About Toastmasters International
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.
Toastmasters International's business and services are administered
by its 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.
How Toastmasters 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
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.
The Tools You Use
Upon joining a Toastmasters club, each new member receives
a variety of manuals and resources on speaking. Members also
have access to other books as well as audio and video cassettes
on speaking and leading. They also receive the award-winning
The Toastmaster, a monthly magazine that offers the latest
insights on speaking and leadership techniques.
Toastmasters and Leadership
Leadership cannot be learned in a day. It takes practice.
In Toastmasters members build leadership skills by organizing
and conducting meetings and motivating others to help them.
Club leadership roles and a leadership development program
also offer opportunities to learn and practice. Just as Toastmasters
members learn to speak simply by speaking, they learn leadership
by leading.
Company Benefits
A company's success also depends on communication. Employees
face an endless exchange of ideas, messages, and information
as they deal with one another and with customers day after
day. How well they communicate can determine whether a company
quickly grows into an industry leader or joins thousands of
other businesses mired in mediocrity.
Toastmasters provides the tools that enable employees to
become effective communicators and leaders all at a very low
cost. Toastmasters training helps employees:
- give better sales presentations hone their management
skills work better with fellow employees effectively develop
and present ideas offer constructive criticism
- accept criticism more objectively
Toastmasters produces results. Around the world more than
three million men and women of all ages and occupations have
benefited from Toastmasters training, and more than one thousand
corporations, community groups, universities, associations,
and government agencies now use Toastmasters training.
Community Benefits
Toastmasters has helped many members in their community service
activities. Using the speaking and leadership skills developed
in Toastmasters, people have become more active in business,
churches, and service and charity organizations. Toastmasters
members are able to organize activities, conduct meetings,
and speak in public as their organization's representative.
Some even become active in local, state or national government.
About Toastmasters International
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.
Toastmasters International's business and services are administered
by its 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.
Brief History of the Toastmasters Program
In October 1924, a group of men assembled by Dr. Ralph C.
Smedley met in the basement of the YMCA in Santa Ana, California,
U.S.A., forming a club “to afford practice and training
in the art of public speaking and in presiding over meetings,
and to promote sociability and good fellowship among its members.”
The group took the name “Toastmasters.” Soon men
in other communities and states asked for permission and help
to start their own Toastmasters clubs. By 1930, a federation
was necessary to coordinate activities of the many clubs and
to provide a standard program. When a speaking club in New
Westminster, British Columbia, Canada, expressed interest
in forming a Toastmasters club, the group became known as
Toastmasters International.
For many years the “Home Office” of Toastmasters
International was based in a series of rented office spaces.
In 1962, the Toastmasters International staff moved to its
first World Headquarters building in Santa Ana, California,
not far from where the first club began. By the late 1980s,
however, this building could no longer adequately house the
increased staff needed to provide services to the growing
number of Toastmasters. In 1990 World Headquarters relocated
to a new building in Rancho Santa Margarita, approximately
20 miles south of Santa Ana, designed to accommodate Toastmasters
International’s expected growth well into the 21st century.
Toastmasters International’s success and growth is
due in large part to the continued development of its educational
programs. The organization has come a long way since the first
speech manual, Basic Training, was developed more than 50
years ago. The current manual, now called the Communication
and Leadership Program, was most recently updated in 1996.
In addition to the various educational materials available
through the Toastmasters International Supply Catalog, members
receive the monthly publication, The Toastmaster magazine.
Club and district officers receive a bimonthly publication,
TIPS, and district officers receive District Newsletter each
month.
Since Toastmasters began, more than three million men and
women have benefited from the organization’s communication
and leadership programs. Toastmasters International enters
the new century as the undisputed world leader in public speaking
training, with over 10,000 clubs and more than 200,000 members
in approximately 80 countries. In the years to come, more
people than ever will benefit from Toastmasters leadership
and education.
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