Toastmasters is an international organization that runs clubs worldwide. The clubs are founded to help overcome fear of public speaking and step outside of people's comfort zone! Toastmasters aims to help you grow as public speaker, leader, and communicator.

Because public mistakes are part of the process, we will learn from them and celebrate one another in a fun and supportive learning community! In Toastmaster "We Learn by Doing."

KAUST’s Toastmasters Club will be for KAUST’s people who want to rock their public speaking skills and take it to the next level! So, join us to enhance your skills.

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One of our greatest fears is public speaking, yet this skill is essential throughout life.  Toastmasters is an international organization that aims to help people improve their public speaking. At the Toastmasters Club, we regularly practice our public speaking in structured meetings, where participants take different roles. The format of the meetings and the roles have been developed over decades by Toastmasters International, which started in 1905.

 

ABOUT KAUST TOASTMASTERS CLUB

The KAUST Toastmasters Club was founded in 2022. Its members meet every two weeks or every month to speak and take different roles. As we improve our speaking and develop the club, our goal is to compete with other clubs in Saudi Arabi. The highest level of competition is the SATAC’s contest (Saudi Arabian Toastmasters Annual Conference).

 

Meeting Format:

  1. Table Topics – One of the most challenging elements of communication is impromptu speaking. Table Topics offers the ongoing challenge to speak in front of a group without preparation. Members are called to the front of the room to spontaneously comment on a subject that is provided by the Table Topics Master for the day.

 

  1. Prepared Speeches – Members deliver speeches that they have prepared for days, weeks or months. Typically, we have 2-3 prepared speakers. Speeches are normally between 5 and 8 minutes in length. Participants are at liberty to present any topic they would like, within reason.

 

  1. Formal Evaluations – One of the most rewarding elements in Toastmasters is the forum to deliver a speech AND THEN get evaluated in a supportive environment. An evaluator typically congratulates the speaker on a job well done, points out several areas of the speech that were performed well and offers 2 or 3 areas to improve upon.

 

Roles:

The roles available for each meeting will be advertised on the WhatsApp group, which can be found here: https://chat.whatsapp.com/KZ2het9qDyN0iYzWFpbrAZ

Generally, the roles available are:

-          Toastmaster, who leads the meeting.

-          Table Topics Master, who prepares a set of questions and ask the attendees.

-          2-3 Speakers, who deliver prepared speeches.

-          2-3 Evaluators, who evaluates the prepared speeches.

-          AhCounter, who count the repetitive words that attendees use.

-          Grammarian, who comments on interesting uses of language (e.g., figures of speech).

-          General Evaluator, who evaluates the whole meeting

-          Awards Master, who gathers the votes for the winners [there are several winners each meeting].

 

 

Rules:

  1. At Toastmasters, we don’t criticize people, we clap for people. We provide suggestions for improvement, but we avoid criticism. Everyone is in the same boat – we are all trying to improve our public speaking.
  2. When someone is called to the front of the room, everyone claps until that person has arrived at the front of the room. No silent walks.
  3. We learn by doing, so attendees expect to participate in some way each meeting, even if it’s only 30 seconds of speaking.

 

 

 

WHERE WE MEET

Club meetings will be held every other Wednesday from 5:30 to 7:00 PM. The meetings will be held in Discovery Square's Community Hub.  For more information on the meetings please join the WhatsApp group below. 

 

HOW TO GET CONNECTED 

If you would like to join KAUST Toastmasters Club, please join the WhatsApp group and look out for notices: https://chat.whatsapp.com/JDWBNJHedYv945nTVWy1Ot

Also, if you have any questions, please Adam Fraser at adam.fraser@kaust.edu.sa


 

GROUP OFFICERS

President: Adam Fraser

Treasurer: TBC

Secretary: Meshal Alarifi