North Oxford Speakers

Toastmasters International is a world leader in communication and leadership development. The organisation has over 360,000 members. Members improve their speaking and leadership skills by attending one of the 16,400 clubs in 141 countries that make up the global network of meeting locations.

The world needs leaders. Leaders head families, coach teams, run businesses and mentor others. These leaders must not only accomplish, they must communicate. By regularly giving speeches, gaining feedback, leading teams and guiding others to achieve their goals in a supportive atmosphere, leaders emerge from the Toastmasters program. Every Toastmaster’s journey begins with a single speech. During their journey, they learn to tell their stories. They listen and answer. They plan and lead. They give feedback—and accept it. Through our community of learners, they find their path to leadership.

Toastmasters empowers individuals to become more effective communicators and leaders. It provides a supportive and positive learning experience in which members are empowered to develop communication and leadership skills, resulting in greater self-confidence and personal growth.

Speak to a member of the committee at the end of the meeting, or email info@northoxfordspeakers.org

You can pay six months in advance - £84  (which is easier for us). Or monthly in arrears - £14 by monthly standing order, but we ask you to commit to keep paying the standing order, up until the next 6 monthly renewal period (This is because we have to pay Toastmasters International your six-monthly fee in advance at the end of every March and September, and we don't get a refund even if you leave.)

If you join in between the six-monthly renewal date, and want to pay a single sum, we'll explain to you what the pro-rata amount will be.

Unfortunately, we aren't currently able to offer bursaries or reductions in fees for anyone.

Your fee gets you the following:

• Complete access to Pathways, which is Toastmasters’ educational program.
• Speaking and leadership opportunities.
• Written and oral evaluations of your speeches.
• Opportunity to enter speaking competitions, some of which can take you right through to international heats and finals.
• Complete access to many other resources downloadable from the Toastmasters website.

Simply wait for March or September to arrive and don't pay your dues again.

It is important to let your Vice President Education know that they should stop scheduling you for speeches.

Our standard meetings include:

• introduction by the "Toastmaster of the Evening" - essentially the "MC" who presides over the program that day and explains the meeting as it goes along
• prepared speeches from members
• impromptu speeches from members (also known as Table Topics) - not compulsory!
• supportive oral evaluations of the prepared speeches and Table Topics
• reports from other evaluation personnel, such as speech timer, grammarian and wordmaster, and General Evaluator.

Meetings last about two hours.

When you start your Toastmaster journey, you can take a Pathways Assessment online to help you choose which one suites you best. This is what most club members do. 

There are five different learning paths, to suit your preferences, and the Pathways Assessment will help you identify the path that best meets your needs, interests and goals. After responding to a series of questions, you will be presented with a recommendation of the path that best fits you and your current experience.

Each path is divided into five levels that build in complexity. The levels help you build on and apply what you have learned.

LEVEL 1: Master the Fundamentals.
LEVEL 2: Learning Your Style.
LEVEL 3: Increasing Knowledge.
LEVEL 4: Building Skills.
LEVEL 5: Demonstrating Expertise.

Within each level are several suggested speaking projects to help you develop your skills and confidence. Along with the Pathways projects are several online self-assesment and training tools and materials.

Once you're ready, you'll be invited to give a short "icebreaker" speech, where you get to introduce yourself to the club.

No!  You will not be asked to give a speech unless you're ready to. If you feel more comfortable waiting for a while, that's fine. We can still get you involved in some capacity at each meeting, if you're happy to ease yourself in, in that way. For example, many people start with Timekeeper, for which you'd just have to read out how long each speech was.

Table Topics is fun! It calls on you, the guest or member, to present a one to two minute impromptu speech on a subject not known to you until the moment you get up to speak! A member of the club assigned to be Topicsmaster will prepare a few impromptu topics and call on members (or guests, if they've given consent in advance to being called on) to stand up and speak on the topic.

It's great training and you'll soon get good at it.

The Evaluation program is the third of the three main parts to the meeting.  During the speech, each person's nominated evaluator will make written notes and plan what to say during the two to three minute oral evaluation.

