The Qatar Toastmasters Club recently celebrated their milestone 400th meeting in a glittering function held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, attended by Toastmasters officials, senior Toastmasters, members and guests.
The club is affiliated to Toastmasters International, a nonprofit educational organisation established in 1924 with its headquarters in the USA. Toastmasters International operates a network of clubs worldwide for the purpose of helping members improve their communication, public speaking, and leadership skills. Toastmasters International has over 313,000 members in 14,650 clubs spread over 126 countries including more than 45 clubs in Qatar.
Qatar Toastmasters Club, chartered in 1997, is the second club in Qatar to reach this distinction of 400th meeting. The club has more than 50 members from twelve nationalities and is one of the largest Toastmasters clubs in Qatar. The club has been consistently achieving the organisation’s highest honour of ‘Presidents Distinguished Club’ and several of its members are ‘Distinguished Toastmasters’, the highest rank in the Toastmasters education programme.
Qatar Open Youth Public Speaking Championship, the annual public speaking competition conducted by the club, is now in its 18th year, and is a hugely popular and much anticipated event among the student community in Qatar. The club also runs Qatar Gavel Club, a junior toastmasters club for young adults, conducts Youth Leadership Programs for students and Speech Craft Programs for aspiring adult speakers.
The theme of the 400th meeting was “Glimpses of Glory”, a walk down the historic journey of the club, which has produced many champion speakers and leaders. Opening the meeting QTM President Krishnamoorthy Nair announced major initiatives towards enhancing the membership experience within the club and reiterated that its members remained and will always remain the club’s prime focus.
Thayalan, Toastmaster of the Evening and one of the club’s senior most members, then narrated the journey of the club started by an enthusiastic group of Toastmasters 18 years ago with archive photos and personal anecdotes.
The meeting had two prepared project speeches, one being an “Advanced Speech” which was a toast to the past, present, and future members of Qatar Toastmasters Club. In the impromptu speech segment known as “Table Topics”, led by Sarita Jacob, the participants entertained the audience with their quick wit and presence of mind. A game show followed which was conducted by Lesiley Mathew, with enthusiastic participation from all the audience.
The evaluation segment, a key characteristic of Toastmasters meetings, was led by Virendranath. In this segment, speakers and the role players were given friendly, constructive feedback with the intention of helping them improve their speaking and leadership skills, which was well received. Awards distribution ceremony followed.
A cake cutting and group photo session were also held to mark the occasion.
TOGETHER: The people who attended the meeting.
