What is toastmasters? (1 pager)

What is Toastmasters?

Toastmasters is an International non-profit educational organization that teaches communication and leadership skills through a worldwide network of clubs. The organization currently has more than 260,000 members in approximately 12,500 clubs in 113 countries. Since its founding in October 1924, the organization has helped more than 4 million men and women lead and communicate with poise and confidence. Today, organizations around the world recognize the value of incorporating Toastmasters training to help employees improve their communication and leadership skills. We have 36 different clubs in Tamilnadu and nearly 500+ toastmasters clubs in India.

How Toastmasters Program works?

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 approximately an hour. Each meeting gives everyone an opportunity to practice:

• Conducting meetings
Members learn how to plan and conduct meetings.

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

• Presenting prepared speeches
Two or more members present speeches based on projects from manuals in Toastmasters’ proven communication and/or leadership programs. Projects cover topics such as speech organization, vocal variety, language, gestures and persuasion.

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

The Tools 

Upon joining a Toastmasters club, each new member receives a variety of manuals and resources on how to become a better speaker and a more confident leader. Members also have access to other books and educational resources. In addition, they receive the award-winning Toastmaster, a monthly magazine that offers the latest insights on speaking and leadership techniques.

3 Toastmastering lessons from my little daughter...

An article that I wrote for TUTI PALMS toastmasters club newsletter.

I got a message from our Chief Editor TM Uma... She requested (actually, ordered! ...) "Saro! We are producing a newsletter this month. You are writing an article for that ... and it is going to be about Women's day. By the way, the article is due next week".

I was thinking about it for a week. I don't want to give a gyan about Women's achievements and their importance in our society. I wanted to write something about women which will also be relevant to toastmasters.

I'm fortunate to have seen the multiple faces of women - thanks to my mom, sister, wife and little daughter. Each one of them is different and they make my life's equation complete. To stay away from controversies at home, I decided to write about the toastmastering skills that I learned when raising my little daughter :)

1) Yes! You can do it

It was about 5 years ago. My wife and I were helping our little daughter to walk... she was 10 months old, then. She took a few tentative steps, and fell down. My wife and I didn't show our disappointment on our face, when she fell down. We continued to cheer her up… "Mitra! You are doing great... try again..." "Mitra ! It is OK... You can do it".... "Mitra! Only a few steps more... Common".

When Mitra took her first 5 steps continuously without falling, we became so proud.

Don't we do exactly the same thing in our toastmasters meetings? When a fellow member couldn't answer a Table Topic or forgets a speech in between, we continue to encourage them to talk. There are times when we even pray that our fellow toastmaster shouldn't fail. We never criticize our toastmasters when they fail. Rather, we provide them a constructive feedback. Thus, we provide a safe environment for everyone to experiment, fail, learn and improve. We always tell them "Yes! You can".

2) Vocal Variety / Body Language 

"Dad, I saw a HUGE elephant today when coming back from school"... My daughter was narrating her experience of seeing an Elephant on the road... with her eye balls popping out and arms stretched wide. I was quite impressed by the tone of her voice and her gesture. Her face was literally glowing when she said that.
I'm sure all of us were expressive when we were kids. But, somehow we lost our voice and body language when we grew up! I guess it was because our elders always told us to "lower our voice" or "not to raise our hands", when speaking.
Now, we are trying to rediscover those skills by doing speeches in toastmasters :)

3) Getting repeatable good behaviors

I read a book called “How to teach so that kids can listen”. The book talks about “How to motivate kids to get repeatable behaviors?”. The author says “Don’t just compliment your kid, but compliment them for a specific reason”.

I tried to experiment it. Most of the times, my daughter doesn't clean up her room before going to bed in the night. There will be toys spread all around. My wife ends up cleaning them every day. One night, my daughter cleaned up the room herself, without even being told. I wanted to appreciate her for that. Instead of just saying “Great job Mitra !”, I said “Mitra! I like the way you are keeping your room neat and clean. You are saving a lot of time for mom. I wish you can do that every day.  Great job”. When I communicated the specific reason for which she is getting the appreciation, she understood that “I’m getting this appreciation because I kept the room neat and clean”. Now everyday night, she cleans her room before going to bed.

