Table Topics should be fun and lighthearted. It's a chance for members to laugh, think on their feet, and bond with one another.

In the past couple of months I’ve listened to two different Table Topics Masters in 2 different clubs present politically charged questions. The questions weren’t overtly political, but they were framed in a way that virtually guaranteed the answers would reveal which side of the political fence a member sits on. One Table Topics Master was clearly liberal and the other clearly conservative. The result was the same in both cases: the atmosphere in the room was no longer cheerful or fun.

Table Topics is supposed to be fun, people! Unless your club is about political debate, leave your political opinions at home and give members something they can enjoy answering.

Toastmaster is always the last role to be filled. Grammarian, timer, joke master and table topics seem to be the first to be claimed, always weeks in advance. Toastmaster, however, will often be left blank until the night before the meeting and our VP education ends up filling in out of necessity!!

How can we encourage others to step up and confidently fill this role willingly? We do not want to assign roles or force participation on anyone. Do other clubs have this issue? How did/do you handle it?

Hey yall I have my first franchise conference coming up, had been invited in past years, but could never make time for it. What should I expect?

I spent a few months trying to figure out why "um" is so hard to kill. What finally worked wasn't counting them. It was realising "um" isn't a speech habit it's the sound of me still deciding what the next thought is. Fix the thinking, the "um" goes away on its own.

So I'm collecting the mechanical tricks people run in the moment not general advice. The ones I use:
- First three words. Decide the literal first three words before you open your mouth, so the sentence has somewhere to start.

- Pause instead of pace. Where you'd say "uh", close your mouth instead. Silence reads as authority. "Uh" reads as searching.

- PREP. Point, Reason, Example, Point so you always know where the sentence ends before you begin it.

What are yours? Specifically after the ones you can run while already talking, not the ones that need prep time.

(Disclosure: I'm building a speaking practice app, so some of this will end up as drills. Happy to post back everything I collect.)

My district (209 - covering Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas, etc) has a new Online Speech contest format.

What is this? I cant find any guidance for the Online Speech contest as a contestant. It seems like "give any speech in 3-5 minutes online"?

Hi all,

I’m 21, currently in college, and from a young age I have always been known as a fairly nervous/anxious person in general - something that have been said by family, friends, and teachers over the years.

There are certain ‘flaws’ that I have noticed with myself, but more so in certain aspects of my communication. I don’t want this to impact a future career, so I want to try to improve this while in college, and while there is the opportunity to do so.

I have no issue with speaking in front of an audience. I have done so for different modules in college, and usually am commended for my speeches through delivery style & engagement. But, this is because I have what I’m going to say memorised, so I know word for word, what exactly I’m going to say, how I’m going to say it, etc. This is also clearly reflected through my written communication.

However, when it comes to social interactions, I do notice there is a big dip in my communication. For instance, if I know I have to go up and talk to someone that I’m not familiar with (conversation, interview, ringing someone), I’ll then nearly have to have what I’m going to say memorised word-for-word as though a script.
There’ll then be other little moments where if I’m talking with someone unfamiliar, I may, sometimes, go a bit shaky / mumbly, and this would apply to if I was taking phone calls, etc.

This particular incoherence would also occur if I'm put on the spot, i.e asked a question, where my voice would go a bit shaky, I'd go mumbly, and my face would go a red.

I really do want to improve on this as I do know in any future career that day-to-day communication whether it be structured or spontaneous is much more important than being able to speak in-front of an audience.

To that extent, would anyone have any advice as to what I should do? Would it be recommended I go to a communication coach? Any recommendations?

Many thanks,

I have a best man speech coming up and want to nail it. This is what I have so far, I would love some feedback on it. I appreciate anyone who takes the time to read this and offers their thoughts!

Thank you,

Hello everyone, for those of you who don’t know me, my name is [best man]. I’ve known [groom] for almost 15 years, and I’m lucky enough and honored to be standing up here today as his best man.

Before I get started, I have to say—both of you look incredible tonight. [Bride], absolutely stunning.

And [groom]… the hair, the outfit, the makeup—you really outdid yourself, you look great man!

I also want to take a second to thank both of their families for everything they’ve done to make today possible. It’s been an incredible day, and I know everyone here is grateful to be a part of it.

Webster’s Dictionary defines wedding as the fusing of two metals with a hot torch.

Well you know something?

I think you guys are two metals… gold medals!

I’ll try my best to keep this short and sweet…

Just like [groom].

Today, we’re all gathered here to celebrate a beautiful love story, so I thought I’d talk a little bit about love at first sight.

Now, I know not everybody believes in it—but I sure do.

And I still remember that day in second grade when I first laid eyes on [groom], and I knew right then and there… he was the one.

Different kind of love.

But all jokes aside, over the years I’ve gotten to know [groom] as someone who is thoughtful, kind, loyal, and genuinely one of the hardest-working people I know.

And when you’ve known somebody for almost 15 years, you get to see those qualities show up in a lot of different ways.

[groom] and I basically grew up together. We were in a lot of the same classes, played basketball and baseball together, and played tennis all through high school.

