I Stutter! How In The World Can I Join Toastmasters?

In 2006 Pamela Mertz became involved in Toastmasters and the National Stuttering Association (NSA). At her first NSA conference in Long Beach, California, she attended a Toastmasters demo meeting, after having been a member of Capital Toastmasters in Albany, New York for 1 month. At that meeting, which was facilitated by all men, she participated in Table Topics.

Between 2007 and 2009 Pam was asked to fill different technician roles at each demo meeting held at the NSA conferences and in 2010 was asked to give a speech. This year they asked her to be the Toastmaster and workshop facilitator, the first time ever for a woman to do that at NSA. Pam insisted it be done her way, or she didn't want to do it. All of the demo meetings had been just that, a one-hour meeting of "showing how a meeting is run" with little to no explanation about Toastmasters. People new to the concept of Toastmasters had no idea of who, what, or why things are done, and over the years she had heard people who stutter comment that it seemed far too intimidating.

So Pam changed the whole format, proposed the workshop be called, "I Stutter! How In the World Can I Join Toastmasters?" and limited the demo meeting to about 25 minutes. For the other 50 minutes veteran and newer Toastmasters (who stutter) shared how Toastmasters had benefited them - one person spoke on advertising (how to tell your club you stutter and get that out of the way); one spoke on mentoring; leadership; coaching; transfer into "real life"; workplace benefits; and managing fears.

People who stutter often obsess how they can possibly achieve success in Toastmasters clubs with people who don't stutter. Pam engages with people in on-line stuttering groups about this all the time, and encourages people to take chances and expand their comfort zone.

The meeting was a big success – and she proved some people wrong. Some were convinced promoting Toastmasters would not be possible if the "demo" was not for the whole hour. People seemed to appreciate the new format - they got to hear real people who stutter talk about how Toastmasters has worked for them, and in fact, changed their lives.

For the last three years Pamela has written articles for the International Stuttering On-line conference that runs every year from October 1-22. When invited again this year, she chose to write about Toastmasters and titled it the same as the demo/workshop she did in Fort Worth, Texas in July 2011, "I Stutter! How In the World Can I Join Toastmasters?". To read the entire article click here.