Toast Of Severna Park Toastmasters Aspires To Be A Club “Where Leaders Are Made”

Oscar Zalamia never thought a pizza flyer would change his life. But that is exactly what happened in 1996 when he found a notice for a Toastmasters meeting.

“I saw a poster for a free pizza if you come to a meeting,” he recalled. “I thought, ‘How can I turn that down?’”

Toastmasters International is a nonprofit that teaches public speaking and leadership skills, which fosters self-confidence and personal growth for members. The Toast of Severna Park Toastmasters club meets twice every month. Any given meeting might have 10 people or a few dozen, including Zalamia, who had no plans to quit after getting his pizza reward.

“I was an engineer. I thought my skills were good enough, but I wanted to become a manager, which means I had to become a better communicator,” he said. “The people advancing were good speakers, I realized.”

Toastmasters meetings include prepared speeches and Table Topics, which are brief impromptu speeches designed to help speakers organize their thoughts quickly. Speakers are evaluated and receive constructive feedback with a dash of encouragement.

“We are still focused on content, delivery, language or word usage, and time,” Zalamia said.

Meetings are interactive, so everyone plays a role. A “Toastmaster of the day” introduces speakers. Another member checks grammar and counts filler words like ah and um. The “wordmaster” provides a word of the day to be used in speeches, and a timer manages the clock.

During a January meeting, Freeman Bagnall served as a speech evaluator and presented a speech of his own. After more than 15 years with the club, he still considers it a valuable resource.

“I think it has helped me become a clearer speaker,” he said. “I learned how to use pauses. It’s OK to take a pause, take a break. If I develop my ideas, hopefully they are clear to me and to the audience.”

He has found critiques to be both gentle and helpful.

“What you learn is, sometimes during evaluation, you have to be a better listener to be a better speaker,” Bagnall said. “It’s a circle.”

The club’s president, Geraldine Cvetic, lauded the Toastmasters for providing a welcoming space where members can practice and be evaluated.

“Leadership skills are instilled through various capacities including meeting roles and officer roles at many levels,” Cvetic said. “I highly value the sense of belonging to a group that values continuous learning and service. And Toastmasters’ platform of self-paced learning ensures all the tools needed to be successful.”

Members can also participate in local, regional and national competitions if they want to keep sharpening their skills.

With an ambitious pace, Zalamia rose through the ranks and volunteered for officer roles and leadership positions. Eventually, he ran for district governor, a position that oversees several divisions of clubs. Each rung on the ladder took time and energy, but Zalamia considers it all worthwhile.

“I credit the Toastmasters for me being able to connect with people and being able to lead a team,” Zalamia said. “You have to put in the work. There is a lot of sacrifice, but the reward is limitless.”

Toast of Severna Park Toastmasters meets on the first and third Tuesdays of every month at 7:00pm in the Greater Severna Park and Arnold Chamber of Commerce office at 1 Holly Avenue. Anyone who may want to join the club is welcome to attend as a guest for free. A hybrid option is also available. For more information about the club, visit www.severnapark.toastmastersclubs.org.