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The Georgetown Toastmasters Club
Developing the art of public speaking in Guyana
“Many people speak, but not many people know the art of public speaking.”
With this in mind, the Georgetown Toastmasters Club has been continually working towards the development of the art of public speaking in Guyana.
Building on the idea that the Toastmasters Club is about self-development, the founding concepts of the club are to develop better thinking, listening and speaking skills.
Sandy Griffith, Immediate Past President of the Georgetown Toastmasters Club, noted that in August 1973, membership of the Toastmasters Club became open to women. In the past, she noted, the Toastmasters Club was a male-dominated club.
Griffith served as the President of the Georgetown Toastmasters Club before she was succeeded by the current President, David Gomes.
On March 18 next year, the Georgetown Toastmasters Club will be commemorating its 50th anniversary. This milestone in the club’s history, Gomes said, would be properly commemorated, with special note being made of the achievements of the club over the years.
While no concrete plans have yet been made for the commemoration of the anniversary, Gomes highlighted the fact that the committee that will oversee those events has already been formed and is working towards making it bigger than ever.
Notably, one of the Georgetown Toastmasters Club’s patrons is Justice Desiree Bernard, Member of the Caribbean Court of Justice.
Gomes said that increased membership in the Georgetown Toastmasters Club, along with the consolidation of the club by building internal capacities, has reinforced confidence within the club.
Even though Guyana has always had numerous literary and debating clubs and societies, it was not until 1959 that the Georgetown Toastmasters Club came into existence.
Charging itself to train persons in the art of public speaking, the Georgetown Chapter of the International Organisation was founded by Derek Adamson.
Adamson returned to Guyana in September 1958, after a five-year trip to Canada. During his stay there, Adamson had become a member of a Toastmasters Club.
When he returned to Guyana, he was excited and eager to share all of the benefits he had amassed from being a member of the Toastmasters Club.
The first Georgetown Toastmasters Club meeting was held at the Woodbine Hotel on March 18, 1959; and just two months after, the club received its charter from Toastmasters International.
Toastmasters International dates back to 1904, when it was started by Ralph Smedley, the Education Director of the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) in Bloomington, USA. It was started as a public-speaking club for teenage boys. Despite this, the club did not really take off until 1924.
In October of that year, Smedley started a Toastmasters Club in Santa Anna, California with boys from the YMCA and some local businessmen. Since then, Toastmasters International has significantly grown.
At present, it is an organization that boasts more than 226, 000 members from 92 different countries all over the world.
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