Conduct DCP & CSP
A: DCP, Distinguished Club Program, is a set of goals for club to achieve within a Toastmasters Year, inlcuding:
- Two CCs
- Two more CCs
- One ACB, ACS or ACG
- One more ACB, ACS or ACG
- One CL, ALB, ALS or DTM
- One more CL, ALB, ALS or DTM
- Four new members
- Four more new members
- Minimum of four club officers trained during each of two training periods
- One membership dues renewal report and one club officer list submitted on time
In addition, your club must meet a membership requirement. At year-end (June 30), it must have:
- at least 20 members OR
- a net growth of at least five new members
A: CSP is the Club Success Plan. Club officers set goals, outline strategies, and then develop, execute and alter plans to achieve those goals.
A: Toastmasters International will update your club DCP status by every Friday. You can view your club DCP report online: Distinguished Club Program Reports (online)
A: The Advanced Leader Bronze award recognizes members for their leadership activities within the club. One of the requirements for this award is that the member serves as a club officer and participates in the preparation of the Club Success Plan while serving as this officer. By preparing and completing the plan your club’s officers will be earning credit toward this award.
Related Resources:
Conduct MOT
A: MOT, Moments of Truth, is an episode when a prospective member comes in contact with any aspect of the Toastmasters experience and forms an impression of the organization’s quality and service. The Six Critical Toastmasters Moments of Truth:
- First impressions
- Membership orientation
- Fellowship, variety and communication
- Program planning and meeting organization
- Membership strength
- Achievement recognition
Related Resources:
A: Because MOT is a training module of “The Successful Club Series”, any of our club offices/member can conduct such training and obtain a credit for ACS or ALB. It’s also encouraged to deliver MOT in Club Officer Training.
Related Resources:
A: In order to accommodate various club meeting schedules, the program may be divided into two presentations, the first covering the standards Moments of Truth PDF which may take 10-15min., and the second involving the club evaluation Moments of Truth Handouts which may take 25-30min.
While it’s important to evaluate current MOT of your club, it’s more valuable and practical to discuss the solution and schedule to improve.
Some clubs have also post the Moments of Truth Wall Chart in the meeting room so that all the members can be aware the performance and aspects to improve of the club.
Organize Club meeting
A: Yes. Here are Internet video clips: DVD Clips: Welcome to Toastmasters!
A: See The 20 Essentials to a Benchmark Meeting (13minute speech here in MP3 format) by Warwick Johnfahy, DTM
A: Follow page 8 “Club Meetings” and page 30 “Sample Meeting Assignment Schedule”of the VPE manual, When You Are the Vice President Education (PDF):
- Ask every member to complete the Member InterestSurvey (Item 403). Use the completed surveys to create an educational plan for the club.
- Schedule meeting assignments at least 4 weeks in advance. Rotate assignments so all club members can participate.
- Confirm each schedule 5-7 days before the meeting. Make sure and remind all participants – especially new members –know and understand their duties.
- Prepare and send out a written agenda for distribution to all club members to keep the club on track and on time.
Related Resources:
- Planning Club Meetings
- Filling Club Meeting Roles
- Leading the Way to Meeting Excellence
- Club Management Software
- Toastmaster’s Check List
A: Has your club meeting ended 10-20 min. late although each session is “in time”?
This might because you have not set time slot with “30sec” qualified time after each session, nor did you allow intermission for TME and role takers. For instance, a “1-2min.” table topic speech actually can take 2’30” and 1’ intermission, totally 3’30’’. If you set the agenda as 2 min, you will delay by 1’30’’.
It’s better to seperate each role taker’s introduction, say, 1’30” intermission. For instance, for a 5-7min. prepared speech, you need to slot 9min.
A: Evaluation is also part of the public speaking and leadership skills. Make sure that your club members take advantage of the opportunities for feedback through evaluations, and the opportunities for polishing, sharpening and refining your members’ speaking. Tips:
- Invite more experienced members from other clubs to be your GE (3-5minutes to evaluate the meeting) and provide a training on evaluation at the same time. You can invite your Area/Division Governor, too.
- You or ask your member to deliver trainings of “317 Giving Effective Feedback” from The Leadership Excellence Series and “292 Evaluate to Motivate” from The Successful Clubs Series- Your club members will learn to give evaluations that benefit the speaker the evaluator and the audience
A: Recognition is most effective when it’s delivered in public and immediately after the award is achieved. Recognition further motivates the recipients and creates role models for other club members. It also demonstrates the club’s standards of excellence.
Follow page 12-13 “Recognize Achievement” of the VPE manual, When You Are the Vice President Education (PDF) such as Present certificates during a special ceremony held at a club meeting.
A: Here are the FAQ of VPE
Organize Club training
A: Clubs are encouraged to run trainings from the The Leadership Excellence Series, The Successful Clubs Series, and The Better Speakers Series on a regular basis.
A: Any of our club offices/members is encouraged to:
- conducted any two presentations from The BetterSpeaker Series and/or The Successful Club Series to meet one requirement for Advanced Communicator Silver (ACS) Award
- conducted any two presentations from The Leadership Excellence Series and/or The Successful Club Series to meet one requirement for Advanced Leader Bronze (ALB) Award
Related Resources:
Organize Speech Contest
A: Toastmasters International has provided e-learning Speech Contest Module as following online sessions to gives you an overview of how speech contests are conducted and who makes them happen. Click the link and learn from now:
- Session 1: The Contest and Roles
- Session 2: When You’re the Judge
- Session 3: The Judge’s Guide and Ballot
Process to organize contest
by Susan Zhou, DTM from China Advanced Toastmasters Club
A: To be a judge, one must be a member in good standing, preferably since the previous July 1. Insofar as practical, one should also have completed at least six Competent Communication manual projects. To be a judge at the international contests, judges should be at least an Advanced Toastmaster Bronze or Advanced Communicator Bronze and have previously judged a Toastmasters speech contest at the area, division, or district. At area, division, and district contests, judges should be selected from a club or area not represented by the speech contestant. Please note that there is no requirement for a judge to have attended a Speech Contest Judges Training Program, but it is strongly recommended by World Headquarters.
A: At the club level, a contestant may be chosen by whatever means the club desires, therefore, a club may nominate their contestant to the area level contest. However, in the event that a club contest is held for a single contestant, should that contestant disqualify themselves by not meeting the timing requirements, the club may not nominate a different contestant to represent them at the area level. Similarly, at the area, division or district level, if there is only one contestant participating in the speech contest, should that contestant disqualify themselves by not meeting the timing requirements, a different contestant cannot be nominated to represent the area, division or district at the next level of competition.
Related Resources:
- Speech Contest Rulebook
- Speech Contest FAQs
- Why You Should Be a Speech Contest Official
- Speech Contest Judges Training program
- Speech Contest Time Record Sheet and Instructions for Timers
- Counters’ Tally Sheet
- International Speech Contest Judge’s Guide and Ballot
- Contest Chairman’s Briefing, International Speech Contest
- JudgingCriteria+Form_InternationalSpeechContest(pdf)
- Judging Criteria+Form_TableTopics(pdf)
- Misc Contest Forms(pdf)
- Organize Club Level Speech Contest
- Speech Contest Rulebook 2010