Frequently Asked Questions
What is Toastmasters International?
- What is Toastmasters?
- Is this just a group for people in the USA or for people 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 is "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?
- Where should I go for further information?
- Can I send mail to Toastmasters officials via the Internet?
Membership in Toastmasters International
- How does one go about joining Toastmasters?
- How much does membership cost?
- Can I belong to more than one club?
- If I belong to more than one club, do I have to pay full dues for each?
- Are my dues tax deductible?
- What do I get for my dues?
- What do I get for my New Member fee?
- If I want to drop out of Toastmasters after joining, what do I do?
- How receptive are clubs to new members?
- If I join, will they make me speak right away?
Educational Advancement in Toastmasters
- What should my main objective be as a new Toastmasters member?
- What does CTM stand for?
- What do I have to do to earn a CTM?
- Do I have to give all the speeches at Toastmasters club meetings?
- Do I have to work through the C&L manual in the order the projects are given?
- When I finish the CTM what happens?
- What's the ATM?
- What do I have to do to get an ATM Bronze?
- What advanced manuals are available?
- Other than the CTM and ATM, what educational opportunities are there in Toastmasters?
- What happens after I earn an ATM Bronze?
- What are the ATM Silver and ATM Gold?
- What are the CL and AL awards?
- What is a DTM?
- What happens after I've earned the DTM?
- Is there anything else?
- Have you considered making a "speech bank" of good speeches presented by Toastmasters members available for gopher or FTP?
- What leadership opportunities within the club are open to me as a member of Toastmasters?
- What leadership opportunities are open to me outside the club?
- What is an Area?
- What is a Division?
- What is a District?
- Whoa! That sounds complicated!
- How do I get to be a District officer?
- What levels are beyond the District?
- What's the World Convention?
- So the Board of Directors and the President and Vice Presidents make all the decisions about dues and so forth?
- What do I get for serving as an officer?
Toastmasters International Speech Contests
- What's all this about speech contests?
- How do you pick the winners?
- Who gets to compete?
- When do the contests take place?
- What do I get if I win a contest?
- My District has different rules for the various speech contests. Is this permitted?
- Hey, what about the Debate Contest or the Interpretive Reading Contest or some other contest you didn't mention?