|
Purdue Club
The following text is taken from a corporate newsletter from Purdue Pharma,
a company that recently started its own Toastmasters club.
Purdue Toastmasters Put In A Good Word
In August of 2001, IT's Training and Development Manager, Christine McAndrew
along with IT's Web Content Manager, Ellen Tuckett (a card carrying Toastmasters
member already), organized a Toastmasters Club for the IT department. The goal
was to offer a method for employees to develop or enhance their skills in the
area of communications, specifically presentation skills, and to give and receive
feedback.
Working with other members from Toastmasters International, an organization
that’s been around since 1924, Christine and Ellen ran several meetings
to attract members. Using the grass roots methods to encourage co-workers to
join and participate in the fun, the club grew fairly quickly with a limited
amount of marketing effort.
Once the membership reached twenty people, the group was eligible to be a
Chartered Club recognized by Toastmasters International. Purdue Toastmasters
held elections and soon had a Toastmasters leadership organization in place
to manage the club and attract new members. “We’ve had guest
speakers come to our meetings to demonstrate how their skills have improved
as they progressed through the Toastmasters program,” says Christine
McAndrew, Senior Manager, IT Training and Development. “At that point,
we began to realize that this was an opportunity that should be available
to all employees at Purdue, and decided to engage the help of Human Resources
and the EAC to open the club to others the company,” she added.
The Purdue Toastmasters Club meets every other Wednesday from 12:15 p.m. to
1:30 p.m. Guests are always welcome to attend. You can learn more about the
Purdue Toastmasters Club by visiting the Intranet
site located at http://it.pharma.com/Toastmasters/.
The Official Toastmasters International Web site can be found at www.toastmasters.org.
Why I Joined ToastMasters
“Toastmasters is a peer-based self improvement system designed to help
participants raise their self-esteem and reduce or eliminate their fears about
public speaking in a friendly, non-threatening atmosphere. Visitors are always
welcome, and encouraged to become members.
Garth Bowlby, ToastMasters V.P. of Education
Purdue Toastmasters Club
“Although I am accustomed to standing in front of an audience to deliver
training, I wanted to be able to speak extemporaneously in front of an audience
and still remain calm and get my point across. For example, when I am training
a group of professionals, I am not nervous because I am prepared and I know
my topic really well. But, when I am in a meeting of my peers and I have to
speak up, for some strange reason, I get nervous. Toastmasters' Table Topics
helps me with this situation. With Table Topics, you are given a topic and
a few minutes to get your thoughts together. Then, you have to speak for a
few minutes about the topic. You get critiqued and you critique others. The
feedback is very valuable for the next time that you get up to speak. It sounds
cliché, but I am learning to ‘think on my feet.’”
Sarah Gutierrez, Member
Purdue Toastmaster's Club
|
