Philipsburg:----The four Toastmasters Clubs of St Maarten, known as Area 6, put on a public display of professionalism in all aspects at their annual "Evening with the Toastmasters". The event was held at the Conference Room of Carl & Sons on Saturday evening. The four Clubs that participated are the Philipsburg Toastmasters Club, Soualiga Corporate Club, The Disciples and the St Maarten Achievers club.
The complete public display lasted for exactly two hours and consisted of the three segments of a Toastmasters meeting; Table topics session, Prepared speech projects and an evaluation session. There were four prepared speeches by Toastmasters; one from a Toastmaster representing each Club. The first speaker was Toastmaster Dwain Carbon; a new and dynamic member of the St Maarten Achievers. His project was to get to the point and he did just that with an inspirational presentation on achievement entitled "It is if you say it is". Next Competent Communicator Bernadette Hassel of the Philipsburg Toastmasters Club took the audience to the folk tale story telling of Haiti as she delivered a moving folk tale entitled "Bouki's shoes". She delivered her presentation from the Story telling manual. Competent Communicator Beryl Berkel gave an informative expose on Public Relations in her delivery of "The new buzz in town" in which she outlined how to deal with difficult people during a press conference making use of the acronym "HOSTILE". The final speaker for this section of the meeting was Advanced Communicator Catherine Connor-Arrindell who displayed her advanced presentation skills as she delivered a keynote address from the Professional Speaker manual. In her keynote address she inspired the audience to improve their lives through enhanced communication skills that can only be learnt in the Toastmasters organization. ACB Catherine brought the entire evening into full perspective making use of the other presentations as well as everyday situations to show how effective communication can be achieved thru better listening, thinking and speaking.
A special feature of the evening was a presentation by young Georgio Richardson who delivered an electrifying speech on bullying. Georgio was featured in the program to highlight the Toastmasters Youth Leadership Program that is conducted annually with youngsters ages 13 thru 18. His presentation, along with the other prepared speeches, was met with rousing applause from the audience.
A very important segment of the Toastmasters meeting was the effective evaluation process; in which each aspect of the meeting was evaluated based on Toastmasters International standards. Speakers were evaluated based on guidelines set out in the manuals as well as an oral evaluation of the speech and the communication effect on the evaluators. Presenters were also evaluated based on their use of grammar, time and fillers (ahs, uhs etc). The overall meeting was then evaluated and suggestions for future improvement provided.
In order to attract new members to the respective clubs display tables were set up where each club could provide Toastmasters information to the guests.
Valerie Brazier, Area 6 Governor commended all for a professionally conducted program and the audience for their involvement as well. She outlined that this is the first year that all four clubs had gotten together to host the annual event and based on the success this will continue in the future. She also commended DTM Richelda Emmanuel for an exemplary role of guiding the meeting as the Toastmaster of the Evening. "An Evening with the Toastmasters" is held annually as a membership drive and to bring Toastmasters closer to the General public.
