Inadequate communication competence among some participants in communication might perform as an obstacle in delivering and receiving messages. This physiological problem was the reason underlying the establishment of public speaking community in Trunojoyo University of Madura. The community educates and enhances members’ interests and talents related to their communication competence. This study aims to gain an understanding of the methods used by the public speaking community in initiating members' communication competences. This research approaches phenomena in the perspective of a constructivist paradigm. The research method uses qualitative descriptive approach. Primary data collection is done by interviewing management and community members. Secondary data is obtained by using intertextuality from the literatures. Triangulation methods are carried out by observing community activities. The results showed that phatic communication was used in the public speaking community to persuade the affective dimensions of developing communication competencies among members. It is in addition to the context of delivering educational and intellectual material as well as for developing emotional closeness between members in the community. The discussion used perspective of the theory of interpersonal communication, phatic communication, and communication competence. This research could be the initial literature in the study of communication competencies and phatic communication. Further research can examine the dimensions of communication competence in contributing to the effectiveness of communication in the positivistic paradigm