Every new member can download a ‘Master’ training manual which is a comprehensive guide to speaking and presentation.

The manual also contains 21 practical ‘projects’ to provide experience in a variety of different speaking situations including the ‘leading’ of club meetings and the ‘evaluation’ of other speakers.

 Other projects include:

• Speech to entertain

• Speech to persuade

•  Speech using visual aids

•  Storytelling

•  Book review

The projects may be completed in any order with no fixed time period though experience suggests that around 2 years provides the optimum level of personal development. 

The project ‘specifications’ are not intended to be mandatory and may be adapted to individual needs. 

Evaluation 

Each speaker at a meeting is normally assigned an ‘evaluator’ who will provide a realistic assessment of the speech together with helpful suggestions for improvement.

The whole concept is to support each other and to gain greater understanding of speaking techniques from analysing the work of fellow club members 

The General Evaluator provides an overall assessment of the meeting. 

Of course, evaluations are themselves a speaking opportunity and should be delivered as a ‘structured’ speech. 

Accreditation

The ITC accreditation programme is a more-formal system of qualifications based on 5 courses leading to the award of certificates for 3 levels of achievement;

• Skilled Communicator (S.C.)

• Accomplished Communicator (A.C.)

•  Distinguished Communicator (D.C.)

Training and accreditation programmes are regularly updated to meet changing presentation techniques.   

Competitions

All clubs participate in the annual speech contest which progresses though club, council, national and international levels.

There is also a very popular writing contest with sections for fiction, non-fiction and poetry.