Toastmasters International, District 41 inaugurated Toastmasters Leadership Institute (TLI), Kathmandu. The first training was held today at Global Academy of Tourism & Hospitality Education, Mandikhatar. Over 200 members participated from 19 Toastmasters clubs.

TLI provides great opportunities for members to ramp up their Toastmaster experience learn and refresh their skills, network and make new acquaintances and friends. Trained club officers are the best predictor of club success.

Neeraj Gupta, DTM who is District Parliamentarian and one of the seasoned trainers from New Delhi, India emphasized the importance of TLI as he conducted the Judges Training Program “Judging is different from evaluating or providing feedback. A Judge has to choose a winner without bias and conforming to Toastmasters strict rules and guideline. A member gets the same training as is used to choose the International Speech Contest in USA”.

Besides “core training” multiple sessions throughout the day were offered. TLI events now include every interested member and not just club officers, as it used to. Leadership planning, distinguished club goals and branding guidelines were among the sessions members participated in excitedly.

Club Growth Director of District 41, Ranjit Acharya, and DTM said with excitement “Nepal is in fact pioneering a few initiatives that are being replicated in District 41. Events like these reconfirm the ability of members from Nepal to showcase its leadership skills worldwide”.

Toastmasters is recognized globally for empowering individuals to develop and improve their public speaking and leadership skills through local club meetings offering practice, evaluation and mentoring. The Toastmasters Leadership Institute builds on that foundation by helping members build the competencies they need to communicate and lead in a range of situations.

Division A Director, Suman Shakya, DTM who currently leads the Toastmaster’s movement in Nepal with passion, articulated his vision “100 clubs is possible in Nepal in few years. Members need to continuously receive quality training and interventions that transforms an individual to become a better communicator and a speaker. Seldom does one get an opportunity to create a better version of oneself”.

It was mentioned that currently19 clubs are divided into 6 Areas with a minimum of 3 clubs each, including Pokhara and Dharan. Soon there will be new clubs in Biratnagar, Birtamode, Birgunj, Bharatpur, Butwal and Nepalgunj as interest from various community and corporate clubs like Banks, is growing by the day.

Collectively, participants said they enjoyed the training that was crafted to suit both new and old members. There were so many new insights that were conducted in an interactive manner with mock speeches and real time evaluations using experiential learning methodology.