Toastmasters International

Toastmasters International

File:TI Logo.jpg Toastmasters International official logo
Abbreviation	TI, TM
Formation	1924 October 22; incorporated 1932 December 19
Type	INGO
Legal status	Non-profit organization
Purpose	Educational
Headquarters	Rancho Santa Margarita, California, USA
Region served	Worldwide
Membership	over 226,000 members; over 11,500 clubs
International President	BGen Chris Ford, CF (Ret.), DTM
Main organ	Board of Directors
Staff	60
Website	http://www.toastmasters.org/

Toastmasters International (TI) is a nonprofit educational organization that operates clubs worldwide for the purpose of helping members improve their communication, public speaking and leadership skills. Through its member clubs, Toastmasters International offers a program of communication and leadership projects designed to help men and women learn the arts of speaking, listening, and thinking.

The organization grew out of a single club. Smedley Club Number 1, which would become the first Toastmasters club, was founded by Ralph C. Smedley on October 22 1924, at the YMCA in Santa Ana, California, United States. Toastmasters International was incorporated under California law on December 19 1932.

Membership

In 2008, there are more than 226,000 members and over 11,500 clubs located across the United States, Canada and in 90 other countries. Membership in the US has grown by 3% in 2007 while it continues to grow rapidly in many foreign nations. Toastmasters members belong to local clubs, which generally have between six and 40 members, with 20 members being a typical size. The local clubs meet on a regular basis for members to practice various skills useful in public speaking, including giving speeches, speaking extemporaneously, listening, and providing each other with feedback and evaluation. Some clubs meet monthly, some meet twice a month, and some meet weekly.

Membership is open to all people ages 18 and above wishing to improve their communications skills. In certain rare cases, where previous links to TI can be found, people under 18 are allowed to participate, even though they are not allowed to join officially until their 18th birthday. Any speeches toward an official award completed before their 18th birthday are accepted retroactively.

TI has a policy of non-discrimination (including based on ethnicity, nationality, and gender). Although TI was initially formed as a male-only organization, membership was opened to women in August 1973. Certain clubs (referred to as "closed clubs" or "in-house clubs") organized within businesses restrict membership to people in the organization; this is the only restriction on membership permitted by the international organization. From time to time, advanced clubs form and it is preferable that one has completed a certain number of speeches (e.g. 10) before joining these clubs.

Gavel Clubs (Toastmasters-sponsored groups for teenagers or other groups who may be ineligible for membership in Toastmasters International) may be set up upon request at schools and institutions to provide them with the Toastmasters experience. Other than the mix of membership and that no official Toastmasters titles such as CC, CL, AC, etc., will be awarded, the benefit received from a Gavel Club is essentially the same as that of a Toastmasters Club. TI also has a Youth Leadership program, which is an eight-session program that introduces school-aged children to the art of public speaking. These Youth Leadership programs are conducted by members of Toastmaster Clubs in the local area. They allow active members who put in effort to gain confidence and expertise in the art of public speaking.

Educational program

Toastmasters International curriculum, tracks, and awards. Arrows are used to demonstrate awards required.

A Toastmasters club adopts a "learn-by-doing" philosophy, wherein each member learns at a pace suitable to their developmental needs. The Toastmasters program is divided into two separate tracks, Communication and Leadership, with members progressing along each track by presenting speeches and taking on roles within their club, district, and Toastmasters International itself.

Communication training

The heart of the Toastmasters curriculum is the communication track, defined by the Competent Communication manual (formerly called Communication and Leadership Program) and a series of fifteen advanced manuals. The Competent Communication manual consists of ten speech projects, each building upon the other in skills and difficulty. The advanced manuals have five projects each, and each manual focuses on a particular aspect of communication (such as technical presentations, storytelling, or interpersonal communication).