You can use the same technique for adults also. After all, we were also kids once upon a time.

For example, instead of saying “Senthil! You did a great job of publishing our first newsletter”, you can say “Senthil! You displayed extraordinary commitment and passion to produce our first newsletter. You were able to make it happen despite the challenges you had in getting articles from our friends. Your persistent follow-ups paid-off. Great job”. Now, Senthil will be motivated to display his commitment, passion, and persistency whenever he gets a chance.

I wish all the toastmasters of our Tuticorin Palms Toastmasters Club a very happy Women’s day celebration.

Rhetoric 2012 - Division G (Tamilnadu) Conference

This is an article that got published in Chennai Toastmasters newsletter (May 2012)

"Small things make perfection, but perfection isn't a small thing".

We, the toastmasters from Division G, witnessed the performance of some of the BEST speakers in Tamilnadu who paid attention to those small details - that made them the STARS of Division G.  Rhetoric 2012 showcased the leadership of toastmasters who skillfully crafted the entire event.

Rhetoric 2012 is the Annual conference of Division G toastmasters which includes all the 33 clubs in Tamil Nadu. The highlight of the conference is the International speech contest and Table Topics contest.

The day kick-started with a Bharathanatyam performance by young masters Ritika and Varshini who kept the audience in rapt attention with their adept moves. In the morning, we had International speech contest and we had Table topics contests in the afternoon. The contestants gave extraordinary speeches making it tough for the judges to identify the winners. The speeches were of very high quality.

The guest speaker of the day Dr.Irai Anbu I.A.S, gave an enthralling speech on communication. His speech focused on body language and how it plays an important role in communication. He covered various topics such as evolution of communication since the universe began; origin of languages; importance of body language etc., Dr. Irai Anbu stressed on the fact that listening skills are imperative to be a successful communicator. The highlight of Dr. Irai Anbu’s session was the non-stop humor. Overall, the session was educative, entertaining and enriching.

Rhetoric 2012 provided a platform for young students, IT professionals and executives to bond with ease.
Rhetoric 2012 is special for many reasons:

- For the first time ever, the top 3 district officials are attending the conference together in Division G. District 82 officers DTM Saleem, DTM Nina John and DTM Nirmala Lilly attended the conference.
- This is THE last conference of the combined Division G which includes all the clubs in Tamilnadu.
- Last but not the least, Rhetoric 2012 celebrates the success of Division G. Division G is the first division  to become President Distinguished in the whole of District 82.

The event came to a close with toastmasters George Vinoj and Arna Chugani winning the International Speech and Table Topics speech contests, respectively. They will represent Division G in the District contests at Ovations 2012, happening in Colombo, Srilanka.

Rhetoric 2012 provided an excellent opportunity for toastmasters from various clubs to connect, communicate and cross-pollinate. This is one of the BEST conferences that I’ve ever attended.

CRISP Speech Evaluations

This is a summary of the CRISP Speech Evaluations workshop that I did for Chennai Speakers Forum on 5th August 2012. This is also published as an article in Chennai Toastmasters newsletter.

“Any speech can be improved”… This is the mantra that drives toastmasters. We invest our time in improving ourselves week after week… climbing one step at a time, on the ladder of communication and leadership. Speech evaluations help us to understand how we can improve our speeches. If Toastmasters journey is like driving a car, a mentor is the GPS who guides you along and evaluations is the dashboard in the car which gives you instant feedback. Evaluations is the catalyst that helps you to transform from just an ordinary speaker to an extraordinary speaker.

