Completing 10 speeches fulfills Toastmasters' milestone

Completing 10 speeches fulfills Toastmaster milestone

“I still get nervous, but I’ve learned to deal with it better” said Eugene Girshtel, speaking recently at a Toastmasters meeting in Annandale. “Now, when I’m feeling anxious about my speech, I put on my cool shades.” He pretends he’s putting on a pair of glasses [the audience chuckles]. “If that doesn’t work, I take a few chill pills [again, he pretends], and then I feel better.” The audience chuckles some more.

Girshtel expresses the feelings of most when it comes to public speaking -- nervousness, anxiety, panic and fear. Though his remedies are illusionary (and humorous), the time and effort he’s put into making himself a better speaker is not.

“This is my 10th speech. My first was pretty rocky,” he recalls. “I froze up. My inner voices took over. I had a mental block. I began to sweat. But Umaer, you helped me.” He looks at Umaer Haq, the Toastmasters club president. “You told me to just ‘say what I feel.’ And that did the trick.”

Girshtel makes eye contact with the 12 or so members and guests in attendance. They vary widely in backgrounds, careers, nationalities and ages. He gestures, changes facial expressions and paces back and forth emphasizing his points. He sounds at ease and convincing and it’s hard to imagine he struggled once.

Completing 10 speeches completes a Toastmaster’s milestone, as described in the club’s Competent Communicators handbook. Each speech focuses on a key aspect of public speaking, from “Getting comfortable with visual aids” to “Persuading with power.” All members start the series with a 4-6 minute ice breaker, which serves as their introduction to fellow club members.

Along with the roadmap to improvement found in the handbook, members learn from and receive support from each other. At every meeting they vote for best speaker and provide written feedback.

Eugene’s wife, Abby, sits a couple rows away and takes notes. Soon, she’ll be giving a 2-3 minute speech herself that will evaluate her husband’s performance.

The club meeting takes about an hour and a half and is generally made up of three speeches, three speech evaluations, and a table topics session that focuses on speaking without preparation. Members volunteer for various roles each meeting, which may include the Ah Counter/Grammarian, whose function is to make note of filler words and interesting uses of speech. Members also vote for best speaker and give written feedback.

The Annandale Toastmaster Club meets the 1st, 3rd & 5th Thursday of the month at 7:30 pm

in Room 105 of Annandale High School. Anyone is welcome. For more information, go to http://annandale.toastmastersclubs.org/ or contact Jin Kim, VP of Membership, at koesnijmiky@gmail.com.