Good clubs: Big districts or little districts?

Do big districts or little districts do a better job of supporting their clubs? There’s a logical argument going either way; big districts have more resources and depth in talent, and small districts allow more focused attention. I ran the numbers.

Roughly, for every additional 100 clubs in the district base, there’s 11% higher level of distinguished clubs, e.g., from 100 clubs at 38% to 200 clubs at 49% to 300 clubs at 60%.

The performance base is the last 5 years across all districts, spreadsheet attached with graphs to make the story clear. Stratifying the data into deciles of performance makes the trend even more apparent.

Once you get past the 200 clubs level, it’s VERY unusual for the percent of distinguished clubs to drop below 40%.

I think the reason is that while areas and divisions are all about the same size regardless of the district, the trio candidates come from a much larger pool in big districts, resulting in better trios and better better club performance.

My own district (originally 30) has ranged in size from nearly 250 (2013-17, pre-split) to 80-odd clubs (post split, and still shrinking). We often had multiple good candidates for LGM/CGD before — and now we struggle to get one decent candidate and a weak placeholder candidate to meet the required two minimum. We’re recycling past PDGs/PDDs into the trio again more often as well (which we NEVER did as a large district).

So the action? When splitting, I mean REFORMING districts, I think we should set a higher threshold, like 120 clubs in the resulting districts. Let bigger districts get a little bit bigger before splitting if necessary. Close/consolidate districts sooner than a low end of 60, maybe set a minimum of 100.

Build More Clubs?

Do you think your part of the world simply cannot support any more Toastmasters clubs, that there’s too many clubs already, and new clubs just take members away from existing clubs?

Well, if you live in Bahrain, New Zealand, Qatar, or Singapore, you might be right.  Anywhere else in the world, you can look to those four countries for an example of being able to build even more Toastmasters clubs.

Looking at just the 27 countries with at least 60 clubs (the minimum for a district), Bahrain has the most clubs per capita, with 74 clubs for 1.5 million people — a club for every 19,895 people.  New Zealand follows with a club for every 20,174 people, then Qatar at 23K, and Singapore at 25K.  (Smaller numbers mean higher density, more clubs for the population.)

At the other end, we have Indonesia, with 71 clubs for 276M people, or one club for every 3.9M people, followed by China at one club for every 2.3M people, and India at one club for every 1.4M people.  And no great surprise, this is where much of the growth is happening!

The United States, the home country of Toastmasters, has one club for every 48K people, and Canada has one for every 34K people.

If we look outside the countries with lots of clubs already, we have Sint Maarten (in the Caribbean) with 12 clubs for just 43K people — one club for every 3,616 people!  Many other Caribbean islands have almost as amazing numbers, with Montserrat at one club for every 4,992 people, Bonaire at 5,026, Curacao at 6,818, and more.

Zooming in to the U.S. state and Canadian province level (where 52% of the clubs are), the District of Columbia is in the lead for club density, with 97 clubs for 713K people, or one club for every 7,349 people.  (This may be in part due to people living outside the District, but working in and joining clubs in the District.)  The first actual state is Hawaii, with 68 clubs for 1.4M people, or one club for every 21K people, followed by Manitoba at 22K, British Columbia at 24K, and Minnesota at 27K.

The states and provinces with the lowest density (and biggest growth opportunity) are West Virigina with just 3 clubs for 1.8M people, or one club per 591K people, then Newfoundland with 2 clubs for 529K people or one club per 264K, Puerto Rico (15 clubs) at one club per 218K, and Kentucky at 156K.  If West Virigina had the same number of clubs for 1.8M people as is the national average, that would be 33 more clubs!

California has the most clubs (1,261 clubs), of course, with one club per 31K people, and Texas (593 clubs) has the next most, at one club per 49K people.  The Canadian province with the most clubs is Ontario (513 clubs), at one club per 30K people.

So, the next time someone tells you there’s no room for more clubs – consider the examples you can find in the rest of country, the rest of the world.  Grab a map of your locality, plot out where the existing community clubs are, and identify gaps between them where there are people who would benefit from a new Toastmasters club.

For more details on your country and state or province, see the attached spreadsheet.

Analysis of 2018 Toastmasters tax return 990

The 2018 990 tax return for Toastmasters International has been released. Total revenue was up 10.0%, and expenses were down 4.0%.  Total salaries were down 12.9% (34% of all expenses, down from 37% in 2017), even though the number of employees is up from 181 to 236 (up 30%, partly a recovery from staff loss during the Denver move the previous year).

