About three years ago, Margaret Camarillo was faced with her
greatest fear: A job promotion meant she was going to have to speak
in front of large groups of people.
About three years ago, Margaret Camarillo was faced with her greatest fear: A job promotion meant she was going to have to speak in front of large groups of people.
“I would panic whenever I had to speak in public,” said Camarillo, a Hollister resident. “It was one of my biggest fears in life. Just the thought of getting up in front of people made me twitch or have to breath in a bag.”
So Camarillo did a little research to find a place to get some help with her fear of public speaking. That’s when she came across the Morgan Hill chapter of Toastmasters International.
Toastmasters International began in 1924 when a group of men met at the local YMCA in Santa Ana to practice public speaking and presiding over meetings. The club now has almost 200,000 members in more than 70 countries, according to the group’s Web site, www.toastmasters.org.
Camarillo has not only been a member of Toastmasters for the past three years, she’s currently serving as the chapter’s president and public speaking has become a piece of cake.
“The first time I ever got up to speak at Toastmasters, I could only last about 30 seconds,” she said. “Now they can’t shut me up.”
Cida Alves decided to join Toastmasters about nine months ago when she realized she needed to improve her public speaking if she wanted to advance in her profession. She works at ComUnity Lending, which provides a meeting room for the club.
“I saw them come in every Thursday morning, and they told me about the club,” said Alves, a Gilroy resident. “The more I thought about it, the more I thought it was something I should take advantage of if I want to be able to move into a leadership position at work.”
New members receive guidelines for a speech every week. Then they get up and present a speech in front of fellow members, following the time limits and other specifications.
Speakers may be instructed to provide information, to sell something, to introduce someone or to present something using visual aids.
Then the club members write down evaluations for the speaker and one person presents a brief oral evaluation of the speech, pointing out the speaker’s strengths and the areas they can improve.
Evaluators can comment on everything from the speaker going over the time limit or making too many hand gestures to making good eye contact and engaging the audience.
“The first few times were pretty scary, and I didn’t really like it,” Alves said. “But, I knew I had to stick with it. The evaluations helped right away, and they’re always given in a way that doesn’t hurt your feelings. It got better and better, and now I kind of enjoy being up there.”
The club not only provides public speaking practice, it’s also an arena to practice leading meetings and answering impromptu questions.
The skills learned at Toastmasters can bleed into all aspects of life, not just in career advancement, said Nancy Lowe, a Morgan Hill resident who has been a Toastmaster for about six years.
“By writing all those speeches, I got better at written communication,” she said. “I leave better phone messages because I’m more confident in what I’m saying. And I’ve learned how to give constructive criticism, which is good for me at work and with my family.”
At meetings, Toastmasters dress in everything from business suits to jeans and T-shirts.
The group meets from 7:30-8:30am every Thursday morning. Members pay an annual fee of $54.
Toastmasters also work with the community by helping high school students with public speaking and acting as judges for area speech competitions.
“It’s fun, it’s supportive and positive, and it’s so educational,” Lowe said. “Toastmasters has been an asset to me in so many ways, but a lot of people have never heard of us.
“It’s a shame, because I think many, many people have a fear of public speaking, and this is a great way to overcome that fear.”
