Madame Toastmaster, Fellow toastmasters, guests

This evening I would like to talk to you about the history of Toastmasters, how it began and why it began.
Then I would like to touch on the Toastmasters education program and how that has evolved over the years.
And I will finish with a look at the structure of the Toastmasters organisation and how Tara fits in.

Toastmasters actually began over 80 years ago, and the person responsible was a man called Ralph Smedley.

Back in the 1920s Ralph Smedley was the director for education at a branch of the YMCA in Bloomington, Illinois in America.

Among the group of young men that he was responsible for, Smedley could see that there was a need for training in communication - so he decided to set up a public speaking group.

The objective of the group was to:
" afford practice and training in the art of public speaking and in presiding over meetings, and to promote sociability and good fellowship among its members"

So a group of young men from the YMCA would meet each week , they took turns in presiding over the meetings, making speeches & evaluating one another.

Because the activities of the group were similar to how a toast master at a banquet would behave, giving toasts or delivering after dinner speeches - Smedley called his group, "The Toastmasters Club".

However, as education director for the YMCA, Smedley would be regularly transferred to different YMCA hostels around the country. Wherever he went he would set up a new group. but whenever he moved on the clubs would die. The groups would stop meeting.

In 1924 - he was moved again, this time to the YMCA in Santa Ana in California, and again he set up another new Toastmasters club. For some reason - This time it took off. Other people in local communities heard about the Toastmaster meeting - were very interested and Smedley helped them to set up their own clubs.

Soon after Smedley set up a federation for the growing number of toastmasters clubs.

It was only a few years later when a group set up in British Columbia in Canada., the first club outside America & Toastmasters International was born.

Ralph Smedley remained very involved as the organisation went from strength to strength.
He would helped out with Fund raising, program planning, membership drives, but he had not yet given up the day job - he was still working for the YMCA.

Around that time Smedley recognised the need for written training material, so he started developing and writing training manuals in the evenings, after work.

These started with 2 guides: The organization began with two manuals -- Basic Training and Beyond Basic Training -- written by Smedley in the office after business hours.

Today we have many manuals, magazines and a wealth of training material, in print an online.

Over the years the toastmasters education program has been continually refined and improved.
Today the Competent Toast master program involves a 2 prong approach - leadership on one strand and communication on the other.
The CTM manual covers the communication part - a program of 10 speeches starting with the ice breaker or speech to introduce yourself to your group, through speech 3, for example, where you have to get your point across and on up to speech 10 when you reach competent toastmaster status. Each speech has clear and definite objectives leading the toastmaster through a gradual learning path, all the time increasing confidence.
The leadership strand gives members the opportunity to improve leadership skills by serving on the committee, running the weekly meeting or helping to recruit new members!
The ingenious part of the program, in my opinion, is that toastmasters can work through the sections at his or her own pace.
While we all strive for self improvement - we remember that Toastmasters is an extra curricular activity - something we do in the evening to relax - it must be fun

So all Toastmasters have much to thank Ralph Smedley for.
The Santa Ana Toastmasters Club take the gratitude one step further - and renamed itself the Smedley Number One Club in honor of its founder, and at each meeting a photograph of Smedley is placed in an empty chair near the lectern to represent his continuing inspiration.

Though Ralph Smedley died in 1965, the organisation has continued to grow & expand:
A second growth spurt came following the decision to accept women as members in 1973.
Today - 200,000 members
9,300 clubs
90 countries
To facilitate the administration of such a large organisation Toastmasters is subdivided - every club is given it's own club number, and then is part of many groups- specifically each club belongs to an Area, the a Division and then a District.
For example - Tara
District '71' - which covers the British Isles
Division 'C' - East Coast of Ireland
Area '18' - South County Dublin
Club 3141 is Tara Toastmasters Club '3141'

So here we all are - regular as clockwork 8pm on the 1st & 3rd Thursday of every month for our Tara meeting -

Tara itself is 19 years old having started in December 1985 - as far as I am aware has always accepted women members!

So you should each pride yourselves on being part of an organisation that can boast 3 million members over the last 80 years and still helping us today.

You can contact Jennifer Howlett at Tel. (01) 2831458
For more information about Tara Toastmasters by viewing the Robin's Nest Community Notice Board Click Here .