About Our Club/Meetings
A word or two about our club, Diablo 598 . . .
We are a charter club since 1948! Our members are our strength! We are a diverse group, ranging in all ages, backgrounds and careers. This is a high-energy group that has much combined experience with the Toastmaster program.
Meet our Club Officers
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Alice Tsai, President |
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John Peterson, Vice President - Education |
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Lou Stifter, Vice President - Public Relations |
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Carie Featherstone, Vice President - Membership |
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Rosa Lynn Adams, Treasurer |
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Barbara Valdriz, Secretary |
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Fred Lather, Sergeant-at-Arms |
What Happens at Our Meetings?
Each week, we meet to improve our communication skills. There are three main aspects to our meetings:
- Table Topics – This exercise allows you to develop your extemporaneous speaking skills.
- Prepared Speeches – Following any one of the many speech projects, members present a speech to the club. This is where the ‘rubber hits the road’ in developing the necessary skills to becoming a better speaker.
- Evaluations – Provide immediate feedback on how well the speaker met the defined objectives of the speech project.
There are many roles that are imperative to a well-run meeting. Here is a listing of the roles and their descriptions that are scheduled for each meeting:
- Ah – Counter: Listens and records unnecessary crutch words such as ‘Ah’, ‘Um’, ‘Ya’ know’, ‘And’, ‘Like.’
- Assistant Toastmaster: Presents the ‘Thought of the Day” and leads the club in the Pledge of Allegiance.
- Evaluator: Provides an evaluation of a prepared speaker’s speech and specific methods for improvement.
- General Evaluator: Leads the Evaluation portion of the meeting and provides an evaluation of the overall meeting.
Grammarian: Presents a “Word of the Day.” Also notes proper and improper uses of the English language.- Sparkler / Faux-Pas Presenter: Presents awards to two members: One that provides a ‘Sparkling’ moment and another that is ‘not quite up to snuff’.
- Table Topics Master: Asks members questions and the members have two minutes to respond without knowing the question and are able to practice extemporaneous speaking.
- Timer: Tracks speaker’s times during Table Topics, prepared speeches and the evaluations.
- Toastmaster: Prepares a meeting theme and conducts the educational portion of the meeting, ensuring that the meeting stays on time and is well-run.
At the end of each meeting we conduct an award presentation for the best:
- Table Topic presenter
- Speaker
- Evaluator
- Also…
Sparkler/Faux Pas Award
Most Toastmaster clubs have a special something that happens at each meeting. For Diablo 598, it is the Sparkler/Faux Pas Award.
And the best part is . . . we have fun while doing all of this in just two hours!
In Addition...
Beyond Speaking
Toastmasters isn’t just about developing your own skills; there are many opportunities to help others.
Mentoring -
- When a new member joins, they are able to select a mentor to assist them with any of their roles or speech projects.
- In addition to being a mentor to a member, the more experienced members may offer to mentor another Toastmaster club. This ensures that all clubs are providing the same well-proven training formats that our founder, Dr. Ralph Smedley developed.
The Youth Leadership Program (YLP) - Works with children through an eight week course to begin developing their communication and leadership skills.