Expenses and vendors

  • Payroll (including all related expenses, like benefits and pensions) was by far the largest single expense, at $13.4M (but down by 12.9% from 2017).
  • District expenses were $8.7M (down 16%).
  • The magazine cost $2.8M (down 3%).
  • Depreciation added up to $1.4M (61% higher).
  • Insurance was $1.2M (down 14%).
  • Software cost $1.2M (up 49% from $833K; this may or may not include Cornerstone, as they’re a vendor).
  • Transportation (apparently different from “travel”) cost $1.1M (and was not listed in the 2017 return).
  • Travel was $1,017K (up 12% from $908K).
  • Credit card fees were $1,000K (unchanged).

Expenditures on club-building and leadership training by world (not TM) region are interesting, it does cost significantly more to support members outside of North America.

  • North America, $832K (down from $1,061K previous year)
  • East Asia/Pacific, $1,998K (was $1,936K)
  • Europe, $595K (down from $860K)
  • Middle East/North Africa: $461K (down from $742K)
  • Central America/Caribbean: $79K ($66K)
  • Sub-Saharan Africa: $329K ($397K)
  • South America: $6K (was $8K; the decrease is surprising given the focus on growing clubs in Brazil)
  • South Asia: $306K (was $385K)

The five largest vendors for Toastmasters were:

24 more companies were paid at least $100K (each) in 2018.

Employee compensation

Staff paid over $100K/year must be reported (per U.S. non-profit tax law), listed below. This year, some employees (not specifically identified) received relocation benefits (which were grossed up to cover taxes) or retention incentives to stay on until the move (all included in the total compensation reported below).

This year, for the first time, it appears most of the people listed below received a bonus or incentive payment (in 2017, only Dan Rex and Jennifer Quinn received such payments). Interestingly, many of these staffers are showing flat or even a small decrease in base compensation, probably a result of the lower cost of living in Denver, compared to the former WHQ location in Orange County.

  • CEO Dan Rex, $429K base compensation (4.5% decrease) plus a $66K bonus (15% of base), for $574K total compensation (7.9% decrease)
  • Chief financial officer John Bond, $419K total comp (58% increase, mostly in “other compensation”, likely a relocation package; base comp is essentially unchanged)
  • Chief information officer Hamidreza (Sam) Farajian, $409K total comp (21% increase, also mostly in other comp (relocation), base comp is down 12%)
  • Chief operations officer Sally Newell, $358K total comp (down 4%, includes a $125,000 in “other” compensation, and the compensation schedule indicates at least one person received a severance payment, probably her since she left Toastmasters in August 2018)
  • Marketing & communications director William Nissim, $240K (up 30%, but base comp is only up 5%)
  • Chief member engagement officer Darci Maenpa, $220K (down 2%, but base comp is essentially unchanged)
  • IT manager – enterprise architect Sean Mattox, $209K (new to the list)
  • Controller Margaret Yamamoto, $191K (up 22%, but base comp is up only 2%)
  • Application services IT director Nader Hariri, $181K (up 2.3%; base comp is down 3%, but he received an 8% bonus, the highest percentage other than Dan Rex)
  • Business enablement manager Gary Maziarz, $180K (new to the list)
  • Business data analyst Neyra Espinoza, $166K (new to the list)
  • Executive and board relations director Jennifer Barr (was Quinn), $153K (down 33%, but 2017 included $83K for other/relocation; base comp is essentially unchanged; she left Toastmasters in March 2019)
  • Senior product development manager Angela Cunningham, $135K (up 5%)
  • Application services manager Sofia Ageyeva, $139K (new to the list)
  • Communications manager Diana Passow, $138K (new to the list)
  • Publications manager Suzanne Frey, $139K (new to the list)

The CEO’s compensation was established using a compensation board committee, the form 990 tax returns from other organizations, a written employment contract, a compensation study or survey, and approval by the board or compensation committee (per the tax return, Schedule J).  (The tax form includes one other method for determining compensation which is not used by TI, an independent compensation consultant.)

Expenses did include paying for first-class or charter travel, travel for companions, and tax indemnification/gross-up payments (per the tax return), following a written reimbursement policy, and requiring substantiation of expenses.