Also read:
Speech Evaluations - Right & Improper Usages
Table Topics Evaluation Tips

Types of Evaluations – Good, Bad & Ugly

What are the different types of evaluations? There are 3 types of evaluations

• Good
• Bad
• Ugly

Good Evaluations – TONIC

Good evaluations are like tonic. They motivate a speaker to improve his/her performance. An example of Good evaluations is

“TM Jim… Your speech was well organized. It had an attention grabbing introduction, nice transitions and a memorable conclusion.  One area where you can improve is the eye contact. You were focusing mostly on the audience sitting in the front row. I recommend you to establish eye contact with the folks at the back and at the centre. Your stage presence was good and kept us glued to you throughout your speech”

Bad Evaluations – Water

Bad evaluations don’t create any change in the speaker. It is like water – goes in and comes out. Bad evaluations do not help the speaker in improving his/her performance. Some examples are:

“TM Joe…  What a fantastic speech it was. It reminded me of one of my vacations to Kochin. We visited the port, beach and all the churches. We went to the GRT Hotel for lunch. I guess you didn’t go there during your vacation”

(or)

“TM Joe… Your speech was excellent. You had an amazing introduction, excellent vocal variety and an outstanding conclusion. I couldn’t find any areas of improvement for you”.

Ugly Evaluations – Poison

Ugly Evaluations are like giving POISON to the speaker. They kill the speaker and demotivate them. A member, who receives an ugly evaluation, may not even return to your club.

“TM Joe... I don’t know how you can deliver a speech without any preparation. First of all, you didn’t rehearse your speech and you were always looking at the notes.  
Second of all, you had a poor eye contact with the audience  

Third of all, nobody understood the message you were trying to communicate”

CRISP Evaluations

How can you make your speech evaluations a TONIC that motivates and strengthens the speaker? How can you help your club members to continuously excel in their communication journey? I’m going to introduce to you a technique called CRISP evaluations.

Constructive

Constructive feedback is like giving tonic to the speaker.  It is an art of telling the speaker that the “Glass is HALF FULL instead of HALF EMPTY”. Let us look at some examples:

Instead of saying  “Now let me highlight your weaknesses”, you can try the following:

  I’m going to give you some areas for improvement
  I have a few suggestions for you
  I have some recommendations to make your great speech, a greater speech

Instead of saying, “You didn’t use the stage properly”, you can say "I wish you had used the stage space better"

Instead of saying, “Your speech wasn’t up to the mark”, you can say "I think you can do some improvements to the speech to meet the project objectives"

When you are an evaluator, you have to sound positive and look positive. How do you do that?

• Use the right tone/gestures - Instead of saying “I wish you had used the stage space better” … say “I wish you had used the stage space better”…
• Give feedback with confidence - “I wish… you know… AHMM…. you had used the stage space…. Better…” makes you appear that you don’t have enough confidence/experience.
• Smile … when giving feedback... Be friendly… 

Relevant

Make your speech evaluations relevant to the speech and the project objectives. In simple words, “Focus on the delivery and not on the content. Focus on the speech and not on the speaker”

• Don’t try to comment about the speech content. For example, "In your speech you said India is a developed nation…. I don’t think India is still a developed nation”. 
• Don’t try to target the speaker. For example, "IT engineers have this problem of using so many jargon"
• You should always stick to the project objectives.
• For an ice breaker speech, don’t expect vocal variety or stage presence. Alternatively, you can evaluate a speaker based on previous project objectives. For ex., if the speaker has completed “Project 6: Vocal Variety”, and if you are evaluating “Project 7”, you can tell the speaker that he can improve on his vocal variety

Important

There is a famous quote “Live as if you are going to die tomorrow… learn as if you are going to live forever”. Similarly when you are playing the role of an evaluator, “Take notes as if you are preparing for a 1 hour evaluation. Deliver as if you have just 1 minute to give feedback”

You may have a page full of notes. But, pick the top 3 items from the page. For every 3 nice things that you have to say about the speaker, you can suggest 1 area for improvement.  If you have more feedback to give, give them after the meeting and in person.

Remember, the objective of speech evaluation is NOT to project you as a STAR evaluator. The object is to help somebody improve their communication skills.

(Also read: Methods to organize your speech Evaluations)

Specific

Specific feedback helps speakers to understand “What can they do differently to make a better impact with their speech”. You can use the “Show and Tell” approach to give specific feedback.

