Wellington Toastmasters Club Helps Members Polish Speaking Abilities STORY BY RON BUKLEY PHOTOS BY SUSAN LERNER
Being a good speaker is not a prerequisite of belonging to Toastmasters. Rather, the club’s purpose is to help people who are not good speakers improve their speaking ability. “Some of the best speakers I have known were not always that way,” Wellington Toastmasters President Jim Anzalone said. “Most of them have developed their craft over the years in order to become great speakers — and Toastmasters has been a great part of that for those folks.” Anzalone joined Toastmasters about 16 years ago in Fort Lauderdale when his employer wanted him to speak before several hundred employees during a quarterly operations review. “Being a young manager, I hadn’t been required to do that before,” said Anzalone, whose previous public speaking experience while a student at Penn State University had not been pleasant.
When his boss asked him to speak, the request brought back bad memories. “I was so nervous about having to do this I seriously considered quitting my job and finding one where I wouldn’t have to be subjected to speaking in front of large groups of people,” he recalled. Anzalone called his father for help. “I said, ‘Gosh, Dad, I’ve got something to do here and I’m really nervous WELLINGTON THE THE MAGAZINE MAGAZINE •• JUNE JUNE 2010 2010 WELLINGTON
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