How Afterburner's Toastmasters works.
At Afterburners Toastmasters, members learn by speaking to groups and working with others in a supportive environment. Afterburner’s Toastmasters club is made up of 20+ people who meet once a week for about an hour. Each meeting gives everyone an opportunity to practice:

• Giving impromptu speeches. Members present one-to two-minute impromptu speeches on assigned topics.
• Presenting prepared speeches. Three or more members present speeches based on projects from the Toastmasters International Communication and Leadership Program manuals. Projects cover such topics as speech organization, voice, language, gestures, and persuasion.
• Offering constructive evaluation. Every prepared speaker is assigned an evaluator who points out speech strengths and offers suggestions for improvement.
• Conducting meetings. Afterburners meetings usually end with a short business session which helps members learn basic meeting procedures.

The Tools You Use.
Upon joining Afterburner’s Toastmasters club, each new member receives a variety of manuals and resources on speaking. Members also have access to other books as well as audio and video cassettes on speaking and leading. They also receive the award-winning The Toastmaster, a monthly magazine that offers the latest insights on speaking and leadership techniques.

Toastmasters and Leadership.
Leadership cannot be learned in a day. It takes practice. In Afterburners Toastmasters members build leadership skills by organizing and conducting meetings and motivating others to help them. Club leadership roles and a leadership development program also offer opportunities to learn and practice. Just as Toastmasters members learn to speak simply by speaking, they learn leadership by leading.

Company Benefits.
A company's success also depends on communication. Employees face an endless exchange of ideas, messages, and information as they deal with one another and with customers day after day. How well they communicate can determine whether a company quickly grows into an industry leader or joins thousands of other businesses mired in mediocrity.

Afterburners Toastmasters provides the tools that enable employees to become effective communicators and leaders all at a very low cost. Toastmasters training helps employees:

• give better sales presentations
• hone their management skills
• work better with fellow employees
• effectively develop and present ideas
• offer constructive criticism
• accept criticism more objectively

Community Benefits.
Toastmasters has helped many members in their community service activities. Using the speaking and leadership skills developed in Toastmasters, people have become more active in business, churches, and service and charity organizations. Toastmasters members are able to organize activities, conduct meetings, and speak in public as their organization's representative. Some even become active in local, state or national government.

About Toastmasters International.
Toastmasters International is a non-profit organization governed by a Board of Directors elected by the membership. The first Toastmasters club was established on October 22, 1924, in Santa Ana, California, by Dr. Ralph C. Smedley, who conceived and developed the idea of helping others to speak more effectively. More clubs were formed, and Toastmasters International was incorporated under California law on December 19, 1932.

Toastmasters International's business and services are administered by its World Headquarters, located in Rancho Santa Margarita, California. It employs no paid promoters or instructors. It has no salaried staff except the Executive Director and World Headquarters staff, who provide services to the clubs and Districts.

Unrealistic as this may seem, the fact remains that while many people lack the training and

stamina to effectively deliver a clear thought, today’s fast-paced, technological world is in

desperate need of good communicators and leaders. The person with strong communication skills

has a clear advantage over tongue-tied colleagues – especially in a competitive job market.

Toastmasters International, a nonprofit educational organization, has been working for more than

75 years to provide for this need and help people conquer their pre-speech jitters. From one club

started at the YMCA in Santa Ana, California, Toastmasters has grown to become the world’s largest organization devoted to developing people’s public and interpersonal communication skills.

A Toastmasters club is a "learn-by-doing" workshop in which men and women hone their skills

in a comfortable, friendly atmosphere. A typical club has 20 to 40 members, who meet weekly or

biweekly to learn and practice public speaking techniques. The average club meeting lasts

approximately one hour.

Upon joining a Toastmasters club, members progress through a series of 10 speaking

assignments designed to instill a basic foundation in public speaking.

When finished with the basic speech manual, members can select from among 15 advanced

There is no instructor in a Toastmasters club. Instead, members evaluate one another’s oral presentations. This evaluation process is an integral component of the overall educational program. Besides taking turns delivering prepared speeches and evaluating those of other members, Toastmasters give impromptu talks on assigned topics, usually related to current events. They also develop listening skills, conduct meetings, and learn parliamentary procedure.

The effectiveness of this simple learning formula is evidenced by the thousands of corporations that sponsor in-house Toastmasters clubs. These clubs serve as communication training workshops for employees. Every year, more and more business and government organizations are discovering that Toastmasters is the most effective, cost-efficient means of satisfying their communication training needs.