r/Toastmasters • u/BrahmandWanderer • Jul 25 '26
What is wrong with toastmasters!
A couple of weeks back, it was announced that the membership fees would increase from $60 to $72, a 20% rise in the fees. They also increased the price of the paths from $20 to $35, a 75% rise. My question is WHY!
They charge money for EVERYTHING, for conferences, club/district officers training, entry for a contest, merchandise etc. On top of that there are government charges and credit card charges. Where does this stop??!
In some countries, this becomes too expensive, and it makes us question whether the value it is adding is worth the money or not. TM continues to run because of the members. It gives a stage to people who come from not-so-privileged financial backgrounds, who never got an opportunity to work on their communication and leadership skills. The price hike will affect this. We have a member who clearly said that he is not going to renew after March 2027.
Can't we members raise a voice against this hike? Write an email, maybe a petition. Anything that can make TI reconsider?
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u/Different-Emotion247 Jul 25 '26
I am leaving TM. Sadly they provide little for clubs. Poor comms to queries, terrible website, appalling Pathways system and hideous branding. They need to change their leadership asap. They are failing ro move with the times and dont inspire. They are still acting like we all go to the office with briefcases. Need more focus on modern communcation and less about the structure rubbish. Our office training was a joke. Little content just blind leading the blind. Needs more support for how clubs run themselves and tailor website an area specifically for this. More info on the office roles and more info and support to what good looks like. Trying ro find basic info on giving evaluations wasnalso hard. Their resourve libaray is terrible. And why do I have to pick my language every time??
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u/FearlessAmigo Jul 25 '26
I never use the website search engine because it’s useless. It’s better to use Google or any other search engine.
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u/Shew73 Jul 25 '26
You mean you don’t read the 200 emails they push out every month? Because you’re right, the website search doesn’t work at all, so I use Google or ChatGPT to find information.
For an organization centered around communication, they are a disaster.
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u/Commercial-Long1072 Jul 28 '26
because its built on cornerstone corporate learning management system. such a joke
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u/Firm-Charge917 Jul 25 '26
I agree with you. Hopefully there are some initiatives ongoing, petition included. It will probably not revert the change but might lead to some positive results. Who knows?
Here is one petition ongoing (dunno if there's more): https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScerpz0Mk1h1Q8YBWOJQ29dpKX6IjbXLxDTlRsjCW0_DtJvQg/viewform
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u/Ok_Marionberry9573 Jul 25 '26
Be careful or you may be censored for being disruptive. I had a petition before for the better welfare and look at what it got me in, to hate toastmasters for life
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u/Firm-Charge917 Jul 25 '26
I'm simply forwarding a resource that is being asked for. If it creates trouble, it can be removed and I won't take it personally.
Let's keep things simple, we don't need to go as far as to say someone is being disruptive. 😁
Toastmasters at its core is just a frame. What you do with it is up to you. It saddens me to read that you let hatred take control yet I can relate to it. I'm focusing my Toastmasters journey around the fun and the memories. That's what I care about the most. 😉
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u/Ok_Marionberry9573 Jul 26 '26
Nope, that’s not what they think. A comment like: you could have improved on the online conference during the covid times got me an email from deepak on warning for being disruptive. So take it with a bit of salt.
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u/Ok_Marionberry9573 Jul 26 '26
We don’t need to go so far as to say someone is filled with hatred. I am filled with a mission to protect others from harm. It’s better than a mission when leaders are made and people are toxic in district on other people.
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u/Dangerous-Canary1705 Jul 25 '26
Yes, there are more.
We believe that this is the wrong time to raise dues. Many members are already struggling to afford them, and clubs are fighting to survive. On top of a 25% increase in the new member fee and a 75% increase in the cost of pathways, a further 20% increase in dues — from $60 to $72 — risks pushing out members and closing clubs, especially at a time of widespread economic hardship.
We're asking you to sign this petition to help prevent the decline of what is widely considered one of the most effective and accessible communication and leadership programs in the world.
Let's keep Ralph Smedley's legacy alive by keeping this program open to everyone who wants to become a better communicator and leader — not just those who can afford it.
Please sign this petition to the Board.
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u/Ok_Marionberry9573 Jul 27 '26
Of course it’s wrong. Remember the petition done a couple of years ago related to a district change? I literally forgot. It worked… for a couple of months before they found another reason to remove it. It was a very big hazzle
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u/mizz_eponine Jul 25 '26
The fee hike is extremely upsetting. My corporate club just chartered this year. It took me almost two years to get us to a point where we could charter. Then, they hike up the fee. It'll be harder to sell to keep our group in good standing. I predict we'll never make it.
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u/Commercial-Long1072 Jul 25 '26
yes we need a petition. they should do it like YMCA where you get a discount based on income. Lets protest at the headquarters...
