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YES & Toastmasters Letters

About Yes And Toastmasters

Combining Improv and Public Speaking

At Yes And Toastmasters, we believe that you should not let the fear of public speaking hold you back from success. We provide a safe environment for our members to practice and improve their ability to speak in public, speak on their feet, and become better leaders. Yes And Toastmasters is the only Toastmasters club that combines Improv with Public speaking to help anyone become socially fearlesss.

Our Founding

Yes And Toastmasters was founded by Garrett Gray, Mike Scampini, Noel Ganay, and Amir Kyego. Together, these four brought their experience and knowledge together to form a Toastmaster’s Club that provides members with a unique twist of Toastmasters and Improv.

Mike and Garrett attended The Second City in Chicago and completed the Level A-E Improvisation Courses. Soon after, Garrett and Mike continued to stay involved with Improv at LOL Theater in Schaumburg, IL and at Comedy Sportz.  Their Improv education brought them various tools that enabled them to improve their  communication and leadership skills. They were able to bring this idea to Noel, who at the time was the Club Growth Director for Toastmasters International’s District 30 (Chicagoland region). That is when Yes And Toastmasters was born. 

After holding an Improv Workshop in September 2018, the club gathered a ton of interest from guests. The Yes And Toastmasters club officially chartered February 1st, 2019 and is continuing to thrive.

Frequently Asked Questions

Toastmasters is a nonprofit organization that helps individuals improve their communication and leadership skills. It is a friendly environment that will give members and guests the chance to practice and improve their public speaking skills.

You have so much to gain! Here are some of the skills and knowledge you can pick up if you choose Toastmasters:

  • Confident public speaking
  • Leadership and career advancement
  • Learn to tell compelling stories
  • Gain the ability to sell and persuade
  • Learn how to negotiate
  • Impromptu speaking
  • Shatter your fear of public speaking and become socially fearless
  • Event planning
  • Active listening
  • Providing constructive feedback

Toastmasters will help you improve your public speaking skills, improve your leadership skills, advance in your career, support your self-improvement, and much more.

Our Toastmasters club is different from the rest. We provide 30 minutes of Improv exercises at the beginning of the meeting. Improv is a practice that uses principles and games to help you learn to think on your feet, learn team building, and push your comfort zone beyond belief. Regular practice in the club will lead to you becoming socially fearless.

 

“Yes And” is a concept foundational to improvisation, and we love it so much that we named the club after it. When you truly improvise, you have no idea what will happen. To build an improv scene, you must accept what the other improviser initiates on stage (the “yes”). Once you accept, you must add to whatever they have offered to keep the scene going (the “and”). If you don’t accept or you don’t add more, the scene falls apart. It’s a concept we believe helps in other areas of your life when you need to think (and speak) on your feet! At our meetings, we help members develop this skill through improv games.

There are no fees to attend a meeting as a guest. If you would like to take your improvement to the next level, you can join the club for $53 every 6 months. There is a one time initiation fee of $20 if you are not currently a Toastmaster.

You can bring a notebook if you would like to keep notes. Other than that, just a willingness to improve your life in so many ways!

Yes! We encourage you to bring anyone you think that could use Toastmasters to help improve their communication and leadership skills. Guests are always welcome.

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