Crown City Toastmasters Club

I love it. I’m so Grateful to have found such a Warm and Supportive group to Grow with.
Thank you!

I was recommended by someone on my team that I should join Toastmasters to improve my speeches and work on my craft. I didn’t know anything about what they did or how they conducted their meetings so I was pretty nervous to attend.
It was at a pizza/​italian joint with great priced drinks. They let you drink beer/​wine, order food, and have fun.
Immediately upon entering, people started introducing themselves, and I met some really cool individuals. There’s no hard sell to join (even though the cost to join the chapter is very cheap & worth every penny).
It’s a great atmosphere to learn, grow, and work on your craft. I can’t wait to grow with the chapter and make powerful relationships with every single one of their members.

Want a club that is friendly, fun and committed to helping you overcome speaking fears as well as inspiring leadership skills? Then Crown City Toastmasters is the club you want to join!
We meet the 2^nd and 4^th Wednesday of each month at Pinocchio’s on the corner or Lake Avenue and Rio Grande… come by and see us. visitors are ALWAYS WELCOME!

In April of 2013, I walked through the door of Hutch’s BBQ, hoping to improve my public speaking and maybe do some of that «networking» stuff. Nine months later, I have gotten so much more from joining Toastmasters, particularly this club, that I will always be indebted.
In addition to being given a safe platform to practicing my speaking, Crown City Toastmasters has provided leadership opportunities, mentoring, and a couple of dozen new friends. As someone else mentioned, it’s a lab and a playground, a place to experiment, a place to fail and get back up, and a place to triumph.
Public speaking is a major fear for most people. With this club, it becomes a joy. This is more fun than I possibly could have imagined. There is a terrific mix of experienced speakers and newbies, from a variety of professions and backgrounds. Visitors and guests are welcomed and encouraged to join. As a recent visitor told us, this club has a great «esprit de corps.» The current venue, Pinocchio’s Pizza, is ideal. It’s large enough to accommodate the growing membership, yet intimate enough to be inviting. It’s a great room to find your voice.
For anyone who wants to challenge themselves in a warm, supportive environment, this is the place.

When I was promoted to an executive position, I was terrified. Not the responsibility or the workload, but the need to speak in public on a regular basis. Public speaking frightened me to no end!
Crown City Toastmasters Club changed all that for me. The chance to practice, the guidance of the Toastmaster manuals, and most importantly the advice I received from the warm, friendly people in the club made me a far better public speaker.
Thanks, Crown City.

In full disclosure, I’ve been a member of this club for two years and now serve as its president. So I may be a bit biased. But, having seen various other clubs, I think it’s more than fair to say this is one of the best. The members come from all different walks of life — various ages, professions, and backgrounds. Folks are fun, intelligent, and eager to learn from each other.
The club nurtures a very friendly and positive environment to practice public speaking and leadership skills — vital skills in most of our personal and professional lives! We have speakers at all different skill levels, and we encourage even our more advanced speakers to go beyond their comfort zone and try out new skills and techniques. In a sense, our meeting place has become a laboratory space to practice and polish our skills — whether for a business presentation, a wedding toast, or just in casual conversation. I learn something new at every meeting!
In addition to focusing on the nuts and bolts of public speaking and leadership skills, we are a very social club. One of our members called it «networking that doesn’t feel like networking.» It’s a great place to meet new people, make new friends, and be part of a dynamic community of enthusiastic folks. I cannot recommend it enough.

Really good club with excellent mix of professionals at various speaking levels. Although there are definitely some very good, seasoned speakers here, the environment is very friendly and constructive. It’s a great place to grow, and have fun. Good food and drink too!

I joined this club not knowing much about Toastmasters, only wanting to improve my speaking and presentation skills. What I found instead was a incredibly supportive network that crossed professions and encouraged personal growth. As one of the members told me – this is a lab, for us all to practice, fail and grow. The more experienced members are extremely welcoming and available to answer any questions about the club or provide feedback, and new members are assigned mentors who help guide the process.
In addition, this group has it’s own official Beer Master, Kevin (!), who organizes happy hours and events that cross over with other organizations. Overall, a very social, energetic and supportive group of folks who I’ve enjoyed becoming friends with!

This club has an exceptionally warm atmosphere. During the first meeting I attended several of the club members made it a point to welcome me personally and were genuinely interested in why I was considering joining a Toastmasters club. At the beginning of the meeting each participant took the time to explain their role and ensure that we understood how the meeting was supposed to run. If you have never been to a Toastmasters meeting before you’ll definitely appreciate the explanations given as the allow you to more fully understand what is happening during a meeting.
The speakers were astounding! Each presented their speech confidently and with a strong knowledge of their subject. One thing that really struck me was the wide variety of topics that were discussed, which ranged from business development to exploring new hobbies. I was definitely impressed by the care that was put into each evaluation at the end of the speeches. The way they were delivered allowed each speaker to reflect on their progress thus far as well as to feel supported by their peers.
The moment that clicked for me, was directly after the meeting, one of the club officers approached me and asked if I had any questions. We chatted for roughly thirty minutes, while she attentively listened to and answered all of my questions about Toastmasters and their club.
The members of the club truly do support one another in the common goal of becoming better speakers and also go out of their way to include and support guests and new members!

