Toastmasters

Members of TI belong to local clubs of approximately 20 members. They meet to practice various skills useful in public speaking, including giving speeches, and then provide each other with feedback and evaluation.

Membership

Members must be over the age of 18. 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 a "Closed Club" or "In-house Club") organized within businesses restrict membership to people in the organization; this is the only restriction on membership permitted by the international organization.

For teens below the age of 18, gavel clubs will 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 TM titles such as CTM, CL, etc will be awarded, the benefit received from a gavel club is essentially the same as that of a Toastmasters club. Both allow active members who put in effort to gain confidence and finesse in the art of public speaking.

Educational Program

The Toastmasters Communication and Leadership Manual is the heart of the TI program. The manual consists of ten speech projects, each building upon the other in skills and difficulty. Upon completion of the Communication and Leadership Manual, a Toastmaster is entitled to the designation Competent Toastmaster and may add the initials CTM to his/her name.

Advanced manuals in the Toastmasters program include projects on sales presentations, entertaining dinner speaking, communicating with news media, and interpersonal communication. There are altogether 15 advanced manuals, each consisting of 5 projects. Completing these advanced manuals and fulfilling some other requirements will earn the Toastmaster concerned the title of 'Advanced Toastmaster,' abbreviated ATM. There are three degrees of ATM called the Bronze, Silver and Gold level - thus a person may be called ATM-B, ATM-S or ATM-G. There used to be one that is simply known as ATM which stands for 'Able Toastmaster', but this title has already been phased out. And a person who has achieved the ATM-G award, together with the Advanced Leader award described below, can apply to receive the title of Distinguished Toastmaster (DTM), Toastmasters' highest award.

When giving a speech at Toastmasters meetings, a member is expected to speak within a prescribed time limit. For most basic manual speeches, this limit is 5-7 minutes. For advanced program speeches, the limit can vary, with the maximum usually at 10 minutes. There are often Question and Answers sessions involved for some of the advanced manuals. And at the conclusion of the speeches, other members will evaluate the speeches. The intent is to provide a positive experience for the speaker, encouraging him/her to build on the skills already learned and to improve other speaking and listening skills. This also creates opportunity for members to provide constructive feedbacks to help one another improve. One thing to note is that the evaluators evaluate the speech and not the speaker. This is a subtle but important difference.

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 small staff of paid personnel at the world headquarters, such as the shipping staff). Even the Board of Directors is composed of volunteers who still hold membership in a local club.

TI has developed a series of training procedures for its officers as well as material for training members in basic leadership skills.

Members who meet requirements including serving a term (6 months or 1 year) as club officer receive the Competent Leader (CL) award. Members who then choose to serve the organization as higher-level officers, and who complete certain other requirements, would then be qualified to receive the Advanced Leader (AL) award.

Contests

TI holds contests twice a year. These allow members to practice under demanding conditions, view the efforts of skilled members of other clubs and provide entertainment during required business meetings. One of these contests, the "International Speech Contest," (formerly the "Serious 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 titled "World Champions of Public Speaking."

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