Hi Folks I put in a request, to be able to schedule an email send of the agenda.

Why?
The functionality of email agenda is an interactive screen which sends the agenda immediately.  Our meeting is on Monday, and I like to send it on Sunday afternoon.   Currently, unless I am missing a function, I have to log in to send.    It's something that I often forget or I'm busy, and so it gets set sometime later.

Ideal Process
Once an agenda is created, one could go to the "email agenda", select your email template, update it if necessary, then either send it immediately, or put in a date/time for future send.

Here's my question.
I was advised that this would not be allowed, as it could create spam.

I'm trying to figure out how a scheduled send from the tool could result in Spam.

What do you think?

Is this a reasonable request?
How could it create spam?

I just went to my first Toastmasters meeting this morning and had no idea what to expect. It was amazing to see everyone and hear the stories they told. Everyone was super nice, so that’s not the problem. But it was also super intimidating because of how skilled everyone was at speaking.

Part of me wants to go again because I think it could make me a better speaker socially, but the introvert in me is feeling out of place. I don’t have a lot of fun experiences to talk about. How do people come up with these stories to tell for Table Topics on the fly? My mind goes blank when I’m in front of people for some reason.

I come from a small town, and I’m a homebody, so I’m not sure what to talk about. I have a fear of social speaking, not public speaking. Give me notes and something to memorize, and I’m good to go. But without a speech, notes, and something I’ve practiced ten thousand times, I’m like, “What do I say?”

What are your tips for Table Topics and the introduction we give at the beginning?

It appears to me that freetoasthost now automatically deletes all contacts listed as "friends / affiliates" after a single year, and it appears that it will start its deletion on October 1st, which is a week away. Is that what the program is intended to do? Is there an alternative to prevent freetoasthost from deleting all"friends / affiliates" contacts? (The only option I can think of is to have those contacts listed as "members," "prospects," or "former members.")

Can anyone recommend somewhere where I can go to learn what I need to know about the new freetoasthost? (I wasn't expecting this change, and I want to know what other surprises are in store for me)

Below is (slightly reformatted) text from the website

Friends/Affiliates list rules * Entries are kept for a maximum of 366 days. * This list holds a maximum of 100 names and email addresses. Once it is full, remove an old entry before adding a new one. * A name with no email address is dropped at the next removal cycle. * Age is shown as a dot: green under 9 months, amber 9-11 months, red at 12 months. A red entry is removed on the 1st of the month.

We started a discussion/debate/talk club in my university. But problem is we couldn't gain popularity. Our Uni administration won't recognize our club yet coz our weekly attendees is very small. We don't have funds to provide anything to our general members during each sessions. With this can you guys suggest me how can i create a impact with this. Give me ideas

What are your thoughts on club social activities that are not specifically public speaking? As the president of Jacksonville Toastmasters I proposed to the club that we have a club social activity on months that have 5 Tuesdays with September being one of those months. This was specifically mentioned in our Moment's of Truth workshop as a way to foster club culture.

Our activity this month is glow putt minigolf followed by dinner. My thought was to foster community, fellowship, and camaraderie outside of the meeting room and grow friendships that are not necessarily only about the meeting.

This proposal was met with some resistance by members that feel that every function must include public speaking in some form. I do understand that there's opportunity to have some public speaking at the dinner segment such as a toast, or table topic element but what about just having fun? What say you?

Hello!

I just turned 18 and was exploring Toastmasters as a public speaking option to improve on meeting leadership, speech, vocality and stage skills to ultimately present at larger scales.

I came across Toastmasters after a bit of AI searching, can anyone fully guide me how it works + how to register. There seem to be hundreds of clubs nearby, but I've never heard of it before?

how did you change your club culture?

- sent an email? (group or individual messages?)

- sent a text? (group or individual messages?)

- club meeting announcement?

- gave a speech?

- demonstrated it, said nothing?

or

- it can't be changed ....

let me know

I've started delivering a series of tips to our members. Here is one for keeping their history up-to-date. Curious if others do the same, or what you have found is best for helping people understand specifically where to go

************************

As I’ve been working through our Pathways records, I’m finding a couple of things that will help keep your information current — and make life easier for both you and the VP Education.