For example, instead of just saying “TM Joe…. You should improve your vocal variety”, you can say “TM Joe… you said, I saw a huge elephant and a tiny little rat… Instead, you could’ve said “I saw  a HUGE ELEPHANT and a TINY LITTLE rat”

Instead of saying “Joe… You need to improve your eye contact” you can say

“Joe… You’ll have a better audience connection if you maintain good eye contact. Here is what I recommend…Divide the audience into 4 groups. Establish eye contact with one person in the group. You’ll give a feeling to everyone in that group that you are looking at them. Then shift your eye contact to another person in a different group. Follow this repeatedly to have a better connection with the audience”

Personalized

Speech evaluations have to be personalized for the speaker and by the speech evaluator.

John Maxwell, a famous author once said … “People do not care how much you know, but they would like to know how much you care”. As an evaluator you should display genuine care and interest towards the betterment of the speaker. Every individual is unique – Joe is different from Jack, who is different from Jim.  For ex., for someone who has studied in their native language throughout their school days it would be difficult to use the right grammar in their speech.  They may already know that they have to improve on English grammar. As an evaluator, you don’t have to point that out during your feedback.

As an evaluator, you are not a representative of the audience. So, your evaluations have to just reflect your personal opinion.  For example, refrain from making remarks such as

“All of us thought, that you didn’t rehearse your speech”. Instead, just say, “I recommend you to practice your speeches in front of the mirror and rehearse a few times more. It will give you more confidence when you make the speech in the club”

With Constructive, Relevant, Important, Specific and Personalized (CRISP) evaluations, you can help transform an ore into an ornament; you can help transform an ordinary speaker to an extraordinary speaker; you can help your club member to climb the ramp to become a champ.  Will you practice to be CRISP?!

(Also read: Speech Evaluations - Right & Improper Usages)

Toastmasters Humorous Speeches (for Humorously Speaking Manual Projects)

This is my compilation of Humorous Speeches delivered as per the Toastmasters Humorous Speaker manual. This post has links to all the 5 Humorous Speeches that I delivered in my club. 

Humorously Speaking Manual Project 1 Speech    
Marriages are made in heaven, so are thunder and lightning (Warm-up your audience)

Humorously Speaking Manual Project 2 Speech 
You are what you eat (Leave them with a smile)

Humorously Speaking Manual Project 3 Speech 
My first day experience in IT industry (Make them laugh)

Humorously Speaking Manual Project 4 Speech
How to spot a judge in a contest? (Keep them Laughing)

Humorously Speaking Manual Project 5 Speech 
My toastmasters journey (The Humorous Speech)

(Also read: Entertaining Speaker Manual Speeches)

My toastmasters journey (DTM speech)

ACG Speech #10 - Humorously Speaking
The Humorous Speech
8th July 2012

[Disclaimer: This speech contains a number of exaggerated events / situations. This isn't a honest reflection of  my toastmasters journey and the speech was written just to meet the project objectives :)]

Some people join toastmasters to stay away from their pestering spouse for 2 hours

Some people join toastmasters to eat sandwiches and samosas at the end of the meeting

Some people join toastmasters to sleep peacefully in an air-conditioned hall

But I joined toastmasters to do all of them and also to pick up some communication skills.

It was the year 2006... I was very young... with lots of hair on my head. My friend took me to a toastmasters club in his college. It was a special meeting. The hall was filled with people and it was very colorful! Rajesh knows what I mean... It was a one hour meeting and I learned SO MUCH in SO LITTLE TIME. I was completely SOLD on toastmasters. I immediately filled the application form, borrowed money from my friend and became a member of the club on the first day that I attended.

I was eagerly longing for the next week's meeting. The next week came. I went to my friend's college and climbed the stairs to reach the meeting hall. Right there at the stairs, I saw the President of the club Sai. He greeted me with a beautiful smile ...

"Saro! I'm so thrilled to see you again. Welcome".

I thought ... "What a wonderful President he is... the President is going out of the way to greet everybody.... leaders should be like him".

Sai said... "Saro... Congratulations... you are nominated to be the Table Topics Master for the day".

"Wow... this club provides opportunity to everyone... even a brand new member. They follow the toastmasters' vision... in its true spirit... equal opportunity to everyone".

