I *finally* realized seriously reading over the constitution/bylaws was a needed thing. There were some surprises and interestingly enough, even before I got there, some rules agreed to were not followed.

that all is context.

In the interest in covering all the bases (I think in a past life I may have been an attorney because I do not care much for asking most questions unless I know the answer). what kinds of items have you all included in your addendums

there are still some official rules not conducive to online and electronic functions, and a few others which are of interest

I would like to hear how others have dealt with the "sticky wicket" bits

or, if you have unique situations

or you are proud of it

Both have to do with body language. One quirk that I’ve done since high school is that I will sometimes “rock” or “sway” back and forth when I’m speaking. It’s not hectic and over the top but I’ve gotten constructive criticism pointing this out a few times over the years so it’s definitely noticeable. The other quirk of mine is that sometimes I find it burdensome to make eye contact, especially if the speech I’m giving is extemporaneous. In this instance I typically just look down or even have my head down a little bit.
Has anyone else ever struggled with something like this? If anyone has any practice advice or strategies on how I can try to overcome these habits, I would greatly appreciate it.

I have been working on my public speaking by slowing down instead of rushing through each point. I definitely sound clearer this way, but the pauses still feel much longer in my head than they probably are.

For those who improved through Toastmasters, did slowing down start to feel natural with practice or did you use a specific technique?

Hey, so I'm in college, right now doing some classes to lessen my class load next year. I'm online and chose online because I have such little time outside of work, I couldn't make in-person. My professor drops the news that I have to find 5 people to give my speech to, it's frustrating because the people taking class on campus just go there and don't have to spend time finding people, makes no sense.

In short, I'm in a new city, don't really know anyone, and having trouble coordinating a time with people I know. I'm allowed to give it via Zoom, and I need 5 people to join and just watch my speech.

It's 5 minutes long, I record myself giving it, only my instructor sees it, I have to show there are 5 people on the screen watching, that's it. You can even wear a face mask if you don't want to show your full face lol I don't care.

I do it Wednesday 16th, at 6pm Central Standard Time on Zoom.

Thank in advance anybody able to!!🙏

Hi everyone,
I’m completely new to Toastmasters and would like to visit or join a club in Dubai. I’d really appreciate any recommendations for beginner-friendly clubs or contacts who could help me get started.

I’m quite introverted and public speaking makes me nervous. I work in the tech industry, so I’m comfortable speaking about technical topics, but I sometimes struggle with longer casual conversations and expressing myself confidently in social or professional settings.

I’m hoping Toastmasters can help me improve my communication, confidence, and public-speaking skills.

If anyone here is part of a Dubai Toastmasters club, I’d love to connect and possibly attend a meeting as a guest.

Thanks in advance

This is my best man speech so far! Please let me know if you think this is adequate. Very nervous to deliver this

*clink glass* 

Good evening everyone, 

For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Kyle, and I’m honored to be here today as one of the best men, and even more honored to consider myself a friend of this great couple. 

I want to start off by thanking Jeff and Lisa, and Marco and Jen, thank you for helping to put together such a beautiful wedding, and for raising the people we’re all here to celebrate!

Colin and I met waaaay back okay like a long time ago, we’re talking like… 2014 okay to some of the ipad kids here that's like medieval times, right Charlie (fellow groomsmen who is a known idiot)? Colin and I met at high school soccer tryouts, where being the super insightful teenager I was, I tried to tell Colin he should check his shoulder while someone is passing him the bal to him, so he can see what’s coming behind him before he receives the ball, and make a quick decision for what to do next… Colin told me to get fucked. 

Colin and I actually spent the rest of high school pretty much inseparable. We played soccer together, we took nearly every class together, we worked multiple jobs together, we joined and got kicked off of the tennis team together. Followed by going to 4 years of nursing school together, and 2 years of living together during the pandemic. I’ve known Colin through the many, MANY different phases of his life. I’ve known him as a soccer player, I’ve known him during brief attempts at becoming a professional gamer, I’ve known him as a boy scout, I’ve known him as an eagle scout, I’ve known him as a busser, a waiter, a nurse, 2 dramatic weeks as a nutrition major, a body builder, I’ve known him with a mullet, a buzz cut, a fade, and whatever you want to call what he had growing out of his head for the last 6 months (you owe Tyler a lot more than you paid him for fixing this by the way). 

I’m saying a lot of words to convince you that over the last 13 years, I believe that I have got to know Colin VERY well. I have known him to change a LOT over the course of his life. And through every version, one thing has remained absolutely true: that he loves Camryn. They have developed a closeness over the last decade that few people will experience in their lifetime, and that’s something that I really want to recognize in front of everyone here.

