Being a member of POWERtalk Australia means OPPORTUNITY. Everyone is encouraged to take up the opportunities offered to become an effective communicator. It’s a communal learning environment where you share being trained, presenting, evaluating and passing on your own expertise. If your business or personal life requires putting your thoughts and ideas in order before speaking, POWERtalk Australia is for you. You can practise speaking with no or limited notice as well as prepared speeches and presentations.

Early in my membership I was part of a Parent Group asked to speak to a small roomful of parents about school life for the following year. My role was to impart everything about the school uniforms. I jotted down what had to be covered, in dot points, and spoke about those things in order. So simple!

This was received with much acclaim from the other presenters. “How did you do that?” “You weren’t even nervous.” “I could never do that!”    They were all nervous wrecks.

For me, this was validation for having learned even the basic skills of communication and practised them at club meetings – Skills such as – Overcoming Nervousness; Voice Projection; Speech preparation, construction, presentation…. and more!

The beauty of having these skills is that they are transportable.

Knowing the basics paves the way to move from speaking to a small audience to speaking to hundreds of people; from giving short talks to extensive presentations. The “rules” are the same.

Of course, different situations do raise different challenges. Having been in the position of speaking from the stage in a large auditorium, I discovered that keeping eye contact with an audience was difficult with a spotlight directed straight into my eyes! Keeping calm and faking it is also a POWERtalk skill!      

One reason for joining my club was to learn Business Meeting Procedure, having attended some woeful Parent meetings where no-one knew what was happening nor if any decisions were made. There had to be a better way! And there was!

This interest progressed to Rules and I have been heavily involved in this side of the organisation for many years. Knowing the right procedures is great preparation for leadership roles in the organisation, in business and in the community.

My journey proves that it’s not necessary to be the best. Being involved is the key to learning – to get up and do it! You’re amongst friends.

What is important is to want to improve and to accept challenges – to take up the opportunities.