For each project, the member prepares and delivers a speech in front of the club. Speakers are expected to keep their presentations within prescribed time limits. For most Competent Communication speeches, the limit is five to seven minutes. Advanced communication projects are generally between ten to fifteen minutes, although some can be as long as half an hour. After the member has given the presentation, another Toastmaster will evaluate the presenter based on certain criteria for each project. The distinctive feature of Toastmasters is this continual evaluation. Each activity at a club is evaluated: speeches are evaluated both orally at the meeting and in the member's manual. In some clubs, even the evaluators are themselves evaluated at the end of the meeting by a "General Evaluator", also a club member. This near-immediate feedback provides the member with information on how he or she can improve his or her presentation skills for the next speech, and intended to provide a positive experience for the speaker.

The oral evaluations are intended to also help the evaluator improve his or her communication and leadership skills. The benefits of learning how to give feedback within Toastmasters are many. Through feedback, a person develops many skills, some of which include: effective listening, how to motivate, encourage and support other members, develop and present a short evaluation without preparation and of course their own communication skills. Language is an important element of effective evaluation and so too is the structure. The structure of a Toastmaster Evaluation might be referred to as the "feedback sandwich," the "PIP" (praise, improve praise) method, or the "CRC" (commend, recommend, commend) method.

After completing the ten Competent Communication projects, a member is entitled to the Competent Communicator award, and may add the post-nominal CC to their name for Toastmasters purposes. Prior to July 2008, Toastmasters awarded the designation Competent Toastmaster (post-nominal CTM) for this achievement to members who joined Toastmasters prior to 2006 January 1.

After achieving their CC, the Toastmaster then can go on to more advanced projects. There are 15 advanced manuals in the Toastmasters program, each consisting of five projects. These include projects on sales presentations, speaking to inform, speeches by management, interpretative reading, speaking on television, entertaining dinner speaking, communicating with news media, interpersonal communication, and others. The Advanced Communicator awards are given to members who complete two manuals per level, as well as performing various other duties. There are three levels of Advanced Communicator, being Bronze, Silver and Gold, with the respective post-nominals ACB, ACS and ACG. Prior to July 2008, Toastmasters awarded the identical Advanced Toastmaster Bronze, Silver, and Gold awards (with post-nominals ATM-B, ATM-S, and ATM-G) to members who joined Toastmasters prior to 2006 January 1. These in turn were originally expanded from the Able Toastmaster award (post-nominal ATM).

In addition to the various project manuals, Toastmasters provides a number of educational programs and seminar packages which members can present. The Better Speaker Series is a collection of educational modules that teach certain aspects of creating and giving presentations. There is also the Success/Communication seminar programs, such as the Speechcraft program, which members can present inside or outside of the club over a number of meetings.

Leadership training

Toastmasters also teaches leadership skills. This is motivated in part by the fact that TI is staffed completely by volunteers (except for a staff of about 60 paid personnel at the World Headquarters). Even the board of directors is composed of volunteers who still hold membership in a local club, and are not paid.

When a person joins a Toastmasters club, they are given a copy of the Competent Leadership manual, which contains ten projects which can be completed by serving in various meeting roles, as well as participating in and/or organizing club contests, membership campaigns, and PR campaigns in their club. This manual can be completed in as little as five to six months, although most members will take more time to complete its projects. Upon completion, a member can obtain his or her Competent Leader award (post-nominal CL).

After completing the Competent Leadership manual, members can go on toward the Advanced Leader awards, which are given in two levels, Bronze and Silver (with post-nominal ALB and ALS, respectively). The Bronze level requirements include serving a minimum of six months as a club officer, participating in the creation of a club success plan while in office, and attending officer training. As well, ALB candidates must have attained their Competent Communicator award, and conducted two educational programs from Toastmasters' The Successful Club Series and/or The Leadership Excellence Series. For AL Silver, the additional requirements of serving as a district officer, completing a High Performance Leadership program, and being a club sponsor, mentor, or coach are needed to attain that designation.

Toastmasters has developed a series of procedures and materials for training its members and officers in basic leadership skills. Many districts hold training sessions for officers, known as Toastmasters Leadership Institute (originally called Toastmasters University), twice a year for club officers and for any other members who wish to attend. Divisions within districts are also encouraged to run smaller training sessions for club officers, especially in larger districts where it may be difficult for all club officers to attend a TLI session. Toastmasters conferences, also twice a year in each district, provide other opportunities to learn or present on leadership skills.