I walked to the meeting room and opened the door. I was completely shocked... There was nobody inside".

I asked Sai... "Sai.. have we changed the meeting room?"

Sai quickly responded... "No Saro! It is just you and me so far".

"But,... it is already our meeting time..."... Don't worry... members will come soon. We waited for another 15 minutes and 3 more members came.

The President started the meeting. He felt very sorry for starting the meeting late. He talked about the importance of time... he told us a story about how we should value others' time... and his address went on for 20 minutes. He then handed over to the impromptu TMOD.". The impromptu TMOD "Due to the lack of time... I'm going to be very short. He talked about his recent vacation for 10 minutes and told us why he was late today for another 5 minutes.

Friends... that was how my first club functioned.

With 3 years of toastmasters experience, I came to Chennai in 2009. It was my first visit to Chennai Toastmasters Club... the hall was filled with people. But, this time... I'm very cautious. I was carefully observing who is doing what. After the 2.5 hours meeting, I confirmed that this isn't a special meeting and this is REAL crowd. I joined the club right on day one.

Chennai Toastmasters Club taught me a number of things... and the most significant one was "How to be a GOOD evaluator". As an evaluator, you've to evaluate all kinds of speech. And the most tricky one was to evaluate speakers who give an unprepared, boring and pathetic speech. However, I learned the art of giving sandwich evaluations from Aditya. You've to always start with nice words and end with nice words.

For example, "Fellow toastmasters, guests and my dear speaker... What a wonderful speech it was. Your speech was really SUPERB".

·         S - Sleepy

·         U - Upsetting

·         P - Pathetic

·         E - Embarrassing

·         R – Ridiculous

·         B - Boring

Overall, I enjoyed listening to your speech and it was really SUPERB.

I love doing speech evaluations.

DTM Lalitha Giridhar, pushed me to kick start my leadership journey and I started with my CL 2 years ago. She also supported me to become a Division Governor. As a Division Governor, I had a fantastic opportunity to visit all the clubs in our Division. MCs in various clubs have introduced me in multiple different ways...

·         Some people introduced me as an Area Governor

·         Some people introduced me as a District Governor

·         One toastmaster was pretty close to introducing me as the Tamilnadu Governor (Thank god Rosiah didn't hear that).

The best part of my toastmasters career was my Division Governor role. In academics, you have theory and practical. In toastmasters, your Area or Division Governor role is the practical. That is where you'll get to fully apply all the communication and leadership skills that you gained in the previous years.

Fellow toastmasters, I THANK you for your outstanding support.... YOU converted me

·         from a DREAMING toastmaster to a DISCIPLINED toastmaster

·         from a DISAPPEARING toastmaster to a DEDICATED toastmaster

·         from a DULL speaker to a DISTINGUISHED TOASTMASTER

Leadership types - Builder, Maintainer & Destroyer

This is the copy of the speech made at the OTP on 22nd Jan 2012 (@ Virtusa)

I welcome all of you to the first major event of Division G in the year 2012. Happy new year to all of you.

Congratulations to all the new leaders of our clubs!

“Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail” a beautiful quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson.

(Also read: 3Ps of a leader by Prof. Debashis Chatterjee)

What kind of leader you would like to be? There are 3 types of leaders in this world:

1) You give them a vacant land ... they involve a number of people and build a beautiful castle, plant trees, develop gardens. They do things that benefit NOT only the current generation, but also the rest of the generations to come. They are the Builders.

2) You give them a vacant land; they put a fence around it. They protect the land. They pay daily visits and make sure that NO HARM is done to it. However, the vacant land, continues to remain vacant. They are the Maintainers.

3) You give them a vacant land. They don't do anything with it. They don't care about the land. They let weeds grow. They let people dump garbage and waste into it. The land becomes a dump yard. People don't love to visit the land, because it stinks. They are the Destroyers.

Toastmasters, the club is a vacant land given to you today. What kind of leader you want to be - builder, maintainer or destroyer?! What do you want to do with the club - build, maintain or destroy?!

