About Our Club/Meetings
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 Switzerland, Turkey, Colombia, China and South Korea. 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!
Meet our Club Officers
 |
Ron Jue, President |
 |
Ed Nipper, Vice President - Education |
 |
John Peterson, Vice President - Public Relations |
 |
Ann Hartwig, Vice President - Membership |
 |
Jorge Rey-Prada, Treasurer |
 |
Teresa Riccobuono, Secretary |
 |
Bill Woolfolk, 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. This is where the ‘rubber hits the road’ in developing the necessary skills to becoming a better speaker.
- Evaluations – Each prepared speech receives an evaluation, which provides immediate feedback on how well the speaker met the defined objectives of the speech project and how they can make their next speech even better!
There are many roles that are imperative to a well-run meeting. Here is a listing of the roles and their descriptions that are scheduled for each meeting. As a new member, you'll be given an opportunity to participate right away by filling some of these roles!
- Ah – Counter: Listens and records unnecessary crutch words such as ‘Ah’, ‘Um’, ‘Ya’ know’, ‘And’, ‘Like.’
- Assistant Toastmaster: Presents the ‘Thought of the Day” and leads the club in 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 of the meeting and provides an evaluation of the overall meeting.
Grammarian: Presents a “Word of the Day.” Also notes proper and improper uses of the English language.- Sparkler / Faux-Pas Presenter: Presents awards to two members: One that provides a ‘Sparkling’ moment and another that is ‘not quite up to snuff’.
- Table Topics Master: Asks members questions and the members have two minutes to respond without knowing the question and are able to practice extemporaneous speaking.
- Timer: Tracks speaker’s times during Table Topics, prepared speeches and the evaluations.
- Toastmaster: Prepares a meeting theme and conducts the educational portion of the meeting, ensuring that the meeting stays on time and is well-run.
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.