Club meetings also give members the opportunity to learn parliamentary procedure and meeting etiquette that can be important in business and political settings. While some aspects of parliamentary procedure and etiquette are present throughout the meeting, the business portion of a club meeting allows for more in-depth experience. In addition, Toastmasters provides as part of the Success/Leadership seminar series a five-part program on parliamentary procedure.

Toastmasters provides a number of educational modules outside of the regular project-based curriculum that teach members on leadership skills. These include The Leadership Excellence Series which deals with individual leadership skills, and The Successful Club Series which are targeted at the club as a group. The Success/Leadership programs also exist, as a leadership counterpart to Success/Communication. Like Success/Communication, these programs can be presented inside or out of the club, to non-members.

Distinguished Toastmaster

Toastmasters awards a special title, Distinguished Toastmaster (DTM), to members who have achieved both the Advanced Communication Gold and Advanced Leader Silver awards. This is Toastmasters' highest award. Some dedicated Toastmasters members have achieved multiple DTM designations. Members who have earned their DTM are usually honoured and presented with a medal at a district or regional conference following their achievement.

Club meetings and meeting roles

Every Toastmasters club meets on a regular basis, at least 12 times a year. Each club meets for an hour, sometimes up to two hours, depending on the club. Each meeting has a structured format, with various members participating in the different roles in the meetings. The meeting is run by a Toastmaster of the Day (TMOD or TME for Toastmaster of the Evening).

There are three basic parts to the Toastmasters meeting: the prepared speeches, table topics, and evaluations. In the prepared speaking portion of the meeting, two, three, or sometimes four Toastmasters will give a prepared presentation or speech before the group. Speeches are usually designed to meet the requirements of one of the projects in the communication manuals. "Table topics" is an extemporaneous speaking exercise where the speaker speaks "off the cuff"; that is, the speaker responds to a question or topic that is not known beforehand. The Table Topicsmaster presents the topic, calls on an individual, and then that individual has 1 to 2 minutes to respond.

The evaluation session is where feedback is provided to all members, including the speakers. The evaluation session is headed by a General Evaluator, who calls on individual speech evaluators to give a 2- to 3-minute evaluation of an earlier presentation. After the evaluators have finished giving their evaluations, the General Evaluator calls for the helper reports:

• There is a Grammarian who notes mispronunciations and mistakes in grammar, or word repetition (e.g. "I did ... I did"), sometimes called "double clutching." In some clubs, the Grammarian will also point out positive uses of language, including nice turns of phrase, clever formulations, and especially poetic or otherwise exceptional uses of language.
• An Ah-Counter keeps track of audible pauses such as "ah," "er," "um," "well," and "you know". These are also called 'embolalia', which are naturally-occurring pauses or fillers in the flow of a speech. In some clubs, the role of the Grammarian and the Ah-Counter will be combined.
• The meeting's Timer reports how much time each speaker, table topics responder, and evaluator took to give his or her presentation. Then the General Evaluator gives his or her overall evaluation of the meeting and makes recommendations of ways to improve future meetings. Some clubs have Table Topics Evaluators who evaluate members' responses to the table topics; for those that do not, the General Evaluator frequently fills that role. In addition, some advanced clubs have a 'round robin' evaluation for the speakers. After the evaluator gives an evaluation recorded in the member's manual, the other members around the room are asked for additional comments on the presentation.

There are sometimes other roles in the program, depending on the club. For example, there may be an Invocator who gives an invocation or inspirational opener; a Humor Master, Jokemaster, or Raconteur who tells a funny story or jokes; a Wordmaster or Lexicologist who presents a "word of the day" to help the members increase their vocabulary (with the intention that members use the word of the day in their presentations); a Listener who asks questions after the presentations to make sure everyone was listening; and/or an Award Presenter, who presents awards at the end of the meeting. Some clubs also have an Educational Presentation in which a speaker presents an educational aspect of Toastmasters. In many clubs, members vote for the Best Speaker, Best Table Topics Speaker, and Best Evaluator of the meeting. This "Best [whatever]" usually gets a ribbon to keep or a traveling trophy to take with him or her until the next meeting, when he or she will have to present it to the next winner. There may also be a Vote Counter, who collects the attendants' votes for Table Topic Speaker, (Rehearsed) Speaker, Evaluator, and Program Manager. The Vote Counter may also collect written evaluations to be given to the persons who gave rehearsed speeches. German Clubs have introduced the Pub Master which is responsible to reserve a table and lead the way to a restaurant or pub for an informal meeting after the toastmaster session.