You may ask, "What do I get by spending time in building the club"? NOTHING. Toastmasters is a voluntary organization... you don't get paid for your service, you aren't going to lose your promotion if you don't do your job, you aren't going to lose your pay hike or bonus when you fail here.

However, if you are able to get members to attend meetings, where you aren't getting paid... if you are able to motivate your members to complete their CCs/CLs, when you aren't getting paid... if you are able to build a successful club, when you aren't getting paid...

With all the skills and experience that you gain here, imagine the difference you would make at your workplace where you are getting paid. Where you are getting paid - to build a great product, where you are getting paid to build great teams … where you are getting paid to bring the best out of people.

What toastmasters can DO to you, is largely dependent on what you DO to toastmasters.

(Also read: Importance of Communication when leading without a title)

Today’s training program will help you become a great builder. With the skills that you gain today, I’m sure you’ll convert our clubs into castles… a place where everyone would like to visit, join and discover their real communication and leadership potential. 

Club Chartering Meeting/Ceremony - Agenda

Toastmasters Club Chartering ceremony is an important milestone for a newly formed club. Club Chartering meeting is the first "official" meeting of the toastmasters club, where the club officers are installed and members inducted. This article provides some guidance for you to plan your charter meeting.

Also read:

Steps involved in chartering a club
How to conduct a demo meeting?

Invitees

Whom to invite? This is the first question that will come to your mind. You can consider inviting the following people for your toastmasters club chartering ceremony meeting.

1. Management Representatives from your corporate (for a corporate club)
2. Toastmasters Representatives

• District Governor
• Division Governor(s)
• Area Governor(s) 
• Club officers from other clubs in your Area/Division
• Club mentors and sponsors

Sample Charter Meeting Agenda

What should be done during the chartering meeting. Here is a sample agenda that you can follow during your club chartering ceremony meeting.

• Opening of the meeting by & Introduction of MC by Sergeant At Arms - 2 minutes (SAA just reads the vision/mission and describes the Codes of Conduct)
• Setting the context of the chartering meeting by the MC - 2 minutes
• Speeches by Dignitaries from Toastmasters International (2 minutes x two dignitaries) - 4 minutes
• Speeches by Dignitaries from the Corporate (for a corporate club) - (2 minutes x two dignitaries)  - 4 minutes
• Installation of club officers by Area or Division Governor - 10 minutes
• Club President delivers the acceptance speech (3 minutes)
• Acceptance speech typically has the President's plan for the club, at a high level for the next 6 months. You can look at the Sample Presidential Acceptance Speech
• Recognizes the Mentors/Sponsors of the club

• President introduces Toastmaster of the Day (1 minute)
• Toastmaster of the Day runs through the meeting using the script  (45 mins)
• Have just 1 or 2 prepared speeches
• Have 4 or 5 table topics
• Toastmaster of the Day hands over the meeting to President (0 minutes)
• President adjourns the meeting (2 mins)

Download meeting role player templates from Successful Clubs Toolkit

Miscellaneous

1. Area/Division Governor can present Toastmasters Pins to the club officers
2. President can give a memento to toastmasters representatives and to the people who helped in chartering the club
3. If you have more time for the meeting, you can distribute the charter certificates to the charter member during the meeting. President can invite a dignitary to the stage to handover the charter certificates/manuals to new members. If there is no time, you can hand them over to members offline.
4. Take a picture with all the charter members and charter club officers

How to conduct a Toastmasters Demo Meeting?

Toastmasters International provides a number of materials which will help you to conduct "Successful Demonstration Meetings" for prospective new clubs. Conducting a Demo meeting is the first step to get new members to officially charter a toastmasters club.

