What is Toastmasters?

Is this just a group for people in the USA or who speak English?

How is Toastmasters organized?

Where can I find a club?

Do I have to ask permission before attending a meeting of a club in my area?

Is Toastmasters a social or drinking organization in some regard?

What happens at a meeting?

What's a "prepared speech"?

What speech projects are there for me to work on?

What are "Table Topics"?

What is Evaluation?

What's all this emphasis on time limits?

Why all this structure to the meeting?

I'm scared to death of speaking! Why should I look into Toastmasters?

How is Toastmasters more beneficial than other forms of speaking improvement?

What is Toastmasters? Back
Toastmasters International is a non-profit organization governed by a Board of Directors elected by the membership. The first Toastmasters club was established on October 22, 1924, in Santa Ana, California, by Dr. Ralph C. Smedley, who conceived and developed the idea of helping others to speak more effectively. More clubs were formed, and Toastmasters International was incorporated under California law on December 19, 1932.

Business and services are administered by World Headquarters, located in Rancho Santa Margarita, California. It employs no paid promoters or instructors. It has no salaried staff except the Executive Director and World Headquarters staff, who provide services to the clubs and Districts.

Toastmasters International is the leading movement devoted to making effective oral communication a worldwide reality.  Through its member Clubs, Toastmasters International helps men and women learn the arts of speaking, listening and thinking—vital skills that promote self-actualization, enhance leadership potential, foster human understanding, and contribute to the betterment of mankind.  It is basic to this mission that Toastmasters International continually expand its worldwide network of Clubs, thereby offering ever-greater numbers of people the opportunity to benefit from its programs.

Is this just a group for people in the USA or who speak English? Back

No. The organization includes approximately 175,000 members in 70 countries, including Australia, the Bahamas, Canada, Ireland, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America. Toastmasters International publishes a complete set of materials in English and basic materials in French, Spanish, and Japanese. As translators make themselves available, more materials are translated.

How is Toastmasters organized? Back

All Toastmasters members belong to one or more clubs. At Toastmasters, members learn by speaking to groups and working with others in a supportive environment. A typical Toastmasters club is made up of 20 to 30 people who meet once a week for about an hour. Each meeting gives everyone an opportunity to practice:

• Conducting meetings. Meetings usually begin with a short business session which helps members learn basic meeting procedures.

• Giving impromptu speeches. Members present one-to two-minute impromptu speeches on assigned topics.

• Presenting prepared speeches. Three or more members present speeches based on projects from the Toastmasters International Communication and Leadership Program manuals. Projects cover such topics as speech organization, voice, language, gestures, and persuasion.

• Offering constructive evaluation. Every prepared speaker is assigned an evaluator who points out speech strengths and offers suggestions for improvement.

Where can I find a club? Back

Complete listings for all clubs in the world can be found at www.toastmasters.org.

Do I have to ask permission before attending a meeting of a club in my area? Back

If you're visiting a community club, it might not be a bad idea to let them know you're coming.  Community clubs are almost always open to all and they'll be delighted to have you come to the meeting.  Clubs that meet at companies and organizations, on military bases, or in prisons are sometimes restricted to members or employees of the sponsoring body. These clubs are happy to have guests but you should call ahead to get through security or to find out specifically where the club meets.  Unlike some other organizations, where one must have a sponsoring member who invites you to the meeting and introduces you to the group, Toastmasters welcomes all guests.  If the club is open to membership from the community, you will usually be offered a membership application at the meeting.

Is Toastmasters a social or drinking organization in some regard? Back

The name "Toastmasters" is a holdover from the founding of the organization when one of the main types of public speaking a member of society would engage in was after-dinner speaking, a.k.a. toastmastering.  It is rare that formal drinking and toasts take place, and these are usually at major banquets or conferences.

What happens at a meeting? Back

The format varies slightly from club to club, but the basics include:

• the business meeting (usually very brief)

• introduction of the Toastmaster of the Meeting, who presides over the program that day and explains the meeting as it goes along

• prepared speeches from members

• impromptu speeches from members (also known as Table Topics)

• oral evaluations of the prepared speeches

• additional reports from the speech timer, grammarian and "ah" counter

What's a "prepared speech"? Back

When you join Toastmasters you receive a basic speaking manual with ten speech projects. Each manual project lists the objectives for that speech and includes a written checklist for your evaluator to use when evaluating the speech. If you're scheduled to speak at a meeting, you generally pull out your manual a week or two in advance and put together a speech on whatever you like while paying attention to your goals and objectives for that speech. When you go to the meeting, you hand your manual to your evaluator and that person makes written comments on the checklist while you speak. At the end of the meeting, your evaluator will rise to give oral commentary in addition to the written feedback. The purpose of the extensive preparation and commentary is to show you what you're doing well, what you need to work on, and driving these lessons home so you're constantly improving.

What speech projects are there for me to work on? Back

The Toastmasters program exposes each participant to a wide range of communication experiences.

• Each new Toastmaster receives a New Member Kit. The kit features a copy of the basic Communication and Leadership manual, general orientation materials and information regarding skill improvement in areas such as speech evaluation and the use of gestures.

