Fellow Toastmasters, Dear new members,

Congratulations to you for taking the first steps to your personal and professional growth.

My name is Xie Wensheng. I am from YuLife Toastmasters club.

Many of you join Toastmasters International because you want to practice your English. So I decided to do my sharing with you in English.

A quick question to you, fellow members, could you please guess how many years I have been a member of Toastmasters International?

(ask a lady and a gentleman. Appreciate their answers. They possible guess the wrong number.)

Thank you for the answers. They encourage me a lot. In fact, I am a 100-day member, and just renewed my membership last month. Today, I am very honored to be standing here to show you that whether you are a new member or you are an old member, Toastmasters is your stage. All you need is to act.

Everyone comes here for a reason. Mine is to learn public speaking. This is not a dream from my childhood. My childhood dream was to become a scientist. As far as I can remember, I did well in schools, and good students should choose scientists as their goals at that time. I went to university, studied physics; I went to institute, did research in physics; and I was a young scientist.

Dreams change often. The internet came, and I followed the trend to become a software engineer. In the meantime, I have encountered many great ideas. Some of them are so inspiring and so important and I cannot help sharing them to more people. Then I got to know Toastmasters from one friend’s wechat Moment. The dream to become a public speaker awakes from my heart.

I visited several clubs, Chinese clubs, English clubs, Chinese-English clubs, English-Chinese clubs. I joined Yu-life club, and I know I can learn from the club because we have many great people here, and I know I can improve my public speaking skills because we have great meetings every time.

I know toastmasters is the stage. All I need is to act. The same applies to you, my fellow members. Toastmasters is your stage. All you need is to act.

Here are my tips to make the most of your Toastmasters learning experience.

First, question again. How many of you remember your member ID? (wave your hands up, confirm their answers) Please log in to www.toastmasters.org/login using your ID and password.

After your login, please make sure you choose your Pathways. Pathways is the foundation of the Toastmasters’ education program. It compliments your club experience by giving you access to engaging learning tools, including videos, interactive quizzes and activities, tips, feedbacks and recognition and more.

Then you come to the second interesting part. Possibly your vice president education will pair you with a mentor, to help you along the way. You can also pick someone who stands out to you in some way as your mentor. Perhaps you were really engaged by one of their speeches. Maybe you noticed that they are highly active in supporting the club. Or, they might already possess the kinds of skills you hope to improve upon. Talk to your mentor, set up your goal with you mentor.

Now it is your show time. You prepare your first project, the Ice Breaker. Work closely with your mentor to prepare for this first speech. Your mentor has been there before and has excellent ideas for what to speak about and how to do it. It is important to get over any fear or nervousness regarding your first speech. Tell your story, share your dream, enjoy the stage. Once you complete your first speech, you will truly feel that you are building strong relationships in the club and becoming confident on the stage.

Besides speeches, there are many other things that make you like the stage.

For example, meeting roles. Question again. (ask the audience about role) How many roles do you know of?

Let’s count. TMD (Toastmaster of the day), timer, Ah-counter, grammarian, TTM (table topic master), GE (general evaluator), TTE (table topic evaluator), IE (individual evaluator). Each role gives you unique experience on the stage. It’s good to earn honest critics from your fellow members, and you may not have the chance without the stage in Toastmasters. I encourage you to take a role in every meeting you attend.

You can also choose to become a club officer. I am the SAA (sergeant at arms) in my club. Serving my club has been a joy and a privilege that I am grateful for every single day. Being an officer not only improves my communication skills but also develops my leadership skills. If there is a chance, please be a club officer.

In summary, on the stage of Toastmasters, you can be a speaker, you can be a role-taker, and you can be an officer, and most of all, welcome to your Toastmasters journey.

Remember, Toastmaster is your stage. All you need is to act.

Thank you.