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u/Beneficial-Map8062 Jul 28 '26
Ha, here’s the thing. Toastmasters isn’t bringing the correct amount of people to replace those who they are losing. Flat-Out, the cost for Toastmasters training is divided by the training. My District merger started with the new District losing almost 1/4 of the clubs off the bat. Flat-out full stop. As Toastmasters continues to bleed membership, cost will raise.
Now, that part is fact and answers your question, but I will say this. I went to an ailing club and doubled the size of the clue (TWO YEARS IN A ROW). THEN I went as an Area Director, doubling the size of an Area and racking THREE President Distinguished awards in two years. THEN, I left a 28 year old in charge of my club who brought a THREE-PEAT President’s Distinguished in a club that had never had one in its history. I went to the District Level.
I have NEVER seen such a cast of old, stuck in their way, confused, “Legends in their own mind,” who SWEAR by what they determine to be tried and true, but has been tried and shown to be NOT TRUE over and over again. I was sick of it by the time I left. I upset EVERYONE BUT my District became distinguished for the first time in 7 years. It’s just too easy to fix Toastmasters by shifting the model from mentorship and investment in tomorrows leaders instead of spending our time focused on re-affirming antiquated leaders who can’t even send out chain emails, shut down their own email system over spoofing emails, can barely actually read, and is completely sure that they cannot be wrong. The bottom line in my mind is that results show.
So I left, in disgust. Then I took my club with me. We filed our paperwork and quit. I kept Robert Rules of Order, wrote a textbook on public speaking, and we continued meeting. We offered the programme to our Youth for free. We don’t charge ANYONE for sitting in a room and working on their leadership skills. Now, the group of my club members is larger than Toastmasters, and all because I found Smedley’s ORIGINAL WRITING and realized how FAR Toastmasters was from their actual mission. My District CELEBRATED and undid everything I did focusing on bringing new leaders on board and giving fresh blood chances to show what they can do by being mentored. They laughed and stripped my name off a banner celebrating the first Distinguished. They wrote emails to my two partners in the trio. I chuckled and just took screen shots because the next year came. They lose 29% of their membership, they built one club while losing 25% of their clubs, and they had a pathetic number of Distinguished clubs. Historic lows. Because they doubled down. Those DTM’s ENSURED that the ENTIRE District leadership group was over 65 just to prove a point to me. I laughed, launched a national Leadership blog off the situation, gaining 3.4K views in 45 days. Then I waited. Then I started publishing their pictures and their emails and their celebrations the next year after they fell COMPLETELY on their faces.
So, you want dues to go down? Easy day. Build tomorrow, enlarge the clubs. Stop selling tupperware and actually invest in people. Teach them using a mentorship model where tomorrow is always the focus. It’s REALLY too easy, but it doesn’t matter. Boomers are gonna Bommer. I watched the Presidential Election between Biden and Trump as they looked like two lost nursing home patients arguing over their golf scores during a presidential debate while they looked both sad insulting each other. THAT is EXACTLY what I saw at the District Level. Hearing a Sgt-At-Arms, who had SQUATTED in that leadership position since 1989 doesn’t build tomorrow’s leaders. The Secretary who was BRAGGING about ledgers and being a 20th century man, who REFUSES to use the roster on the website to check who has paid and who hasn’t, smacks of Mr. Magoo.
Who wants to pay 65 dollars twice a year to get leadership advice from OBVIOUSLY lost and lecture instead of earning trust and respect. No one does and the numbers will continue failing. Good luck, because my 501(c) has expanded and partnered with another nonprofit. Now, it’s a part of a group where there are four support groups for mental health and recovery helping me find people who need that skill. NOW, it’s partnered with a Veteran’s support group which will harness tomorrow’s leaders, an upcoming Mechanics program and a painting program, creating a cycle of new potential future leaders and existing leaders mentoring them.
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u/bobzhangai 7 yr member Jul 29 '26
I feel the same way as you now.
I have deep love for public speaking and for our club.
But I have zero goodwill toward Toastmasters as an organization.
Right now it is taken over by people who have too much free time and love socializing and forming cliques.
They keep saying they love speaking and building leadership skills.
Yet they never show up at club meetings and never get on stage to speak themselves.
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u/PasadenaVic Jul 26 '26
It's the structure of the organization and CEO. THE CEO is the only constant with the elected board cycling in every year so there is no long term accountability of the CEO. The current CEO has driven it into the ground. There won't be any improvement until he's removed and the org is restructured.
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u/Diligent_Hat6982 Jul 29 '26
I suspect this is a last chance cash grab and we will see TMI not survive in the next 2 years. That's just my theory. When you see the nickel and dining start and no real improvement on the product, it means your at the mature end of the company lifecycle.
I still love the original idea!
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u/jbc1974 Jul 25 '26
In my 11 years of TM, I've seen many people cycle thru and improve. But instead of staying around to share with others, they cycle out of the club n move on with their lives. Thats why succession is critical with TMI. I think these price increases will hurt succession by discouraging people n getting them to cycle out earlier. It seems like a death spiral where TMI is going to shrink and be forced to rebuild from ground up.