• The initial prepared speeches, as outlined in the basic Communication and Leadership program manual, are designed with the new Toastmaster in mind.

• A variety of assigned speeches help the participant develop competency in areas such as organization, voice inflection and persuasiveness.

• During the meeting's Table Topics session, members learn to think on their feet by delivering short impromptu speeches, lasting one to two minutes.

• Upon completion of the basic Communication and Leadership program, Toastmasters may participate in the Advanced Communication and Leadership program. Participants may choose from specific business oriented topics such as Speeches by Management and Technical Presentations.

• Workshop style Success/Leadership programs are also available, offering opportunities for further skill development in areas such as leadership, public speaking and conducting business meetings. These programs are especially effective as in-house training and can be tailored to meet the needs of your company.

What are "Table Topics"? Back

Table Topics are fun!  The goal is to present a one to two minute impromptu speech on a subject not known to you until the moment you get up to speak.  A member of the club prepares a few impromptu topics and calls on members to stand up and speak on the topic. Topics might include current events (e.g. "What would you do about Haitian boat people if you were President?") or philosophy ("If you had no shoes and met a man who had no feet, how would you feel?") or the wacky ("Reach into this bag. Pull an item out. Tell us about it.").

What is Evaluation? Back

The Evaluation program is the third of the three main parts of a meeting. All prepared speakers, as noted above, should have their speaking manuals with them and pass them onto the evaluators before the meeting begins. During the speech, and after, each person's evaluator should make written notes and furthermore, plan what to say during the two to three minute oral evaluation. Evaluation is tough to do well because it requires an evaluator to do more than say "here's what you did wrong." A good evaluator will say "here's what you did well, and here's why doing that was good, and here are some things you might want to work on for your next speech, and here's how you might work on them." It's important to remember that the evaluator is just one point of view, although one that has focused in on your speech closely. Other members of the audience can and should give you written or spoken comments on aspects of your speech they feel important.

What's all this emphasis on time limits? Back

Speeches have time limits, Table Topics have time limits and evaluations have time limits.  By setting time limits on speeches and presentations, participants learn brevity and time management and the club meeting itself can be expected to end on schedule.

Time limits are rarely enforced to the letter. In only a few situations will you find yourself cut off if you go too long, and that's up to the individual club. Most clubs don't cut speakers off if they go over time. It is common for clubs to use a set of timing lights to warn the speakers how much time they've spoken. All speeches and presentations have a time limit expressed as an interval, e.g. 5 to 7 minutes. In this case, a green light would be shown at 5 minutes, yellow at 6, and red at 7.  The green light indicates you've met your minimum time requirement though you need not finish right away.  The yellow light indicates you should begin wrapping up.  If you're not finished when you see the red light, you should finish as soon as possible.

The only times you're actually *penalized* for going over or under time is in speaking competition; in speech contests (see the "Contests FAQ") you must remain within the interval or be disqualified. Some clubs hold an audience vote for "best speaker," "best topic speaker," and "best evaluator" during the meeting and it's a practice in some clubs to disqualify people who go over or under time from these meeting awards.

Why all this structure to the meeting? Back

Meetings generally are not complicated once you get used to the timing lights in the back and the different roles members of the group play. Since the average club is expected to have 20 or more members, you need a lot of roles for people to play in order to involve everyone. And, since meeting assignments vary from meeting to meeting, everyone gets practice doing everything over the course of several meetings. One meeting, you'll be assigned to give a speech; the next, you might be timer; the next, you might be the Toastmaster of the Meeting, running the whole show. It keeps you flexible and it keeps you from having to prepare a speech every meeting.

I'm scared to death of speaking! Why should I look into Toastmasters? Back

EVERYONE is afraid of speaking. In poll after poll, "public speaking" comes up as more feared than "death." Even if you think you're really good at speaking, there may be times when your heart stops and your palms sweat and you freeze before an audience. Toastmasters can help with that. Remember that EVERYONE in a Toastmasters club is there because at some point they realized they needed help communicating and speaking before audiences. A Toastmasters club is the supportive place to practice.

If you're aware how nervous you are but aren't convinced that you should do anything about it, stop and think what skill is more important than any other when it comes to getting and keeping a good job? Think you're already an excellent speaker? Being comfortable doesn't mean that you're actually GOOD.  Even if you are good, you can always get better! Toastmasters can give you a lot of skills and keep good speakers improving. If you still don't know whether you'd like Toastmasters, why not visit a meeting? If you still don't think it's your cup of tea, we'll still be happy you came by.

How is Toastmasters more beneficial than other forms of speaking improvement? Back

College and high school courses in public speaking usually involve the students sitting through dozens of lectures followed by one or two speaking opportunities. When the speeches are over, you get a grade. Often, you get graded on what you did wrong. This isn't a way to build reassurance and motivation. Then too, you rarely get much of a chance to practice by doing. You get up at the end of the semester, give your speech, and sit down. Toastmasters is constant reinforcement and constant improvement. You learn by doing, not by sitting there while someone lectures for hours. For-profit courses such as Dale Carnegie can be very good for their participants. They also cost a lot and when they're over, they're over. Toastmasters costs $36 per year (plus club dues, if any) and it can last a lifetime.