A good evaluator will say "here's what you did well, and here's why doing that was good, and here are some things you might want to work on for your next speech, and here's how you might work on them." It's important to remember that the evaluator is just one point of view, although one that has focused in on your speech closely.

Other members of the audience might give you short written or spoken comments on aspects of your speech.

Speeches have time limits (5-7 minutes, usually), Table Topics have time limits (1-2 minutes, usually) and evaluations have time limits (2-3 minutes, usually).

This is in order to drive home the point that a good speaker makes effective use of the time allotted and does not keep going and going until the audience is bored. In the real world, quite often there are practical limits on how long a meeting can or should go; by setting time limits on speeches and presentations, participants learn brevity and time management and the club meeting itself can be expected to end on schedule.

Meetings generally are not complicated once you get used to the timing lights and the different roles members of the group play.

Since the average club is expected to have 20 or more members, you need a lot of roles for people to play in order to involve everyone. And, since meeting assignments vary from meeting to meeting, everyone gets practice doing everything over the course of several meetings.

One meeting, you can volunteer to give a speech; the next, you might be timer; the next, you might be the Toastmaster of the Evening, running the whole show. It keeps you flexible and it keeps you from having to prepare a speech EVERY meeting. And each role, large or small, gives you a further chance to build your confidence.

The Timer. This role exists so that speakers can practise giving presentations within length-specific parameters. This becomes especially helpful for those who must give regular presentations at work, or who would like to take on the public speaking circuit. After all, professional speakers are typically given time limits.

The Grammarian. The grammarian pays attention to the speakers' skill with grammar, and also brings us the word of the day, as a means of helping us build our vocabulary. This person also counts the "ums," "ahs," and other filler words people typically use when they feel lost or nervous during a speech. By having someone report our filler words back to us, we become more aware of them, and learn that simply pausing can be the better option, and convey a higher level of confidence to our audience.

The Toastmaster. This person leads the entire meeting. This role helps build public speaking skills and leadership skills.

The Table Topics Master. This person prepares a set of questions and then poses them to meeting attendees, encouraging them to come on up and speak off-the-cuff.

The General Evaluator. This person evaluates how the meeting went as a whole. Again, this role helps build public speaking, listening, and leadership skills.

The Speech Evaluators. Basically, you're honing your listening skills, and you're using everything you learned at various meetings, from various evaluations, and in your Pathways guidance, to give someone else constructive feedback. Audience members in general are particular well-qualified to evaluate speeches. After all, no one knows better than them how a speech moved them, whether it was easy to follow, whether it was effective, and how engaging it was .

NORTH OXFORD SPEAKERS PRIVACY AND CONSENT NOTICE

North Oxford Speakers takes your privacy very seriously. This notice explains what personal data the club collects, how the club collects it, how it is used, the conditions under which the data may be disclosed to others, and how it’s kept secure.
If you choose to agree to this Privacy Notice then we will send a copy of this Privacy Notice to the email address you provide for your own records.

Who we are and how you can contact us

We are North Oxford Speakers - a Toastmasters International Club (club number 4166). You can contact us at any time at info@northoxfordspeakers.org

The information we collect

If you are a guest or a visitor, we will collect your name and email address on our sign-in sheet. In addition, if you are either a member of our club already, or choose to become a member in future, we will collect your name, email address, mobile phone number, home phone number, gender and postal address on the membership registration form.
During club meetings we may take photos of our members and of club visitors, including you. We may use these photos to publicise our club through a variety of media including the club, district and Toastmasters International websites as well as through our social media accounts such as Meetup, Facebook, Twitter or Linked in.

Why we collect this information

We collect your information so that we can keep in contact with you about Toastmasters meetings and special events, and to send you information relevant to Toastmasters and club activities. If you are a member of the club already or choose to become a member in future, Toastmasters International (our governing body) use your information so they may keep in contact with you directly.

Who we share your information shared with and where we store it

As a club we use a variety of tools to communicate with our members and these are described in turn below:

1. Toastmasters International - Leadership Central & Base Camp
Toastmasters International provides you with the resources that will support you as a member of Toastmasters through services such as the Base Camp platform.