The order of the program varies from club to club and country to country. Many noon-time clubs and other clubs that are constrained by time do their prepared speeches first, followed by Table Topics, followed by evaluations. This is the standard program for clubs in South Africa. Dinner clubs in the United States tend to do Table Topics first, and then everyone sits back and relaxes for the after-dinner prepared speeches. Alternately, some clubs that are very time-conscious do prepared speeches first, then evaluations, saving Table Topics for last.

Conferences and officer training

In addition to club meetings, Toastmasters offers training opportunities through events organized at the district, regional, and international levels. Districts are responsible for hosting a minimum of four events each year: club officer training in June-August and December-February, and two district conferences in the spring and fall. As well, each region hosts an annual conference, primarily for the purpose of training senior district officers. Regional conferences are often held in June. At the Regional Conferences, awards are frequently given to clubs and the Distinguished Toastmaster medals are given to the recipients amidst great fanfare.

Toastmasters International itself hosts an annual conference every August, in a different city each year. The international conference conducts business such as electing the international officers, hosts educational sessions for Toastmasters members, and also hosts the final rounds of Toastmasters' International Speech Contest. The international conference is also when Toastmasters presents its Golden Gavel award to a person "who has demonstrated outstanding ability exemplifying the principles of Toastmasters International, particularly in the field of communication and leadership."

Additional programs

Beyond clubs and conferences, Toastmasters offers a number of programs available to non-members. These programs are run by Toastmasters members, often but not always for credit toward Toastmasters curriculum awards. Toastmasters International also encourages its member clubs and districts to run speakers bureaus.

Primarily, the Success/Communication and Success/Leadership module series are promoted by Toastmasters for presenting to people outside of Toastmasters. Each series is a collection of six modules designed to be presented as seminars, facilitated by an active club member. Toastmasters encourages the presentation of these modules within the club to improve member abilities, and out of the club to promote Toastmasters. In particular, Toastmasters promotes its Speechcraft module as its "#1 membership-building tool" for clubs, as the module provides participants with experience writing and presenting speeches with the aid of the coordinator and other participants.

Lastly, the Youth Leadership Program offers some of the benefits of Toastmasters to teens, primarily by providing training in leadership roles with some opportunities for public speaking.

Organization

Clubs

The primary membership unit in Toastmasters is the club. Members may belong to one or more clubs, although the majority of members only belong to a single club. Membership in a club can be open or closed. Open clubs are those where any person may join, whereas closed clubs limit membership, generally to people working in the same organization, office tower, etc. Some clubs are advanced, where membership is usually only granted to current or past Toastmasters members who have earned their Competent Communicator or Competent Toastmaster award.

The minimum requirements for a club are to have six or more members, and a minimum of three officers (the club president, a vice-president, and secretary). For a club to be granted a charter (and therefore be recognized as a Toastmasters club) a minimum membership of twenty is required; this is usually referred to as "charter strength" when discussing membership. The average club has approximately twenty members, and six of the seven officer positions filled. Club officers are, in order of precedence:

• President.
• Vice-President of Education.
• Vice-President of Membership.
• Vice-President of Public Relations.
• Secretary.
• Treasurer.
• Sergeant at Arms.

Depending on club bylaws, officers are elected either annually or semi-annually, with elections taking place every May (and in semi-annual clubs, also in November). Officer terms begin July 1 and in semi-annual clubs, January 1. Members can serve multiple terms in each office; the only restriction on this is that club presidents may not serve more than 12 consecutive months.

Districts

Above the club level are Toastmasters districts. The primary purpose of a district is to support the clubs within the district, usually by providing training opportunities for members and promoting Toastmasters to larger organizations outside the reach of individual clubs. Districts are geographically bound, and are usually divided when the number of clubs within grow past a certain number. Not all clubs are assigned to districts, but provisional districts and territorial councils exist so that undistricted clubs can be offered a similar level of support.

