Toastmasters International is a non profit educational organization that teaches public speaking and leadership skills through a worldwide networking of meeting locations. The Yorkton local Toastmasters Treasure Chest club meets every Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. at SIGN on Broadway.
The vision of Toastmasters is to empower people to achieve their full potential and realize their dreams. Through member clubs, people throughout the world can improve their communication and leadership skills and find the courage to change.
Jeff Buettner joined Toastmasters in September 2010 to improve his speaking skills in front of people and to see if he could handle speaking in larger crowds. Jeff is a teacher therapist at Orcadia Youth Residence and chose the topic of his second speech based on his job. Jeff states that "there are many aspects of my chosen profession that are funny and have their own built-in anecdotes ready for disposal". The name of his speech is 'What ya do for a livin'. Jeff delivered his speech and had a very good response from his peers at the Treasure Chest Toastmasters club in Yorkton. He was encouraged to compete in the local area contest in Melville in the humorous speech category. Jeff came in first then advanced to Regina to defend it for the division level and won that level as well. He then advanced to the district level in Canmore Alberta where he faced some pretty stiff competition and was humbled by the experience.
In Canmore, Jeff was the first person called up to do his speech in and felt pretty apprehensive and nervous when the wireless microphone was applied, but quickly got over his nerves and got into "the groove" Jeff was quite flattered over the reception he got when he was saying his speech and said that "the laughter got pretty loud and long in some places. This worried me as we had a set time to complete our speeches and if we went over-time we were disqualified. I had to do some quick thinking and editing in my head when the laughter didn't subside in the amount of time I thought it should." Jeff is glad he joined Toastmasters in Yorkton, "as it is a very supportive group and Toastmasters provides an opportunity to better yourself in the areas of public speaking and communication in general.
There is an adage that says most people are more afraid of public speaking than death but I can tell you this notion dissipates quickly when you step through the doors of a Toastmasters meeting!"Submitted
