Toastmasters install new officers

NEW area directors and club officers of Toastmasters in TT were installed at Carib Brewery’s Hospitality Room, Mt Hope recently. The officers will lead their clubs and the area directors will guide the various clubs towards achieving their goals in the new term, which began on July 1.

Clubs and individuals who achieved success for the 2016-2017 term were also presented with awards. Special recognition was given to division director Sandra Lutchman, who led Division F, which comprises Grenada, TT and Guyana, towards achieving the president’s distinguished status, the highest possible recognition by Toastmasters International.

Toastmasters International is a worldwide organisation that focuses on communication and leadership development. There are more than 352,000 members, who improve their speaking and leadership skills by attending one of the 16,400 clubs in 141 countries.

By regularly giving speeches, gaining feedback, leading teams and guiding others to achieve their goals in a supportive atmosphere, leaders emerge from the Toastmasters programme.

Toastmasters began as a series of speaking clubs organised by Ralph C Smedley in 1924 during his time working for the YMCA (Young Men’s Christian Association) in Bloomington, Illinois, United States. As director of education at the YMCA, Smedley saw a need for the men in the community to learn how to speak, conduct meetings, plan programmes and work on committees, and he wanted to help them.

Toastmasters was brought to TT by businessman and motivational writer Philip Rochford in 1984, and has grown from one to 14 clubs.