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This Week June 27, 1990. Page M5

FEATURE

Toastmasters help overcome stage fright

By VAUGHN COCKE

few decades ago

Frank Kitching, the

assistant secretary-

Treasurer of a Mon-
treal corporation, was denied
a promotion. He wasn’t the
first - or the last - person to
miss out on a raise in pay, but
the reason for Kitching’s fail-
ure to advance was unusual
in that it had nothing to do
with experience, qualifica-
tions or work ethic.

It was more a matter of
nerves: he was terrified of
speaking in public.

“Tt was not because I
couldn’t do the work, but sim-
ply because I was unable to
speak,” Kitching says.

So, taking the advice of a
fellow worker, the shy ac-
countant enrolled in a public
speaking course and gave cre-
dence to the words of 19th-
century American author
Ralph Waldo Emerson, who
said: “Do the thing you fear to
do, and the death of that thing
is certain.”

Kitching, 86, long ago bur-
ied his stage fright, and today,
after 32 years as a member of
Toastmasters, an internation-
al public speaking organiza-
tion, he’s recognized as an
accomplished speech-maker.

Indeed, he has the hard-

-ware to prove it. In 1983,
- Kitching survived four levels

of competition to emerge as
the provincial winner in
Toastmasters’ annual speech
contest. His topic was retire-
ment.

That same year he went on
to finish third in the regional
competition, which featured
the winners from seven west-
ern states and himself... and
an audience of 500 people. So
much for stage fright.

Kitching, once deathly
afraid of speaking in small
groups, now thrives on ad-
dressing a crowd of people.

“It's just like an actor on the
stage,” he says. “If he sees
rows of empty seats, his spir-
its drop. If he sees a full house
he knows he’s got to deliver.”

Kitching’s rags-to-riches
story is clearly a source of
inspiration for some of the
newer members of Toastmas-
ters. And British Columbia’s
senior Toastmaster always
welcomes the opportunity to
advise and assist the organi-
zation’s neophyte speech-
makers.

“The greatest enjoyment |
get is helping the new mem-
bers,’ he says.

Toastmasters has been
helping people overcome their
public speaking fears since it
was established in 1921 in
Santa Ana, Calif. The organi-
zation grew quickly and went
‘international when the First

Canadian Club of Victoria

was established in 1936 as the

years

CONQUERING FEAR is some-
thing Frank Kitching does for
fun. Speaking in public once
wracked his nerves but, 32
after joining
Toastmasters, he thrives on
giving speeches and prefers
speaking To a full house.

first club outside the United
States.

The success of Toastmasters
suggests stage fright truly
does rank up there with visit-
ing the dentist on the scale of
human fears. Today the or-
ganization has 6,500 clubs
and 135,000 members in 50
countries. The Thunderbird
Club, of which Kitching has
been a member since his ar-
rival in Victoria 10 vears ago,
is one of about 17 clubs in
Greater Victoria and 110 in
the province.

Typically, each club meets
once a week - in the morning,
at lunch or after dinner. The
26 members of the Thunder-
bird Club meet every Monday
night at the Executive House
Hotel on Douglas Street.

Toastmasters attracts peo-
ple of all ages and from a
variety of occupations. The
Thunderbird Club includes a
police officer, a psychiatrist, a
boat-builder and a university
lecturer. They all have one
thing in common, however,
and that’s a desire to improve
their public speaking.

A Toastmaster can achieve
three levels of efficiency:
Competent, Able and Distin-
guished. To become a Compe-
tent Toastmaster, one must
perform 10 speeches accord-
ing to the guidelines in a
manual. Fach speech must be
from five to seven minutes
long, and categories include
“The Icebreaker” (a speech
about yourself); “Show What
You Mean” (show and tell);
and “Make Them Laugh” (an
amusing speech.)

On the road to becoming an
Able Toastmaster, one must

deliver speeches from eight to =

10 minutes long, while Distin-

guished speeches are even
longer. Each of the three le-
vels has its own correspond-
ing manual. 5

Kitching, who is a Compe-
tent Toastmaster, says the
keys to effective public speak-
ing are the three Ps: prepara-
tion, practice and persever-
ance.

“Just like playing the pi-
ano,” he says. “It’s a commit-

In every Toastmasters
event - whether it’s a meeting
or competition - the clock
plays an important role. A
designated timer operates a
miniature traffic light during
speeches to let the speaker
know where he or she is in
relation to the allotted time.

For example, in a seven-
minute speech, the green
light may come on at five and
a half minutes, the amber

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light at six and a half min-
utes, and the red light at
seven minutes. When the red
light comes on, the speaker is
allowed 30 seconds to finish.
In competitions, going beyond
that 30-second “red” period
results in disqualification.

Another key element of
Toastmasters is evaluation.
When someone delivers a
speech - whether it’s an im-
promptu, 60-second talk or a
seven-minute, prepared effort
- feedback is offered. And it’s
always constructive.

“We don’t use the word ‘crit-
icism’; it’s evaluation,” Kit-
ching says.

Emphasizing the positive
and offering suggestions on
how to improve a speech can
help restore the speaker’s con-
fidence, he explains. And on
more than one occasion, Kit-
ching has taken dejected, nov-

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ice Toastmasters aside and
offered his brand of encour-
agement. He has a few sim-
ple, but effective, speech-
making rules: take your time;
make use of pauses and quo-
tations; never thank the audi-
ence; and, if you ever lose
your place, repeat the preced-
ing sentence.

For his part, even after 32
years as a Toastmaster, Kit-
ching still admits to suffering
from the butterflies.

“You always feel a little
sense of tenseness in your
heart,” he says.

Incidentally, that promotion
Kitching missed out on way
back in 1950 proved to be only
temporarily elusive.

“Hventually I did get the
promotion,” he says. “I had to
wait five years, but I got it.”

The wait was undoubtedly
worth it.

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