Toastmasters

In 2004, the 10.000e club was created; at that time, association counted already 200.000 members. In 2007, more than 100 countries proposing of the clubs are indexed. New York gathers more than 240 clubs, of which the half is sponsored by companies for the continuing education of the employees.

A club comprises a score of members in general.

On Paris, there exist ten clubs and it is possible to be involved in four languages (French, English, German, Spanish). The meetings take place every fifteen days (semi-monthly) during 2 hours, duration which makes it possible to set up a program of varied exercises (prepared improvisations, speeches, evaluations).

Teaching method

The Toastmasters training is based on the complementarity of 4 repeated actions:

1. to see/intend somebody to practice

2. to see/hear the return on what was made (strong points and concrete suggestions of improvement)
3. practice oneself
4. to do oneself a return on what was made.

There is no professor nor of holder of the knowledge, and all the members are encouraged to take the whole of the roles available (including the roles of persons in charge of club) in order to be formed. And it is together that the members progress, each one on its level, according to its competences of the moment and its objectives.

The handbooks propose a progressive method: the realization of each project is optimized when the member is based on competences which it acquired previously.

The rate/rhythm of progression is decided by each one according to its own objectives.

Each new member sees himself allotting a godfather. This one has the role of helping it to concretize its objectives, in particular by helping it to include/understand the operation of the club, to take its first roles in meeting and to prepare and present its first three speeches.

One of the principal characteristics of Toastmasters is that the evaluation is permanent. Each activity of the club is evaluated: the speeches are the evaluation object oral during the meeting and written in the handbook of member. The appraisers themselves are evaluated at the end of the meeting by another member holding the d'" role; appraiser général".

The objective of the evaluation is that the speech is a positive experiment for the speaker all while encouraging it to improve certain precise points. That also makes it possible to the members to formulate a constructive criticism to help one of the members to progress. In addition to the benefit for the speaker, the appraiser is exerted to listen attentively and to prepare a presentation quickly. A delicate but fundamental point to understand is that an evaluation relates not on the speaker or the subject of the speech, but on the form taken by the speech.

The promise of the member

To be Toastmaster means more than to concentrate simply on its personal development. All and each one which adhere to a Toastmasters club pledge towards their club, his members and very whole association.

the promise of Toastmaster

As a member of International Toastmasters and my club, I promise…

• to attend regularly the meetings of the club

• to prepare my better all my speech and my projects of leadership according to the projects of the basic and advanced handbooks of the Programme of communication as well as basic handbook of the Program of leadership
• to prepare me with my tasks and of me to discharge
• from it to offer to my comrades evaluations constructive and useful
• to contribute, within the club, with the maintenance of a positive and friendly environment necessary for the training and the development of all the members
• to serve my club as a leader if one asks me to make it
• treat with respect and courtesy my Toastmasters comrades and our guests
• to bring guests to the meetings of club to show them which advantages they could withdraw by adhering
• to conform me to the directives and the rules of all the training programs and of recognition of the merits of Toastmasters
• to maintain in all the Toastmasters activities a level of excellence based on honesty

The detail of the formation

Handbooks of the " Compétent" communicator; and of the " Compétent" leader; are the base of the Toastmasters method. In 2006, these handbooks were updated by dividing the old single handbook " Program communication and of leadership" in two distinct handbooks.

Program of communication

Acquired competences are validated in 4 stages corresponding to 4 honorary titles:

• Transfer Qualified

• Transfer Accomplished Transfer Bronze
• Accomplished Transfer Money
• Accomplished Gold

The basic handbook of communication makes it possible to acquire essential competences to prepare a speech and to present it with effectiveness in 10 speeches (examples of objectives: to speak with sincerity, to use the modulation of its voice, to work its gestural, etc, the subject of the speech being always left to the choice of the speaker). After having achieved his the first 10 speeches, the speaker obtains certification " Compétent" communicator;.

Once obtained this title, the member reaches the advanced program of communication, composed of 15 handbooks. Titles of some advanced handbooks: to know to divert, to speak is to inform, the expressive reading, to speak on television, speeches for special occasions, presentations technical, interpersonal communications, etc The member continues his course by choosing 2 of these 15 advanced handbooks, made up each of 5 projects (either 10 new speeches to be realized for this stage). He becomes " then; Accomplished communicator Bronze".

In order to obtain the title of " Accomplished communicator Argent" , it must make the 5 speeches of 2 other advanced handbooks, and animate two formations resulting from other booklets Toastmasters (example: To make a success of an improvisation, to organize your speech, To use the body language, the justifying evaluation, the mentorat, etc)

In order to reach under " Accomplished communicator Or" , the member again presents 10 speeches suggested by 2 other advanced handbooks. He also animates a formation resulting from other booklets (different from those to obtain the Accomplished Communicator Money), for example: Seminar of oral expression or characteristics of the effective leaders. In the place of this formation, it can also animate a workshop young people leaders, bound for the minors (the majority is obligatory for adhesion with a Toastmasters club). Last necessary point: the member must be the godfather of a novel member and help it in the preparation of his the first three speeches.

Program of leadership

By holding various roles during the meetings, by accepting roles of leader within their club, of the sector (Parisian for example) or division (French-speaking), the members familiarize themselves with competences specific to the leaders who are planning, the motivation and management.

