Toastmasters International

Organization and Club History

TM INTL was started from a single club in 1924 to promote speech communication and leadership. The organization as we know it today was chartered in 1932, by Ralph Smedley. This organization has spread throughout the world to 7 continents.

Where does our club fit in this organization?

TM INTL holds an Annual Convention in August where business is conducted, training sessions are presented and the International Speech Contest is held.

TM INTL is broken first into Regions. Our club is in Region 8, which runs from Virginia to Louisiana. A Regional Meeting is held in June every year where the Region's Finalist for the International Speech Contest is held. The Humorous and Evaluation Speech Contests end at this level.

Region 8 includes several Districts: the next classification. All of Alabama except the Mobile area is part of District 48. Our District holds meetings 3-4 times a year around the state to conduct business and hold qualifying speech contests.

District 48 is broken into three Divisions: Northern (Huntsville, Shoals, Anniston), Metro (Birmingham, Tuscaloosa) and Southern (Montgomery, Auburn, Dothan). This designation is mostly for administrative purposes.

Our Northern Division contains four Areas, of which we are in Area 3. The Area holds contests 3 times a year and is run by the Area Governor who visits our club twice a year to fill out a report. Most Areas have 5-6 clubs. Intergraph is in an area with clubs from Teledyne Brown, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama A&M and a couple of local community clubs.

Our Toastmasters Club is Number 6206 and was founded in March 1986 by John H. Allen, an Intergraph employee. This clubs has its roots in a corporate level course on listening and meeting skills that Mr. Allen led in the Fall of 1985. The club began in Building 1 and for 18 months was subsidized by Intergraph as an official company financially-supported organization. Since then, we have been considered an employee service but not eligible for tuition-type dues refunds. Our club once had around 40 members and has had a few as 7. In 1990, plans were in the works to leave Intergraph and become a Madison city club. Soon after that, the club began to grow and today we have 21 members and a strong future.

Meeting Workflow

- Sergeant-at-Arms sets up room; greets attendees; starts meeting with introduction of Presiding Officer

- Presiding Officer welcomes everyone and identifies guests and handles any club business

- Word of the Day (should have arrived early to put word, definition and sample sentence on board) is introduced. Gives the information on the board to the group. [Club acknowledges use of the work by knocking on wood.]

- Toastmaster of the Day is introduced. May give short anecdote or tell short story when time permits. Holes in the agenda are filled and the meeting is previewed. Throughout the meeting, the Toastmaster guards the lectern, provides transitional statements and keeps control

- The Table Topics Master is introduced and begins to pose questions to the audience. Volunteers are requested, but some questions may be assigned to specific people. Each speaker should target 1-2 minutes

- Each speaker is introduced in turn by the Toastmaster. Any visual aids should be arranged prior to the meeting. Time limits set in the bulletin should be targeted and given to the timer and the evaluator before the meeting

- The General Evaluator is introduced and may give some meeting analysis at that time, or defer it to later. Comments, whenever given should focus on the structure of the meeting and the keeping of club agenda rules as stated in this presentation. The GE may also evaluate those he/she introduces, such as the evaluators, the grammarian and the timer

- Each Evaluator [who should make arrangement with the speaker before the meeting to obtain the manual and their projected time] is introduced and gives a 2-3 minute analysis of their speaker. The evaluator should accent the positive and use constructive criticism when necessary at the end of the presentation

- The Grammarian is introduced by the GE and will make comments on grammar, word usage (such as the work of the day), and other language issues. All "ahs" and similar pause words are tabulated and reported at this time as well.

- The Timer is introduced by the GE and will give a time report for the Table Topics participants, Main Speakers, and Evaluators. A stop watch and timer flip card set are provided to assist in these duties. The flip cards are green, yellow and red and are to be used for the aid of the Main Speakers only.

{The green card is raised 2 minutes before the target time. The yellow card is raised 1 minute before the target time. The red card is raised at the target time. [Some modification to this is made at certain meetings.] }

- The General Evaluator makes any final comments and relinquishes control back to the Presiding Officer

- The Presiding Officer conducts any additional business, makes announcement and adjourns the meeting. [The PO will ask guests if they have any comments about the meeting as time allows.]

General Information

Club Elections:

- Immediate Past President (IPP) surveys membership and recruits officers starting in April; may ask incumbent for suggestions

- At second May meeting, Presiding Officer calls a business session and asks for a report from the IPP on the slate of officers.

- Other nominations may be made from the floor at this time

- IPP provides ballot information to VP-Education who distributes election ballots to members for a vote

- Results are made at the next meeting

- New Officer training should follow soon after the election and before the new officers take office July 1

Club Dues:

- Treasurer begins collecting dues in late August and Late February

- All money must be to the Treasurer 2 days before April 1 and October 1

- Dues are $20.00 semi-annually ($18.00 to TM INTL; $2.00 to INGR Club)

Visitor/New Member Workflow:

- Visitor finds out about INGR TM through a flyer, the TM WWW page, by word of mouth, invitation from a member, or some other method

- When applicable, notify VP-Education to get visitor added to E-mail distribution list

- Visitor may contact a club member for information; always be ready to promote Toastmasters to your co-workers and friends

- Visitor attends a meeting and receives visitor packet (VP-membership keeps these and orders more through the treasurer when needed)

Visitor decides to join:

- Fills out membership application and writes a check for the amount calculated ($19 - $36: depending on the month joining) to INGR TM; Turn in both to VP-Membership

- VP-Membership gives check to Treasurer to deposit and receives check from Treasurer (written to TM INTL) to attach to application. Both are given to Secretary

- Secretary makes a copy of the application for club records, adds address information to phone/address list and mails information to TM INTL