Educational Advancement in Toastmasters International

What should my main objective be as a new Toastmasters member?

Well, there are two "right" answers to this question. The first is that your main objective should be to attend every meeting you can and participate to the fullest, helping yourself and the other members of the club to become better communicators. The other "right" answer is that you should be working toward the CTM award.

It stands for "Competent Toastmaster." The CTM is the basic speaking certification offered through Toastmasters. Many members join, earn their CTM, and drop out of the organization. It's the basic "diploma."

You have to complete the Communication and Leadership (C&L) manual, which in effect means you have go work your way through the ten speech projects contained therein. When you finish your manual, you'll complete the registration information in the back of the manual and send it in to World Headquarters in California.

No. So long as you are giving the speech to an audience with at least one Toastmasters member in attendance, and so long as a fellow Toastmaster completes the manual evaluation for that project, you may count that speech toward a CTM.

No. You can do the projects out of order if you like. It is recommended that you follow the order given since the projects progress upwards in difficulty but if you have a speech idea or opportunity that better suits one of the later projects you may skip over earlier ones and do that one first.

When you finish, there's a form in the back of your manual to fill out, sign, and send in to World Headquarters. When your paperwork is received at World Headquarters they enter it into the computer and you are issued a CTM certificate. If you mark it on the registration sheet they will also send a letter to your employer letting them know. Also, when you send in the registration sheet you're asked what three advanced manuals you'd like copies of, so you can start working on the ATM.

ATM used to mean Able Toastmaster, but now it means Advanced Toastmaster. Toastmasters International recently expanded the educational program and restructured the types of recognition awarded to allow members to focus on either speaking or leadership.

The Toastmasters educational program is divided into two tracks -- a communication track and a leadership track. The communication track is the major part of the system -- almost all new members join Toastmasters for the benefits this track offers. Many become involved in both tracks at the same time.

Communication Track: After completing the CTM, you may complete additional advanced manuals to earn the ATM-Bronze, ATM-Silver and ATM-Gold awards.

Leadership Track: You can serve as a Club leader, developing skills in planning, training, motivating, and managing. You even can become a District leader, where these skills are further enhanced. Following this track you may earn the CL (Competent Leader) and AL (Advanced Leader) awards.

By completing both tracks, you may also earn the DTM (Distinguished Toastmaster) award.

Well, it's a little more difficult than a CTM, for starters. You have to:

1. have received a CTM,
2. completed two of the Advanced manuals, each of which has five speech projects

There are fifteen manuals available, each with five speech projects of various lengths:

• The Entertaining Speaker
• Speaking To Inform
• Public Relations
• The Discussion Leader
• Specialty Speeches
• Speeches By Management
• The Professional Speaker
• Technical Presentations
• Persuasive Speaking
• Communicating On Television
• Storytelling
• Interpretive Reading
• Interpersonal Communication
• Special Occasion Speeches
• Humourously Speaking

You receive three of these for no cost when you complete your CTM. Additional manuals cost $3.00 plus postage and handling.

Well, there's the CL, AL and DTM, of which more in a moment, but there are also Success/Leadership and Success/Communication modules, as well as the Better Speaker and Better Club series. If you'd like to delve in detail into subjects such as management, the qualities of a leader, effective listening, parliamentary procedure, creative thinking, and so forth, Toastmasters International offers pre-packaged course materials for you or a member of your club to present to a group of participants. These courses are called Success/Leadership and Success/Communications modules.

The modules come complete with instruction manuals for the participants and for the coordinator, as well as overhead transparencies and so forth to use during the session. The modules cost anywhere from $15 to $45, with proceeds going to pay for development of MORE modules.

Modules are currently available on the following subjects:

• conducting productive meetings,
• parliamentary procedure,
• Speechcraft (an eight-week public speaking education program),
• effective listening,
• effective evaluation,
• mental flexibility,
• the power of ideas,
• characteristics of effective leaders,
• developing leadership skills,
• working in the team environment,
• training, and
• developing management skills.

There is an additional course available called "Youth Leadership" which is similar to Speechcraft except that it's targeted for children and teenagers and it's not formally part of the Success/Leadership or Success/Communications program.

The modules average just over two hours each. Modules are ordered through the Supply Catalog (available for a dollar from World Headquarters), but veteran members own many of them and will share them with newer members.

Toastmasters International has published a Leadership Manual which contains various leadership projects. If you wish to undertake a personalized development of your leadership skills, you may purchase the Leadership manual and get the assistance of your club in working on its projects. This training in leadership takes you along the same path you travel on the way to a DTM and when you complete the Manual, you receive a certificate attesting to your leadership excellence.

