L1-P1: The 'Ice-Breaker' Project.

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"Every Toastmaster journey starts with a single speech" - Toastmasters International.
Kuwait Challengers Toastmaster Club, Kuwait
The "Ice-Breaker" is the first speech that a new club member delivers in front of fellow-club members. The purpose of this project is for the member to introduce himself or herself to the club and learn the basic structure of a public speech.

 The speech duration is between 4 to 6 minutes. i.e. Your speech should last at least 4 minutes and should not exceed 6 minutes. 

 The accompanying material in the Pathways curriculum is detailed and is sufficient for most people to prepare a well-structured speech. However, if this is your first time delivering a speech, this excellent resource by Andrew Dlugan contains useful tips and techniques to help you prepare for your Ice-Breaker speech.

 One of our senior Toastmaster gave me this advice on Ice-Breaker speech which I pass on to new members. Think of Ice-Breaker as 4 mini-speeches (also called table-topics in Toastmasters), each lasting approximately 1 minute:
1st Minute: Talk about your past/childhood (where you were born, where you studied etc.)
2nd Minute: Talk about your family (parents/siblings/spouse/children)
3rd Minute: Talk about your work/profession/passion
4th Minute: Why you joined Toastmasters and what you expect to get out of the program.

 There is no hard and fast rule to follow the guidelines listed above but they certainly help to break down the speech into parts and gives you the confidence to deliver the speech in a structured manner.

 Additionally, you can seek inspiration from numerous videos on YouTube on Ice-Breaker. 

 The video below was shot by me during one of our club meetings and features my wife, Toastmaster Priscilla, who delivered her first speech at our club. 





I delivered a simple Ice-Breaker speech to kickstart my 'Effective Coaching' path by following the guidelines listed above. 

 All the best.

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