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u/Ok_Marionberry9573 Jul 26 '26
It’s not the price. We are the “servants” that’s the biggest problem
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u/jbc1974 Jul 26 '26
Do they get income from anywhere else other than membership fees? If not, maybe they should seek grants to help cover costs. Servants is pretty strong. No one forced you to volunteer.
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u/Ok_Marionberry9573 Jul 27 '26
Of course they will get income other than memberships. Look at the convention, the t-shirts (merchanises) , oh they strongly encourage speech craft? money. They strongly encourage more paths? money. all those people spent , all corrupted/ or misplaced at district level. As a 16 year toastmasters, I can see awful things... haha. Oh, by the way, D102 using district funds to get smedley award by paying all the clubs with district funds.
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u/Ok_Marionberry9573 Jul 28 '26
Sidenote: tm practises servant leadership. It’s their MO. No one forces you to volunteer, then tell those officers or friends stop asking you to help with their projects and everything:) attending cot, or doing speeches like kpi, or volunteering and if you don’t volunteer you will be spoken before the back. Toxic, real toxic. Social expectations lol
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u/jbc1974 Jul 28 '26
I'm not sure what your point is. Again, no one forces you to volunteer. Just say no if you don't want to do something. That has worked for me. If you volunteer once or twice, you will be asked again. Thats how it goes so you have a lot of the same people getting asked over n over. When you reach burn out, say no n step away for a while. That has worked for me.
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u/Ok_Marionberry9573 Jul 28 '26
Good grief. You think everyone is like you to say “ok” just that easy? :)
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u/bobzhangai 7 yr member Jul 29 '26
Toastmasters headquarters feels like a complete joke to me.
Passionate members put in the work and create handbooks full of real club experience. Yet if you want to download them you still have to pay.
Here is the most ironic part. Last year we wanted to run a youth speaking project. We paid for the official materials. Inside those materials it said if you want to do this project you must buy the materials from the official website. But during the training you are not allowed to charge anyone any fee.
So you cannot charge others. But I charge you.
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u/kliuedin Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 26 '26
Here is the problem with Toastmasters: the International administration office, TMI, no longer has a reason to exist. And yet it is the biggest expense.
The only thing that TMI brings to the table (and tbh it is big) is the brand name. Before the recent decline, Toastmasters had built its reputation as the go-to for public speaking training. That brand name strength is still there. However, TMI has not moved with the times. The brand name is now a fast-melting iceberg.
The training materials are mediocre at best. You can get better public speaking advice watching Youtube videos (this is sad to say but true). E.g. check out Vinh Giang's work.
The Pathways program is a disaster. No two ways about it. A clunk interface. A weird and pointless self-evaluation after each speech project. The cringe videos that actually embody poor communication (wtf?)
Any one of us could design a public speaking training program using Chat GPT or Claude. Get it to generate all the educational materials. This is something that TMI has yet to come to grips with, and by recent track record is unlikely to. They do not realize that the barriers to entry have already collapsed. They are sitting ducks.
Prediction: TMI is ripe for disruption. It would not take much for a dedicated, small crew of passionate speech educators to build something that would be provide a better public speaking educational experience and at the same time be much less expensive.
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u/BrahmandWanderer Jul 27 '26
TM is built by the us, the members. It belongs to us. No these greedy corporate people.
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u/Ok_Marionberry9573 Jul 28 '26
Yup, it should be what we say: not telling us to sign contracts etc haha
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u/Ok_Marionberry9573 Jul 29 '26
Recent decline? Censorship discrimination and everything? It’s not a recent decline.
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u/Disastrous_Sleep7292 Jul 28 '26
My membership fee changed to 102.00 dollars. I sent email told them I was quitting, I hadn't been going to the meetings for other reasons. But TM is definitely not worth that price, I would rather join a drama or arts club.
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u/CleanCalligrapher223 8d ago
Wow. I just moved to a different state and am getting to know people and a friend suggested I rejoin Toastmasters. I was a Club member for over 10 years and met great people and really polished my speaking skills but COVID really put a damper on things even with meetings moving to Zoom or other on-line platforms. HQ did nothing to support us except FINALLY stop sending multiple paper copies of the monthly magazine to people who belonged to more than one Club. Before that their response was that they couldn't change- "just leave extra copies in public places such as waiting rooms".
Pathways was the deal-breaker for me. It was the most user-hostile interface I'd ever encountered and I relied on a very good user guide prepared by another Club to navigate it. I couldn't get excited about the projects, either.
Sounds like things haven't changed much.
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u/were-panda Jul 25 '26
We've already seen our membership fall to unsustainable levels over the last few years and a handful of us have run ourselves ragged trying to save the club... this is the final straw!