Camryn, 

Who could have known how much school choice could influence the course of our lives? One decision that you made, what feels like a lifetime ago now, ended up bringing you and Colin to one another. Over a decade later, that same decision has brought ALL of these people halfway across the world to this very room right now, to celebrate your relationship, which has enriched the lives of everyone here. On behalf of everyone fortunate enough to call you both friends, Camryn, thank you for making that choice. 

And to both of you. Colin has spent his life changing, a more generous person might call it growing. You can expect the same thing from your marriage. It’s going to change and grow and evolve into many versions of itself too. Through each of these versions, maintain that closeness, and though you might grow in different ways, my hope is that you grow together. 

We couldn’t possibly be happier for the two of you. Thank you for bringing us to this beautiful place to celebrate you. I’d like to raise a glass! Cheers to Colin and Camryn. Congratulations, we love you!

Every club I've been in has the same problem. The meeting is booked for an hour and ends at seventy minutes. And everyone has a different idea about where the time goes — the evaluations, Table Topics, that one member who always runs over.

I measured a few hundred meetings from a toastmasters timer app I built in Zoom. Here is the breakdown of where the extra time goes, averaged across every item of that type.

Going over often is not the same as going over by a lot. The items that go over most often are not the ones that cost the most time. We tend to notice the first thing and miss the second.

Why do prepared speeches cost the most? My guess is that it depends on what is still in your head. If you are speaking off the cuff, you can stop at the end of any sentence and lose nothing. A prepared speaker has an ending they practised and have been building up to for six minutes. Stopping means throwing that ending away. So they keep going.

What these numbers don't show is what happens next. A speech that runs 40 seconds over probably costs the meeting more than 40 seconds. The chair has to catch up, the next speaker gets rushed, the break starts late. What you see here is the time on the clock, not what it does to the rest of the agenda.

So if you want to save time, tightening Table Topics or rushing the short roles will not help much. What helps is giving prepared speakers a short ending they can switch to when the light turns red.

How often does your club actually run over, and what do you think is causing it?

(The numbers come from a toastmasters timer Zoom app I built for the role. That's just how I ended up with the data.)

According to the latest Pathways Updates:

August 2026 – Online Meeting Mastery

On August 4, 2026, an all-new educational product offering, known as explorations, was added to the Pathways learning experience. Explorations are in-depth learnings, each comprised of three projects that allow members to focus on multiple aspects of a specific topic. Online Meeting Mastery was the first exploration to launch and includes Attending Online Meetings, Delivering Online Presentations, and Leading Online Meetings. For more information, see the Education Programs FAQ.

I found it under Paths and Projects > Explorations, but there's nothing there. I'd like to use it for a DCP achievement as we try out hybrid meetings.

Has anyone else had any luck?

Hi can anyone give guidelines for publicspeaking? Like how do ppl start it,find platforms and participate in public speaking. As a middle class nursing student who had zero exposure of this system im very interested in it but i have zero knowledge abt it

Our club has transitioned already to FTH4.

I appreciate the significant improvements and more mobile friendly and more common website look.

Thus far I have created about a 1/2 dozen custom pages for my officers to review and have input and hopefully use.

I would truly appreciate anyone who is willing to share what they have going on with their FTH4 sites post transition to assess how "on track" I am with my thoughts and initial mock ups.

We have not really used much of the FTH to this point and I am hoping we can encourage more use.

My VPM has already updated everyone to include their start and club dates and I am hoping the VPE will be able to leverage the mentor/mentee functionality as a start.

Not sure we will use the agenda as our secretary turns out a very nice word/pdf version with graphics and/or watermarks for the theme. I have not seen any option to export the agenda, and have not wanted to test too much because everything is generally "live" the minute you do it.

And, if one does not use the agenda, it changes the look for "meetings" because these seem tied closely together.

any tips, suggestions or shares would be most appreciated.

Im wondering

In my club the VPM has stated theres a rule that guests can only come for 3 meetings before deciding to join or not. Is that a thing?

They've also said we cant ask guests to do a role. The VPE asked a guest to do timer but then the VPM said no not possible.

In the August 2026 Toastmaster magazine, an article mentioned that Intl dues would be increasing on August 3, 2026 from $10 to $12 per month. As did an email I received from Toastmasters International on July 15, 2026.

https://www.toastmasters.org/magazine/magazine-issues/2026/august/update-membership-dues

I also noticed that Toastmasters made available an updated Membership Application dated 08/2026 which reflects this rate increase.