Districts organize within themselves areas (groups of four to seven clubs), and larger districts organize their constituent areas into divisions. Each area and division has a governor, and usually also an education ambassador and marketing ambassador who aid the governor in promoting the Toastmasters curriculum as well as membership both within and outside of clubs under their purview.

The governing of the district is by a district council, composed of various district officers, including the area and division governors, and the president and senior vice-president (usually the VP of education) of each club within the district. The additional district officers are:

• District Governor.
• Lt. Governor of Education & Training.
• Lt. Governor of Marketing.
• Public relations officer.
• District secretary.
• District treasurer.

Only the three most senior district officers, as well as division governors, are elected. Other officer positions within a district may appointed by the District Governor, although they may be elected if desired.

International

Above the district, the board of directors manages the overall activities of the organization. The board of directors is composed of several officers, as well as international directors elected from various regions (collections of geographically close districts). The board is assisted in day to day activities by the world headquarters staff, lead by the executive director. In addition to the eighteen international directors (two from each region and two for districts outside of regions), the board of directors has the following officers:

• International President.
• Senior Vice-President.
• Second Vice-President.
• Third Vice-President.
• Immediate Past International President. (Ex officio position held by the previous International President.)
• Secretary-treasurer.
• Executive director.

International directors are ranked between the Immediate Past International President and secretary-treasurer. In addition, all current district governors are considered to be members of the board of directors.

Contests

Toastmasters clubs have two main contests per year. The International Speech and Evaluation contests take place in clubs and districts in the first half of the year, and the Humorous Speech and Table Topics contest in the second. Individual clubs may run their own additional contests such as the "Tall Tales" or "Rookies" contests.

Competitions allow members to practice their communication skills under demanding conditions, view the efforts of skilled members of other clubs, and provide entertainment during business meetings or dinner functions. The winner of the four main club contest proceeds to the next level of competition being an Area Contest; the winner of the Area Contest goes on to the Division Contest; the winner of the Division Contest goes on to the District Contest. Most contests stop at the District level; the one exception is the International Speech Contest, which continues to the Regional and then International levels.

The "International Speech Contest," (sometimes erroneously called the "Serious Speech Contest" or the "Motivational Speech Contest" to distinguish it from the "Humorous Speech Contest") selects a single winner for the entire worldwide membership of Toastmasters. Winners of this contest are crowned the "World Champion of Public Speaking" at the annual International Conference. Competitors from Toastmasters clubs from all over the world enter this contest.

In the International Speech Contest, the contestant selects the subject and type of speech to give, and is judged on the overall presentation using a point system for various categories of skills. In a Humorous Speech Contest the speeches are judged using a different set of categories, which include how well humour was used. In a Tall Tales Contest, judging is based on speaking skills and use of exaggeration for humorous effect. In an Evaluation Contest, a model speaker (sometimes called a test speaker or a target speaker) gives a speech, and then all of the contestants evaluate the same speech. In the Table Topics Contest, each contestant is led into the room one at a time and presented with a question they have not previously been informed of and are judged on how well they respond; each contestant is given the same question.

Contest speeches are timed; any contestant who goes under-time or over-time by more than thirty seconds is disqualified. The time limits for the Humorous and International Speech contests are between 5 to 7 minutes; for Table Topics, the time limit is 1 to 2 minutes; for evaluation contests, the time limit is 2 to 3 minutes. In case of a technical problem with the timing equipment or lights, contestants are given an additional thirty seconds before being disqualified.

Judges evaluate contestants with a rating system on a wide range of criteria based on the speech type. These rating scores are summed into a single score. The score is used to define a ranking of the top-three candidates. A Borda count is used to determine the winner from the rankings. Each contest has a special tie-breaking judge, who ranks all candidates; this ranked list is used to break any ties in the contest.

External links

• Toastmasters International official website where a searchable list of all clubs and districts world-wide is available.
• Toastmasters on Xing
• Toastmasters Wikia
• TI history at a glance
• Association of Speakers Club (British based)