The Community Feel of a Toastmasters Meeting

My Toastmasters club, Newberg Oregon Toastmasters, meets early. In the morning. On Fridays. When I started there, I was regularly meeting with coworkers in Europe at 6 AM, so starting a meeting at 6:45 AM didn't seem like too much of a stretch to me.

And what a start to a Friday! Our meetings nearly always get me going with positivity and inspiration. There's the thought and invocation to set the tone. The speeches frequently bring smiles, laughs, and occasionally tears. We learn so much about each other from the Table Topics as well as the speeches that friendships and deep ties invariably form. We may not all see eye to eye on everything but dialog is generally respectful.  And we have a strong culture of encouraging others in our club. 

As with any community, joyful things happen and sad things happen. Babies are born. We have one very inspiring mama who brought her sleeping infant daughter in each week, and that daughter is now a big sister and the pair are "growing up in Toastmasters." (We've also had visitors come to our meetings, adults now, who grew up going to Toastmasters meetings.) People prepare for wedding toasts, parties, graduations. Members get sick, or can't attend any more. Spouses and friends pass away. Throughout it all, like a community, we try to support each other and provide a safe place to come and talk and laugh and sometimes cry.

Recently, we had a member make it to the district level in the International Speech Contest. That means that she successfully passed contests at the club, area, and division levels. I'm not sure that all Toastmasters realize the importance of contests in strengthening the club community. Unless you're in a large club, nearly everyone in the club is usually involved in some way in making the competition happen -- as a contestant, judge, timer, ballot counter, or otherwise running the contest. And then there are the opportunities to support your contestant at the next level. I can't even describe the amount of pride that I had in our contestant as she stood up there and gave her speech in the district competition -- a speech that I had heard by then maybe 5 or 6 times, though she'd practiced it more. It came off beautifully. Although she didn't place in the top 3 in that field of tough competition, I couldn't have been more proud of what she did. 

Our speech contestant, Linda, at center, flanked by 2 of our 3 Distinguished Toastmasters, the blogger (far left) and our club president (far right)

If you're not a Toastmaster, but you're considering joining, I encourage you to go visit and check out the community culture of any clubs nearby. Make multiple visits if you can, especially if you're trying to choose between clubs.

If you are a Toastmaster, what aspects of your club's community do you enjoy the most? What aspects of other club communities have you witnessed?