Toastmasters Tracks

Educational program

A Toastmasters club is a "learn-by-doing" workshop. A typical club has 20 to 40 members, who meet weekly or biweekly for an hour or two to learn and practice public speaking techniques. The Toastmasters Competent Communicator and Competent Leadership Manuals are the heart of the TI educational program. The Toastmasters educational system consists of two tracks:

The Communication Track

The Competent Communicator Manual consists of ten speech projects, each building upon the other in skills and difficulty. For each project, the member will prepare and deliver a speech in front of the group. After the member has given the presentation, it will be evaluated by another Toastmaster. This near-immediate feedback provides the member with information on how he or she can improve his or her presentation skills for the next speech. Upon completion of the Competent Communicator Manual, a Toastmaster is entitled to the designation Competent Communicator, and may add the initials CC to his or her name.

The Leadership Track

The Competent Leadership Manual is similar to the Competent Communicator Manual, but with an emphasis on leadership. The member works through ten leadership projects, working on leadership skills such as giving feedback, critical thinking, team building and others. Most of these leadership projects consist of multiple assignments accomplished at meetings over a period of time.

When giving a speech at Toastmasters meetings, a member is expected to speak within a prescribed time limit. For most basic manual speeches, this limit is 5 to 7 minutes. For advanced program speeches, the limit can vary, with the maximum usually at 10 minutes; some of the advanced speech projects can be up to 30 minutes. The intent is to provide a positive experience for the speaker, encouraging him or her to build on the skills already learned and to improve other speaking and listening skills. This also creates opportunity for members to provide constructive feedback to help one another improve. In addition to providing the speaker with feedback the evaluator learns important skills in quickly preparing a presentation and listening skills. One thing to note is that the evaluators evaluate the speech and not the speaker. This is a subtle but important difference.

The distinctive feature of Toastmasters is the continual evaluation. Each activity at a club is evaluated: speeches are evaluated both orally at the meeting and in the member's manual. In some clubs, even the evaluators are themselves evaluated at the end of the meeting by a "General Evaluator", also a club member.

After achieving their CC, the Toastmaster then can go on to more advanced projects. There are 15 advanced manuals in the Toastmasters program, each consisting of five projects. These include projects on sales presentations, speaking to inform, speeches by management, interpretative reading, speaking on television, entertaining dinner speaking, communicating with news media, interpersonal communication, and others.

Completing two of these advanced manuals, and fulfilling some other requirements, will earn the Toastmaster concerned the title of Advanced Communicator, abbreviated AC. There are three degrees of AC called the Bronze, Silver and Gold level - thus a person may be called ACB, ACS or ACG. (There used to be one that was simply known as ATM, which stands for 'Able Toastmaster,' and others known as ATM-B, ATM-S, and ATM-G which stands for Advanced Toastmaster Bronze, Advanced Toastmaster Silver and Advanced Toastmaster Gold, but these titles are being phased out.) A person who has achieved the ACG award, together with the Advanced Leader Silver award described below, can apply to receive the title of Distinguished Toastmaster (DTM), Toastmasters' highest award. Certain clubs, known as "Advanced Clubs", are established to allow experienced members work on advanced or time-consuming projects and are often targeted at members who have already achieved their CC.

Communication and Leadership Track requirements

Communication Track

Competent Communicator (CC)

• Completed the Communication and Leadership manual.

Advanced Communicator Bronze (AC-B)

• Achieved Competent Communicator Award
• Completed two Advanced Communication and Leadership manuals

Advanced Communicator Silver (AC-S)

• Achieved new Advanced Communicator Bronze award or achieved current ATM award
• Completed two additional advanced manuals (may not be those completed for the new AC Bronze award or current AC award).
• Conducted any two programs from The Better Speaker Series and/or The Successful Club Series

Advanced Communicator Gold (AC-G)

• Achieved new Advanced Communicator Silver award or achieved current AC Bronze award
• Completed two additional advanced manuals (may not be those completed for the new AC Bronze and Silver awards)
• Conducted a registered Success/Leadership Program or Success/Communication Program (Success/Leadership or Success/Communication programs may not be those completed for current AC Bronze award) or a registered Youth Leadership Program
• Coached a new member with the first three speech projects

Leadership Track

Competent Leader (CL)

• Complete the Competent Leadership Manual

Advanced Leader Bronze (AL-B)

• Achieved Competent Leader Award (CL)
• Served at least six months as a Club officer (President, Vice President Education, Vice President Membership, Vice President Public Relations, Secretary, Treasurer or Sergeant-at-Arms) and participated in the preparation of a Club Success Plan.
• While a Club officer, participated in a District-sponsored Club officer training program
• Conducted any two programs from The Successful Club Series or Leadership Excellence Series

Advanced Leader Silver (AL-S)

• Achieved Advanced Leader Bronze Award (AL-B)
• Served a complete term as a District Officer (District Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Public Relations Officer, Secretary, Treasurer, Division Governor or Area Governor)
• Completed the High Performance Leadership program
• Served successfully as a Club Sponsor, Mentor or Specialist

Distinguished Toastmaster (DTM)

• Achieved Advanced Communicator Gold award
• Achieved Advanced Leader Silver award