Taking Your Toastmaster Skills Outside the Club

Each of us have our reasons for joining Toastmasters. Some look to improve their confidence and poise by becoming more-effective communicators; others seek to become better leaders and help others to succeed. The supportive environment provided by Toastmasters is an ideal venue to practice and hone these skills.

But that need not be the limit of your horizons. There’s a great big world out there that’s aching for competent leaders and skilled communicators, and there’s no reason why you shouldn’t walk out onto the world stage. Taking your Toastmaster skills outside the club is the next logical step; and it can be both fun and rewarding.

Two District 38 Toastmasters will be doing just that. This Saturday afternoon, November 4, DTM
Ken Krawchuk will be staging a rally in the shadow of the Liberty Bell at Independence Mall in Philadelphia in support of his intent to seek the Libertarian Party’s nomination as their candidate for Pennsylvania Governor. Talk about stepping outside the club! Joining him will be DTM, Pat Rocchi to serve as Master of Ceremonies for the event.

Are you busy that Saturday? Here’s your chance to see two experienced Toastmasters in action, exercising the skills they learned at their local clubs, only this time employing them in a serious public endeavor.

The details are all coming together as smoothly as if it were just another Toastmasters meeting. Pat will open the event and welcome the crowd in his own inimitable way (and of course talk up Toastmasters!), then introduce a local Libertarian candidate followed by the main speaker, Ken Krawchuk.

Ken’s mission that day will be to present a speech of TED Talk quality and length, then face the ultimate challenge in Table Topics: unscripted random questions from the public. Even more challenging, the media is expected to come out in full force, including television cameras, reporters, and photographers who are there to capture every word and gesture. There’s nothing like a live media event to test a Toastmasters mettle!

Pat and Ken have been preparing for events such as this for a long, long time. Ken has been a Toastmaster for 20 years, and is currently a member of Positively Charged Toastmasters, ETS Toastmasters, Furphy Toastmasters at Drexel University, and the Eastern Penn Advanced Club. Pat has been a Toastmaster almost as long, and is a member of the Blue Bell Toastmasters. Together they have almost a half a century of Toastmasters experience to bring to the world stage.

If you’re eager to learn a trick or two and observe two of District 38’s finest as they perform their Toastmasters magic outside the club, consider joining them on in Philadelphia on Saturday, November 4 at 1 PM. All the details are on Ken’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/KenK4Pa.

Come and support your fellow Toastmasters as they take that giant step outside the club. And it will certainly contribute to their composure to see in the crowd some of the same supportive, friendly faces they’ve seen for so many years at their club meetings: faces like yours.