2008-09 Specialty/Advanced Toastmasters Clubs
Hobbies, activities, sports—most people have favorite pastimes. Specialty and advanced Toastmasters clubs help promote certain aspects of speech giving, presenting ideas, evaluation skills and entertaining an audience. A special focus can also help build membership. Think about joining a specialty or advanced club TODAY to begin honing your skills in debate, evaluation, humor, leadership, membership building, parliamentary procedure, political discourse, advanced presentations or storytelling!
Saturday Morning LIVE! – Advanced Evaluations
Ever wondered why some Toastmasters develop very high quality speeches? The secret is in the quality of feedback or evaluations they get.
Would you like to take your evaluation skills to the next level of challenge, then be a guest at the next meeting of Saturday Morning Live! (SML!), an advanced club for members who at least have earned their CTM/CC.
At SML! we believe in real value through quality Evaluations. The club atmosphere provides you with an atmosphere to develop stronger evaluators, take back ideas beneficial to your club, develop contacts and learn the value of teamwork. The three member team evaluations have proven to be an excellent way to provide feedback to advance manual speeches given at our club. This higher learning is offered in a fun filled environment served along with a continental breakfast.
SML! meets from 9:15-11:30 am on the second Saturday of the month at:
Coldwell Banker Burnet
7645 Currell Blvd
Woodbury, Minnesota
For more information, contact Caroline Baker, President, at (612) 419-0825 or email cbaker@baldwin-telecom.net
Club website
Westside Speakers – Advanced Evaluations
Westside Speakers specializes in team evaluations. At Westside, we believe in the power of evaluations to help you reach new heights as a speaker! Every speech given at Westside is evaluated by a three-person team of experienced Toastmasters with a focus on improving organization, effectiveness, vocal variety, and gestures.
Come visit us to learn about the Westside team evaluation system, and see how much of a difference it can make for you.
Meetings are held on the second Saturday of each month from 8:15-10 am at:
Lunds (Uptown) Note: New location!
1450 West Lake Street
Minneapolis, MN
Light refreshments are available. For more information, contact Joan Milavitz, President, at (612) 617-9136 or joan.milavitz@target.com.
Club website
Club 500 Debate – Debate Specialty
Discover how to influence people, develop clear arguments, and think on your feet.
Club 500 meets from 7-8 pm on the first Tuesday and from 7-8:30 pm on the third Tuesday (debate-format meeting) at:
Cross of Glory Lutheran Church
5929 Brooklyn Blvd
Brooklyn Center, MN
Contact: Len Jennings, President, at (651) 644-4510 or e-mail lenandmimi@usfamily.net.
Humor-US – Humor Specialty
We are one of a select group of Toastmasters Clubs that counts HAs instead of AHs! In addition to the standard Toastmasters agenda of prepared manual speeches, effective evaluations, and impromptu table topics, we offer an opening monologue on current events, prepared and evaluated stand-up comedy routines, tool-time, and improv!
Whether you want to listen to humor, pursue a career in comedy, or coach others as they find their humorous sides, we provide an effective and supportive venue for pursuing your goals.
Humor-US meets from 6:00-7:00 pm on the first and third Thursdays of each month at:
St. Mary’s Hospital
Dining Room H/J (Northwest corner)
1216 Second St. SW
Rochester, MN
Directions can be found on the Club website.
For more information, contact Paul Schaefer, at (507) 253-2236 or e-mail pws@us.ibm.com
Humor Mill - Humor Specialty
Are you tired of suppressing your comedic side? Or perhaps you are an experienced Toastmaster looking to add some humor to your speeches. The Humor Mill consists of a group of people with various levels of experience, different goals, and a variety of personality types. We all have two things in common: We are supportive, and we want to have fun while we learn. Stop by and attend a meeting as a guest. Try it, you might like it!
The Humor Mill meets at 6:30 pm on the first and third Thursday each month at:
934th Airlift Wing Officers Club
Hwy 5 & Post Rd
Minneapolis, Minnesota
For more information, contact Bob Wagner, President at (651) 455-7003 or e-mail robert.wagner@bnsf.com.
Club website
Voice of Leadership (VOL) – Leadership Specialty
When you think of leaders, do you think of someone “up there” or “out there?” We are all called to leadership in some way, at some time in our lives—at work, in our families, communities, government, etc. When it is your time to rise to the occasion, will you be prepared? The mission of VOL is (1) to learn to recognize the call to leadership in our day-to-day lives when it presents itself, and (2) to learn and to develop the skills to rise to the call to leadership. Our resource is the wealth of leadership materials in Toastmasters.
Meetings are monthly on the first Saturday from 9:00-10:45 am at:
Rasmussen College
3500 Federal Dr
Eagan, Minnesota
For more information, visit the Club website, email VOL3670@frontiernet.net, or contact President, Vitalia Bryn-Pundyk at (952) 221-1701 or email vitalia@earthlink.net.
ID Lighthouse – Leadership Specialty
ID Lighthouse is for Toastmasters who have a desire to further their Toastmaster experience by focusing on the leadership dimension of Toastmasters.
