These speakers toast with the most

By Geoffrey Wertime, Staff Writer
   ROBBINSVILLE — Public speaking is often at the top of lists of people’s greatest fears. While many do their best to avoid the activity, others, like the local chapter of Toastmaster International, tackle their discomfort head-on.
   ”When I’ve done presentations at company meetings, I have had people say, ‘Oh, I can tell you belong to Toastmasters,’” said Susan Matson, of Hightstown.
   The Midday Toastmasters Club has about a dozen core members, but the larger organization of which it is a part, Toastmasters International, has almost 235,000 in clubs in 92 different countries, according to its Web site. The local club meets biweekly in the township at the Robbinsville Branch of the Mercer County Library and also at the Hickory Corner branch in East Windsor.
   A former chapter president of Toastmasters, Ms. Matson has been a member of the public-speaking organization for seven years, and has attended the Midday chapter since it began meeting in East Windsor about a year ago.
   She said she found the club through an announcement in a newspaper.
   ”I was looking for an activity for singles and was turned off by the typical singles gathering,” she said. “I was attracted to the idea that it was personal development.”
   Jim Samuel, 58, of Jamesburg, is the chapter’s vice president of membership. He said the club draws people from all walks of life, mostly in their 30s and 40s, with slightly more women than men attending.
   Group meetings begin with a member giving a prepared speech, which has an objective such as persuading the audience, being inspirational or concentrating on hand gestures. Another member then gives a short evaluation, pointing out the strengths of the speech and what could use improvement.
   Finally, a few members have the opportunity to respond on the fly to unrelated questions, or “table topics.” Club President Joyce Rouba, 57, who lives in Hamilton but works at the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Robbinsville, said those members have between one and two minutes “to give a response that’s hopefully coherent.
   ”What is a job interview but a string of table topics?” she asked rhetorically.
   Mr. Samuel described the overall feel of the meetings as “the most positive atmosphere that I know of. … The audience really wants speakers to succeed, because we all understand it’s tough to give a speech.”
   The club also holds speaking contests, for humor and impromptu speaking in the fall. In the spring, a larger contest is open to all speeches but mostly attracts those that are motivational in nature, while another competition is held at the same time in the skill of evaluation.
   Ms. Matson recently won the club’s humor contest with a speech on what she described as “the agony of having to wear a bathing suit as a middle-aged female and having two very skinny children at home to compare yourself to.” Next, she’ll move on to compete with other clubs, a part of the organization she said she was surprised to find she enjoyed.
   ”I didn’t realize I was competitive until I joined Toastmasters,” she said, “and then I found out that it’s very stimulating, very exciting to compete — whether or not you win.”
   Mr. Samuel said one of his biggest accomplishments with the club was serving for a year as district governor, an elected position that covers the larger surrounding area in parts of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Mr. Samuel said he would like to serve another term at some point.
   Listening to members speak can have an impact on other members, Ms. Rouba said. She described hearing one club member talk about forgiveness in relation to her divorce and how it affected the couple’s children. “These things are reminders of how positive thinking can affect things,” Ms. Rouba said.
   The group’s goals are to be well-respected within the organization but also, according to Mr. Samuel, “to enable people to address audiences, whatever their goals are,” and to further leadership skills, a part of Toastmasters he says often “gets lost in the mix.” Members also run the meetings themselves, with particular tasks like keeping track of time, giving feedback or motivating others.
   Mr. Samuel described one member, a 78-year-old woman who wanted to feel comfortable making comments at public meetings.
   ”She was never able to do it and now she has,” he said. “So she comes to meetings and she tells us what she’s done and she thanks the other club members for allowing her to do that. So that’s a success story.”
   Other members faced trouble even with smaller groups, he said, and had to sit in on a number of meetings to be comfortable standing up and introducing themselves to a handful of people.
   ”So sometimes it’s small progress,” he said, “and that’s important too.”
   The Midday Toastmasters Club generally meets from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on second and fourth Tuesdays of the month at the Robbinsville Branch of the Mercer County Library and from 7 to 8 p.m. the second and fourth Mondays of the month at the Hickory Corner Branch. For more information, contact Jim Samuel at 732-605-1362 or [email protected], or visit midday.freetoasthost.net.