Acquired competences are validated (for the moment) by 3 honorary titles:

• qualified Leader

• Accomplished Leader Bronzes
• Accomplished Leader Money
• (the Accomplished Leader Gold is currently under development)

To be a Qualified Leader, it is necessary to have supplemented the 10 projects of the basic handbook of leadership. Each project corresponds to an objective (ex: Listen and leadership, Evaluer a service, Gestion of time, Motiver the others, etc) and is validated by filling 1 to 3 roles per project (= 21 roles for the handbook in entirety, 1 only role which can be validated by meeting).

To become Accomplished Leader Bronzes, the member animates 2 formations resulting from other booklets (for example: In the search of novel members for your club, How to create a good climate within your club, Roles and responsibilities during a meeting, the leader visionary, To work out a mission). He is also member of the steering committee of a club during in the month 6 months, time during which he takes part in the training of the persons in charge of club organized by the sector (sector = together from 3 to 5 clubs).

Lastly, the Accomplished Leader Money reached additional stages: he initially was during at least 1 year member of the executive committee of the district (French-speaking), he was successfully the godfather of a club and he put all the assets of his formation in the realization of a personal project of leadership (called " Practical application of the leadership" or in English " High Project" Leadership;).

To be Toastmaster distinguished

The member having obtained the title of Accomplished Communicator Gold as that of Accomplished Leader Money becomes Toastmaster Distingué (DTM: Distinguished ToastMaster). It is the highest title and most prestigious decreed by Toastmasters. It also makes it possible to be a certified professional speaker (function very developed in the United States, not in France).

The Toastmasters meetings

The Toastmasters clubs meet regularly, between 1 and 4 times per month, 11 to 12 months per annum. The meetings last between one and two hours following the clubs.

The course of the meeting is structured and the members play various parts during the meeting. The meeting is carried out by a president of evening. Three times ago in a Toastmasters meeting: prepared speeches, improvisations and evaluations.

For the speeches, two, three or sometimes four people present a speech prepared in front of the other members of the club. Each speech is carried out within the framework of a project of the basic handbook or advanced handbooks. Each speech is to be presented in time limited (pre-established) in front of the whole of the members. After having made his speech, the speaker is evaluated by another member. This quasi immediate return enables him to know the strong points which are recognized to him and gives him ideas on the way of improving its techniques of presentation for its next speech.

During the part of the improvisations, a member who prepared the subjects, called the leader of the improvisations, states a subject and calls somebody with the desk. The speaker then has one to two minutes to answer.

The session of evaluation makes it possible all the participants to listen to the comments and the councils of the appraisers on their service. The session is carried out by the general appraiser who calls the appraiser of the improvisations who presents into 3 to 5 minutes his comments on the improvisations. Then, the turn comes from the appraisers of the speeches which lay out each of 2 to 3 minutes. After the evaluation of the speeches, three members present each one a report/ratio on a technical point. The grammairien raises the grammatical mistakes, the repetitions, the Anglicisms, the barbarisms but also the interesting uses of the language. Another member is in charge of the hesitations and the blunders: he counts the number of “euh” and announces the distorsions to the protocol. Lastly, the time clerk is charged to make respect the time of each intervention. In conclusion of the meeting of evaluation, the general appraiser makes a general comment on the whole of the evening and gives councils for the future meetings.

In many clubs, the members vote for the best speaker, the best improviser and the best appraiser of the meeting. The prizes winner receive a ribbon or a cut which they preserve until the following meeting.

Contests

Toastmasters International organizes a contest twice a year. That makes it possible to the members into practice to put their capacities of communicator in front of an unusual public and more, and to see the work of the best members of other clubs.

In France, there are 4 types of different contests: - the humorous contest of speech and the contest of improvisations take place to the autumn - the contest of evaluations and the contest of speech take place in spring

Each club organizes the contest and the winner of each club goes to the contest of sector; the winner of the contest of sector goes to the contest of division; the winner of the contest of division goes to the contest of district. Only one contest continues with the international level: the international contest of speech. The international contest of speech (to be distinguished from the “contest of humorous speeches”) crown Toastmasters among the whole of the members of association. This last obtains the title of “World champion of speech in public” at the time of the annual International Conference.

For the international contest of speech, the candidates choose the subject and the type of the speech which it will present. The candidates are judged on the whole of their service by a system of points organized by category of competences. For a humorous contest of speech, the speeches are judged according to a different scale which takes into account the good use of humor. For an incredible contest of stories, the judges note inter alia the use of the exaggeration to create a comic effect. For a contest of evaluation, a speaker of reference makes a speech and all the candidates evaluate the same speech. For the contest of improvisations, each candidate is taken along in a room, one by one, and answer the same subject.

The contests of speech are timed. The candidates who does not reach the minimum duration or who exceed the maximum duration are disqualified. (For the humorous contests of speech and the international contest of speech, the duration must be ranging between 5 and 7 minutes, for the contests of improvisations, 1 to 2 minutes and for the contests of evaluations, 2 to 3 minutes).

External bonds

• Official site of International Toastmasters with a list of all the clubs and districts throughout the world.
• Toastmasters Wikia