Also read: 

Steps involved in chartering a new toastmasters club

Sample email response for the lead/request to charter a new toastmasters club

Before the demo meeting

1. Ask the club sponsor 
• to arrange for a projector, microphone, writing board etc.,
• to make printed copies of meeting agenda available to everyone
• to download Introduction to Toastmasters PPT and make it available in a PC/Laptop
2. Arrange meeting role players 
• Toastmaster of the Day, 
• Table Topics Master of the Day, 
• General Evaluator
• Prepared Speaker (just 1 or 2. Speech should be from Competent Communicator manual and preferably, a CC Project 5 or CC Project 6. Helps the evaluator to cover all the aspects of public speaking)
• Table Topics Master to pick some simple topics (NO SITUATIONS/ROLE PLAYS... may pick some funny quotes. Senior toastmaster to review this to make sure that the topics are audience friendly)
• Timer, 
• AH Counter, 
• Grammarian
• Sergeant at Arms
3. The role players are HIGHLY recommended to use the Successful Meetings - Role player Templates
4. Get timing cards (or) some Red Yellow Green props
5. All role players have to be informed to be at the venue at least 20 minutes in advance to clear the security procedure.

Meeting Agenda

1. SAA opens the meeting, introduces the presiding officer (1 minute)
2. Presiding officer briefly talks about Toastmaster International and the two tracks - communication & leadership. Also tells the audience that they'll know more about Toastmasters after the demo session... when walking through the PPT (3 minutes)
3. Presiding officer introduces Toastmaster of the Day and hands over the control (1 minute)
4. Toastmaster of the Day introduces the 3 meeting segments (3 minutes)
5. General Evaluator introduces his/her team (3 minutes)
6. Prepared Speech (7 minutes)
7. General Evaluator and his/her team presents their reports (10 minutes)
8. Table Topics Session (5 speakers max * 2 mins each = 10 minutes)
9. Toastmaster of the Day hands over control to the Presiding Officer (1 minute)
10. Presiding officer to walk through the Introduction to Toastmasters PPT himself or asks a senior toastmaster to walk it through

Before the demo meeting

1. Follow up with the club sponsor and help them to complete the steps involved in chartering a new toastmasters club by filling and submitting the club charter applications to Toastmasters International.

Steps involved in chartering a new Toastmasters Club

Toastmasters International website provides a lot of information about starting a new club. If you are interested in starting a club, submit your request using the form (or from www.toastmasters.org)

You can find a number of details regarding starting a new club at http://www.toastmasters.org/newclubforms.aspx

I've made an effort to "simplify" the procedure involved in starting a club - so that, you can understand it in just 5 minutes.

(Also read: Toastmasters in Chennai India - FAQ)

Always, refer to Toastmasters International website for latest information

Procedure to officially charter a new toastmasters club

1. Contact a District officer (District/Division/Area governor) or submit a request through Toastmasters International website to start a club in your community or corporate.

2. District/Division/Area governor will contact you and help you in organizing a demo toastmasters meeting.

(Also read: Sample email response to a new toastmasters club chartering request)

3. Download the chartering application from Toastmasters International website. You can look at the sample Club Chartering application to get an idea about how to fill the charter application.

4. Identify 7 club officers (President, VP Education, VP Public Relations, VP Membership, Treasurer, Secretary and Sergeant at Arms). You can see a summary of their roles and responsibilities at Club Officers - Roles & Responsibilities Summary. More information at http://www.toastmasters.org/clubofficers

5. Identify at least 20 members who'll be part of the new club (this includes the 7 club officers)

6. Assign mentors for the club (Get help from District/Division/Area officers)

7. Fill the Chartering application forms and submit it to Toastmasters International

8. Conduct chartering ceremony and start conducting club meetings regularly. You can look at the sample Club Chartering Ceremony Agenda to plan for the charter ceremony.

Cost 

1. $125 for chartering the club (one time charge). When you submit this fee along with the "Application to Organize", you would receive a set of manuals and a Gavel for the club from Toastmasters International. A club which is in the "establishing phase" can file an "Application to Organize" first, and then send the membership fee later-on, when you have the minimum of 20 members. 
2. $20 for every new member (one time charge for registration of the member. Each member will receive a membership kit which includes CC/CL manual)
3. $45 membership fees (recurring; once every 6 months)

For example, if you are chartering a new club with 20 members, here is how the calculations are done.

($125) + (20 members * ($20 registration fee + $45 membership fee)) = $1425

Payment options

- Credit card (you'll have to share the details over email or via phone) or
- Wire transfer (there will be an extra fee for Wire transfers)

Currently, there is no mechanisms for online payment.