Went to one meeting and joined immediately — I was looking for a venue to improve my speaking skills with supportive, intelligent people and this is it. Long time and newer members are great fun; they add their personal insights into you developing skills/​process for public speaking and leadership development. AND, you can do all this with a glass of wine and dinner if you like during the evening meetings at a good restaurant.
Here’s another surprise — it’s fun.

I’ve only been a member for a few months and I must have lucked out, because this was the only Toastmaster’s group I visited, and I felt so comfortable that I signed up right away. (Many new members check out multiple clubs before deciding on one to join.)
I originally visited Crown City because it met in the evenings and not during lunch hour, but I was won over immediately by the warm and supportive atmosphere from the people here. I’m naturally shy and I have a stutter, which are probably the biggest hurdles in my decision to join Toastmasters, but the members are SO supportive and welcoming, that I now find myself volunteering for roles and speeches because I know everyone has my back and are rooting for me.
There are quite a few longtime members at this club, whose speaking skills are top-​notch, but they are people to learn from and not be intimidated by. Everyone is here to improve! Another awesome thing is the amazing variety of people at this club. Many Toastmaster’s clubs are employer or institution-​based, so you keep to your own little bubble, but not Crown City. There are so many different people who do all sorts of different things, so listening to speeches can even be *gasp* entertaining!
I definitely look forward to each meeting, even when I have to give a speech. :)

Good Evening Fellow Toastmasters and Honored Guests,
As a member of Crown City Toastmasters now for a few years I have seen the club change in many ways. I started attending the club when it was called Pasadena Jaycees Toastmasters Club back in the days when we met at Marie Calendars. There was a very loose affiliation with the Jaycees at that time and within a few months our name had changed. Also within 6 months so had our location as we were tired of getting food poisoning from MC. At that time the club was about 15 members strong with about 7 – 9 in regular attendance.
Hutches BBQ was the future and a long standing venue for our club. Danny the owner was gracious and made many changes to the Venue including paint, audio visual equipment and even offering non corkage or catering to select beers we would request but alas that relationship like many good ones, grew stale and due to some capacity issues we had just out grown the venue. Once we had 35 people in the club but due to the crowding we shrunk again and our membership suffered to the point we had about 14 people in attendance on a regular basis.
As of late we have been growing and growing so just last month we moved to Pinocchio’s Pizza on North Lake for our bi-​monthly meetings. The venue has a nice selection of food, good beers and most of all a private room for our meets that can hold up to 70 people if needed. We had 25 at our last meeting with 6 in costume for Halloween theme.
About the CLUB:
We are a local public speaking club who welcome all levels of experience. We have plenty of people working on the leadership track of the club training that offers various opportunities for training and experience with regards to leadership. The primary reason people join our club, however, is to learn to public speak. Some want to overcome the fear or anxiety of speaking to a crowd while others want to polish their existing skills with great feedback from a group.
The meeting is a structured environment usually lasting about 90 minutes with a break in the middle. We meet at 7PM every 2^nd and 4^th Wednesday of the month with a social pre meeting gathering… where some of us imbibe while others network or find a good seat. Most folks order food for this meeting as the food is pretty good but its not a requirement to attend a meeting. There is always a structured agenda disseminated along with ballets for voting. First half of the meeting is generally called to order by that week’s «Toastmaster», who runs the meeting from start to finish. There is a section where members (and guest if they feel brave) are called to answer spontaneously a random question and they must talk for 2 – 3 minutes on that question or topic, this is called Table Topics and is not just fun but sometimes a really challenge. All speaking is timed and evaluated by other members of the club. The second half of the meeting is for practiced and planned scheduled speeches which fall in the guidelines that the project directs. There are awards and goals in every club and members are mentored and coached along the way.
I think this is a great opportunity for people to both learn and to save money on a community college speech course. Some professionals use this forum as a «Lab» to practice a professional speech while others might run a best man speech by the group for critique.
This is not just a professional club but also a social group. We have a diverse gathering of people from many professional, social, cultural, religious and political backgrounds. Ages range from mid 20’s to 50’s but most of us are in their 30’s. If you like to eat drink and socialize while learning a skill then this club would be for you.
As I had said, full disclosure, I am a member of this club and have been for many years which is why I should be able to write on the strengths and weaknesses of it. I am not the «business owner» if HQ is reviewing this since TM is an international club. I am simply a member and a satisfied one at that!!!