Members meet on the second Saturday of each month from 8:00 - 9:30 am at:
Minnesota Power
30 Superior Street
Duluth, Minnesota
For additional information contact Stephen Shaner, President, at (218) 340-6822 or e-mail toastmasterstephen@hotmail.com.
Club website
Crest of the Hill – Membership Building Specialty
Crest of the Hill provides membership-building tools and information with innovative, creative ideas, through monthly presentations on timely topics, to motivate, inspire and empower clubs to grow to charter-strength and beyond. It is our continuing mission to inspire, motivate and nurture future district leaders.
Crest of the Hill members meet on the first Saturday of each month from 8 am-9:30 am at:
Fred Babcock VFW
6715 Lakeshore Dr. (near 66th and Lyndale) Richfield, Minnesota
Breakfast is available for $8.00; meeting only costs $2.50. For more information, contact Allan Bernard, DTM, President at (612) 703-2038 or email allanbernard01@comcast.net.
Parliamentary Procedure – Parliamentary Procedure Specialty
An important area of communication skills involves the ability to preside over meetings. Parliamentary Procedure Toastmasters Club #1554 is a specialty club where Toastmasters learn how to conduct business meetings and use the correct motions to process business.
The subject may be on the serious side, but the atmosphere is endowed with generous laughter and camaraderie. The members are friendly, helpful, and fun.
Parliamentary Procedure meets at 8:30 am to 10:00 am on the fourth Saturday of the month at:
Broadway Village Apartments
6046 W Broadway Ave
New Hope, Minnesota
For more information, contact Theo Black, DTM at (952) 294-3206 or e-mail tb55391@msn.com.
Club website
Tale Weavers - Storytelling Specialty
Do you want to learn the Art of storytelling? Do you want to improve your speeches by adding stories and anecdotes? Tale Weavers may be for you! We are a specialty club that combines the art of storytelling with the proven Toastmaster's method.
Meetings include:
- Prepared stories and presentations
- Impromptu speaking and storytelling practice
- Gentle and motivating evaluations
- A storytelling ‘mini’ workshop
All of this is offered in a fun and motivating environment!
We meet the second and fourth Tuesday of each month from 6:30-8:00 pm at:
Minnehaha United Methodist Church
3701 E 50th Street
Minneapolis MN (about 6 blocks west of Hiawatha Ave)
For more information, contact David Schaal at (612) 729-3160 or e-mail at davidrobertschaal@hotmail.com
Guests are always welcome!
The Comedy Club
District 6's first Toastmasters club dedicated to helping Toastmasters bring out their innate humorous abilities. Learn to develop your personal style and incorporate humor in your public speaking. Anyone can be funny--we'll inspire you to find your talent.
The club meets the first and third Monday nights, 7:00-8:30 pm at:
Shingle Creek Commons
4600 Humboldt Avenue N
Minneapolis MN 55412
For further information, please contact Theo Black, DTM at (952) 294-3206 or e-mail tb55391@msn.com.
Club website
Guests and friends always welcome!
Sales and Marketing Executives – Advanced Presentations
Members of Sales and Marketing Executives are sales career professionals who are committed to improving their speaking and presentation skills.
Sales and Marketing Executives meets from 7:15-9 am on Friday mornings at:
Minneapolis Club
729 2nd Ave S
Minneapolis, Minnesota
For information, contact Jennifer Olson, President, at (612) 387-8082 or email jenniferldrews@yahoo.com.
Southern Minnesota Mentors
Southern Minnesota Mentors is a specialty club focused on meeting leadership, communication, and educational goals. Our membership is open to anyone who either has already achieved a CTM/CC or who belongs to another Toastmasters club, or both. The depth and breadth of experience among our members provides a wealth of positive Toastmaster role models. Also there is an educational presentation at each meeting. We encourage every club to send a delegate or representative to these meetings. The information that is presented can be taken back to each respective club.
The club meets every last Saturday of the month, from 8:30-10:00am at:
St Paul’s Lutheran Church
214 3rd St SW (just off Highway 52)
Pine Island, MN
For more information, contact Allen Risberg, DTM, at (651) 388-0998 or e-mail risberg@rconnect.com.
Nomads – Membership Building Specialty
Nomads Toastmasters is a Leadership Development Toastmasters club. Our meetings feature Leadership seminars and panel discussions. If you are a Toastmaster who aspires to become a better Leader, Club Officer, or District Leader, Nomads Toastmasters will challenge you to find creative solutions to all types of problems. Our members are past, current, and future leaders. We become close friends and have fun while learning. We look forward to meeting you at our next meeting.
Regular meetings are held on the Second Tuesday of each month at 6:00 pm at:
Park Nicollet - Performance Development Resources (Stilts Building)
6700 Excelsior Blvd
St Louis Park, Minnesota
Club website
Meeting includes dinner, which members take turns bringing. All Toastmasters are welcome to attend and join our Club. Please contact our VP of Membership, Judy Southwick, DTM (membership@nomads.d6pages.com), in advance so that we can greet you and make sure that you find the meeting room.