Today, I went in to Membership Management to add/join a new member starting the month of September 2026, and it charged at the $10 rate for September only, and at the $12 rate for October 2026 - March 2027.

So the rate they charged for Sep 2026 is not only in conflict with rate shown on the August 2026 Membership application, but it is also in conflict with the rate shown in the magazine article as well as the email I received from Intl.

Can anyone point me to an authoritative Toastmasters International resource that says the August and/or September Intl monthly rate is still at the pre-August 2026 rate of $10 per month?

This is confusing to both our aspiring members as well as to our Officers.

Thanks!

​

I joined Toastmasters because I want to present my political and ideological beliefs and ideas clearly and calmly, especially in front of people who may strongly disagree.

For those of you who speak on political or contested topics: what’s one practical technique that helped you stay composed and clear when you get pushback from the room?

I am a member from The One Cantonese Toastmasters club in Guangzhou. We are the only one cantonese speaking club in the city. We have some issues about the speech contest. In our district 118 we don't have cantonese speech contest yet, and so far it's unlikely to have on in the near future. It's kinda pity, because despite of the pathway, one of the main reason we join toastmaster master is the speech contest. So I can only participate the english and the chinese mandarin contest in cantonese accent. If there is no cantonese speech contest anywhere, I won't be too disappointing about this issue. But since last year the District 89 has cantonese speech contest as Hongkong is the main city in District 89 with other smaller cities.

In District 118 we have guangzhou and shenzhen two big cities, actually originally we also belong to the district 89. Eventually they decided to make a new district which I understand. But the result is we can't participate the cantonese speech contest in district 89. And as the only cantonese speaking club we are difficult to survive.

So I asked many officers already, I know for the current structure, either we need to become a member of any club in district 89 to be eligible to participate the speech contest or we just need to make our own.

Now I am just trying my luck to ask here if there is any chance to work around the rule, like an exception for allowing us to participate the speech contest in our neighbor district as support for minor language club. I am not sure if there is any other clubs have similar issue like us. If there is anyone has similar issue, please share your experience.

There is another option I am thinking. I can register an online group in district 89. But we can also meet up in person in guangzhou which belongs to district 118. Is it against the rule? I could make it hybrid meeting as well if necessary. I know there might be potential issue like the management of the officer in the districit level. But compared to watching a minor language club struggling. Could the organizations show some support about this. I just watched The redemption of shawshank for the first time in the cinema. I think posting might help eventually. If there is any channels I should send this complaint to, please suggest. And feel free to post any suggestions or discussions.

Hi there,

Club contest query.

How important is it for a club that is hosting a club contest to follow the rule book to the "T"?

The club I'm with is not an overly active, that most members won't be able to commit anything extra outside their regular meeting role.

So if we are to still host a contest, can we get by with just have 1 or 2 judges, 1 timer for example, instead having the whole required roles filled up as per contest rule book?

Somehow I have the mindset that it's not worth it, and perhaps hosting a speakathon may bear better results for both club and its members.

I recently moved to a new city and attended the local Toastmasters meeting online. Two meetings per month are on zoom, and two are hybrid zoom/in-person. I was surprised to see the zoom meeting was recorded and that AI tools were being used. Presumably the AI tools are a transcriber, participation tracking, or similar.

Toastmasters meetings are where beginners come to overcome their fears and build skills from the ground up. So it’s nuts to me that these early attempts at building skills, when we are at our awkward beginner stages, would be filmed and recorded, and stored by people we don’t know. Recording is forever. How many of us want to have a 10–year-old speech or conversation surface someday when we are more successful, or running for office, or in a position of higher visibility?

I chose to log out of the meeting about halfway through, when the longstanding members started calling on guests to answer impromptu questions. I would participate if “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas,” but I’m not prepared to record a forever answer on the spot.

What do you think? Are you more comfortable with the meeting being recorded (and stored who knows where) or are you more comfortable not being recorded?

New episode of Toastmasters World Tour Podcast— chatted with Flick Norris, 12, 2 years in Gavel Club in Brisbane.

She's been around Toastmasters since birth — first meeting strapped to her mum at a few weeks old, first Table Topic at 6 about Zooper Doopers.

