On behalf of Ottawa Toastmasters Club, the oldest and funnest (and quite frankly the most humble) toastmasters club in all of Ottawa, I am honoured to welcome you as this year’s President. Our club has a long tradition of sustained leadership, so I am grateful to have the support of numerous past-presidents such as outgoing president Duncan Rens who remain active members of the club and provide invaluable support. We are a diverse group with all ages, shapes, and sizes and together our membership is committed to helping each other; from first time speakers to wily veterans, we all work towards becoming more confident and competent speakers.
As you look around this website, much like when you first walk through the doors for one of our Thursday night meetings, I hope you will begin to get a sense of how our club operates and the ways that we work towards developing our individual communication skills. At our club, it starts with a commitment to each other. What I mean by this is that while every person at our meeting is encouraged and given an opportunity to speak or evaluate, we operate around the comfort level of each individual. You determine the steps that you want to take while as a group we work to make these moments both available and comfortable. As you become more involved in the club you will discover that we build each other’s speaking skills up through positive reinforcement and carefully considered and delivered suggestions of ways that you as a speaker might build upon your current strengths.
One of the hallmarks of our club and which I am committed to maintaining throughout this year is that our meetings continue to be supportive, fun and energetic while at the same time maintaining the level of organization and discipline that respects the time that we are all committing. Furthermore, developing the skill of evaluating will remain a focus point and it is often the transferable skill that is most quickly appreciated in your regular daily life.
In closing, I grew up with a stutter so I know the fear of trying to speak, but having the wrong words come out. To whatever degree we all have these same fears. Our goal at Ottawa Toastmasters is to help you manage these fears by becoming a more confident speaker. This is a mutual process as along the way you will also undoubtedly help us.
Thanks again for your visit. Please take a moment to look around the website; even better I would invite you to drop by as a guest to one of our meetings on Thursday nights starting at 6pm at the Sandy Hill Community Centre.
Best of luck and we all look forward to meeting you soon,
Greg Miskie
President, Ottawa Toastmasters
