As the Topicmaster at this meeting of the Macintalkers Toastmasters Club, he holds the fate of a few in his hands. With a quick question and the random drawing of a number, Dama gives one of his fellow members mere seconds to formulate an appropriate answer, and one that has to last one to two minutes. It's part of Table Topics, just one of the many exercises held by Toastmasters Clubs internationally to improve public-speaking skills.

But a few brows are furrowed when Dama speaks. In line with this meeting's theme of gambling, he asks whether casinos should be legalized in California. Dama, who arrived in the United States from India three years ago, pronounces the word as "CA-sino." At the end of the meeting, General Evaluator Daniel Carr takes the floor and points out the proper pronunciation: "ca-SEEN-o."

"But it's OK," he says as a quick reassurance to Dama. "I'm sure I do the same thing to other languages."

Learning to speak better English is the goal of all who attend the Macintalkers meetings, held every Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. on the Apple Computer campus in Cupertino. But because of this meeting's location, in Silicon Valley where many people are recent immigrants, many of those trying to speak better English are still learning the language. Many high-tech workers who come to the Silicon Valley for jobs are finding guidance for a culture they do not know through their local Toastmasters club and discovering better training for their jobs in the process.

"I found myself lost in talking to people on topics outside of work," Dama says. He works for software company SAP, in Palo Alto, and came to his first Macintalkers meeting about a year ago on the recommendation of one of his colleagues. Dama has since found the communication practice and networking opportunities priceless. "I'd recommend it to every working professional," he says.

Table Topics is just one exercise intended to stretch a member's verbal communication skills—the reduced reaction time requires quick, extemporaneous thinking. But the one cardinal rule at Toastmasters is to always respect the rules. Every meeting is formally planned out with an agenda; fines are imposed by the Wizard of Ahs for each use of a "verbal pause" such as "um" and "you know"; and most importantly, each speech has a time limit. Even the Table Topic speakers are flagged when they go over their two-minute limit.

Chris Haase, the Toastmaster for this meeting and an account executive at Apple, says he didn't realize how inefficient many of his professional meetings were until he attended his first Toastmasters meeting. "I went back the next week and said, 'OK, guys. Five, 10 minutes. That's all you're getting,'" he says. His co-worker, Tilla Torrens, recently began attending Toastmasters meetings after getting tapped by her supervisor to brief Apple executives.

Improved professional efficiency may be one byproduct of Toastmasters, though it wasn't necessarily the original aim. The first-ever Toastmasters Club was established in 1924, when a group of men assembled by Ralph Smedley began meeting in the basement of a YMCA in Santa Ana, Calif.

The group's motive was "to afford practice and training in the art of public speaking and in presiding over meetings, and to promote sociability and good fellowship among its members," says the organization's website.

Six years later, so many people in so many communities around the country started their own clubs that a national Toastmasters federation was needed. The federation coordinated all the clubs' different activities and standardized a program of activities. It wasn't long before groups started sprouting in other countries, which led to the formation of Toastmasters International. According to the Toastmasters website, more than three million men and women in 80 countries have benefited from the organization's communication and leadership programs over the years.

These groups have international conferences where members from all over the world get together, talk about the direction of the organization and participate in speech contests. But those who join don't necessarily have speech contests in mind. They can be anywhere from professional speakers looking to maintain their speaking skills through constant practice to mere beginners who are simply looking to improve their verbal communication skills.

There are several Toastmasters groups in Cupertino, though it may be hard to find one more diverse than Macintalkers.

"This particular club is one of the better clubs in the area," Haase says. "When I first walked in, the diversity initially threw me, but I think we utilize it and engage with each other on a different level."

Macintalkers members come from a number of different countries and even continents. Club President Yasmina Chitti is French, Sergeant-At-Arms Stephane Odul and wife Caroline are from France, and this week's Wordmaster is William Cheng from Asia. He chose "speculate" as the word of the day and announces that a five-cent fine will be imposed on anyone who fails to use it in his or her speeches during the meeting.

Many members speak accented English with a sense of hesitation, but despite their various countries of origin, the level of mutual support in the room is palpable. When Craig Hansen-Sturm approaches the podium to deliver his speech on "How to Plan a Trip," his comrades enthusiastically applaud—and laugh at Hansen-Sturm's self-deprecating yet well-researched tale of how he and his wife planned a trip to the Basque region of Spain.

"You could always go to a travel agent or a resort owner, but why do you want to gamble? Why do you want to speculate?" he asks, steering his speech back to the themes of the meeting. Hansen-Sturm details a complex methodology for researching a possible destination, referencing online resources that this audience easily understands. But he gets his biggest laughs when he speaks at length about the process of negotiating with his travel partner.

"It's best to come up with a non-negotiable hit list—those of you who are married appreciate where I'm coming from," Hansen-Sturm says. "My wife put the [Salvador] Dalí museum on her list, which is on the opposite side of the country. But we have to do it—she's my wife."

His speech is riddled with a few nervous tics—reviewing his notes, rubbing his hands together, letting the occasional "uh" go by—but his finale garners a fair amount of adulation.

"There was so much information that I would have liked a handout," Chitti says as one of the two speech evaluators. Even the evaluations are timed—two to three minutes is the ideal. "But with each speech you give, you step up one more step," she added.

At the beginning of the meeting, Haase distributed slips of paper for each member to "place a bet" on the length of Hansen-Sturm's speech. "Are you feeling lucky? I'm not," Carr says. "I timed our first speaker and I wasn't even close." The speech clocked in at a whopping 20 minutes and 45 seconds—well beyond the five- to seven-minute window. The most generous guess was at eight minutes.

"It was a long speech," Haase says, but he adds that the other main speaker for the evening—an Apple employee—was held up by a last-minute project, an affliction that occasionally plagues the group.

But breaking the rules can be OK; Toastmasters serves as an incubator of sorts for public speakers, with continuous improvement encouraged in a friendly environment. Torrens, for instance, had just joined Macintalkers the previous week, but serves as grammarian for this meeting in preparation for her upcoming "icebreaker" speech, which all new members must deliver.

Everyone applauds for all speakers, no matter how short their comments, and each meeting kicks off with a joke to ease any jangled nerves. The results have greatly helped Haase, who began attending Macintalkers meetings a year ago before getting his job with Apple. It wasn't just the networking possibilities that enticed him.

"I have a habit of talking a bit too fast," he says. But as the Toastmaster, he opens the meeting with an anecdote about a recent trip to Las Vegas—and the gambling that ensued—with definite confidence. "There's a different caliber with this club," he says.

Macintalkers was founded in May of 1989 and, like many Toastmasters clubs, is tied to a corporate base. While some corporate clubs are closed to the general public, members do not have to work for Apple to join Macintalkers. But Haase says he thinks for all the benefits that Toastmasters members get through active participation—development of leadership and public-speaking skills—more companies should host meetings. "Our membership fees are $28 for six months," he says. "Compare that with the price of private coaching."

And it's a fair bet that a private coach will never let you call them the Wizard of Ahs.

Macintalkers meetings take place every Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. in the De Anza 3 building on the Apple campus, at 10300 N. De Anza Blvd. For more information, visit www.macintalkers.com or email vppr@macintalkers.com.

Martin Nobida contributed to this story.