Toastmasters International
Encyclopedia
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 thousands of 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. It 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. Throughout its history, Toastmasters has served over four million people, and today the organization serves over 260,000 members in 113 countries, through its over 12,800 member clubs.
Membership is open to all people ages 18 and above wishing to improve their communications skills.
Toastmasters International has a policy of non-discrimination (including based on ethnicity, nationality
, and gender
). Although Toastmasters 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. Toastmasters 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.
Toastmasters has grown from being an English-only organization to one that develops communication skills in several languages. There are now clubs in many languages, including Chinese (Cantonese and Mandarin), French, German, Japanese, Spanish, and Tamil, among others. The basic manual (the Competent Communication manual described below) can be purchased in Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), French, German, Japanese and Spanish as well as in English.
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 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 is intended to provide a positive experience for the speaker.
The oral evaluations are intended to also help the evaluator improve his or her ability to give constructive feedback to other Toastmasters. Learning to give feedback develops many skills, some of which include: effective listening; how to motivate, encourage and support other members; and how to develop and present a short evaluation with minimal preparation. 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.
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). 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.
is composed of volunteers, who still hold memberships in local clubs, 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 a year 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.
The Distinguished Toastmaster title is not necessarily the end of the journey for most Toastmasters. Many Toastmasters will reenter the program and repeat it at least once more. Every iteration through the program affords the individual additional experience in either the chosen direction or a totally new direction at their discretion.
There are three basic parts to the Toastmasters meeting: the prepared speeches, Table Topics, and evaluations. In the prepared speaking portion of the meeting, several 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 Topics Master 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 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 joke
s; 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(also called a Quizmaster) 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. Alternatively, some clubs that are very time-conscious do prepared speeches first, then evaluations, saving Table Topics for last.
Toastmasters International hosts an annual convention every August, in a different city each year. The international convention 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 convention 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." This award has been granted annually since 1959, and Toastmasters keeps a list of recipients on their website.
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.
Toastmasters also offers the Accredited Speaker program, for recognizing members of Toastmasters clubs who are professional speakers. The program requires applicants to have their AC Bronze (or older equivalent) award, as well as have performed at least twenty-five speaking engagements in the three years prior to applying.
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.
. Members may belong to one or more clubs, although most members belong only to a single club. Membership in a club can be open or closed. Open clubs are those where any person may apply to 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:
The outgoing President from the previous term, the Immediate Past President, also serves on the Club Committee, usually in an advisory role.
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 organize within themselves divisions (groups of three to seven areas) and areas (groups of four to seven clubs). Each area and division has a governor
, and usually also an Lieutenant Governor of Education and an Lieutenant Governor of Marketing who aid the governor in promoting the Toastmasters curriculum as well as membership in 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 VP Education of each club within the district. The additional district officers are:
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 (such as a district sergeant at arms), although they may be elected in some districts.
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, led by the executive director
. In addition to the 16 international directors (one from each region), the board of directors has the following officers:
In addition, all current district governors are considered to be members of the board of directors.
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 each of the four main club contests proceeds to the next level of competition—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 semi-finals and then international levels.
Contest speeches are timed, with the timings for the five official contests set out by Toastmasters International. Contestants whose speeches are under time or over time by more than thirty seconds are disqualified; however, in case of a technical problem with the timing equipment or lights, contestants are given an additional thirty seconds before being disqualified.
Each contest has its own rules regarding content and contestant evaluation. In the International Speech Contest, the contestant selects the subject and type of speech to give, and the speech 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 humor 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 leave the room, returning one at a time to evaluate the same speech. In the Table Topics Contest, contestants are led into the room one at a time and presented with a topic they have not previously been informed of and are judged on how well they respond; each contestant is given the same topic.
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 or chief judge, who ranks all candidates; this ranked list is used to break any ties in the contest.
Participants in the International Speech Contest are required to have completed a minimum of six speech projects toward their Competent Communicator award, and must create wholly original speeches for the final International level competition. Speakers who plagiarize or otherwise make significant use of quotes in a contest speech are to be disqualified.
A list of winners is available on the Toastmasters website.
during his tenure with the YMCA
. In 1904 as education director of the YMCA facility in Bloomington, Illinois
, he discovered there was a need for training in speech. As Smedley designed a club within the "Y" for speech training, he struggled for a name, until George Sutton, the general secretary, suggested calling it a Toastmasters club. The boys liked the name and the club was a success.