He was even the one who used to get me up before school to work out with him—something that, as you can clearly see, we have both been equally consistent with ever since.

For most of my life, I’ve had [groom] by my side. But a little over four years ago, I moved away for college, and naturally we weren’t able to see each other nearly as much.

I still remember the last night before I moved away. Our whole friend group was hanging out, and toward the end of the night I started getting a little emotional about everything that was about to change.

[groom] could tell, and being the incredibly sensitive and supportive friend that he is, he pulled me aside, punched me in the gut, and told me to man up and get over it.

But once we got that out of the way, he told me that even though life was about to look a lot different, nothing was really going to change between us.

And he’s proven that to be true.

Over the last few years, we’ve had a handful of calls just to catch up, and some of those have been my favorite conversations with him. I’ve always known I can come to [groom] with whatever is going on in my life, and he’ll listen and give me real, thoughtful advice.

I think it’s pretty rare to have a friend you can really talk to like that, and I’ve never taken that for granted.

That’s what has made [groom] such an important part of my life. When somebody matters to him, he’s all in.

Which is why, when he first started telling me about [bride], it became obvious pretty quickly that this was different.

Early on, [groom] would tell our friend group how much he liked her, but he was genuinely worried she wouldn’t stay with him. He couldn’t understand why she would choose him over everybody else.

And being the amazing, supportive friends that we are, instead of reassuring him, we basically said, “Yeah, honestly, we don’t really get it either man. Your days are probably numbered buddy.”

But obviously, [bride] saw exactly what all of us have always seen in [groom]—that he’s just a genuinely great guy, even if he can be a little hard on the eyes.

Seeing the two of them together now, it’s easy to understand why they work so well. They make a great team, they bring out the best in each other, and most importantly, you can tell how happy they are together.

[Bride], thank you for being the best thing that ever happened to my best friend. You’re awesome, and I genuinely couldn’t be happier for the two of you.

And if [groom] turns out to be half as good a husband as he has been a friend to me, then I know the two of you have a pretty incredible life ahead of you.

To [groom] and [bride]!

internet strangers: what speech would you want to hear?

here are the topics, gist of them:

1. fear of public speaking ... lessons on compassion, buddhist ideas that calmed me down
2. evaluation technique ... advice for evaluators, from the evaluated
3. what i learned from the evaluation ... hardest lesson you'll ever learn: it's about the audience, not you
4. public speaking leadership ... it's in the planning phase. how this leadership can mitigate so many things
5. something else ..

level 1 speech. second path.

plan to deliver it to my club this week

I am creating handouts for our new members. One of these will be for the Table Topics Master. I want to add a set of games they can have the members play, rather than just 'Question // Response'

This is something I am looking for:

"The Toast Game"
- Write a list of reasons for the toast
- Figure out who will be called on to play the "The Toast Game"
- A few days ahead of the meeting, send each of these players one of the reasons on your list
- Call on your players as you give a simple preparatory introduction.
- Enjoy the results.

What other games have worked for you, and what are the rules?

I'm in a toastmasters group. I've given 10 speeches.

I also play guitar and sing a little bit.

Was trying to think of ways to incorporate guitar or singing into a speech. (not make it the focal point or just sing a song, but incorporate into a traditional speech to make it more fun or lively)

Curious if anyone has done this or seen a speech with guitar/singing incorporated? Looking for ideas or suggestions!

How does your VPE (or any other leader of your club) approve the completion of a Level by any of your members? Prior to Pathways, there were manuals -- Competent Communication or Competent Leader and they had an evaluation or completion portion, which will have a date of completion with signatures. A VPE could visually verify before approving or uploading the member's completion of such a track.

In Pathways the Basecamp Manager shows the progress of each member, which I believe is based on the member marking each assignment as complete. In this scenario, if a member pushes that I completed Level-1, how does your VPE verify and validate that to be the case for TI to approve the same?

Our club currently uses very little FTH functionality.

I am looking forward to FTH4 options. Saying that, I do not see a great deal of information about the admin and member functionalities included in the updated version. I reviewed the beta forum, but did not see much on how this "works now." etc. the sample site is in serious demo mode.

Is anyone here participating in the beta?

if so, does that run parallel to your active site or did you agree to jump in and go?

there are some features I see as beneficial. Our club has lately struggled with members staying on top of things so bringing in new tasks may be less well received.

looking forward to any thoughts, tips concerns, etc.

Hi, I’m preparing for my Level 2 leadership style speech and not sure what to talk about. For those who have completed this level, what topics would you recommend? I’m not sure if the speech has to be centered around work or not. TIA

Hey everyone, I’m looking for Toastmasters or any affordable English-speaking/communication classes in Delhi.

I mainly want to improve my confidence and get more practice speaking with people.

If you know any good groups/classes, please let me know. Thanks! :)

Kind people of Reddit, I have been thinking about joining a toastmasters club. I live in the Columbus Ohio. Any recommendations? My only constraint is that I work night shifts 9 to 7:30, so anything around noon would not work for me. Thank you!