If you are a member of the club already or choose to become a member in future, we will share your name, email address, home phone number, mobile phone number, gender and postal address with Toastmasters International, which is located in the United States, who may in turn share your personal information with third-party service providers whom they use to perform certain functions on their behalf (for example sending postal mail).
Sharing this personal information with Toastmasters International is necessary in order for you to be registered as a member of this Toastmasters club, North Oxford Speakers, which operates under licence from Toastmasters International.

You agree to receive email and postal communications from Toastmasters International when we complete the membership registration process on your behalf. Once we have registered you with Toastmasters International you can manage the privacy settings for your personal information and opt-out of receiving information from Toastmasters International by post or email at any time. Our club committee can assist you with this.

2. Easy-Speak

Our club uses a software platform called Easy-Speak to manage our club meetings as well as to stay in contact with our members by email. Easy-Speak Limited is a company registered in England and Wales (company number 9188185) and whose registered office address is Gormenghast, 2 Station Road, Newnham, Gloucestershire, GL14 1DA. If you are or become a member of the club we will add your name, a username, and email address to Easy-Speak. Easy-Speak has a privacy policy which is available on their website.

Through Easy-Speak you agree to receive email communications from our club, as well as special notifications that relate to our Toastmasters Area, District and Division. Within your Easy-Speak profile you can manage the privacy settings for your personal information, change your username, and opt-out of receiving future email notifications at any time. Our club committee can assist with this.

3. Email and telephone

Our club will communicate with members by email or phone about matters concerning club management, meeting organisation, Toastmasters events and social events. Club officers will maintain contact lists of names, phone numbers and email addresses in accordance with this privacy notice. We also use social media messages services.
You agree to receive email and phone/message app, communications from club officers about matters relating to club and meeting management, and club events. You can opt out at any time by contacting the club secretary on info@northoxfordspeakers.org

Access to your personal information

● Club Officers can access your personal information through Easy-Speak, TMI Leadership Central and Base Camp.
● Your email address will be shared with other club members if it is necessary, in order to facilitate organisation of meetings and proper functioning of the club.

Protecting your information

In order to protect your personal information we have a best practice policy in place for our club committee, detailed below:

North Oxford Speakers best practice policy to ensure that club officers protect your personal information:

We as club officers of North Oxford Speakers Toastmasters agree to follow the best practice guidelines set out below:
● We will ensure that we foster a policy of using secure passwords on all systems which we use as a club and for all personal systems through which we have access to any club personal information.
● Any paper copies of club records will be kept securely in one location and will be destroyed when membership ceases.
● We will ensure that we have obtained consent from all guests and members to process their personal information. We will maintain records of consent.
● We will ensure that access to personal information is limited to our Club Officers.
● We will ensure that any systems which club officers use that hold personal information are password protected.
● Club Officers are encouraged to ensure that any computers which they use to access systems containing personal information have the latest software/security installed.

Keeping and deleting your information

The membership registration forms on which we collect your personal information will be stored either as a hard copy and kept securely, or scanned and stored on a digital drive which is accessible only to club officers.

If you cease to be a member of this club, we may contact you to ask whether you wish us to continue to hold your personal information. If we do not hear from you within 30 days we will destroy any hard copies, and delete your personal information from our database and from Easy-Speak as soon as possible after the 30 day period. Your information is retained by Toastmasters International, but is removed from the visible Club Central listing.

How to access the information held about you, and how you can correct it or have it deleted

If you would like any more information or you have any comments about our privacy policy, please email our club secretary at info@northoxfordspeakers.org addressing your email for the attention of the Data Protection Team.

You may also contact us to:
● obtain a record of the information we hold about you.
● ask us to correct information that you think is inaccurate. We want to make sure that your personal information is accurate and up to date.
● ask us delete any personal information we hold about you under your right to be forgotten.

Complaints

If you have any complaints, please email our club secretary, addressing your email to oxfordoratorsclub@gmail.com for the attention of the Data Protection Team. If you have raised a complaint with us and are still dissatisfied, you may report your concern directly to the Information Commissioner’s Office.