Would I Hire Bill Cullen?

Nervous about giving a presentation at work?, wish you had a bit more confidence in giving your best man speech? or just want to improve your public speaking in general? Then I strongly reccommend you join your local toastmasters group. Toastmasters is a worldwide organisation of people who wish to improve public speaking. I went to my first meeting last night, it was introduced to me by a friend and I really had no idea what to expect. As someone who has quite a lot of confidence in public speaking, I was unsure what I could gain from this event. I will now outline the format of the meeting.

There is the formal introductions of the people who run the meeting, President, Toastmaster (Master of Ceremonies), Topicsmaster, Timekeeper, and grammar watcher. Next, one member suggests a word of the day which is to be used as much as possible throughout the meeting. Last night the word was "Rumbustious" meaning boisterous or unruly. Then the Topicsmaster has 5 topics where they call on members randomly to stand up and give 2 minute "off the cuff" speech about a certain topic. Topics last night included sports players autobiographies, media coverage of celebrity deaths and famous Irish entrepreneur Bill Cullen.

At the core of the toastmasters organization is a manual. This contains 10 presentations that must be given that cover all aspects of public speaking and increase in difficulty and length as you progress. The next section of the meeting was devoted to this. Where individuals of different levels would complete part of the manual and give a presentation. There was then a short networking break (tea/coffee), which I enjoyed as I met a former stockbroker. After the break, evaluations were done on each speaker who completed a stage of the manual, by other members, thereby giving as many people as possible the opportunity to speak at the meeting. Finally there was a vote for the best contributer on topics and also a vote for the best presentation.

I won the award for best topic. The topic given to me was "Would you hire Bill Cullen?" During my two minutes I stated that when Bill was my age I certainly would of hired him as he was extremely driven and determined. However I questioned some of his business moves in recent years and wondered, whether, after amassing a fortune he was now looking for fame and furthermore questioned how relevant being on a reality tv show was to his car sales business. Once my 2 minutes was up I concluded by saying that despite these factors I would still hire him.

Overall I was very impressed by the organization and the meeting. While I am confident in my public speaking skills, I think, as with any skill there is always room for improvement. In addition it is difficult to find a good atmosphere to practice public speaking, no amount of talking in to the mirror can replace standing up in front of strangers and giving a speech. The great thing about toastmasters is that all members are at different levels so there is something for everyone to gain from attending. Toastmasters generally meet for about 2 hours every fortnight, I strongly recommend anyone with an interest in public speaking to check it out. It is easy to find a club near you on their website .

Famous Toastmasters

Tim Allen Actor, star of television series, "Home Improvement"
James Brady Two-term press secretary for U.S. President Ronald Reagan; author of the Brady Bill, which authorizes a 5-day waiting period on handgun purchases
Peter Coors Chairman of Coors Brewing Company
Napoleon Hill Best-selling author of "Think and Grow Rich;" presidential advisor
Linda Lingle Governor of Hawaii since 2002