The answer is a resounding NO. For the fourth consecutive dues increase, membership payments did NOT decrease. Pathways leveled off membership numbers, but Covid had by far the largest impact, reducing payments by 25.8% in four years (from 2018-19 to 2022-23).
Earlier dues increases were 1981-82 ($3 -> $12) and 1992-93 ($12 -> $18), but I cannot find any membership payment data from those years. Imagine what people were saying in 1981 when dues quadrupled!
Even at $60/six months (plus club dues), Toastmasters is a great value!
At this year’s annual business meeting, some people did not vote, whether intentionally or not. Perhaps they just weren’t sure about the best candidate, perhaps they had technical issues (though we saw very little of that after the 2VP votes). Here’s the total votes cast in each election, and as usual, it drops off a bit towards the end, with some people leaving. (Note the non-zero base, so the differences are more visible!)
1919 American Legion 1973 Toastmasters International 1978 Veterans of Foreign Wars 1984 Jaycees 1987 Lions Clubs International 1987 Kiwanis 1987 Optimist International 1989 Rotary International 1995 The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks 2001 The Independent Order of Odd Fellows 2005 Fraternal Order of Eagles 2021 Loyal Order of the Moose
Still men only (though they may have separate women’s branches): Knights of Columbus Freemasons
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.
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.
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)
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).
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
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)
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)
The 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:
Asendia USA, $2.3M for shipping (up from $1.6M last year)
Caesars Entertainment, $739K for the 2015 convention (no convention vendor listed last year)
Freeman Audio, $634K for convention audio/visual services (not listed last year, was $381K in 2013)
Cornerstone OnDemand, $462K for learning management system (Pathways?, not listed last year)
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.)
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.
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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). 
The annual Toastmasters business meeting is where we elect the board of directors, international officers, and amend our governing documents.