Revenue and assets

Total program revenue shrank by 4.6%, to a total of $37.8M.  The Toastmasters district conferences globally took in $3.2M in revenue (down 34%, likely due to eliminating the October/November district conferences, an average of about $9 per member).  The annual convention pulled in $1.2M (down 2% from 2017).  For materials sold, the sales revenue only covered half the cost, resulting in a 51% loss on sales. In 2017, the loss was 6.8%, while in 2016, there was an 18.2% profit margin

Total assets grew by 2.1%, to $52.9M, of which $24.9M is cash and investments, equal to 0.63 years of expenses (up from 0.52 years in 2017, 0.56 years in 2016, and 1.2 years in 2015), below the range of the recommendation for non-profits to have 1-2 years of expenses saved up in reserves.  The land and building at WHQ is valued at a net of $25.9M (down 8.5%).  Inventory has decreased by another 13% (after decreasing by 8% in 2016), to $691K.

Net assets grew by almost $4M (10.7%), mostly due to savings and temporary cash investments growing by $3.8M and accounts payable and accrued expenses shrinking by $3.6M (other smaller shifts canceled some of this out).

Donations to Toastmasters International totaled $104K, compared to $76K in 2017 and $40K in 2016 (likely a result of the new marketing of the Smedley Foundation). Donations over $5K must be reported, and two donors met the threshold. F. Dian Prasko of Colony, Kansas, donated $5K (she apparently passed on in November 2018), and the Homer N Allen Charitable Trust of Madison, Florida, donated $25K (details on the trust here).

Related organizations

Two organizations are identified as related, “Toastmasters International Singapore Ltd” and “Toastmasters International (Hong Kong) Ltd”, both companies for “legal and compliance administration” (also controlled by TI).

Click here for the full 2018 tax return.

2017 tax return analysis
2016 tax return analysis
2015 tax return analysis
2014 tax return analysis
2013 tax return analysis
2012 tax return analysis
2011 tax return analysis

2019 Toastmasters annual business meeting proxies

The annual Toastmasters business meeting is where we elect the board of directors, international officers, and amend our governing documents.

In previous years, we’ve occasionally seen a district that collected 100% of the proxies, but this is usually quite rare. In 2015, the average was 68%, in 2016 it was 70%, in 2017 it was 67.8%, in 2018 it was 70.8%, and in 2019 it was 73.5% (quorum is 33.3%). But this year, in 2019, we had five districts reach 100% or higher!

The districts representing all their clubs (and then some!) were:

  • D111 (region 8, Brazil), got 104.3%, 24 proxies out of 23 paid clubs.
  • D95 (region 10, Germany/Scandinavia), got 101.4%, 144 out of 142.
  • D67 (region 14, Taiwan), 100%, 186 out of 186.
  • D90 (region 12, New South Wales, Australia), 100%, 155 out of 155.
  • D114 (region 11, east Africa), 100%, 51 out of 51.

At the other end of the scale, we had:

  • D104 (region 11, western Saudi Arabia), 35.3%, 36 out of 102.
  • D79 (region 11, eastern Saudi Arabia), 35.2%, 75 out of 213.
  • D89 (region 14, Hong Kong, Macau, Fujian, Hainan and part of Guangdong), 30.4%, 41 out of 135.

The top quarter of districts beat 85% representation, the top half beat 74%, and the top 3/4 beat 62% (overall 2.7 percentage points higher than last year).

The top regions were:

  • Region 12 (southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand), 82.0%
  • Region 13 (India and southern Asia), 80.4%.

The vast majority of the votes come from clubs (99.2%, two per club), the rest are “at large” members, which is any current or past International Director (which includes International Presidents and officers), and the current District Directors (they each get one vote, regardless of any clubs they also may represent). At-large members must attend in person, they cannot give their vote to someone else.

Undistricted clubs are randomly assigned a default district director for their proxy, if they choose to do so (they can assign it to anyone, just like all other clubs). That’s why there’s no “U” line in the spreadsheet (and that’s why a district can have more than 100% of the proxies).

Of those votes from clubs, the large majority are represented by the District Directors. There’s no way of knowing just how many, but based on my informal observations working in credentials, it’s probably 80-90% or more of the votes.

While there are many more important things for Toastmasters districts to devote scarce resources to (like helping struggling clubs and building new clubs), this shouldn’t be that hard to do. A district proxy chair with a committee to call clubs and round up proxies makes an excellent High Performance Leadership (HPL) project!

Full details in the Excel spreadsheet here: Proxies-2019

Here’s my post on the 2018 proxy returns.