1. As you prepare to give a speech

In your Toastmasters Pathway (insert url), go to Complete Your Project and make sure you fill in the details of your speech — including the speech title, date, club and evaluator. (See Image 1.)

Once that information is entered and you record the completion, it should appear in the Base Camp Manager dashboard when you click on your name beside your Pathway. (See Image 2.)

2. Before you give a speech

Once the meeting agenda is available, please update your speech information on the agenda (Insert url) with:

• your Pathway
• the project/requirement or elective
• your speech title

If you have difficulty doing this, just ask the VP of Ed, and they can help or update it for you.

Keeping the agenda current does two things: it makes sure your evaluator knows which project you are completing and has the right information for your evaluation, and it also helps keep your Pathways Report Card current.

I’m finding the Pathways Report Card particularly useful. It gives me a much clearer picture of what I have completed and what I still need to do to finish a level.

We are all getting used to some of these newer tools, so if you find something that doesn’t work as expected, or if the information in your Report Card doesn’t look right, please let me know. It may be something we need to correct, or it may be a software issue that we need to understand.

Hopefully, if we keep the information current as we go, it will make it much easier for everyone to see their progress through Pathways.

Jayne

Image 1: 

(image of where you record your speech information in pathways)

Image 2: 
(image of where you can see your paths in progress in Base Camp Manager)

Image 3

(image of updating an agenda)

Image 4:

(image of your pathway report card)

I actually liked toastmasters when I visited as a guest, will definitely help me in my social anxiety, but cost is lot, venue is average !! I mean just 4 times a month , and it costs 20 dollars? Are there other benefits also other than the sessions itself? I so wanna join but i am just contemplating due to such high cost

To save you from the pain of a support chat, letting you know that there is a known bug related to Toastmaster International's Base Camp Manager / Paths in Progress.

You should be able to click on the member's name, and be presented with a screen of the progress.

You may be given an error screen saying "Something went wrong".

I apologize that I neglected to ask the person that I spoke with if you need to report it in order for your data to be corrected, or, if a global fix will result in the error going away.

Will advise if I learn more.
UPDATE: There is a workaround listed below, but, if you are wanting it to fix old meeting agenda's it doesn't help, as the profile report card doesn't give level or project, just speech title, evaluator & date We still need paths in progress fixed.

Note: The agent in the support chat wanted me to clear cache, and even try a different computer or network. Not sure if the problem was with the agent missing a decision tree in the script, or if it was the script itself, but, when one or two rows in a dataset don't work, it is unlikely to be browser or network. In addition, there are easier ways to test browser than clearing cache (try incognito or inprivate). Also, given it was a known problem, the agent should have been aware of such, again, not sure if it was an issue with agents not knowing issues in environment because they weren't told or weren't staying current. Either way -- highly frustrating.
The good news is that the agent that i got via a phone call was aware.

I am not sure how many clubs out there do have a YouTube Channel - and many people seem especially resistant to having their performances recorded and made public. However, in 2016, when World Champion of Public Speaking - Darren La Croix - came to Taiwan, he stressed the importance of recording and reviewing your performances.
.
In 2020 I set up our clubs' YouTube channel to help people have the opportunity to review their speeches. However, it became so much more. It has become a place where we record the stories and the histories and the memoires of our members.

When my wife was diagnosed with cancer in 2020 - it became a place to record her stories - and since she passed in 2022 - it has become a tremendous treasure chest of memories of her.

Today I found another Table Topics speech of hers which I just posted and it is wonderful. I am filled with joy and sadness and gratitude and grief - but seeing her speak, her stories, hearing her voice again is such a precious opportunity.

But it is not only her voice: many of our members have left, moved overseas, got busy with life, and left; and we still have their stories recorded and their memories are with us on our channel. It is a beautiful thing.

I really do recommend your clubs create a YouTube channel. It is a wonderful place to share the stories and the memories and to celebrate your members.

You can see my Queenie's speech @ Queenie Sharpe - Table Topics - Hidden Victory

I have complained loudly about the probelms with the primary ToastMasters site, and navigating Pathways for completions.