At each club meeting, there was a rotation of duties with members taking turns at presiding and speaking. Short speeches were evaluated by Ralph and the other older men, and the boys were invited to join in the evaluation to learn more. The club performed its intended purpose as leadership and speech improved in the other educational groups with which these young men were associated.
The club only lasted a year after Ralph Smedley moved to the YMCA at Rock Island, Illinois
as General Secretary in 1910. He organized a Toastmasters Club at the Rock Island "Y" which soon reached a membership of 75. When Ralph Smedley left the Rock Island "Y", the Toastmasters Club there also soon perished.
After he spent over two years with an architect working on YMCA architecture he accepted the post of YMCA Secretary at San Jose, California
in September 1919, and soon had a Toastmasters Club flourishing at his new YMCA. Again the club lasted only a short time after he moved to Santa Ana, California
in 1922.
YMCA
, Smedley organized a new Toastmasters club, which became Club No. 1 of Toastmasters International. The first meeting was held at the YMCA building on October 22, 1924. Until then, the Toastmasters club was an educational arm of the YMCA.
In the autumn of 1925, J. Clark Chamberlain of Anaheim, California
visited the Toastmasters Club. The following winter, Smedley and Chamberlain organized a second club in Anaheim. The Toastmasters Club idea spread to Los Angeles, Long Beach
, and other southern California
cities. Representatives of these clubs met and organized an association.
The new association needed a name, and because a club now existed in British Columbia, Canada, they chose to call it Toastmasters International. There were about 30 clubs when the association was formed in 1930, and in 1932 Toastmasters International was incorporated as a California Non-profit corporation. Smedley took on the positions of Secretary and Editor of the new association, while continuing his YMCA work.
He resigned as YMCA Secretary in 1941 to devote more time to Toastmasters International. Through the war years he operated the organization out of a small office. When the war ended, a new Secretary, Ted Blanding, replaced Smedley, who remained active as Educational Director for the rest of his life, as well as a permanent member of the Board of Directors
. In 1950, Smedley wrote "Beyond Basic Training". At the Toastmasters International convention at Atlanta, Georgia
, August 18–20, 1960, Ralph C. Smedley displayed a model of the then-new Toastmasters International Headquarters in Santa Ana, California
.
In 1975, Terrence McCann
, an Olympic wrestler, was chosen to serve as the Executive Director
of Toastmasters International, a position he held until retiring in 2001. He was replaced by Donna Groh (2001–2008), and then Dan Rex (2008 to present).
In 1990, Toastmasters International moved its headquarters to its current location in Rancho Santa Margarita, California
, after outgrowing its old location in Santa Ana
.
Non-profit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...
educational organization that operates clubs worldwide for the purpose of helping members improve their communication
Communication
Communication is the activity of conveying meaningful information. Communication requires a sender, a message, and an intended recipient, although the receiver need not be present or aware of the sender's intent to communicate at the time of communication; thus communication can occur across vast...
, public speaking
Public speaking
Public speaking is the process of speaking to a group of people in a structured, deliberate manner intended to inform, influence, or entertain the listeners...
and leadership
Leadership
Leadership has been described as the “process of social influence in which one person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task". Other in-depth definitions of leadership have also emerged.-Theories:...
skills. Through its thousands of 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. It was founded by Ralph C. Smedley
Ralph C. Smedley
Ralph C. Smedley was the founder of Toastmasters International, an international speaking organization with more than 235,000 members in 106 countries and more than individual 12,000 clubs.-Youth:...
on October 22, 1924, at the YMCA
YMCA
The Young Men's Christian Association is a worldwide organization of more than 45 million members from 125 national federations affiliated through the World Alliance of YMCAs...
in Santa Ana, California
Santa Ana, California
Santa Ana is the county seat and second most populous city in Orange County, California, and with a population of 324,528 at the 2010 census, Santa Ana is the 57th-most populous city in the United States....
, United States. Toastmasters International was incorporated under California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
law on December 19, 1932. Throughout its history, Toastmasters has served over four million people, and today the organization serves over 260,000 members in 113 countries, through its over 12,800 member clubs.