Analysis of 2016 Toastmasters tax return 990

The 2016 990 tax return for Toastmasters International has been released. Total revenue was down 1.7% (the second half of 2016, dues increased from $36 to $45), but expenses were up 7.9%.  Total salaries were up 12% (35% of all expenses), and the number of employees is up from 175 to 198 (up 13%).

Expenses and vendors

Payroll was by far the largest single expense, at $12.9M (up 12%).  Travel expenses are unchanged, from $1,180K in 2015 to $1,195K in 2016.  $769K was spent on postage, $778K was spend on software, $416K on audio/visual, and $460K on “new member charter kits”.

Expenditures on club-building and leadership training by world (not TM) region are interesting, it does cost significantly more to support members outside of North America.

  • North America, $917K (up slightly from $877K last year)
  • East Asia/Pacific, $1.9M (up from $1.7M)
  • Europe, $681K (up from $476K)
  • Middle East/North Africa: $361K ($409K)
  • Central America/Caribbean: $68K ($116K)
  • Sub-Saharan Africa: $309K ($271K)
  • South America: $13K ($6K)
  • South Asia: $149 ($177K)

The five largest vendors for Toastmasters were:

  • Asendia USA, $1.9M for shipping (down from $2.3M last year)
  • Walsworth Print Group, $1.7M for printing and mailing (down from $2.0M last year)
  • Freeman Audio, $594K for convention audio/visual services (down from $634K last year)
  • Confluent Development in Denver, $447K for property development (the new WHQ site, not listed lastyear)
  • Andovar PTD LTD in Singapore, $430K for language translation (not listed last year)

26 more companies were paid at least $100K in 2016.

Employee compensation

Staff paid at least $100K must be reported, and they were:

  • CEO Dan Rex, $401K salary (16.3% decrease) and $442K total compensation (14.5% decrease)
  • IT Director Hamidreza (Sam) Farajian, $325K total comp, up 9.8%
  • COO Sally Newell-Cohn, $318K, up 5.3%
  • Controller John Bond, $247K, up 11.8%
  • Member Support Director Darci Maenpa, $211K, up 17.9%
  • Marketing Communications Director William Nissim, $177K, up 10.6%
  • Employee Margaret Yamamoto, $145K, up 19.8%
  • Employee Carol Gregory, $152K, up 16.0%
  • Employee Heather Von Raesfeld, $148K (not listed in 2015)
  • Employee Nader Hariri, $152K (not listed in 2015)
  • Employee Jennifer Quinn, $139K, up 14.9%

The CEO’s compensation was established using a compensation committee, the form 990 tax return from other organizations, a written employment contract, a compensation study or survey, and approval by the board or compensation committee (per the tax return, Schedule J).  (The tax form includes one other method for determining compensation which is not used by TI, an independent compensation consultant.)

Expenses did include paying for first-class or charter travel, travel for companions (per the tax return), following a written reimbursement policy, and requiring substantiation of expenses.

Revenue and assets

Total program revenue was up by 6.8%, roughly congruent with membership growth, to a total of $34.6M.  The Toastmasters district conferences globally took in $4.6M in revenue (an average of about $13 per member).  The annual convention pulled in $1.3M (up from $1.2M in 2015).  Magazine advertising earned $20K (unchanged).  For materials sold, the profit margin was 18.2% (was 18.1% in 2015).

Total assets shrank slightly again, by 1.2%, to $48.4M, of which $20.8M is cash and investments, equal to 0.56 years of expenses (down sharply from 1.2 in 2015), below the range of the recommendation for non-profits to have 1-2 years of expenses saved up in reserves.  The land and building at WHQ is valued at a net of $25.6M (with the Denver building purchase).  Inventory has decreased by 1.3%, to $863K.

Toastmasters International must report on individual donors who gave $5K or more, and in 2016, Curtis Hellenbrand of Rancho Palos Verdes, California, gave $11,850 (someone with that name passed away in 2012).  Total donations were $40K.

Related organizations

Two organizations are identified as related, “Fifteen to Seventy LLC”, a real estate holding company in Colorado (100% owned by TI, a vehicle for buying the new office), and “Toastmasters International Singapore Ltd”, a publishing company (also controlled by TI)

Click here for the full 2016 tax return.