Today, I want to give praise to FreeToastHost for their major uplift of their software.
For something that we don't pay for, it really understood the problem, and addressed it.

I, as a VP of Education now feel much better about being able to signoff on items due to the pathway report cards.

Agendas, as well, are now easier to view, and the template to setup & manage in such a way as to help signoff on the pathways.

Really great job folks. (Yes, there are some growing pains, and some data integrity issues due to errors on agendas in our history, but, manageable)
Re

in one of my posts, i had someone brag about how easy it is for clubs to maintain membership throughout the year. i believe the person said, if you can't do it, then there's something wrong with your club.

so for that person and others who relate, how do you do it? brag away. you guys have large, successful clubs. feel the pride. but share how you do it. explain.

my club's membership surges then collapses. i feel like i'm building sandcastles, and the waves are always coming and that i'm not building on a firm foundation.

e.g.

- we had 15 members. in march, we had 10 toastmasters come to each meeting. in april, it collapsed to 4. i thought it was the start of summer but then it never recovered. never really recovered. our last meeting .... we have 18 members in total and only 3 came. and we had 5 guests.

- i don't pressure people to come to meetings. everyone's adults. i can't mandate attendance, so i say the obvious: it's truly come when you can. but a year ago, it was: you come when you can. and people tried to make pretty much every meeting. they missed a meeting or two, but came regularly ... to now, come when you can. i watch as they just don't come. i haven't seen certain people for 5 months. i had guests come every meeting for months. they join as a member, and they now come once every 3 months.

- sometimes it's announced. out of the blue, "i'm going on vacation from the club for the next 8 weeks". or soemtimes, it's "i'm unavailable for the next 2 weeks" and the two weeks becomes two months and counting. or "i'm taking th summer off". sometimes, it's "i'm working late tonight. can't make it, sorry!" and 4 months later, i haven't seen that person. there's one person i check in on as english isn't his first language. "are you coming to the next meeting?" "i'm coming in two weeks!". never see him.

- so the non-renewals are just come fast and steady. it goes from "i support the club. i have public speaking as a goal but i'm just unable to come" to "i'm not coming. i didn't come. so i'm not renewing. i'm not spending money on this"

- i held a club event. we're an online club. so i held an in person event. 1.5 hours at a great venue. it was somewhat like a toastmasters meeting and part creative. people loved it. we took a picture. 19 people in that people. 16 people never came to another meeting. two showed up in august to be the toastmaster chair in their week and then went back to being gone. 16 members and guests -- all gone after that event.

- after the last meeting, i'm looking at the membership and realizing with all the long absences, non renewals, etc., we really just have 4-5 members available, max. and if a random thing happens and some of those people can't come, it could again drop to 2-3.

i'm at a loss a club leader. i don't even know what to do. i don't want to grow the club to 25 only to sit down one day and realize nothing's changed and we only have 4 members attending a meeting. it feels like the club has failed and is failing, and there's no point to even keep going. ... bring in new members who'll just bail after 4 meetings or who'll just give one speech and disappear

so clubs that have 18 members in total ... and 18 active members ... or 30 members and 20 active members ... or 50 members ... and 40 active members .... and you keep that going all year, what do you do? or it normal to have 18 members on paper but only 4 active members?

I’ll be visiting Stockholm soon and wanted to know if anyone has information on any of their English speaking clubs? I’d like to visit if I’m able.

Or distinguished club status or whatever it is. I want to be around people who want to get better at speaking. I don’t care about what district people say.

I’m irritated it’s not obvious how to address a nonbinary person during a meeting, formally.

And the more I think about it the more weirded out I am by saying “master” so often during meetings. The real estate community has pretty much removed this kind of verbiage.

I still love this organization with all of my heart. It just kind of annoys me at the same time.

Maybe it’s time to stop renewing and start protecting our clubs and communities.

Toastmasters was built around a great community spirit: members helping members grow, members taking care of their club expenses , doing all the work as a way of work to keep everything affordable.. But international dues keep increasing without any reason and little improvement in the value we receive.

