Radical idea:  Openly publish all our manuals and education materials on the TI web site, for anyone to read or use.

Why?  Many members, especially those overseas, are affected by expensive and slow shipping.  That might be helped by having local contract printers in the larger countries or regions, but we can’t do that everywhere, and it still costs money to print and ship.

As well, a growing number of members would like to have their manuals in an on-line form, enabling them to work on a presentation anywhere.

We could give electronic manuals only to paid members, but you can be sure someone will post them on a web site or blog or file-sharing service — and it only takes one such person to do so, since Google will find everything.

We could use DRM (Digital Rights Management) to encrypt and copy-protect electronic manuals, but there’s no such thing as an unbreakable DRM scheme.  There’s always a way to break it, and it only takes one person to do so and then post the unencrypted manuals for anyone to use.  There’s not much point in bothering with it, and it will just annoy members who want to use the materials on a device that doesn’t support the chosen DRM scheme.

The value in Toastmasters is not in the manuals and education materials, but in the club meeting: the actual presentation of the speech and the evaluations that follow.  Sure, people will download the CC manual and try to learn from it, but they’ll quickly realize they need an audience and an evaluator, and they can find both at a Toastmasters club for very little cost.

I’m not saying just flip the switch and post all the materials at once, and I’m not saying we stop sending printed manuals out to members (it could be a checkbox on the new member application, “no printed manuals needed” along with English, Japanese, etc.).  No, this needs some research and review, a pilot program, and if everything looks good, a gradual rollout.  WHQ recently published a number of education pamphlets (Effective Evaluation, Gestures: Your Body Speaks and Your Speaking Voice booklets), and Moments of Truth has been out there for a couple of years.  Continue by adding the rest of the Successful Club Series (mostly useful only within Toastmasters anyway) and contest forms, then maybe an advanced manual or two, or the Leadership Excellence Series.

Doing so will vastly increase the on-line visibility of Toastmasters.  People will find these materials and become interested in joining Toastmasters.  It could spark significant membership growth, while at the same time, improving service to our members (instant delivery), lowering costs (no shipping) and going green!

What do you think?  Are there significant drawbacks I’ve missed?  Add your thoughts in the comments!