The first thing that happens is that you send in the registration and receive your certificate for your achievement. Members who earn ATM's are listed in Hall of Fame section of the Toastmaster magazine, and TI World Headquarters will send a letter to your employer if you wish notifying them of your accomplishment.

After earning an ATM Bronze, you have two courses of action open to you. One is to continue giving advanced manual speeches, and work towards the ATM Silver and ATM Gold awards. The other is to seek leadership opportunities and earn the CL and AL awards. The paths are not mutually exclusive; members are encouraged to continue working down both avenues as they continue their membership in Toastmasters.

The ATM Silver and ATM Gold are further advances along the Advanced Toastmaster route.

The requirements for the ATM Silver are as follows. You must have:

1. completed an Advanced Toastmaster Bronze (new program) or Able Toastmaster (old program),
2. completed two additional advanced manuals,
3. completed two programs from the Better Speaker and/or Successful Club Series.

As with the ATM Bronze, you must send in the registration to receive credit, and again you are recognized in the Toastmaster, and may have a letter sent to your employer.

The requirements for the ATM Gold are as follows. You must have:

1. completed the Advanced Toastmaser Silver (new program) or the Able Toastmaster Bronze (old program),
2. completed two more advanced manuals other than those used for the ATM Bronze and ATM Silver,
3. have conducted a registered Success/Leadership, Success/Communications or Youth Leadership program,
4. coached a new member with the first three speech projects.

As with the ATM Bronze, you must send in the registration to receive credit, and again you are recognized in the Toastmaster, and may have a letter sent to your employer.

The CL and AL are the awards earned in the Leadership Track of the new Toastmasters educational program.

The requirements for the Competent Leader, or CL, are as follows. You must have:

1. achieved the Competent Toastmaster award,
2. served at least six months as a club officer and participated in the preparation of a club success plan,
3. while a club officer, participated in a District sponsored club officer training program,
4. conducted any two programs from the Successful Club Series.

As with the ATM awards, you must send in the registration to receive credit, and again you are recognized in the Toastmaster, and may have a letter sent to your employer.

The requirements for the Advanced Leader, or AL, are as follows. You must have:

1. achieved the Competent Leader award,
2. served a complete term as a district officer,
3. completed the High Performance Leadership Program,
4. served successfully as a Club Sponsor, Mentor or Specialist.

As with the CL, you must send in the registration to receive credit, and again you are recognized in the Toastmaster, and may have a letter sent to your employer.

DTM stands for "Distinguished Toastmaster." The DTM is the highest level of certification presently awarded by Toastmasters International.

The DTM is also the hardest award to earn. In order to qualify for a DTM, you must complete both the Communication and the Leadership tracks by achieving both the Advanced Toastmaster Gold and the Advanced Leader awards.

You have several options. You may go back at any point after earning a CTM and work your way through the C&L manual again and earn another CTM.

Some members earn a new CTM every year. This is one way in which veteran members may remain polished at the fundamentals of public speaking. You may also earn multiple ATM's, CL's, AL's and DTM's if you fulfill the requirements multiple times. You can work on the Leadership Manual or on presenting Success/Leadership and Success/Communications projects. Given that the DTM often takes a minimum of four years to complete, and sometimes longer, one will not soon run out of things to work on in Toastmasters.

Well, yes. The very, very best speakers may qualify for the Accredited Speaker program, a TI program to recognize those with professional speaking skills.

The requirements to qualify as an Accredited Speaker are as follows. The applicant must:

1. be a current member of a Toastmasters club.
2. have given a minimum of 25 speaking engagements to non-Toastmasters audiences within three years of application date. Copies of five letters of acknowledgement or appreciation from any of the 25 engagements must be provided as documentary evidence of successful presentations.
3. pass a rigorous two-stage judging process.

Fewer than 25% of the members who apply for the Accredited Speaker program become Accredited Speakers, and very few Toastmasters apply in the first place. This program is only for the best.

Yes, this has been considered. Some people think it would be an excellent idea, as they feel that there is no better way to learn how to write a good speech than to study others' speeches at length. Others, however, feel that a speech bank would lend itself more to Toastmasters and non-Toastmasters alike using speeches without attribution in speaking assignments or in speech classes, and that's not something we want to encourage. Toastmasters is a learn-by-doing type of environment, not a "copycat, adhere to this form or that form that someone, somewhere called 'good'" environment. Furthermore, a written copy of a speech contains none of the presentation and style the speaker put into its delivery and, as such, cannot be considered a full speech. To appreciate a speech and learn from it, you must see it presented. Hence, as yet, no "speech bank" has been set up.