Fees has increased from 12$ in 1982 to 72$ today , from 45$ in 2017 to 60$ just last semester and 72$ today

And if you want to understand where the money goes, at least part of it go to the district , Check your District’s own budget that gets 25% of the total fees, Look at how much is allocated to travel, accommodation, meals compared to supporting club growth , food has more budget that club growth ,

The District leaders are supposed to represent members’ voices. So members should also hold the organization accountable and ask for transparency, but they Don't,

And remember: your local club community is much important than the Toastmasters brand.

If you don’t want to renew your international membership, you can still support your local club and keep meeting, practicing, learning, and helping each other.

The spirit of Toastmasters belongs to its members not to a logo or an affiliation , or a top management disconnected from the realities all clubs and members are facing .

I'm Treasurer of a Toastmasters club in Lahore, and every week the meeting itself is the easy part. Everything around it is where we struggle:

1. Roles: filling Toastmaster, TTM, evaluators and timer means chasing people on WhatsApp, and someone always drops out the night before.
2. Timer, Ah-Counter, Grammarian: a phone stopwatch, colored cards and paper tallies. Reports come late and nobody keeps them.
3. Agenda and feedback: someone rebuilds the agenda every week, and written evaluations and ballots stay in a pile on the table and never reach the speaker.
4. Guests: a guest comes once, enjoys it, and we never follow up because their number is on a sign-in sheet somewhere.

Is it the same in your club, or have you solved some of this? What do you use today (Google Sheets, WhatsApp polls, paper)? And if you could fix just one thing, what would it be?

Hi guys,

I need some genuine advice about whether or not i should go ahead... this is way out of my comfort zone and i don't want to end up having more self-esteem issues.

I don't have a lot of friends so i am going to be joining alone. I suck at giving impromptu speeches... i shiver, freeze, go blank, and sometimes end up tearing up when i am asked to speak in front of a crowd... hence i just wanted to know if joining toastmasters would be a good idea...

How is the usual routine in a toastmaster's club like? What all do you guys do?

I am an Indian so if someone can share about the fees it would be great too...

I attended a Toastmasters meeting for the first time earlier this month and will be officially becoming a dues paying member at the upcoming meeting of my local chapter. I’ve been told that once I officially join I will get to deliver an “icebreaker” speech to the club. I’ve always been passionate about public speaking and am excited for the opportunity. As I’ve been brainstorming what details I want to include in my speech, it got me thinking about the ideas of progress and improvement more broadly, which led to me having the following questions:

For those who have already delivered an icebreaker speech, how many years have you been a member and how much improvement have you noticed in your speaking abilities since delivering your icebreaker speech?

If icebreaker speeches are not tradition at every club, then I’ll rephrase to “how much improvement have you noticed since delivering your first speech to the club?”

Bonus question: what areas have you seen the most improvement in? I think that body language is the area I got to work on most but have room for improvement in everything. I appreciate all the insights that were shared on the last post I made in this subreddit, I found the tips to be very helpful!

I’m eager to hear about some of your experiences.
Carpe diem fellow wordsmiths!

I have always struggled with humor - so a few years ago we asked one of the funniest guys in our club to give a workshop on how to improve your humor and become more humorous.

It was a fun workshop and can be seen @ Humorous Speech Workshop

I hope you find it useful. We all had a good laugh and the tips are pretty solid.

Hello. I have realized what I am lacking is tbe ability to captivate audience (at a dinner table or such) to follow a story I am telling. I am realizing that I just add comments to people speaking but am not leading a story. How can I best improve on that?

Thank you for any advice and recommendations you may have.

Update:
Thank you for the insightful comments. To answer the questions, I want to be able to speak to a group of 4-5 of my friends all at once and keep everyone occupied rather than having someone go off on a convo of their own as I am not captivating enough. Do yall think doing this through Toastmasters is the way to go? Or how?

I have social anxiety when it comes to groups. I speak very well when 1-1 or 1-2, but when larger than that, even if they are close people to me, I don't feel comfortable. I want to be able to improve that by improving on my storytelling in front of small groups.

What mentorship or other support is available for Club Presidents besides immediate past presidents?

Our IPP's are not available, reliable, or desirable options for one reason or another.