Club 4866 UM Masters
Speechcraft Bootcamp 2013
This year, UM Masters was given an opportunity that seemed
too good to pass up. We were approached by the Internationally Educated
Agrologist Program and asked if we could run a program for their students to
help them with their public speaking skills.
15 students came to 2 of our weekly meetings to see what
Toastmasters is about and 8 of them were really keen to learn more. The
students have all come to Canada within the last couple of years from across
the globe and have a range of experiences. All are searching for jobs in the
agriculture sector.
With District 64 encouraging us to run a ‘Bootcamp’ and with
a ready prepared program we felt we should seize the chance to really test
ourselves. A willing team of five club members made it happen taking on
multiple roles each week (Coordinator, Table topics master, Table topics
evaluator, educational speaker, speech evaluators and Timer), and developing
their own skills – particularly evaluating. We ran the bootcamp over 6 weeks in
a 2 hour session in early evening, following the session plan set out in the
Speechcraft manual. The timing has been tight, but we have kept to time each
week.
And what fun it has been. Our students have all worked hard
on their assignments and have delivered the most interesting array of speeches
– usually without notes, which has been really impressive. Our Toastmasters
have all developed their own skills and they too have worked hard each week.
Our students ‘graduated’ last week and we had a guest speaker and a well-earned
celebration.
Selena Randall
VP Membership
UM Masters
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