Fairmont Toastmasters Club

[Janet Wong]

RESOLUTIONS TO KEEP!

Happy New Year to all! Madam Toastmaster, Fellow toastmasters, welcome to the beginning of a brand new year for Toastmasters International Club.

As with all New years it is time to make some resolutions that this time, I, with your help intend to keep, because we are all in this together. One for all, and all for one…goal.

We resolve to become Competent Toastmasters within the year
We resolve to help the Fairmont Toastmaster Club receive its Distinguished Club Award.
We resolve within the next two years to make great, spellbinding speeches.

How do we accomplish this? One step at a time, one speech at a time. That is the hard part. As Mark Twain, the famous storyteller said…My heart goes out in sympathy to anyone who is making his first appearance before an audience of human beings…

Preparing a speech sometimes involves researching, writing, editing and practicing the words written on those few small cue cards. Winston Churchill, one of the world’s most accomplished orators, spent a full 6 weeks preparing his first speech in Parliament.

Any speaker knows that if they are to produce a good speech, it needs to appeal to their audience. A good speaker can entertain, make people laugh or cry. They can convince the audience of a point, or inform people of things they probably didn’t know. But most important of all, a good speech needs to make people think and to make people think, you have to speak on the right topic.

You have to be passionate about your topic. If you really want to get your message across you’ll do so with feeling and enthusiasm, your audience will catch your mood.

What makes a good speech? Here are 10 points that may help.

A good speech must have a welcome.
A good speech must have a structure ….Tell ‘em what you’re going to tell ‘em, then tell ‘em, then tell ‘em what you told ‘em.
A skeleton needs life. Beyond structure is pulse. A good speech has a beat.
What else makes a great speech? Occasion. There is a time in the life of a person that you just have to make yourself heard, be it a wedding, a funeral or just saying a heartfelt ‘Thank you.’
A good speech must have a setting, a forum, be it in a small room front of a dozen people or a large square for thousands of people.
A good speech has a FOCUS, a point that has to get across to the audience, a certain purpose in mind. It must be made for a good reason.
A good speech must have a phrase that makes it memorable.
And don’t forget the most important ingredient: theme. What was the speech about?
Then the final, DELIVERY. It can be a great speech written on paper, but if it is not delivered properly, it is a great essay, not a SPEECH.

The greatest achievement in public speaking is to write and present a speech so memorable that generations afterwards are able to recognize the words and know instantly who said them and on what occasion. As budding toastmasters we have only just begun. How did John F. Kennedy, Abraham Lincoln, Mark Anthony deliver speeches that still resound in our ears? Did they stand there, alone, nervous, and with sweaty palms, cue cards in their hands with a sea of unfamiliar faces staring at them with eyes that seem to bore right through them, and say, “Hmm, maybe I don’t want to do this after all?”

Your speech can influence people to spread their own messages, or your message. It urges the audience to move from being merely passive listeners to join in conversation and debate. Public speaking has played an important part in world history.

Patrick Henry ignited the American Revolution with these words…Is life so dear, or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of slavery? Forbid it. Almighty God! I know not what course others may take: but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!’

Don’t forget Churchill’s defense of England…I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat. You ask what is our policy? I say it is to wage war by land sea and air…

Of course with our speeches, we won’t be starting a revolution or calling people to defend their country. But we can all make speeches that come from the heart, that will unite us in our common goal, to be good Toastmasters, and make our club known as the club to join.

I have a dream that we will live up to our resolutions.
I have a dream that all of you will be winners, that you are winners!
I have a dream that one day, one of you will be declared International Toastmaster of the year!
I have a dream that this is the beginning of a GREAT YEAR!