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Speech contests challenge members

February is Toastmasters Month! Sechelt and Gibsons have proclaimed February as Toastmaster’s Month along with the B.C. Legislature, celebrating the Toastmasters program across the province. Toastmasters has been around for 97 years.
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February is Toastmasters Month!

Sechelt and Gibsons have proclaimed February as Toastmaster’s Month along with the B.C. Legislature, celebrating the Toastmasters program across the province.

Toastmasters has been around for 97 years. It has over 364,000 members in more than 16,200 clubs in 145 countries. Each club has its own unique culture and Toastmasters invites you to visit clubs so you can find one that fits your personality.

Toastmasters takes you on a journey of personal and professional development through a tested program that teaches real-world, transferable skills that build competencies needed to communicate and lead. Along with its development program, Toastmasters challenges its members to step out of their comfort zone with their annual speech contests. Each year we have club, district, regional all the way up to world champion speech contests.

Toastmasters are constantly learning how to face their fears. Once we overcome one fear we move on to the next. It is not about the winning (well, unless you are the winner) that gives you confidence, but putting your foot in the arena and facing the challenge, realizing that comfort and growth can’t exist at the same time.

Speeches are a great way to step up your game. They allow you an opportunity to really listen to feedback and rewrite and perform your speech over and over again, building the art of “progress over perfection.” Speech contests show you how to trust in the journey of practice and improves your ability to tune out the noise and quiet the mind so you can focus on your speech not your nerves.

The bottom line of why contestants compete in a speech contest – for themselves. The contest is really with yourself. To prove to yourself that you can face your fears. This is the underlying power of joining Toastmasters; you realize that you don’t have to let your fears rule your life.

The clubs invite all to attend the speech contests. This year they will be held online starting with the Area Speech Contest on Feb. 20. See if you can spot the nerves inside the calm.

Email contact-5403@toastmastersclubs.org for more information on joining Toastmasters and https://areah73contestfeb20.eventbrite.ca to watch the Area Speech Contest.

– Natalie Findlay, Contributing Writer