2015 tax return analysis

2014 tax return analysis

2013 tax return analysis

2012 tax return analysis

2011 tax return analysis

Analysis of 2015 Toastmasters tax return 990

dollar_noteThe 2015 990 tax return for Toastmasters International has been released. Total revenue was up 2.2%, but expenses were up 3.7%.  Total salaries were up 14.2%, but the number of employees is down from 179 to 175 (-2%).

Expenses and vendors

Payroll was by far the largest single expense, at $10.1M (up 12%).  Travel expenses are down, from $1,377K in 2014 to $1,180K in 2015.  $630K was spend on software, $467K on “new member charter kits”, $83K on “employee relations”, $76K on translations, and $10K was spent on “speakers”.

Expenditures on club-building and leadership training by world (not TM) region are interesting, it does cost significantly more to support members outside of North America.

  • North America, $877K (down from $1.1M last year)
  • East Asia/Pacific, $1.7M (down from $2.1M)
  • Europe, $476K (down from $534K)
  • Middle East/North Africa: $409K ($266K)
  • Central America/Caribbean: $116K ($66K)
  • Sub-Saharan Africa: $271K ($250K)
  • South America: $6K ($4K)
  • South Asia: $177 ($316K)

The five largest vendors for Toastmasters were:

16 more companies were paid at least $100K in 2015.

Employee compensation

Staff paid at least $100K must be reported, and they were:

  • CEO Dan Rex, $479K total compensation, 21.0% increase
  • COO Sally Newell-Cohn, $270K, 12.5% increase
  • IT Director Hamidreza (Sam) Farajian, $265K, 23.3% increase
  • Controller John Bond, $188K, 22.1% increase
  • Member Support Director Darci Maenpa, $152K, 10.1% increase
  • Marketing Communications Director William Nissim, $152K (not listed in 2014, new hire?)
  • Employee Carol Gregory, $112K (not listed in 2014)
  • Employee Margaret Yamamoto, $111K (not listed in 2014)
  • PR Manager Suzanne Frey, $107K, 1.9% increase
  • Employee Jennifer Quinn, $104K (not listed in 2014)
  • Club Services Manager Kristen Rolapp, $111K, 1.8% increase

The CEO’s compensation was established using a compensation committee, the form 990 tax return from other organizations, a written employment contract, a compensation study or survey, and approval by the board or compensation committee (per the tax return, Schedule J).  (The tax form includes one other method for determining compensation which is not used by TI, an independent compensation consultant.)

Expenses did include paying for first-class or charter travel, travel for companions, and tax indemnification and gross-up payments (per the tax return), following a written reimbursement policy, and requiring substantiation of expenses.

Revenue and assets

Total program revenue was up by 1.8%, roughly congruent with membership growth, to a total of $32.4M.  The Toastmasters district conferences globally took in $4.7M in revenue (an average of about $13 per member).  The annual convention pulled in $1.2M (down from $1.4M in 2014).  Magazine advertising earned $20K (down from $31K in 2014).  For materials sold, the average profit margin was 12.6% (down from 14.1% in 2014).

Total assets shrank slightly, by 3.4%, to $49.0M, of which $41.6M is cash and investments, equal to 1.2 years of expenses (down slightly from 1.3 in 2014), in the range of the recommendation for non-profits to have 1-2 years of expenses saved up in reserves.  The land and building at WHQ is valued at a net of $5.5M.  Inventory has increased by 18.8%, to $874K.

Toastmasters International had to report on individual donors for the second year, it’s only required if someone gave $5K or more, and in 2015, Virginia Figg of New York City gave $10K.  Total donations were $22K, after hitting $67K in 2014 (including a single $50K gift), and $15K the year before.

Related organizations

Two organizations are identified as related, “Fifteen to Seventy LLC”, a real estate holding company in Colorado (100% owned by TI, a vehicle for buying the new office), and “Toastmasters International Singapore Ltd”, a publishing company (also controlled by TI).  (This schedule was not in previous tax returns.)

Click here for the full 2015 tax return.

2014 tax return analysis

2013 tax return analysis

2012 tax return analysis

2011 tax return analysis

Yes, I LOVE Toastmasters!

Yes, I LOVE Toastmasters!heart

LISTEN
OBSERVE
VALUE
ENCOURAGE

As the saying goes, we were given two ears and one mouth so we would LISTEN more than we talk.  Listen to the speaker, to your colleagues, to your family.  Hear what they say, be an active listener, not already preparing your next response in a discussion.  It’s OK to pause and gather your thoughts.

