Ginny Ferson’s knees were knocking.

A busy ambassador had asked her to fill in for him at a meeting and it was only once she got there she discovered she had to make a speech.

It was 1994 and she was second secretary at the Luxembourg British Embassy.

“I frantically scribbled something on the back of a cocktail napkin,” said Mrs Ferson, now Bermuda’s Deputy Governor. “Then my introducer stood up and stole my opening joke.”

The speech went from bad to worse. She left the podium vowing to fix her public speaking skills.

“Later, I saw an advertisement in the paper for Toastmasters Club,” she said. “The ad said, ‘Do you have a fear of public speaking?’. I was like, ‘Yes!’.”

Toastmasters helps its members to improve their public speaking skills in a fun, friendly atmosphere. The club has a training regime and a textbook, and requires people to make a variety of speeches on a regular basis.

“Those first couple of meetings I definitely wanted to run out the door,” said Mrs Ferson, 49. She stuck with it though, and eventually became a committee member.

She helped to form a second club in Luxembourg when the first became too big, and did the same at her next post in Mauritius. “You can see a pattern here,” said her husband, Mel Ferson, another Toastmasters member.

They are trying to form a second Toastmasters Club in Bermuda after a year on the Island.

“The existing club here has grown too big and members don’t always have a chance to speak at every meeting,” Mrs Ferson said. “We are forming a second one with the complete support of the first. Our meetings will not be on competing nights.”

She blames her upbringing for her fear of public speaking. She grew up in Ashby-de-la-Zouche, a tiny market town in Leicestershire, England. Her father ran a gas station and her mother helped.

“They were humble people,” she said. “They did not like people who chattered away. They taught me to not say anything unless I had something that was worthwhile saying.

“They were very supportive, but I think that contributed to my fear.”

She went into the Foreign Service because she loved people.

“Like a lot of people I am very confident one-on-one,” she said. “It was just when I was in the spotlight in front of a group.

“You could go through a Foreign Service career avoiding public speaking, but I didn’t want to be second best.”

Mrs Ferson said she still was not the best speechmaker in the world but “I’m a lot more confident about it”.

It has likely helped her to achieve a couple of ‘firsts’ in her Foreign Service career.

She was the first female British Vice Consul sent to South Korea and Bermuda’s first female Deputy Governor.

“The people of Bermuda have welcomed me with open arms,” she said.

“But sometimes when people are told, ‘Here is the Deputy Governor’, they shake hands with my husband. We just laugh.”

The Fersons are hosting a demonstration Toastmasters meeting tonight at Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute from 6pm to 7.30pm.

The meeting is free but if you choose to join there is a $140 membership fee.

For more information, e-mail director@buei.org or call 294-0221.