Q & A with Jim Robison

By peter korn

The Portland Tribune, Jun 29, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (2 Reader comments)

Sarah Toor / Portland tribune

Jim Robison (middle), president of two local Toastmasters clubs, chats with other Toastmaster talents John Sweeney (left) and P. Shane Jackson as they work toward confidence at the lectern — no ifs, ands, buts, uhs or ums about it.

Every Friday, the Portland Tribune puts questions to a prominent — or not so prominent — local person.

For 17 years Jim Robison has been practicing getting to the point. He’s become pretty good at it.

Don’t expect any long-winded explanations from the 43-year-old Robison — though at a recent meeting he did speak spontaneously for a minute and a half straight on why all life on Earth has arrived from another planet.

Robison, 43, is president of Portland Toastmasters Club 31 and president of Portland Progressives Toastmasters. They are two of what he says are more than 100 Toastmasters clubs in the Portland area.

By day a district administrator for the West Multnomah County Soil and Water Conservation District, in the evenings he and fellow Toastmasters learn to perfect their public speaking and overcome stage fright.

Portland Tribune: You get some nervous people at your meetings?

Jim Robison: There was one person who gave a speech where she talked about how when she first got up to speak at a Toastmasters Club she literally fainted from fear.

One of the things we do is have a grammarian who counts your grammatical errors and your uhs and ums as you’re speaking. One member, I would tell him I would count his as the number of uhs per second.

Tribune: Why do people use ums?

Robison: It’s because they’re forming the thought as they’re speaking. They’re trying to pause to think about what they’re going to say next, but physically they don’t want to leave a blank so they make a noise.

Tribune: It’s not that … bad … to leave … a bit of silence. Is it?

Robison: And that’s something we teach people. It’s better to just pause rather than put in a filler.

Tribune: When you started in Toastmasters 17 years ago, what was your speech like?

Robison: I probably had a tough time getting to the point.

Tribune: Well, that was pretty direct. So, no problem anymore?

Robison: Right.

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