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To join Toastmasters, you must have found a club to join. If you have visited a club and found it to your liking, ask a member (preferably an officer, who is more likely to be able to help you) for an application form.

According to the bylaws all Toastmasters clubs operate under, any new member of a club must be voted into membership by the club. In practice, this rarely happens. Instead, members are welcomed enthusiastically into the club as soon as a standard membership application ("Form 400") is turned in with a check for the appropriate dues.

Upon joining Toastmasters, you will find yourself paying three different fees. One is the standard $16.00 fee that every new member must pay in order to receive educational materials. One is the standard International dues, $3.00 per month. One is your Club dues, if any.

All Toastmasters clubs are billed in March and September for semi-annual dues for their members who wish to remain members for the next six months. If you join in between those periods, you submit a pro-rated share of the dues.

Clubs usually charge dues on top of the world dues. This is so they'll have money in the treasury for expenses. It's up to each club what they want to charge. Some clubs waive the club dues for new members and only assess them at the semi- annual dues payment dates. If you join at the following times, you'd owe:

Anyone can belong to more than one club. This is called "dual membership" even if you belong to more than two clubs. When you join the second club, of course, you don't need to pay the New Member fee because you don't need a second set of starter materials. If you belong to more than one club, you must nonetheless pay full dues for each club.

In the United States, club dues are tax-deductible -- IF your job is of a sort that requires or necessitates good communications skills. In other words, it must be an educational expense to be tax deductible. Toastmasters International will send you complete tax deduction explanations if you request them to do so.

Your $18.00 semi-annual dues paid to World Headquarters goes partly for a subscription to the Toastmaster magazine (is an excellent magazine), partly to support development of new educational programs, partly to support operations at World Headquarters (i.e. the staff who process membership applications, CTM applications, new club applications, etc.), and partly to support your local District organization. Your club dues generally go to pay for the club's supplies, such as ballots, awards, ribbons, and educational materials.

Your $16.00 New Member fee gets you the Communication and Leadership basic manual, the "Gestures - Your Body Speaks" manual, the "A Speaker's Guide to Evaluation" manual, and the Voice manual. The latter three are instructional manuals rather than project manuals. Only the first is a workbook. Furthermore, when you finish your CTM, you get two of the Advanced project manuals for no extra charge to work toward your ATM-B.

If you decide to discontinue your membership after joining, simply wait for March or September to arrive and don't pay your dues again. It'd probably be a good idea to let your Vice President Education know to stop scheduling you for speeches, though.

Since most people are genuinely terrified of public speaking, Toastmasters has its hands full recruiting members. You will be enthusiastically welcomed into any club you join and immediately be considered one of the gang.

Each club follows basic Toastmasters International guidelines and procedures, but each club is different because of its members collective personality. Occasionally, however, people get into bad situations, but the same is true of ANY organization. Toastmasters probably has its share. For this reason, you may consider visiting ALL Toastmasters clubs in your area before deciding which one you want to join. If a club that you visit seems not to your liking, please don't assume that this is true of the entire organization. Once in a while, people come to forget that they're part of a larger organization and act as though the message and mission of Toastmasters doesn't concern them. Please nod, leave, and visit some other club. This is definitely the exception.

You will not be asked to speak immediately after starting your Toastmasters membership unless you're ready to. If you feel more comfortable waiting a few months, that's fine. Most clubs attempt to arrange the meeting schedules in such a way that most members are involved in some capacity at each meeting, so you'll need to let them know what your wishes are.

After you have finished the 10 projects in the basic manual and have earned your Competent Toastmaster (CTM). To receive that designation forms must be completed and mailed to the International Headquarters. You do not have to wait, you may work in both tracks at the same time. For example, one of the next awards you could earn after receiving your CTM is the Competent Leader (CL) award. Actually, you can complete both CTM and CL requirements concurrently and send in both applications at the same time! Or you could work solely toward the Advanced Toastmaster Bronze award. Or you could complete the requirements for the Advanced Toastmaster Bronze award at the same time as you complete those for the Competent Leader award. You choose how you want to progress in the Toastmasters' program.

You must meet all of the requirements for each new award you apply for. One of the stipulations of the new Advanced Toastmaster Silver award is that you must have achieved the Able Toastmaster (a former designation that is still recognized but no longer attainable) award or the Advanced Toastmaster Bronze award.

To receive the Advanced Toastmaster Gold award, you will have to complete all of the requirements for that award. For example, you will have to conduct an additional Success/Leadership or Success/Communication module (in addition to the ones you conducted for your current Able Toastmaster Bronze award) or conduct a Youth Leadership program (a modified program offered to youth by Toastmasters and their clubs) to qualify for the Advanced Toastmaster Gold award. You also will have to complete two more Advanced Communication and Leadership Program manuals and coach a new member with the first three speech projects. You will still will be an Able Toastmaster until you have earned one of the new awards.

There used to be time limits for completion of advanced work. Time limits have been dropped for several reasons. First, our research showed that our members lead busy lives, devoting their time to careers, family and other interests, including such volunteer activities as Toastmasters. They need flexibility in their volunteer activities to allow them to meet the demands on their time. Eliminating time limits gives them this flexibility and helps them to remain interested in participating in Toastmasters.

Another reason is that our educational awards should recognize members for their activities and accomplishments. Of course, clubs may recognize their own members for longevity if they wish to do so.

If you have already received the CTM or even the DTM award, start over! Complete the basic manual again and work through the two tracks again, there is nothing to stop you. You will learn even even more about public speaking and leadership. You will contribute your experience to your fellow club members, area, division and district at the same time.

Call our Info Line:  In Greater St. Louis:  (314)726-9834
Remainder of District 8:   1-800-569-0595
Distinguished District 1999-2000!

Your comments are welcome at gavelmaster@d8toastmasters.org
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