About District 5 Toastmasters

Are you afraid of speaking to more than two people at a time? Or, perhaps afraid of putting your audience to sleep when you speak? Toastmasters can help. Learn valuable communication, listening, and leadership skills to help build your self-confidence, teach your butterflies to fly in formation, and wow your audience.

How Toastmasters Works
At District 5 Toastmasters, members learn by speaking in their clubs and working together in a mutually supportive, safe, and friendly environment. With an average of 20 members, most clubs meet weekly to allow each person the abilty to speak and practice:

Conducting meetings. Meetings usually begin with a short business session which helps members learn basic meeting procedures.

Giving impromptu speeches. Members present one-to two-minute impromptu speeches on assigned topics.

Presenting prepared speeches. Two or three 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. This is what really sets Toastmasters apart and is how members can improve quickly. The feedback and tips each member receives when they speak, helps them with their next speech project to emphasize their strengths and improve their overall presentation skills.

Learn Effective Presentation & Speaking Skills Thru Our Training

The Tools You Use.
Upon joining Toastmasters, you receive a variety of manuals and resources on speaking. You will 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 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.

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; and accept criticism more objectively.

Toastmasters produces results. Around the world more than three million men and women of all ages and occupations have benefited from Toastmasters training, and more than one thousand corporations, community groups, universities, associations, and government agencies now use Toastmasters training.

Toastmasters Meeting 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.

The vision of Toastmasters International is to empower people to achieve their full potential and realize their dreams. Toastmasters is the leading movement devoted to making effective oral communication a worldwide reality. Through its member Clubs, Toastmasters International helps men and women learn the arts of speaking, listening and thinking – vital skills that promote self-actualization, enhance leadership, foster human understanding, and contribute to the betterment of mankind. It is basic to this mission that Toastmasters International continually expand its worldwide network of Clubs, thereby offering ever-greater numbers of people the opportunity to benefit from its programs. Click here to earn more about Toastmasters International.

Become a Member
Ready to join? Visit one or more clubs near you to see Toastmasters in action and start changing your life! To find a club in your area click here.

District 5 Mission
The Mission of the District is to enhance the performance and extend the network of Clubs, thereby offering greater numbers of people the opportunity to benefit from the Toastmasters educational program, by:

• Focusing on the critical success factors as specified by the District educational and membership goals.
• Ensuring that each Club effectively fulfills its responsibilities to its individual members.
• Providing effective training and leadership development opportunities for Club and District Officers.