As I entered my last decade as a Canadian government bureaucrat, I found myself making presentations, conducting training sessions and giving speeches more often than ever before. I gulped with realization that, despite my semi-senior status, I was not well equipped and needed training. I took individualized workshops, read books and watched videos online. But these exercises lacked the sustaining power of regular practice in front of sentient, breathing human beings, and had minimal benefit.
I thus accepted the advice of a colleague and joined a local chapter of Toastmasters International, the 100-year-old U.S.-based organization that promotes public speaking through a network of clubs in some 150 countries. The closest club to my Ottawa office was a bilingual one (primarily French) and was hosted at another government agency. Its noon-hour meetings forced me out of the office to meet people outside my normal circles. As the only native anglophone, I not only learned new skills, but made new friends from around the world and absorbed another language in a non-work venue. I enjoyed the supportive, friendly atmosphere that blended encouragement with a format that prods continuous improvement. I embraced the bilingual challenges, and even won a humour contest for a speech in fractured French (one that confused the word “orgasme” with “organisme”).
Since I saw the club as a venue to remain connected and coherent, I resolved to continue as a Toastmasters member in retirement, even though those invitations to train, speak and present would dissolve. However, my retirement, which was extended by a couple of contracts, came at the confluence of the Covid-19 pandemic and my Toastmasters club, along with the rest of the world, shut down. When Toastmasters clubs pivoted, like many other organizations, they embraced online tools that not only remain an element of club meetings today, but even constitute the only means of participating for some clubs.
In the years since the pandemic, my wife and I moved away from Canada’s capital, settling in a small, rural fishing village, where I made connections around local interests and shelved thoughts of in-person Toastmasters participation. The online option did not strike me as offering the same experience as I had enjoyed while working, but it did occur to me that I could just as easily join a club in Tirana as Toronto, and I wondered whether I could make friends and learn more about a town in the UK, where we have family, such that I could attend meetings in English.
These ideas rested in the back of my head until earlier this year when we resolved to celebrate 25 years together with an extended stay in Florence, where we had spent our honeymoon. I was delighted to find a club in Florence that was not only a blend of online and in-person participation, but also bilingual. It’s branded Toastmasters Academy of Florence (TAF). At first, I fumbled a bit with the online membership process, which involves joining the international organization with dues that are shared with the local club. I also found the Easyspeak software for meeting involvement confusing until I learned that it was developed separately from the formal organization by a volunteer member. However, once I made direct contact with individual TAF members and started participating in meetings (first online and now in-person) things took off, and it has been thoroughly enjoyable and rewarding. I do not speak Italian (yet), but TAF really does well at managing the bilingual format, ensuring both languages get equal airtime, making special efforts to bridge the two and supporting individuals in participating, whether in giving speeches, filling formal roles in meetings or just taking part in the improv-style Table Topics sessions. This is due largely to a dedicated, friendly and bilingual core membership, but also to the overall atmosphere of support and indulgence.
Attending meetings and the associated social activities has added a rich learning feature to my stay in Florence this fall and almost makes me grateful for the pandemic that crushed my post-retirement Toastmasters plan and forced the organization to go partly online. It also makes me want to come back again and again.
Toastmasters Academy Florence meets on the first and third Wednesdays of the month at 7.15pm, with the first meeting completely online and the second a blend of online participation and an in-person meeting at the Nana Bianca innovation centre facilities in piazza di Cestello. You can participate as a guest anytime online with no obligation in order to judge whether the club is something for you or not. You can also come to the in-person session through the lungarno Soderini entrance to Nana Bianca, where someone from the club will be hovering to help you past security and guide you to the meeting room. Or just scan the plethora of material on the Toastmasters International website or other video and text material online.
The Club is holding an Open House at its December 18 meeting.
