JEDDAH, 23 October 2006 — Nesma Holding Toastmasters Club, the newest member of Toastmasters International in the Western Region, is inviting individuals who are interested in developing their communication and leadership potentials to join the club.
After getting its charter from the California-based Toastmasters International, the club held its first formal meeting on Oct. 10 and confirmed the election of its new set of officers.
Elected and installed as officers were Ramzi Ali, president; Abdul Aziz Gabel, vice president for education; Hani Turki, vice president for membership; Housam Ibrahim Basha, vice president for public relations; Wedad Nazer, secretary; Marwan Rajkhan, treasurer; and Ghulam Rasool, sergeant-at-arms.
Among those who witnessed the affair at the Intercontinental Hotel of Jeddah were members of the sponsoring club Tanglaw, Area 11 Gov. Elmer Fuentes, past Division “G” Gov. Ben Guerra, and guests from different Nesma divisions and Madawi Al-Hassoun of the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, who participated in the club meeting.
Current Division “G” Gov. Joey Villanueva welcomed the new club to the Toastmasters District 79 family and invited other companies in the Kingdom to create their own Toastmasters club.
Villanueva also encouraged expatriates in other parts of the Western Region to organize their own club and join the growing movement.
Toastmasters International is a nonprofit educational organization that teaches public speaking and leadership skills through a worldwide network of clubs. The organization currently has 211,000 members in 10,500 clubs in 91 countries.
Club members get to learn public speaking, communication and leadership skills using the inexpensive but effective Toastmasters International training modules and workshops tested for the past 82 years.
Members can test their mettle by joining inter-club competitions in the international and humorous speech categories, table topics as well as speech evaluation, which are held every year. Winners in club contests compete in area contests, whose winners compete in the division level. Division champions compete in the district contests, whose winners could take a crack at the international titles.
The Nesma Club belongs to Area 11, which constitutes Division “G” together with two others area groupings of different clubs in Jeddah and Yanbu. Division “G” along with the divisions in Riyadh, the Eastern Province, and others in the Gulf region form District 79.
Nesma officials said Abdurrazak Alturki inspired the past governor of Division “F” in the Eastern Province, who has emphasized on the importance of learning, communication and leadership in both his personal life as well as in business their club.
