In 2018, Tom Leson had a stroke. In the months and years that followed, he found himself struggling with something most people take for granted, holding a conversation. He credits Sea to Sky Toastmasters with finding his voice again.
“It may sound simple,” Leson said, “but it gave me a place to practice talking. That’s exactly what it was.”
Today, Leson is one of the most active members of Sea to Sky Toastmasters. He started as the sergeant at arms, working his way up to division director, overseeing clubs across the Sea-to-Sky corridor and up the Sunshine Coast.
For those unfamiliar with the organization, Toastmasters is a nonprofit built around two pillars, public speaking and leadership. Members attend regular meetings, take on structured roles, and work through the Pathways educational program, a curriculum that builds from introductory speeches toward complex projects in communication and leadership.
“The tagline is ‘where leaders are made,'” Leson said, “because the two things really do go hand in hand.”
A typical meeting runs about an hour and includes roles like timer (who track speech length), grammarian (who tracks word choice and sentence structure), and two to three members delivering prepared speeches. Club members give detailed feedback about everything from delivery, to hand gestures, to posture.
In Squamish, meetings are held every two weeks at the Brackendale Art Gallery at 6:45 p.m., their Facebook page is updated regularly with meeting dates.
Austin Neill, a Squamish resident who attended the open house on March 9, said the atmosphere struck him right away.
“Everybody was there to make it work. Everybody was there to grow and practice the skills they had worked on in their own time. People were there to just really support,” Neill said.
For Leson, the rewards extend beyond his own recovery. He described the challenge of leading volunteers, where the usual workplace tools simply don’t apply.
“When you’re a manager at work, people are paid to do what you tell them. In a volunteer organization, you have to muster the troops with motivation alone. It’s quite a bit more challenging.”
He finds it rewarding all the same. He spoke about watching newer members arrive nervous and hesitant, but get more confident over time.
“You see it all the time. They come in shy, they don’t really do tabletop discussions, and then they have that breakout moment where they really nail a speech. It’s cool to see that evolution.”
To encourage and celebrate this participation, the club awards one participant each meeting, the courage award for doing tabletop discussions (a non-prepared speech on a random topic).
This year carries particular significance for the club. The Toastmasters International Conference, held each August, is coming to Vancouver this year. The path there begins locally, with the speech contest season starting at the club level in December, then moving through area, division, and district rounds over the following months. The division contest will be held in North Vancouver.
“You can take it as far as you want to go,” Leson said. “You can come and just be a member in a club, or you can work toward being a district officer. The opportunity is there.”
The club is always looking for more members, and those interested can attend a session as a guest at no cost. A year membership costs around $120 USD.
