Public Speaking and Leadership Tracks

There are four levels of recognition within the public speaking track of the Toastmaster program and three levels of recognition for the leadership track. These tracks may be worked on simultaneously, if desired. Some Toastmasters choose to focus solely on the public speaking track. Once a Toastmaster has completed all seven tracks, they have earned the Distinguished Toastmaster Award, which is Toastmasters' highest honor. An overview and flow chart of the different levels of accomplishment within the Toastmasters program may be found here.

Meeting Roles

There are several defined roles at each Toastmaster meeting, including the Toastmaster, who serves as the program emcee, speech evaluators, speech timer, etc. These roles are assigned on a rotating basis depending on the individual members experience level. An explaination of each meeting role may be found here.

Speech Manuals

All new Toastmasters begin their journey of public speaking excellence by completing the Competent Communicator manual.This is a manual detailing the evaluation criteria of the member's first ten speeches. Each speech is evaluated on a different set of criteria, such as vocal variety, speech organization, use of props, etc.

Once a member had completed their first ten speeches and earned the Competent Communicator (CC) designation, they may work from any of the 15 advanced manuals available from Toastmasters. These 15 manuals cover different areas of specialization, such as humorous speaking, speaking on television, speeches by management, storytelling, etc. Each advanced manual contains five speech project. A more detailed explaination of all Toastmaster speech manuals may be found here.