About Our Club/Meetings

VISITORS ALWAYS WELCOME!

THE MISSION OF DIABLO TOASTMASTERS #598
The mission of our Toastmasters Club is to provide a mutually supportive and positive learning environment in which every member has the opportunity to develop communication and leadership skills, which in turn foster self-confidence and personal growth.

President Distinguished Club,
ranked in the top 1% of District 57.

Concord Chamber of Commerce
Proud Member

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A word or two about our club, Diablo 598 . . .

We are a charter club since 1948! Our members are our strength! We are a diverse group, ranging in all ages, backgrounds and careers. We also have members from other lands, currently including Peru, India, Venezuela, Russia, Turkey, Japan and the Philippines. This is a high-energy group that has much combined experience with the Toastmaster program so come and benefit from that experience! They want to help you grow!

We are also proud members of the Concord Chamber of Commerce. By joining our club, you automatically become eligible to attend all Chamber events free of charge! These include the Young Professionals social group, the Women's Networking Group, and the Business After Hours mixer -- all terrific monthly networking opportunities in the Concord area!

Executive Committee

Irving Joe,
President

Ashley Harkness,
Vice President -
Education

Rose Falgout
Vice President -
Public Relations

Jerry Hurd,
Vice President - Membership

Cindy Johnson,
Treasurer

Kyoko Li,
Secretary

Destinee Cooper
Sergeant-at-Arms

What Happens at Our Meetings?

Each week, we meet to improve our communication skills. There are three main aspects to our meetings:

Table Topics – This exercise allows you to develop your extemporaneous speaking skills.
Prepared Speeches – Following any one of the many speech projects, members present a speech to the club.
Evaluations – Each prepared speech receives an evaluation, which provides immediate feedback.

As a new member, you'll be given an opportunity to participate right away by filling some of the roles available!

Ah – Counter: Records crutch words such as ‘Ah’, ‘Um’, ‘Ya’ know’, ‘And’, ‘Like.’
Assistant Toastmaster: Presents ‘Thought of the Day”, leads the Pledge of Allegiance.
Evaluator: Provides an evaluation of a prepared speaker’s speech and specific methods for improvement.
General Evaluator: Leads the Evaluation portion, provides an evaluation of the meeting.
Grammarian: Presents a “Word of the Day” , notes proper and improper uses of the English language.

Sparkler / Faux-Pas Presenter: One that provides a ‘Sparkling’ moment and another that is ‘not quite up to snuff'’.
Table Topics Master: Asks questions so the members can practice extemporaneous speaking.
Timer: Tracks speaker’s times for Table Topics, prepared speeches and evaluations.
Toastmaster: Prepares a meeting theme and conducts the educational portion of the meeting.

At the end of each meeting we conduct an award presentation for the best:

Table Topic presenter
Speaker
Evaluator
Also… Sparkler/Faux Pas Award

Most Toastmaster clubs have a special something that happens at each meeting. For Diablo 598, it's the Sparkler/Faux Pas Award!

And the best part is . . . we have fun while doing all of this in just two hours!

In Addition...
Beyond Speaking

Toastmasters isn’t just about developing your own skills; there are many opportunities to help others.

Mentoring -

When a new member joins, they are able to select a mentor to assist them with any of their roles or speech projects.
In addition to being a mentor to a member, the more experienced members may offer to mentor another Toastmaster club. This ensures that all clubs are providing the same well-proven training formats that our founder, Dr. Ralph Smedley developed.

The Youth Leadership Program (YLP) - Works with children through an eight week course to begin developing their communication and leadership skills.