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Mentor Program

A mentor is a more experienced member who takes a personal interest in and helps another member. Mentors serve as role models, coaches, and confidantes, offering knowledge, insight, perspective and/or wisdom useful to the other member. A mentor can help a new member become familiar with our Club or can assist a more experienced member in learning special skills.

Confidence Builders is a President's Distinguished Club with several Distinguished Toastmasters and a Nationally Accredited Speaker serving as resources. The mentor program is available to all members, with a tailored growth program to suit your individual needs.


Interested in becoming a mentor?

The only requirements are that you complete your first four speeches (from the Competent Communicator manual) and are up to speed on all club roles.

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The Awesome Power of Storytelling

Image by Виктория Бородинова from Pixabay Sometimes, precious gems can be found in places where you might not think to look. Ross Morrissey (President) and I discovered such a treasure by chance at the Mill Creek Retirement Center (where our meetings are held) last November. The precious gem we ran into was Carol E. Titus, who was a Story Weaver with the  New Jersey Storytelling Network . Of course, we  had  to invite her to speak at one of our meetings! On December 3rd, she graced us with a thought-provoking and captivating storytelling workshop. Not only did we learn the importance of using vivid words but also how telling a story creates a bond between the speaker and the audience  and  between audience members.  It was an enjoyable experience!   When I first met Ms. Carol, she made a comment that stuck with me. She said that audience members aren't looking at the speaker but picturing what the speaker is saying inside their heads. ...

Drawing parallels

I am a liberal arts major from The Evergreen State College, where I studied photography and art history. My favorite photography instructor, Bob, made critiques a regular part of the class structure. In addition to critiques he emphasized the importance of editing. Since joining Toastmasters in November 2016, I see similarities with photography and speaking (communicating). In this article I will be drawing two parallels between photography and Toastmasters: critique and editing. Part I On the importance of critique Before I joined Bob's class, I hadn't experienced someone else "dissecting" my work. The first time the class critiqued my work I was initially surprised by the truth. My classmate said everything I had internalized while creating the photos - that they were lacking substance. Lacking content. Sure, the photos were developed perfectly and they were in focus, but the content just wasn't there, and I knew it all along. "I just don...

Your Dream Team

With Toastmasters contest season fast approaching, I thought I'd share a contest speech that survived three contests last year, went through 15 drafts (I have them all), numerous practice sessions in front of two clubs, in the living room in front of a big dog and a cell phone, and in the driveway working on my footwork! I received good feedback on using parts of the speaking area (contest-speak for stage) to emphasize transitions from one point to the next - and to refer back to earlier points.  There are two "maps" one for the speaker's perspective and one for the audience's perspective.  The solid lines are movement, while the dashed lines are prompts to refer back to an earlier area. Did I get carried away?  I don't think so.  Having every detail mapped out and refined gave me the confidence to compete and improve each time - and confidence-building is what we do! Speaker's Perspective Audience's Perspective -RM Image ...