Start a Toastmasters Club
Are you looking for a fun and rewarding way to improve your communication and leadership skills? Are you looking for a Toastmasters Club for your own corporation, university, organization, or interest group? Toastmasters allow us engage with people who share similar interests in a positive and supportive environment. Starting a new toastmasters club attracts people who want to boost their communication and leadership skills, and introduce them into our toastmasters educational program.
Each Toastmasters club has its own personality, style and culture. Toastmasters clubs may meet anywhere decent and comfy, including but not limited to corporations, churches, universities, community centres and even in restaurants. While community clubs are open to anyone, corporate or university clubs are often limited to staff or students/alumni respectively since the meeting venue and membership fees may be sponsored.
You will gain a great wealth of experience to develop your leadership skills, influential skills and organization skills throughout the club-building process. You will find it particularly rewarding and satisfied, while some hard work is expected to start a Toastmasters Club.
The District Club Growth Team provides support in club building.
Do you want to build a new club?
Do you have a lead on a potential new club?
Do you want to support building a new club?
Email the Club Growth Director at d89cgd@d89toastmasters.org
Tips for Starting a New Club
1. Work Hard and Work Smart
Read the step-by-step guide on How to Build a Toastmasters Club
Get more help. Inform the Club Growth Director that you would like to start a new Toastmasters Club at d89cgd@d89toastmasters.org
2. Identify Your Target
Are you planning a corporate, university, community, advanced or other clubs? You will need at least 20 people over the age of 18 to charter a club. Only 3 out of 20 members may be current members of another toastmasters club (referred to as “dual” members). The remaining 17 members can be new, reinstated or transfer members.
3. Apply to Toastmasters International to Organize a Toastmasters Club
The one-off Club Charter Fee is US$125 which you will get helpful resources from Toastmasters International.
4. Designate the time and venue convenient for your target audience
Find a venue that is central to your target audience, and a time which is mostly convenient for them.
5. Set a date for the Demonstration Meeting
The demonstration meeting gives you the opportunity to share the benefits of Toastmasters with prospective members. It demonstrates the elements of a typical Toastmasters meeting, including prepared speeches, impromptu speeches (called as “Table Topics”), evaluations and reports.
Form a team of toastmasters helpers. Inform the Club Growth Director that you would like to start a new Toastmasters Club at d89cgd@d89toastmasters.org
6. Promote your Demonstration Meeting
Adopt all possible promotion channels which can reach your target audience.
If the club is going to be an open community club, get the word out – use flyers, newspaper ads, social media and phone calls to let the community know about the Demo Meeting. For closed corporate/university clubs, email is effective as well as corporate/university newsletters.
7. Make the Demo Meeting the best and liveliest meeting you can
Engage the prospective members by sharing the benefits of Toastmasters – what they can get! Share story about how Toastmasters gave them better communication and leadership skills that helped him/her in their career or in other areas of his/her life.
Allow some time (if available) for socializing to get guests talking and interacting with toastmasters.
8. Keep a record of all who attended
Bring application forms and invite people to join the club.
Collect attendees’ contacts and invite them to come again. They may be the potential club officers in the new club!
9. Plan the next steps
It’s a good idea to develop options for next steps in advance of the demo meeting. Make provisions for possible outcomes. Once commitment is confirmed by the attendees, be ready to suggest a suitable course of action. If fewer than 20 people sign up, then you need to decide holding another meeting and get the word out to get more members.
10. Complete the Charter Forms ASAP and send it to World Headquarter
File the paperwork ASAP so the club can get the full set of Charter Kit quickly, and members can access Toastmasters Pathways system early to start their Toastmasters journey!
Get more help. Inform the Club Growth Director that you would like to submit charter forms to start a new Toastmasters Club at d89cgd@d89toastmasters.org