Membership
As of 2011, there are more than 270,000 members and over 13,000 clubs in 116 countries. Membership in the US grew by 3% in 2007 and continues to grow rapidly in many other nations. Toastmasters members belong to local clubs, which generally have between 10 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.
Toastmasters International has a policy of non-discrimination (including based on ethnicity, nationality
Nationality
Nationality is membership of a nation or sovereign state, usually determined by their citizenship, but sometimes by ethnicity or place of residence, or based on their sense of national identity....
, and gender
Gender
Gender is a range of characteristics used to distinguish between males and females, particularly in the cases of men and women and the masculine and feminine attributes assigned to them. Depending on the context, the discriminating characteristics vary from sex to social role to gender identity...
). Although Toastmasters 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. Toastmasters 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
A Toastmasters club adopts a "learn-by-doing" philosophy, wherein each member learns at a pace suitable to his or her 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.Toastmasters has grown from being an English-only organization to one that develops communication skills in several languages. There are now clubs in many languages, including Chinese (Cantonese and Mandarin), French, German, Japanese, Spanish, and Tamil, among others. The basic manual (the Competent Communication manual described below) can be purchased in Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), French, German, Japanese and Spanish as well as in English.
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 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 is intended to provide a positive experience for the speaker.
The oral evaluations are intended to also help the evaluator improve his or her ability to give constructive feedback to other Toastmasters. Learning to give feedback develops many skills, some of which include: effective listening; how to motivate, encourage and support other members; and how to develop and present a short evaluation with minimal preparation. 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.
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). 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 Toastmasters International is staffed completely by volunteers (except for a staff of about 90 paid personnel at the World Headquarters). Even the board of directorsBoard of directors
A board of directors is a body of elected or appointed members who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization. Other names include board of governors, board of managers, board of regents, board of trustees, and board of visitors...
is composed of volunteers, who still hold memberships in local clubs, 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 a year 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
Parliamentary procedure
Parliamentary procedure is the body of rules, ethics, and customs governing meetings and other operations of clubs, organizations, legislative bodies, and other deliberative assemblies...
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 its highest honor, Distinguished Toastmaster (DTM), to members who have achieved both the Advanced Communication Gold and Advanced Leader Silver awards. To achieve the DTM typically takes five to eight years of dedicated service and leadership in at the local club, area, and division levels. DTM candidates must also perform more than 40 public presentations both inside the club and out in the community (as part of earning the prerequisite Competent Communicator and Advanced Communicator awards). Fewer than 12,000 of Toastmaster's 4 million past and present members have achieved the elite DTM status. Some dedicated Toastmasters members have achieved multiple DTM designations. Members who have earned their DTM are usually honored and presented with a medal at a district conference following their achievement.The Distinguished Toastmaster title is not necessarily the end of the journey for most Toastmasters. Many Toastmasters will reenter the program and repeat it at least once more. Every iteration through the program affords the individual additional experience in either the chosen direction or a totally new direction at their discretion.
Club meetings and meeting roles
Every Toastmasters club meets on a regular basis, at least 12 times a year. Each club meets for one 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, several 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 Topics Master 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, or Master 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. In addition to the designated evaluator giving 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 joke
Joke
A joke is a phrase or a paragraph with a humorous twist. It can be in many different forms, such as a question or short story. To achieve this end, jokes may employ irony, sarcasm, word play and other devices...
s; 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(also called a Quizmaster) 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. Alternatively, 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 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.Toastmasters International hosts an annual convention every August, in a different city each year. The international convention conducts business
Annual general meeting
An annual general meeting is a meeting that official bodies, and associations involving the public , are often required by law to hold...
such as electing
Election
An election is a formal decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy operates since the 17th century. Elections may fill offices in the legislature, sometimes in the...
the international officers, hosts educational sessions for Toastmasters members, and also hosts the final rounds of Toastmasters' International Speech Contest. The international convention 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." This award has been granted annually since 1959, and Toastmasters keeps a list of recipients on their website.
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
Communication
Communication is the activity of conveying meaningful information. Communication requires a sender, a message, and an intended recipient, although the receiver need not be present or aware of the sender's intent to communicate at the time of communication; thus communication can occur across vast...
and Success/Leadership
Leadership
Leadership has been described as the “process of social influence in which one person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task". Other in-depth definitions of leadership have also emerged.-Theories:...
