The Toastmasters flag is flying outside of Cementation Canada’s North Bay headquarters.
The flag was raised on Thursday to recognize the company’s Toastmasters Club achieving President’s Distinguished Status in 2021-22.
John Cooney, Past President and Distinguished Toastmaster says the club is about empowering individuals to become more effective communicators and leaders.
“People have to speak, people have to do leadership, they have to do administration and they have to attend training,” he says “This is what was recognized with the very highest award that a club can achieve.”
Cooney says it’s all done in a formal, but safe space.
“You can make mistakes, you can totally mess up but you’ll get positive and constructive feedback and that will help you improve your personal presentation (skills) and we get opportunities to take up leadership skills,” he says.
Cooney also says the local club was having a challenging time because of the pandemic but added members across the company’s offices in the Americas.
“A lot of people didn’t want to meet online, they were sitting on meetings all day,” he says. “We did open it up and we managed to get our membership back. We’ve worked hard throughout the club, not just the experienced members but the brand new members have really taken to the speaking projects.”
Membership doubled from 13 to 26 members including some in Chile, California, Utah, and Vancouver.
