Toastmasters International Reviews 8

I have tried 3 clubs and am convinced it is very hard to find good clubs with both friendly members & good leadership in balance.
If members are great its leaders are atrocious & lousy and if leaders are great the members generally are of short-statured. Classic conundrum.
So unless you are ready to meddle with club politics, the only option is to remain as a member and stay away from club committee roles and just keep doing speeches, and I felt it was getting monotonous after some time just like gym membership.
The organisation is international so there is an opportunity for everyone to progress and get wider cultural exposures, perhaps the only positive aspect of TMI.
The speech practicing modules & curriculum they offer is online. TMI do not offer a way to preserve the progress made without continued club membership, even if you are ready to pay, which in my opinion is a shame.

Wonderful opportunity to improve public speaking, communication and leadership practicing with peers

This club globally is a disaster. The whole club is a fraud, scam and the entire club is MAFIA regulated.

Never ever join any of these clubs worldwide.

Toastmasters is an international not-for-profit organisation that is organised into local clubs. The organisation promotes speech and trains those wishing to learn how to speak effectively in public. Each club is run by volunteers who give up their time to organise meetings for members and guests. Members are able to give short speeches and all attendees are welcome to take part in short (two minute) speaking challenges known as 'table topics'.
Although there is a set format for meetings, each club differs due to its locality, organising committee and the values of the members.
I belong to Malvern club which is very friendly and welcoming and we usually have homemade cake too! All guests are welcome.
In Malvern we have members that have overcome speech impediments and a fear of speaking publicly and gone on to become very competent, confident speakers.
Toastmasters make training available, which is free to members, that helps in this respect.
I'm so glad that I discovered Toastmasters and my local club. I went initially to overcome a fear and stayed because it was such fun and I made wonderful friends.

this organization has clubs all over the world.

in all the clubs they have staff that do not help and they do not respond to your phone calls if you have any questions.

in all the clubs everything is consisted of SCAM.

what they do in every club is they take you as a hostage and you have to work as s slave.

the mission of each club is to give speeches but here is the catch : if you want to give any speech you have to ask so many people for permission.

if you give speech on a regular basis, they hate you and if you do not give any speech they hate you also.

all the clubs are anti-Semitic

please do not join any of their clubs worldwide.

I am personally filing a lawsuit against their coerporate headquarters.

I officially became a member of one of the clubs in Germany. (So I can't speak for other international clubs) Everyone is warm, welcome and gives constructive feedback. The paths online give a good structure to work with. I gave my first prepared speech (Icebreaker) and I'm very happy of how people perceive me. I'm very glad I found this club!

I ordered merch and other items from the website and they arrived today. Shipping took a while but I'm satisfied nonetheless.

Toastmasters International is a scam and slavery-controlling organisation that has run for many years. I have been part of it for 16 years, contributing a lot for this organisation and saving them two times on their poor decisions. They dictate and censor their members, let the members work as free slaves (leaders) to keep the organisation on-going with a yearly membership to control people on contests and membership benefits. Not only that, they sercetly go against the votes and change their bylaws and policies behind the scenes. Members like one of my friend killed herself because of indirectly harassed and harmed by the members of the community. The most toxic organisation is not the one who scam your money or stuffs, but using you to the extent while making you believe in false hope that it's an ethical organisation. It's a scam! Even I was victimised by voicing out against them for harming the members on a public forum and being blacklisted despite how much work I have done for this organisation.

I've been a member for over seven years, and my experience in Poland was mainly positive. Now, let's take a deeper look.

The Good Parts:

1) I discovered a second family in Poland. As a foreigner, I found a place where I met new friends who accepted me for who I was.

2) I rediscovered my artistic side. In Toastmasters, you must perform multiple projects where you practice your body language, eye contact, etc. But you can go farther and experiment with other things like becoming a magician. Something you might not do openly in front of your friends or coworkers.

3) You can expand your network physically/virtually. There are some regional or international conferences where you can expand your network and meet new people.

4) Feedback is our backbone. You'll constantly get constructive feedback from other members after any activity you perform.

5) You can learn about leadership and other skills when you join your club board and after the District.

There are several roles like the President, Vice-President of Public Relations, District Director, etc. It allows you to know how politics work in the real world, deal and reach agreements with new people and develop many other skills.

6) You follow standards for performing speeches. You have an educational program (Pathways) that allows you to go from zero to hero in a safe environment.

7) It's a safe place to make mistakes and share your speeches before an important presentation (at work or during your studies).

8) You can improve your language skills. If you are a foreigner, and you don't know Polish, German, Czech, etc. You can meet locals who speak their language, express your ideas and get feedback. It minimizes the need of going to bars or "language exchanges".

The Challenging Parts:

1) There is no way to bring new proposals to the organization. What if you would like to translate the Paths into Hungarian or Bulgarian? There is no way to do it officially even if your District wants to do it or sponsors it. You must wait for around a year for the mysterious proposals (that came out of "nowhere") that are voted during the International Conference.

There should be at least a website where the official members can submit and vote for their proposals. It will improve our organization and empower the regular members, allowing the international board to identify what is affecting its members globally.

2) Too much focus on Storytelling (we don't have a path) or Comedy and a little about regular jobs. I'm a storyteller, but I am also a manager.

My everyday work has nothing to do with storytelling. It's all about optimization and numbers. Most people don't tell stories or jokes to their managers. If you don't work in HR or PR, it's nearly impossible you will be sharing stories all the time.

3) Lack of Elevator/business-related pitching. Most pitches we perform aren't related to our daily duties but what you can share during a date/wedding.

You can adapt your new club to this area, but this is extra work. Also, you'd be alone since most Toastmasters lack this experience.

It isn't the same to win the International Speech Contest that trying to persuade one of Shark Tank's Investors. The Sharks are way harder since they expect a prototype, potential investors/clients, a business plan, identify a problem, etc. A very different speech style.

4) The current educational program isn't mobile-friendly. You must use a PC (or large tablet) to utilize it properly.

Generation Z or later might feel uncomfortable that there is no support for iPhones, Galaxies, etc.

5) The new educational program became too easy and repetitive. The first two levels are almost the same. Why would you perform 10 icebreakers if you belong to the same club and city for 3+ years?

Also, the previous program had more complex evaluation forms. Presently, you must follow the same pattern: the good parts, the improvement parts, and the challenge. It creates confusion even for seasoned Toastmasters who completely ignore the speeches' purpose/objectives.

Many people consider complex speeches (High-Performance Leadership Program) as common ones. The old evaluation forms from the same projects should be rescanned and reuploaded to Pathways to improve the members' experience and avoid the current confusion.

6) Too much pressure on creating new clubs. It shouldn't be part of your progression. Not every place needs new clubs, and that's why they close sooner than expected. Many are unnecessary and lack short/medium/long-term plans (business plans?) for their survival.

7) Over time, most members "lose track", and almost everyone wants to become a coach or trainer. It might not be an issue in Toastmasters itself, but the way it's organized tends to create this tricky situation.