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.
Toastmasters also offers the Accredited Speaker program, for recognizing members of Toastmasters clubs who are professional speakers. The program requires applicants to have their AC Bronze (or older equivalent) award, as well as have performed at least twenty-five speaking engagements in the three years prior to applying.
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.
Clubs
The primary membership unit in Toastmasters is the clubClub
A club is an association of two or more people united by a common interest or goal. A service club, for example, exists for voluntary or charitable activities; there are clubs devoted to hobbies and sports, social activities clubs, political and religious clubs, and so forth.- History...
. Members may belong to one or more clubs, although most members belong only to a single club. Membership in a club can be open or closed. Open clubs are those where any person may apply to 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
Charter
A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified...
(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:
- PresidentPresidentA president is a leader of an organization, company, trade union, university, or country.Etymologically, a president is one who presides, who sits in leadership...
- Vice-President Education
- Vice-President Membership
- Vice-President Public Relations
- SecretarySecretaryA secretary, or administrative assistant, is a person whose work consists of supporting management, including executives, using a variety of project management, communication & organizational skills. These functions may be entirely carried out to assist one other employee or may be for the benefit...
- TreasurerTreasurerA treasurer is the person responsible for running the treasury of an organization. The adjective for a treasurer is normally "tresorial". The adjective "treasurial" normally means pertaining to a treasury, rather than the treasurer.-Government:...
- Sergeant at Arms
The outgoing President from the previous term, the Immediate Past President, also serves on the Club Committee, usually in an advisory role.
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 clubs outside of districts can be offered a similar level of support. There are a few clubs outside of any of these structures.Districts organize within themselves divisions (groups of three to seven areas) and areas (groups of four to seven clubs). Each area and division has a governor
Governor
A governor is a governing official, usually the executive of a non-sovereign level of government, ranking under the head of state...
, and usually also an Lieutenant Governor of Education and an Lieutenant Governor of Marketing who aid the governor in promoting the Toastmasters curriculum as well as membership in 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 VP Education of each club within the district. The additional district officers are:
- District Governor
- Lieutenant Governor Education & Training
- Lieutenant Governor Marketing
- Public RelationsPublic relationsPublic relations is the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual, etc., in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc....
Officer - District Secretary
- District Treasurer
- District Sergeant at Arms
- Division Governor
- Area Governor
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 (such as a district sergeant at arms), although they may be elected in some districts.
International
Above the district, the board of directorsBoard of directors
A board of directors is a body of elected or appointed members who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization. Other names include board of governors, board of managers, board of regents, board of trustees, and board of visitors...
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, led by the executive director
Executive director
Executive director is a term sometimes applied to the chief executive officer or managing director of an organization, company, or corporation. It is widely used in North American non-profit organizations, though in recent decades many U.S. nonprofits have adopted the title "President/CEO"...
. In addition to the 16 international directors (one from each region), the board of directors has the following officers:
- International President
- President-elect
- First Vice-President
- Second Vice-President
- Immediate Past International President
- Executive director (ex officio position)
In addition, all current district governors are considered to be members of the board of directors.
Contests
Each district runs an International Speech contest, plus up to three other contests out of a list of four (Humorous, Tall Tales, Table Topics, and Evaluation).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 each of the four main club contests proceeds to the next level of competition—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 semi-finals and then international levels.
Contest speeches are timed, with the timings for the five official contests set out by Toastmasters International. Contestants whose speeches are under time or over time by more than thirty seconds are disqualified; however, in case of a technical problem with the timing equipment or lights, contestants are given an additional thirty seconds before being disqualified.
Each contest has its own rules regarding content and contestant evaluation. In the International Speech Contest, the contestant selects the subject and type of speech to give, and the speech 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 humor 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 leave the room, returning one at a time to evaluate the same speech. In the Table Topics Contest, contestants are led into the room one at a time and presented with a topic they have not previously been informed of and are judged on how well they respond; each contestant is given the same topic.
Judges evaluate contestants with a rating system
Range voting
Range voting is a voting system for one-seat elections under which voters score each candidate, the scores are added up, and the candidate with the highest score wins.A form of range voting was apparently used in...
