Author: Mike Raffety

Candidate for Toastmasters International Second Vice President, 2011-12

Analysis of Toastmasters International form 990 tax return for 2012

Posted on (Updated: )

dollar_noteThe 2012 form 990 tax return for Toastmasters International has some interesting data in it.  Total program revenue increased by 21.6%, due in large part to dues increasing by 33% (from $54 to $72/six month) on Oct. 1, 2011 (this was the first full year with the increase).

Expenses did not increase as much, by just 17.6% from the previous year, mainly “district expenses” ($7.6M), salaries and wages ($6.3M), and the magazine ($2.1M). Continue reading “Analysis of Toastmasters International form 990 tax return for 2012” →

Flashback: Toastmasters Distinguished Club Program, 1989-90

Posted on (Updated: )

trophyHow did we measure Toastmasters club success before 1999?  There were several versions of the Distinguished Club Program (DCP) before the 10-goal system we now know and love was put into place.  Let’s look at how the DCP worked in 1989-90.

Points were awarded for educational awards: 750/CTM, 600/ATM, 400/DTM.  Only one award of a given type per member (per club/per year) was recognized for DCP purposes, just as today (but there was no total limit).  Presenting educational programs like Success/Leadership, Youth Leadership, and Speechcraft earned 100-250 points each when registered with WHQ. Continue reading “Flashback: Toastmasters Distinguished Club Program, 1989-90” →

Ideas for scheduling Toastmasters contests

Posted on (Updated: )

calendarI’ve seen a lot of different practices in districts around the world.  I’d like to share my experiences, and make some suggestions on what seems to work best for this tricky topic.

First, most district hold four contests a year, the maximum.  They have two in the August-November period, usually humorous and either table topics or evaluation, and then two in the February-May period, international (required) and then the other one from evaluation or table topics.

The nice thing about this pairing is you have one prepared speech (humorous or international), and then another contest that newer members are less afraid to try (table topics or evaluation).  Some districts swap in tall tales for humorous occasionally.  It also allows new Area Governors to get some practice before needing to run the more visible international contest. Continue reading “Ideas for scheduling Toastmasters contests” →

Analysis of Toastmasters International form 990 tax return for 2011

Posted on (Updated: )

dollar_noteThe 2011 form 990 tax return for Toastmasters International is now available, and I’ve highlighted some interesting data from it here.

http://990finder.foundationcenter.org/990results.aspx?990_type=&fn=&st=&zp=&ei=951300076&fy=&action=Find

Total revenue for 2011 was $23.3M, total expenses $22.3M, but that $1M was matched by investment losses, with a total excess for the year of $3,700 (this would be “profit” in a for-profit company).

Net assets grew from $36.9M to $38.5M, or 4.3%, which seems roughly equal to club and membership growth. Fixed assets include land that cost $1.2M, buildings that cost $4.1M (book value after depreciation is now $1.5M), and equipment that cost $6.6M (book value $1.7M). Continue reading “Analysis of Toastmasters International form 990 tax return for 2011” →

Are rural Toastmasters clubs at a disadvantage?

Posted on

CowIt’s an often repeated claim that rural Toastmasters clubs have trouble getting members and growing and thriving.  Is it true?  I put the question to the test, using U.S. clubs, 2012-13 DCP performance, their meeting place ZIP codes, and U.S. census data.

First, I grouped U.S. clubs into four buckets based on the population of the ZIP code that they meet in.  This gave me some reasonably equal-sized categories to look at.  Then I looked at club size and Distinguished Club Program (DCP) performance in each of those categories:

Size Pop in ZIP # clubs Active mem % disting
Rural <10,000 people 1,265 18.7 43.9%
Town 10-20,000 people 1,623 18.3 44.6%
City 20-40,000 people 3,493 18.7 49.0%
Big City >40,000 people 1,459 19.2 51.3%

Clubs in big cities do tend to be a little larger, a half member more, and are somewhat more likely to be distinguished.

(Sorry, mapping clubs to postal codes and census data tracts is more difficult or even impossible in other countries, I have no data available for them.)

Does speaking order make a difference in Toastmasters contests?

Posted on (Updated: )

trophyThere are various opinions on this topic, and I researched it a few years ago, using old contest programs from division contests and higher.  With ten contests in a few days, and 88 contestants, the 2013 semi-finals and finals looked like a great opportunity to revisit this.

The data shows a decisive bias, speakers later in the order are more likely to win.  Out of 30 placings (1st/2nd/3rd in 9 semis plus the final), the average place in the speaking order was 60% of the way through.  If speaking order had no impact, this would be 50% (about the same as I found in my previous analysis). Continue reading “Does speaking order make a difference in Toastmasters contests?” →

2013 Toastmasters annual business meeting proxy returns by district

Posted on

CheckMarkAnnual business meeting proxies are how we do business.  This year, Proposal A was on the table to amend the Toastmasters club constitution, but only 74% of clubs were represented.  One district appears to have gotten every single proxy collected, D70 (southeastern Australia), 100%, even a new club that chartered Aug. 14 (Griffith Toastmasters), very impressive!

This was closely followed by another Australian district, D69 (eastern Australia), at 97% (missed 5 clubs) and my home district, D30 (Chicagoland), at 96% (missed 9 clubs).

Districts with (lots of) room to improve include D34 (Mexico) with just 37% of clubs represented, D52 (southern California) at 39%, and D82 (Sri Lanka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Karnataka in India) at 49%.

The top quarter of districts beat 86% representation, the top half beat 75%, and the top 3/4 beat 66%.

While there are many things more important for Toastmasters districts to devote scarce resources to (no, not speech contests, I mean helping struggling clubs and building new clubs), this is the sort of thing that 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: Proxies2013

Toastmasters at a glance: 2013 infographic

Posted on

InfographicThumbnailI’ve seen lots of interesting infographics from other organizations, but never one for Toastmasters, so I created my own, a 24″x36″ poster, and had 1,000 copies printed to hand out at the convention this month.  They were quite popular, all given away in just three evenings, almost all just one at a time.  Some people even asked me to autograph them!

Since it can be a little hard to print something that size on your printer at home (or even at work), I’ve also put the same content into a 9-page document formatted for regular paper.

Share this with your clubs and district, to help our members understand there’s much MUCH more to Toastmasters.

Full-size poster

9-page regular paper