We also have two eyes so we can OBSERVE the speaker’s facial expressions, body language, and demeanor.  Listening to someone on the telephone is far more limited then when we can see all this, either in person or over a camera.  It provides so much more context to the speaker’s words.

If the speaker is taking time to tell us about it, we must VALUE their message.  We may not always agree with it, but it’s important to the speaker, and the speaker deserves our respect.  Show that their message is important to you with your own body language, and in your response.  If you’re not sure about the message, restate it and ask for confirmation.

Lastly, but most importantly, ENCOURAGE the speaker by providing constructive feedback, this might be in the form of an evaluation in the club meeting, or just a positive response in a conversation.  We need to provide commendations as well as recommendations, what you did well as well as what you can do better next time.  Conclude with an encouraging comment, leaving the conversation on a high note.

Now go out and LOVE your fellow Toastmasters!

How to do Toastmasters district council credentials

CheckMarkI’ve been involved in issuing credentials for the Toastmasters district council business meeting for two years now (four conferences), and I think I finally have figured out how to make it flow smoothly and efficiently.  I’ll share with you the process used in District 30 (Chicagoland).

Designing the ballots

This is the critical piece, of course, creating these, printing them, and distributing them.  To create them, you’ll need to know the council agenda, and what might require a secret vote.  A contested election always requires a secret vote.  Minutes and confirmations are unlikely to.

Each ballot has a set of unique vote tickets (one for each vote), and each vote ticket is one vote.  People who hold two or three votes will get two or three ballots.  There’s no need to have different ballots for people with two votes, or for DEC votes.

The October/November meeting is easy, there’s usually nothing controversial up for a vote, just routine minutes, audit approval, budget approval, and appointment confirmations.  None of the vote tickets need to be customized, just have 4 to 10 generic official vote tickets, each uniquely identified (“Special Vote A”, “Special Vote B”, etc.).  However, check to see if there’s any unusual business, like a vote on standing procedures, or a reformation proposal, and have tickets for those.

The April/May meeting has elections, and every single office needs a vote ticket, as well as the annual realignment.  There may also be other unusual business, like a vote on standing procedures or a reformation proposal; these should get their own vote ticket with yes/no boxes.  Add in some extra “Special Vote A”, “Special Vote B” tickets here as well for unforeseen votes.

Prepare the ballots in Microsoft Word or your favorite word processor.  I find three columns of tickets works well, with 8-9 tickets per column (here’s an example).  This results in vote tickets with enough room for the necessary text and 2-3 options, as well as a write-in space.  For the October/November meeting, each vote holder can get one strip of 8-9 tickets, and for the April/May meeting, they may need to get most or all of a whole page of tickets.

Have vote tickets for anything that might be contested (and all elections), and then add 4-6 extra “Special Vote X” tickets (each one needs a unique title, to prevent multiple votes) for the unexpected, and for when no candidate gets a majority in an election and a re-vote has to be held.  These special vote tickets should just have a blank line for people to write in a candidate, or yes or no, as appropriate for when they are used.  You REALLY don’t want to get to a point in the business meeting when a secret vote needs to be held, but there are no remaining vote tickets to use!

For elections, the vote ticket for that office must list all candidates slated by the nominating committee (if any), and one blank line for a write-in candidate.  It’s not necessary to have more than one blank line on a vote ticket, as each vote ticket is only good for one vote.  Floor candidates, even if known in advance, are never listed on the vote tickets.

Printing and producing the ballots

Get some good quality colored card stock at a paper store or on-line, I find 110 pound paper is just right (change the card color for subsequent meetings).  Pick lighter colors to make sure that the printing will be easily readable on the paper (e.g., no dark green!).  Take this paper to a print shop (e.g., FedEx Kinko’s) to print the ballots, or you may be able to find a fellow Toastmaster who is able to print them at work.

Print a number equal to about 150-200% of the number of active clubs, this allows for two votes per club, a typical turnout of 50%, the DEC votes, and a good safety margin of extras.  If you know how many ballots were issued at the same council meeting one or two years ago, that can be useful guidance too.  Use some color as well, putting a “branding” across the top or as a faint watermark (like “Spring 2016 District XX Council Meeting”).

If you put two or three complete ballots on one piece of paper (as is common for October/November meetings, which have less or no secret votes), you’ll need to cut them apart.  Next, give them serial numbers with a stamping machine (about $24), from 0001 to whatever number you’ve got.