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
Borda count
The Borda count is a single-winner election method in which voters rank candidates in order of preference. The Borda count determines the winner of an election by giving each candidate a certain number of points corresponding to the position in which he or she is ranked by each voter. Once all...
is used to determine the winner from the rankings. Each contest has a special tie-breaking judge or chief judge, who ranks all candidates; this ranked list is used to break any ties in the contest.
International Speech Contest
The International Speech Contest is an annual Toastmasters contest that runs through all levels of the organization. Starting with club-level contests in the early months of the year, contestants proceed through higher levels until reaching the finals at the Toastmasters annual conference. Winners of this contest are awarded the title "World Champion of Public Speaking." Competitors from Toastmasters clubs from all over the world enter this contest; however, members of clubs outside of districts are ineligible to participate.Participants in the International Speech Contest are required to have completed a minimum of six speech projects toward their Competent Communicator award, and must create wholly original speeches for the final International level competition. Speakers who plagiarize or otherwise make significant use of quotes in a contest speech are to be disqualified.
A list of winners is available on the Toastmasters website.
The beginning of Toastmasters clubs
Toastmasters originally began as a series of short-lived speaking clubs organized by Ralph C. SmedleyRalph C. Smedley
Ralph C. Smedley was the founder of Toastmasters International, an international speaking organization with more than 235,000 members in 106 countries and more than individual 12,000 clubs.-Youth:...
during his tenure with the YMCA
YMCA
The Young Men's Christian Association is a worldwide organization of more than 45 million members from 125 national federations affiliated through the World Alliance of YMCAs...
. In 1904 as education director of the YMCA facility in Bloomington, Illinois
Bloomington, Illinois
Bloomington is a city in McLean County, Illinois, United States and the county seat. It is adjacent to Normal, Illinois, and is the more populous of the two principal municipalities of the Bloomington-Normal metropolitan area...
, he discovered there was a need for training in speech. As Smedley designed a club within the "Y" for speech training, he struggled for a name, until George Sutton, the general secretary, suggested calling it a Toastmasters club. The boys liked the name and the club was a success.
At each club meeting, there was a rotation of duties with members taking turns at presiding and speaking. Short speeches were evaluated by Ralph and the other older men, and the boys were invited to join in the evaluation to learn more. The club performed its intended purpose as leadership and speech improved in the other educational groups with which these young men were associated.
The club only lasted a year after Ralph Smedley moved to the YMCA at Rock Island, Illinois
Rock Island, Illinois
Rock Island is the county seat of Rock Island County, Illinois, United States. The population was 40,884 at the 2010 census. Located on the Mississippi River, it is one of the Quad Cities, along with neighboring Moline, East Moline, and the Iowa cities of Davenport and Bettendorf. The Quad Cities...
as General Secretary in 1910. He organized a Toastmasters Club at the Rock Island "Y" which soon reached a membership of 75. When Ralph Smedley left the Rock Island "Y", the Toastmasters Club there also soon perished.
After he spent over two years with an architect working on YMCA architecture he accepted the post of YMCA Secretary at San Jose, California
San Jose, California
San Jose is the third-largest city in California, the tenth-largest in the U.S., and the county seat of Santa Clara County which is located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay...
in September 1919, and soon had a Toastmasters Club flourishing at his new YMCA. Again the club lasted only a short time after he moved to Santa Ana, California
Santa Ana, California
Santa Ana is the county seat and second most populous city in Orange County, California, and with a population of 324,528 at the 2010 census, Santa Ana is the 57th-most populous city in the United States....
in 1922.
1924–1927: First permanent clubs formed
Shortly after moving to the Santa AnaSanta Ana, California
Santa Ana is the county seat and second most populous city in Orange County, California, and with a population of 324,528 at the 2010 census, Santa Ana is the 57th-most populous city in the United States....
YMCA
YMCA
The Young Men's Christian Association is a worldwide organization of more than 45 million members from 125 national federations affiliated through the World Alliance of YMCAs...
, Smedley organized a new Toastmasters club, which became Club No. 1 of Toastmasters International. The first meeting was held at the YMCA building on October 22, 1924. Until then, the Toastmasters club was an educational arm of the YMCA.
