News: Announcing The New Renaissance Speakers Website

Today, the RenaissanceSpeakers.com website officially turned into RenaissanceSpeakers.org, marking a transition from “.com” to “.org” which simultaneously launched a brand-new club website.

The new website was developed to further facilitate the expansion of the Renaissance Speakers via social media and to make it easy for members to publish their speeches in multi-media formats, such as text, photos, audio and video.

Susan Stewart, President of the group, spearheaded the idea at the beginning of her 2010-2011 term and recruited George Alger to conceive and develop a new club website. Said Susan, “2011 marks the 12th year in a row that our club has been the honored recipient of the Toastmasters International’s ‘President’s Distinguished Club’ Award, and a new website was part of our Executive Council’s initial vision of bringing increased recognition to the Renaissance Speakers.”

Jo Lauricella, Vice President of Public Relations and past President said, “The new club website is a social media platform, which, among other things, means that it uses technology to make it easier for anyone to publish speeches, articles and successes to the website.”

Roberta Perry, club Co-Founder, past club President, and elected member of the Toastmasters International Board of Directors, has been keenly interested in the development of the new website over the past year. Roberta remarked, “Over the years the Renaissance Speakers has consistently established itself as one of the top global clubs for members to learn public speaking and leadership. The new social media website showcases the remarkable talent comprised by our members.”

Ray Korns, past President and long-term webmaster said, “By establishing the ability of members to publish and edit their own speeches online, the new web platform allows the site to grow in a way that could not have been accomplished previously, which relied solely on a key volunteer to do all the work.”

Kay Baron was the first webmaster of the original club website and remarked, “Back in 1999, at the beginning of his term as club President, George Alger initiated the club’s first website and purchased RenaissanceSpeakers.com. I created the first site with the idea of expressing the joy and friendship that the group represents and that spirit is still central to the club’s success today.”

George Alger, Past President of the club and developer of the new site said, “This site is a true group endeavor. The website features speeches, articles, success stories, photos and videos that were published by their respective authors and presenters. Into the future it will become an increasingly larger repository of the creative diversity and talent which is the hallmark of the club members.”

Richard Stewart, club Co-Founder, past President, and renown wise guy said, “For over a decade we have wanted to make it easy to publish member videos to our website – and now we’ve made it so that anyone can do so! Next, I’m going to ask George about getting the new website to write my speeches.”

Although the official address of the new website is RenaissanceSpeakers.org, any person in the world will arrive to the same place if they use the old address with “.com” on the end. (Websites ending in “.org” traditionally represent non-profit organizations).

The Renaissance Speakers is part of Toastmasters International, which is a world leader in communication and leadership development. Since 1924, more than 4 million people around the world have become more confident speakers and leaders because of their participation in Toastmasters. Members improve their speaking and leadership skills by attending one of the 12,500-plus clubs that make up the global network of meeting locations.