How to Choose the Right Toastmasters Club

Toastmasters is a great organization for people who want to become better speakers. It provides a safe, low-pressure environment where you can achieve your speaking goals at your own. With thousands of Toastmasters clubs throughout the world, chances are there is at least one club in your area.

Regardless of your reason for wanting to join a Toastmasters club, there are three things that you want to look for in selecting the club that's right for you: convenience, membership and experience.

Convenience:

With our lives becoming busier and busier due to increasing family and career commitments, you need to find a club where getting to a meeting isn't a big chore. Toastmasters clubs fall into two basic categories: community clubs and corporate clubs. Community clubs often meet in the evenings, early morning or on weekends so they are perfect for people that have a busy work life. Corporate clubs mainly meet at lunchtime with some meeting towards the end of the workday or immediately afterwards. If your only availability is during your lunch hour, you might want to look to see which companies have clubs in your area (and if they let non-employees join them). So factoring the meeting time is important when addressing a club's convenience.

Location is also a big factor as you don't want to spend two hours traveling to attend a one hour meeting. Plus, you don't want your commute or inclement weather to prevent you from attending meetings. In addition to distance, you may need to consider whether the facility has free parking or is near public transportation.

Membership:

A club's biggest asset is its membership. If you look at just numbers alone, small clubs (less than 15 active members) have plenty of speaking opportunities but you're less likely to make connections or get useful feedback from other members. Additionally, small clubs may close down due to lack of interest. Conversely, large clubs (40 or more active members) are more difficult to get speaking opportunities (unless the group meets frequently) but there is good chance that you'll learn a lot from the club's members when you do speak.