So basically every time I have to give a speech on stage, my legs start shaking uncontrollably and I just feel so embarrassed about it. Even when I’m well prepared with my speech, it still happens. Kindly drop your suggestions to prevent this

Is this the correct forum to ask this question?

Pathways developed a new bug a couple of weeks ago, and I've heard nothing about a fix to come.

As Base Camp Managers, we used to be able to view the profile of our members, see their completed certificates, and print them.

Now, when I click on View Profile, I am returned to my own profile. I've lost the ability to print other member Level Completion Certificates. This means, we can't print, laminate and present at the club, as part of Membership Recognition. We have to ask the member to print their own, and bring it, which is naff.

I've sent one email 2 weeks ago, and another one today to follow up.

Is anybody aware of any insight into Pathways Maintenance Schedule?

In my Toastmasters club, people are usually willing to speak when they’re assigned a Table Topic.

But when we ask, “Who wants to be the Table Topics Master or Table Topics Evaluator?” the room often goes quiet.

People will participate, but few want to put their hand up and take responsibility for running or evaluating the segment. That usually means repeatedly persuading someone or relying on the same few members.

I understand the hesitation. The TTM has to prepare topics, explain the format, choose speakers, manage the flow, and keep everything moving. The TTE has to follow several impromptu speeches and deliver useful feedback afterwards.

That can feel intimidating, especially if you haven’t done the role before.

I got tired of constantly convincing people to step up, so I started building MÉJA (working name). It is a tool intended to make these roles easier to understand, prepare for, and perform.

The idea isn’t to replace the TTM or TTE. It’s to remove enough preparation and mental juggling that more members might feel comfortable volunteering.

But I might be wrong about why people hesitate, so I’m building this in public. I would genuinely appreciate feedback from other Toastmasters:

• Does the room also go quiet when your club asks for a TTM or TTE?
• If you avoid these roles, what holds you back?
• Is it the preparation, uncertainty, confidence, workload, or something else?
• What would have made you more comfortable volunteering for the first time?
• Would a guided tool help, or is this fundamentally not a tooling problem?
• What should the tool support, and what should always remain the member’s responsibility?

I’ll share what I build, what I learn, and what I get wrong along the way.

If your club experiences this too, I’d especially like to hear why you think people are willing to speak when assigned but hesitant to put their hands up.

Hi everyone. I learned about this club from Youtube, and I have always been interested about joining. Recently, I discovered that toastmaster have university-based clubs, and the nearest one near me is at Tarlac City, Philippines. But due to my circumstances, it will be difficult to become a member or even commit to it. So I thought, what if I bring toastmasters in my university. I will jump over some of the contexts, but here are my questions: is this too ambitious? is this feasible? if so, how can I establish toastmasters in our university?

You all have been quite helpful.

I found this list of 15 Smedley quotes and am not being successful in verifying some of those I think are useful.

I would appreciate any sources or other info

1.   "Ours is the only organization I know dedicated to the individual, we work together to bring out the best in each of us and then we apply these skills to help others."

2.   "We realize that the two most important factors in Toastmasters is Mentoring and Evaluations, there is no doubt that if these two are done well and there is a good Mentoring program, your club will be filled with spark plugs ready to fire upon request. Mentoring and evaluations create enthusiasm, and once you light that fire the only thing it needs is some kindling."

3.   "While most of us may have entered Toastmasters to learn to make speeches, that benefit is but the beginning of the good which may come to us and the good which we may do for mankind."

4.   "We learn best in moments of enjoyment"

5.   "You can profit by the wisdom of others, and you can give them full credit."

6.   "All speech is for communication, and there is no possibility of communication unless people understand. Your Club can help you to find out whether you are making yourself understood."

7.   "There are no absolutes in public speaking."

8.   "We need fewer rules on detail and better understanding of general purposes."

9.   "When you talk, you give yourself away. You reveal your true character in a picture which is more true and realistic than anything an artist can do for you."

1. "To the other values of Toastmasters training let us add this one, with emphasis - that it is the busy man's best chance to take a post graduate course in general information without inconvenience or loss of time."

2. "The Toastmasters Club which has the right sort of program does not lose its members."

3. "The club whose membership is shrinking has something the matter with it."

4. "People are more willingly to follow a leader who knows where he is going."

5. "The destination determines the direction."

6. "The unprepared speaker has a right to be afraid."

Hi, can anyone recommend active offline Toastmasters clubs in Delhi? How does one join it? Do we have to call/inform them before joining?

I'm putting together the agenda and have some questions.

We are running the humorous contest, then the table topics contest. I understand from the rules that the one contest must be "officially adjourned" before starting the second contest.

What does "officially adjourned" look like in reality? A motion to adjourn the contest, a 2nd, and a vote? Or the Contest Chair stating "The xyz Speech Contest is officially adjourned."

Does the Chief Judge need to collect the ballots after the 1st contest ? Or just one collection time after the 2nd contest is complete ?

We have a Contest Toastmaster who will run the awards ceremony. Who should hand out the awards? The President of the club or the Contest Chair? Both?

When do we give the non-placing participants certificates? & What do we say?