In the autumn of 1925, J. Clark Chamberlain of Anaheim, California
Anaheim, California
Anaheim is a city in Orange County, California. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city population was about 365,463, making it the most populated city in Orange County, the 10th most-populated city in California, and ranked 54th in the United States...
visited the Toastmasters Club. The following winter, Smedley and Chamberlain organized a second club in Anaheim. The Toastmasters Club idea spread to Los Angeles, Long Beach
Long Beach, California
Long Beach is a city situated in Los Angeles County in Southern California, on the Pacific coast of the United States. The city is the 36th-largest city in the nation and the seventh-largest in California. As of 2010, its population was 462,257...
, and other southern California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
cities. Representatives of these clubs met and organized an association.
Founding of Toastmasters International
In order to save the time consumed in replying to many letters and enquiries, Smedley prepared a "Manual of Instructions" and "Ten Lessons In Public Speaking", which he mimeographed and bound in paper covers. On October 25, 1928, he obtained copyrights on his publications and trademarked the name "Toastmasters Club".The new association needed a name, and because a club now existed in British Columbia, Canada, they chose to call it Toastmasters International. There were about 30 clubs when the association was formed in 1930, and in 1932 Toastmasters International was incorporated as a California Non-profit corporation. Smedley took on the positions of Secretary and Editor of the new association, while continuing his YMCA work.
He resigned as YMCA Secretary in 1941 to devote more time to Toastmasters International. Through the war years he operated the organization out of a small office. When the war ended, a new Secretary, Ted Blanding, replaced Smedley, who remained active as Educational Director for the rest of his life, as well as a permanent member of the Board of Directors
Board of directors
A board of directors is a body of elected or appointed members who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization. Other names include board of governors, board of managers, board of regents, board of trustees, and board of visitors...
. In 1950, Smedley wrote "Beyond Basic Training". At the Toastmasters International convention at Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
, August 18–20, 1960, Ralph C. Smedley displayed a model of the then-new Toastmasters International Headquarters in Santa Ana, California
Santa Ana, California
Santa Ana is the county seat and second most populous city in Orange County, California, and with a population of 324,528 at the 2010 census, Santa Ana is the 57th-most populous city in the United States....
.
Toastmasters after Smedley
Ralph Smedley died in 1965.In 1975, Terrence McCann
Terrence McCann
Terrence John McCann , commonly known as Terry McCann, was an American wrestler who won the Gold Medal in the bantamweight division of freestyle wrestling at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, and later helped found the United States Wrestling Federation...
, an Olympic wrestler, was chosen to serve as the Executive Director
Executive director
Executive director is a term sometimes applied to the chief executive officer or managing director of an organization, company, or corporation. It is widely used in North American non-profit organizations, though in recent decades many U.S. nonprofits have adopted the title "President/CEO"...
of Toastmasters International, a position he held until retiring in 2001. He was replaced by Donna Groh (2001–2008), and then Dan Rex (2008 to present).
In 1990, Toastmasters International moved its headquarters to its current location in Rancho Santa Margarita, California
Rancho Santa Margarita, California
Rancho Santa Margarita is a city in Orange County, California. One of Orange County's youngest cities, Rancho Santa Margarita is a master planned community set upon rolling hills. Most neighborhoods in Rancho Santa Margarita are within various homeowners associations...
, after outgrowing its old location in Santa Ana
Santa Ana, California
Santa Ana is the county seat and second most populous city in Orange County, California, and with a population of 324,528 at the 2010 census, Santa Ana is the 57th-most populous city in the United States....
.
See also
- Association of Speakers ClubsAssociation of Speakers ClubsThe Association of Speakers Clubs is a British confederation of about 150 clubs around the country that promote the skill of public speaking.-History:The ASC was formed by de-merger from Toastmasters International in 1973...
- Communication skills trainingCommunication skills trainingVarious types and forms of the Group Communication Skills Training are used all over the world for those who are trying to improve their communication skills. Thousands of books and articles devoted to these topics are published every year...
- POWERtalk InternationalPOWERtalk InternationalPOWERtalk International is the operating name used by International Training in Communication , a non-profit organization of public-speaking clubs....
External links
- Toastmasters International official website, including a searchable list of all clubs and districts.
- Toastmasters official Twitter account
- Toastmasters on Xing
- Toastmasters Wiki
- Toastmasters history at a glance