturdays at 5:15 – open to all)
3) Pro Toast (Beirut at AUB on Thursdays at 7:30 – open to professionals)
Check http://www.toastmasters.org for updated contact info. We’d be glad to see you there!
Hello, This is Youmna, from the current acting Area committee.
We actually have 5 clubs in Lebanon now. It is beautiful how this community is growing.
Here’s a list of the clubs and their meeting times:
Dhad: Monday, 6:30-8:30pm
Loudspeakers: Wednesday, 8:00-10:00pm
Mercury: Tuesday, 7:30-9:30pm
Pro-toast: Thursday, 7:00-9:00pm
Speakers & Leaders: Wednesday, 6:00-8:00pm
All meetings are currently held on Zoom. Guests are welcome.
To learn more, you can visit our website https://tmlebanon.org/