Welcome back to the St. Lawrence Toastmasters Club in Montreal! After a well-deserved and relaxing summer break, our club meetings are now back in session.

We meet every Tuesday evening from 7 PM to 9:05 PM.

How can Toastmasters help you to become a more effective public speaker and a stronger leader?  By helping you to develop your presentation skills and giving you a safe environment in which to practice.

Here is the programme for the meeting of September 3, 2019.

Invité à l’émission Parasol et gobelets de Radio-Canada, le journaliste et animateur Jean-Luc Mongrain partage quelques trucs pour ceux qui craignent de prendre la parole en public.

Il croit que les Québécois en général ont peur de la prise de parole.  Si c’est en effet votre cas, Toastmasters pourrait vous aider à vaincre cette peur.

Aimeriez-vous en savoir plus? Venez nous visiter.

Voici le programme Toastmasters pour la réunion du 4 juin 2019.

At the St-Lawrence Toastmasters club in Montreal, we like to have a theme for every meeting.  This will generally be the revolving theme when we hold the Table Topics session for example.

Since the theme for our upcoming meeting will be Persuasion, we thought of sharing the following speech:

Know your worth, and then ask for it | Casey Brown

What is interesting is that the speaker gives, in a persuasive manner, advice on how to persuade clients to adopt a point of view.

She does this by storytelling and by presenting simple slides that sum up important points to remember.  Here is an excerpt: “Make it about the other party. Focus on serving and adding value, and it won’t feel like bragging. What do you love about what you do? What excites you about the work that you do? If you connect with that, communicating your value will come naturally.”

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Would you like to find out how to give more persuasive speeches? Come visit our Montreal Toastmasters club.

Here is the programme for the meeting of May 28, 2019.

Souhaitez-vous améliorer vos capacités de communication ou développer vos qualités de leader – et ce, à votre rythme?

N’hésitez pas à visiter le Club St-Lawrence Toastmasters situé au centre-ville de Montréal.

Voici le programme de la réunion du 21 mai 2019.

As Toastmasters, some of the things that we’ll find fascinating is how eloquently politicians can speak in public.  Regardless of our own political convictions, it can always be interesting to see what tools and techniques are used in a speech to make it more enjoyable to listen to.

Here, for example, is a speech by Pete Buttigieg, one of the USA presidential candidates for 2020. As mayor of South Bend, Indiana, he gave this speech at a TEDx Talk in early 2015.

Some of the techniques used in his speech include:

• Starting the speech using a story to connect with the audience immediately.
• Using the rule of three, as explained here. (Try to count the number of times that Pete uses this technique.)
• Using slides effectively: lots of photos, practically no text to read, one slide for one idea  (as opposed to many ideas on one single slide), etc.
• Good use of pauses between ideas.

What other techniques have you noticed him using?

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Are you interested in learning about techniques that can help you prepare more effective speeches? Come visit the St-Lawrence Toastmasters Club in Montreal.

Here is the programme for the meeting of May 14, 2019.

Un des buts des Toastmasters est de nous permettre d’apprendre à donner des discours bien structurés, inspirants, et même émouvants. 

Voici un exemple d’un discours qui semble accomplir ces trois objectifs (le lien s’ouvrira dans une nouvelle fenêtre) :

Le poignant discours de Virginie (Le Grand Oral)

« Je suis devenue avocate parce qu’on m’a dit que c’était impossible. ».  Virginie Delalande, a ému le jury du “Grand oral”, un concours d’éloquence présenté à la chaîne de France 2, en racontant son parcours d’avocate atteinte de surdité.

"Je vous parle avec une voix. Cette voix, qui peut-être vous dérange, vous met mal à l’aise, c’est une voix que moi-même je n’ai jamais entendue. C’est le fruit de 20 ans de travail. 20 ans d’orthophonie, trois fois par semaine", a-t-elle expliqué de manière sensible pour commencer son discours.

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Aimeriez-vous apprende à donner des discours plus inspirants? Venez visiter le club d’art oratoire à Montréal St-Lawrence Toastmasters.

Voici le programme pour la réunion Toastmasters du 7 mai 2019.

Our club (St-Lawrence Toastmasters Montreal) is part of Toastmasters District 61, which support all clubs within the district in achieving excellence. One of the recent great ideas they have put in place is to provide webinars as a powerful training option.

Here is a recording of one of their English webinars published a couple of months ago :

Webinar – Secret Sauce of Evaluation – Todd Gatien

Many members, new and old, find evaluations daunting because they lack structure and feel they have nothing to offer the speaker. This is not true.
This webinar focuses on how to deliver well-designed evaluations to help the speaker, the audience, and the evaluator to grow in confidence.

You can find more webinars available on Toastmasters District 61’s YouTube channel.

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Come visit us to see how we do evaluations at our club.

Here is the programme for the meeting of April 30, where we will have a speech extravaganza (i.e. 5 prepared speeches instead of the customary 3 speeches of a regular meeting). You will therefore have the chance to see at least 5 evaluations (as well as a general evaluation of the meeting).

Are you looking for how to speak with confidence in public? Or for how to be a more effective leader?

Find out how Toastmasters can help you. Visit the St-Lawrence Toastmasters Club in Montreal.

Here is the programme for the meeting of April 23, 2019.