On Saturday the 19th of May the Prime Minister of St. Maarten Sarah Wescot-Williams gave an address to the 81st District Toastmaster's conference which was held at the Sonesta Maho Resort from the 18th to the 20th of May. "On behalf of the government of St. Maarten, I congratulate the conference planning committee for a superb preparation and meticulous planning of this conference," commented Wescot-Williams, who founded the first corporate Toastmasters Club on St. Maarten in 2004: the Soualiga Corporate club, and who delivered her first Toastmasters Speech in October 1994.
Toastmasters International (TI) is a nonprofit educational organization that operates clubs worldwide for the purpose of helping members improve their communication, public speaking and leadership skills. Through its thousands of member clubs, Toastmasters International offers a program of communication and leadership projects designed to help men and women learn the arts of speaking, listening, and thinking.
"Leaders are good communicators and not only good speakers.
Leaders set the tone; leaders show the way; leaders are themselves learners. To do and to be all this, you need to connect with people, with others for a myriad of reasons," commented the Prime Minister.
Prime Minister Wescot-Williams also commented on how Toastmasters has not stayed behind during the technological revolution. "Technology has opened new windows of opportunity, not in the last place in the area of communication. It has broken down barriers and transcended borders and has connected millions of people who before this all evolved were shut off from the rest of the world and a Toastmaster has quickly tuned in to these developments. Communication in my view also encompasses understanding, not just listening, and accepting, not just tolerating. In this volatile world we live in, these attributes are indispensable," commented the Prime Minister further.
The Prime Minister concluded by stating that the government of St. Maarten has remained an avid supporter of Toastmasters, the advancement of its members and Toastmasters in general.
"Toastmasters makes good leaders and makes good leaders better ones."
