Toastmasters Youth Leadership Program

For the past 8 weeks, I have been attending a Toastmasters Youth Leadership Program, or the YLP which is sponsored by the Star Search Toastmasters club.  It was a 2 hour session every Friday.

This is basically a Toastmasters club for kids. Toastmasters are 18 and above.

Here, we learn about speaking in front of groups. 15 kids are in this class. We learn to stop using the words: UM, AH, SO, Etc. These are called filler words. In this 8 week session, we learn these eight things. In one session, we might learn this:

1.       How to run a toastmaster meeting.

a.       Having an agenda

b.       Starting and ending meetings on time

c.        Keep discussions on track

d.       Encourage everyone to participate.

e.        Make sure the meeting’s purpose is accomplished

We learn how to speak on the dot, or impromptu speaking. We call this Table Topics. We get only 15 seconds to think about a one minute speech on a certain topic.

IF you want to become a better speaker, check out Toastmasters.