Boaters Toastmasters

Toastmaster club. District 72, New Zealand. Rakaia Building, Ara Institute of Canterbury, Madras Street, Chch.

About us

Our club

Boaters Toastmasters is a welcoming and supportive club where you will learn to improve your public speaking skills in a friendly, professional environment.

You’ll also hear interesting and entertaining speeches made by other members, learn how to become not only a better speaker, but a better listener too, and enjoy a lot of laughs along the way.

The club was started in 1998 and has been meeting weekly ever since. We welcome members of all backgrounds who are aged 18 or above.

Our members come from a wide range of backgrounds and fields and also represent a wide age group. A fun and relaxed environment has seen us thrive over the years, and our club continues to develop and grow.

Boaters Toastmasters, District 72,
Division D, Area D1. Our club number is 2400

Toastmasters International

Toastmasters was founded in 1924 at the Santa Ana YMCA in California by a youth leader named Ralph Smedley. He wanted to teach young professionals how to give after-dinner speeches and toasts at social functions.

Toastmasters International’s network consists of over 200,000 members in 14,000+ clubs that meet in 150 countries across the globe.

For more information visit these websites: toastmasters.org.nz & toastmasters.org

Meeting format

Members take turns giving and evaluating speeches, and filling the various other meeting roles required to make a meeting tick… including of course, the Toastmaster of the Day!

We follow an educational framework designed by Toastmasters International that will help you to improve your speech writing craft and delivery. This framework, known as Pathways, offers a broad range of projects and topics, is self-paced and you get to choose which path to follow.
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Every meeting has a set agenda but responsibilities change each week and as  your confidence you will be rostered on for new roles. This allows you to not only develop your speaking skills but also your organisational and leadership skills as well.

Benefits of joining Toastmasters

Every speech that you present involves the learning of speaking new skills which will naturally become part of your speaking repertoire.

You will also to have the opportunity to use the Club’s projector for your speeches. This can be of great help if your are needing to practice a work PowerPoint presentation. An extra Boater’s bonus is that we have a hybrid meeting structure, so that if you’re unable to make it in person for some reason, you can attend and participate in our physical meetings, remotely.
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The benefits these skills bring, in both social and business settings, is why Toastmasters has been such a success all around the world.

Meet our Committee members

Ian Thornton

President

Louise Landess

VP Education

Jacqui Anderson

VP Membership

Vacant

VP Public Relations

Vivien Cowey

Secretary

Stuart Lyons

Sergeant at Arms

Erika Andrews

Treasurer

David Cooper

Immediate Past President