Toastmasters International

I attended my first ever meeting of Toastmasters International last night. It is a personal aim to improve my public speaking skills and Toastmasters seems to be a good training ground. As part of the evening one of the members leads the meeting in a Table Topics discussion, pausing occasionally to pose questions. For the first couple of questions I observed how others answered. By the third question I felt motivated to respond. The question was about the value of bottled water. I stood up nervously and drawing on my experience in Central Asia and the drought we experienced for two consecutive summers, I ventured my opinion. Having given one answer I then felt less hesitant about standing up a second time. At the end of the evening I was completely surprised to win the Best Table Topics Award, only the second ever new-comer at this club to do so on their first visit!