Toastmaster Club develops leadership skills

Toastmasters International (TI) is a non-profit educational organisation that operates clubs worldwide for the purpose of helping members improve their communication, public speaking and leadership skills. Through its 14,350 members' clubs, over 292,000 members in 122 countries, it provides the art of speaking, listening, and thinking.  "CMA Bangladesh Tigers Toastmasters" club, the pioneer Toastmaster club in Bangladesh, was formed on April 02, 2012 with the involvement of some enthusiastic qualified CMA's. The members of the club are greatly benefitted by developing their presentation, speaking, listening, thinking and leadership skills. Currently there are three clubs in Bangladesh.

A PLATFORM FOR COMMUNICATION DEVELOPMENT: The heart of the Toastmasters curriculum is the communication track, defined by the Competent Communication Manual (formerly called Communication and Leadership Programme) and a series of fifteen advanced manuals. The Competent Communication manual consists of 10 speech projects, each building upon the other in skills and difficulty. The advanced manuals have five projects each and each manual focuses on a particular aspect of communication (such as technical presentations, storytelling, or interpersonal communication). TM also creates public speaker a capacity speech without preparation in any topics through table topic speech.
A PLATFORM FOR LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT: Toastmasters also teach leadership skills. After joining the club one is given a copy of the Competent Leadership manual, which contains 10 projects which can be completed by serving in various meeting roles, as well as participating in and/or organising club contests, membership campaigns, and public relation campaigns in their club. Upon completion, a member can obtain his or her Competent Leader award (post-nominal CL). After completing the Competent Leadership manual, members can go on toward the Advanced Leader awards, which are given in two levels, Bronze and Silver (with post-nominal ALB and ALS, respectively). The Bronze-level requirements include serving a minimum of six months as a club officer, participating in the creation of a club success plan while in office, and attending officer training. For AL Silver, the additional requirements of serving a year as a district officer, completing a High Performance Leadership programme, and being a club sponsor, mentor, or coach are needed to attain that designation.
To make members influential speaker and effective leader the programme of TM is structured with various members' participation with many roles. The meeting is run by a Toastmaster of the Day (The master of ceremony) with the help of Table Topics Master, General Evaluator, Grammarian, AH-Counter and Timer. As a member one should comply with the entire communication and leadership role and that will make one a public speaker and good leader. It's a leader whose thinking inspires you to do more, to think more, to dream more and to implement more.
BENEFITS OF BEING A TOASTMASTER:
* Builds confidence;
* Further develops leadership skills;
* Changes outlook on life;
* Helps set and achieve goals;
* Helps with time management;
* Enhances organisational skills;
* Improves public speaking, impromptu and communication learning;
* An opportunity to meet wonderful people.
Organisations in general are great places to meet people, the Toastmasters atmosphere facilitates it even more. One of the reasons the Toastmasters makes it easier to meet people is because there is a strong emphasis on being very supportive of the people around you.  The second reason, there is mutually positive feedback between members. By giving and receiving positive feedback the rapport is established much more quickly.
At Toastmasters, one learns the basic skills of communication.
The writer is a fellow member of the Institute of Cost and Management Accountants of Bangladesh.
toastmasters.bangladesh@gmail.com