Finally, you’ll need to score or perforate the tickets, so they can be easily torn apart at the meeting when used.  While your print shop can do both (though at a price!), it can also be done at home using a rotary trimmer with a separate perforating wheel (about $40 in total). It will take a few hours though, you can only cut or perforate a few sheets at a time of this heavier paper, and there are many perforations to make.

Sign-in sheets and signs

You’ll need sign-in sheets for delegate picking up votes. Obtain a list of the club presidents, VPs-Education, and DEC members.  Massage them in Excel into these columns:

  1. Club name (sorted alphabetically; DEC separately at the end)
  2. Club number (some districts have clubs with very similar names)
  3. Title (president, VPE, or DEC position)
  4. Member name
  5. A wide blank for the signature
  6. A narrow blank for the ballot number

Be sure the rows are wide enough to allow for the signatures, include page numbers, add a page break between the “N” and “O” clubs (so credentials can divide the work), and staple them into two packets, so two people can work the credentials desk in parallel, distributing ballots.  (Or in a large district, perhaps divided into three packets.)

You’ll also need to make some signs for the credentials desk, such as this (be sure to match the signs to how you’ve divided up the sign-in sheets):

  • Credentials
  • Club names A-N
  • Club names O-Z and DEC

You’ll also need some blank proxy forms (maybe a number equal to 10-20% of the clubs), for those cases where a club member other than the president or VPE is collecting club ballots.

The combination of colored card stock, color printing, professional perforations, and sequential numbering should make forgery difficult, especially on short notice.  Change the paper color and font from year to year so that’s not predictable.

Signing for ballots

When delegates come to credentials to get their ballots, they can go to two (or more) lines.  A president or VP-Education does not need a proxy form (even for each other), and of course, DEC members cannot proxy their vote.  They just sign the sign-in sheet next to their name for their vote, and for the club votes, optionally next to the space for the other vote.  Sorting by club name makes this easy, everyone knows their club name, and it’s easy to sign for both votes side-by-side when appropriate.

If a club member other than a president or VPE is picking up votes, they present their already-completed proxy, and sign their name on the sign-in sheet next to the president’s and/or VPE’s names.  Their ballot number(s) is written on the proxy form, which the credentials committee keeps for their files.  Occasionally, you may get a president or VPE who wants to proxy their votes in one club to someone else, because they already have the maximum two votes from another club.  This is when having some blank proxy forms is useful.

When the credentials desk is less busy, one person can handle the occasional pickup from both sign-in sheet packets.  The credentials desk should always have at least two people present for integrity purposes.  If a third person is available, he/she can sit in the middle, holding the ballots, handing out 1, 2, or 3 as needed to the credentials members on each side, to give to the voters.

The credentials committee report

When the credentials desk closes, the number of votes issued is totaled up on each page and written in the corner.  These per-page numbers are then written on a piece of scrap paper and added up.  That total is the number of votes issues, and the next ballot remaining should be the next number (e.g., with 413 votes issued, the next ballot not issued should be 414).  If they don’t match, go back and check the math and page totals again.

Next, total up the number of club votes and DEC votes separately, so the quorum calculation can be done (1/3 of the clubs).  Fill out the credentials committee report (example here), and deliver it at the meeting when called upon to do so (and don’t forget to thank your committee!). Be sure to keep the remaining ballots (not handed out) safe and secure until the end of the meeting.

Counting votes

You (and your committee) may also be asked to serve as vote counters, be sure to clarify who will be doing that with the district director (and have collection baskets ready).  Candidates may send an observer to watch the vote counting for their election, but the observer should not touch the ballots.  Remember that motions or candidates require a majority of the votes cast (not issued) to win.  If an election has no one with a majority of the votes cast (not issued), then you vote again (a plurality, more votes than anyone else, is not enough).

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Analysis of 2014 Toastmasters tax return 990

dollar_noteThe 2014 990 tax return for Toastmasters International has been released.  Total program revenue was up 7.5%, but salaries were up 17.5%.  The number of employees increased from 161 to 179 (11%).

Expenses and vendors

Payroll was by far the largest single expense, at $9.1M (up 19%).  Travel expenses were up sharply, from $610K in 2013 to $1,377K, a jump of 126%, but this would be because the 2013 international convention was in Malaysia.  Internet services cost $78K (presumably hosting and/or connectivity to WHQ).  $19K was spent on “speakers”, and $11K on translations. Continue reading “Analysis of 2014 Toastmasters tax return 990”