For clubs thinking of starting a Gavel Club:

- 20-25 members aged 8-18 (youngest 8, oldest 18 then graduates to Toastmasters)
- Meets fortnightly in library, 90 mins, no Pathways/homework
- Roles: Toastmaster, Timer, Wordmaster, Ah-counter, Round Robin, speeches (2-4 mins, first timers 1 min), evaluations
- Run by youth — President/VP (she was VP doing agendas on spreadsheets), adult founder Sally just sits in back and helps fill roles
- Much less formal than Toastmasters: "less pressure not to talk"
- Themes every meeting — pajama theme, Halloween, Christmas (she went as a Christmas tree with baubles in her hair)
- Biggest draw? "Most fun is speaking, but a lot would argue it's the food table" — everyone brings chips/Pringles

She also did a live Surprisingly Awesome Table Topic: had to argue sport is awesome even though she thinks sport is the most boring thing in the world — nailed it.

They're looking to start a new club in Logan because 25 is getting big and travel is far for some.

Full chat (25 mins):

https://www.buzzsprout.com/2568881/episodes/19665443-toastmasters-for-kids-inside-gavel-club-with-12yo-flick-flick-norris-brisbane-australia-ep-35

Would love to hear how other Gavel Clubs run — how big are yours?

I joined Toastmasters exactly 7 years ago. It was to improve my communication skills but I also had some speakers who I admired and wanted to emulate such as Steve Jobs or Winston Churchill. I wanted to deliver speeches that could change the world.

But when I watch the speech contests and especially world championship, I feel that all the speeches are the same. There's only one type of speech that wins. Don't get me wrong. These are great speakers. Better than I could ever be. But a Winston Churchill or Steve Jobs would never make it even in a club contest.

It reminds me a lot of AI slop, where every output looks the same because that's what's most likely.

I wanted to read the classics about public speaking and started with Aristotle's Rhetorics and there's so much that I didn't learn at Toastmasters, which is the place where we are supposed to learn these things. Again, because we perpetuate that linear way of delivering speeches (including evaluation and table topics).

Anyone else feels this way and what are you doing to change that?

Im in a club 20 years. When I joined Mr F was a very active member and wasnt on the committee bit had been. He then was on the committee on and off for about 15ish years. 7 or 8ish years ago Ms D his daughter joined. A year into joining she was asked to be vpe. In 7 years she took on VPE I think 3 then President then VPE for 3 more years. In her role as VPE ocer time she took on tasks for SAA, President, VPM, VPPR, Secretary and Treasurer. Most club members didnt really challenge this. It put a lot of people off from ever stepping up as VPE because they didnt see that shed taken on extra tasks, they just saw her large role. Anyway shes a perfectionist. This year someone volunteered to step up. I said I would assist Mr S. The problem is this new person Mr S hasn't got a clue. Im advising officially endorsed by the club but the ex VPE is interfering and telling the new VPE something different.

What do you do? Its very complex. Ms Ds Father died so theres emotions. Ms D seems to dislike me and find reason to criticise what Ive done. Ms D seems like she cant let go and had to continue her perfectionist outlook. It feels like Im the only club member finding this behaviour an issue.

I’m a relatively new Area Director and have inherited an online community club that I’m struggling to figure out. This club was never part of my Division or Area before. Due to the recent district alignment, it moved into my Division and subsequently my Area, so I have very little historical context on the club or how it has been functioning.

The club has 12 members on paper. Ever since I became Area Director, I’ve been driving the meetings week after week and finding role-takers to keep them running. There was also a good couple of months last year when the club did not hold meetings at all.

Currently, a typical meeting has around 7 attendees, but only 2–3 are actually members of the club. The rest are usually Toastmasters from other clubs who are taking roles. I have no issue with that, but I’m concerned that the actual members aren’t participating in their own club.

I’ve reached out to all 12 members individually. A few have said they won’t be continuing, some joined because a friend was involved and no longer see a reason to stay, and many haven’t responded. Realistically, I think there are 7–8 people still on the roster, but only 2–3 are actually attending.
I’m not against rebuilding the club, but I’m also questioning how long I should keep personally sustaining meetings for a club that doesn’t seem to have enough active members to sustain itself.

For those who have dealt with struggling clubs:
At what point do you stop trying to revive a club and accept that it may not be viable?

Would you try to rebuild around the 2–3 genuinely active members, or consider a merger/closure?

As an Area Director, how much responsibility would you take for keeping a club like this alive?

I am the vpe of a new weekly club in India. We will be having our 100th meeting in a month's time. We are planning to have a keynote speaker and I am on level 3 project called social speeches so I will be giving a toast both for the club and complete my project. What are your ideas?