JIm K Toastmasters Saint John

My previous blog post was on the topic of storytelling and how we need to voice our stories to find areas to emphasize and add color, and to learn what aspects resonate with an audience.  On the date I published that blog post there was yet another mass shooting in the U.S.A,. this time at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.  Seventeen people died unnecessarily as a result of easy access to guns that can fire dozens of rounds in seconds.   The students from the high school are now professionally and calmly demanding that their schools be safe and that changes to gun accessibility be made. On television and social media platforms students are offering clear, simple, honest stories on their experience in losing their friends in such a horrific way.  Unimaginable to me. Those students in the media ten days after the tragedy are articulate and applying great pressure on politicians with their entrenched positions on gun ownership rights...

I’ve been a member of Toastmasters since 1987.  Sometimes I’m asked why I continue.  It seems that some have a perception that once you know how to plan and deliver a speech you’ve developed the skills and you’re good forever.  That’s not the case.  Public speaking is a skill that requires practice.   The skill involves planning a message, delivering the message, interacting with the audience, gauging audience response and adjusting when necessary.  I stay in Toastmasters predominately because I need to practice these skills.  When it comes to public speaking, I want to be much better than average. But among other reasons that I stay are because meetings are fun, and I enjoy seeing people develop in the Toastmasters club environment. I’ve also come to realize that speaking is largely about telling stories. We need to discover our stories on our own, and then we need to voice them in order to shape and add color, and to fully understand ...