Beginning your TM Career

1. Learning About Meeting Roles

As pointed out in previous lessons, because Toastmasters is a volunteer organization, clubs only work when the members help out by filling meeting roles, working in officer positions, and doing committee tasks. These help keep the club strong and has many benefits for those who contribute, as mentioned in their respective sections.

Now that you're setup with your various accounts, the next question is "how do I do all those meeting roles?" The month-by-month for your first year will guide you in this direction, but make sure you study the RDG TM Meetings section on beginner meeting roles to start. Practice these for your first three months, then in your next three months, practice the intermediate roles. Repeat with the advanced roles after month six. (The exception is the speaker role; you'll want to do that in month two.)

If you have questions about meeting roles, check with your club, or post in the forum here.

2. Understanding & Planning for Pathways

Pathways is the name of new educational program for Toastmasters; it debuted in 2017 and had a gradual roll out across districts. Older members will refer to things such as "CC" (Competent Communicator), "CL" (Competent Leader), and others. These are old awards (still valid), but if you are new, you are likely going to be exclusively in the Pathways program. If you are still in the "old" educational program, it's recommended you finish up quickly before your district cuts off award submissions for it. You can enroll in Pathways in the meantime so you have access to Base Camp.

The old Toastmasters educational program was fairly "one size fits all" in its approach. Pathways has 10 different selections, and taking the assessment will help you pick which one is right for you. More are being planned in the future.

Your speech projects will come from Pathways, so it's important you have yourself setup there. In Toastmasters, old education program or new, we (almost) always work on projects. This is to make sure we have objectives to accomplish and measure against. The program starts off with an "icebreaker" speech which serves to benchmark your skills, then builds from there, gradually layering on skills. This means you don't have to learn and practice every skill at once (and end up doing them badly). As you progress, you'll learn about technique and gain confidence. This is why there's a structured approach to the education program. The speaker section in the RDG TM Meetings course will cover more of the logistics of the speaker role.

As covered in the setup lesson, you should schedule your first speech project a month (or less) after you join. This will make sure you build momentum for completing the other projects. A good benchmark is one project per month, but if you're more ambitious, you may be able to do more.

Many Toastmasters resort to having two excuses when it comes to getting projects done:

• "I don't have time!" - Everyone's busy nowadays. This is either a sign that this isn't important to you, or you're not budgeting time well. Take 15-30 minutes a day for a couple weeks to build and refine your speeches. Use the sample OneNote file in the resources folder as a start, or use whatever note-taking application you like. 
• "I don't know what to speak about!" - Use the speech idea generation worksheets found in the speaker resources folder, and this won't be an issue. Make sure you put ideas down into your notes somewhere. What doesn't get written down will usually get written off.

The month-by-month plan for your first year will have you working on speech topics at regular intervals, and targets earning Level 3 by the end of the year. This will put you well ahead of those that don't plan out their progress and end up doing only a few speeches per year. One great benefit about completing levels is that when you complete levels 3, 4, or 5, you can have a letter sent to someone advising them of your progress; this can be useful to send to bosses to prove you are making headway.

2.1. Your First Pathways Project, Step-by-Step

In the previous educational program, completing a project might've looked like this:

1. Receive manuals
2. Bring manual to speech
3. Give the manual to the evaluator
4. Evaluator makes comments on the speech, gives the manual back when done

This seems like a pretty decent setup, though it does have a few weaknesses:

• If manuals are lost or stolen, untracked progress is hard to impossible to recover.
• If manuals are lost or stolen, it can take time to purchase new ones and get them to the member.
• It can take a fair amount of work to collect speech details and send them to TI.
• The manuals only incorporated text, with audio and video being impossible in a printed format.

Pathways eliminates these pain points, though does take some getting used to. This guide will help get you through your first project so you can get used to working with the system. You will need to be able to login to Toastmasters.org to get started; you should have been able to get logged on in the Getting Started lesson. You should also have taken the Assessment and selected your first Pathway.

Before Your Speech

First, login to Toastmasters.org. Next, select the Pathways link, then select Go to Base Camp.

Afterwards, you may see a screen like this (there will be fewer options if you are not a Base Camp Manager). Select Log in as a Member.

You will then have a screen with five blue boxes, and My Education Transcript beneath it. Your Pathway should appear in that box, with a link called Open Transcript next to it; select that link. (You can also select the blue box labeled My Education Transcript, though that route has a few extra clicks)

You should now be at a screen that has your Pathway name, a list of levels, and a list of projects, like this example:

Next to your Ice Breaker project you will see the Activate button. Select that; it will turn into Launch, which you should then select to kick off the interactive training. NOTE: Make sure you have pop-up blocking disabled for this site!

You'll be greeted with a tutorial on how to navigate the lesson. Select the Right Arrow when you're ready. The tutorial will show you what the Icebreaker involves. When you reach this screen, stop:

Select the Project Checklist once - depending on how your computer is configured, this either will open the PDF file in your PDF reader of choice, or open it in the main window of your browser. In either case, you will likely want to print it out to help you complete the project. Once you've done that, use the Right Arrow again to advance.

When you reach the Pre-Assessment, answer the questions. Make sure to select NEXT when moving to the next question, not the right arrow. Once you've completed all questions, use the Right Arrow to move on.

Continue through the lesson; when you run across more worksheets, stop and print those out. You especially need to print the Evaluation Resource, found on this screen:

At this point, you can close the lesson. IMPORTANT: Bring the Evaluation Resource printout to the meeting and provide it to your evaluator.

After the Meeting

Once you deliver your speech and get your completed Evaluation Resource worksheet back, you're ready to finish your Icebreaker project. Log back in to Toastmasters.org, and access your curriculum (same process as above). Launch the Icebreaker project again, and navigate to the Assess Your Skills - After section of the lesson (you can use the dropdown box at the bottom of the lesson screen to quickly move there). Take the survey (same process as the pre-assessment survey). Once you're done, close out the lesson. Back on your Education Transcript screen, you should now have a checkmark on your Icebreaker project, and your progress should be incremented, like this:

Note: After you complete, you will have an option to select Evaluate next to your Icebreaker. This opens a short survey that gives feedback to TI (not the place to post your evaluation). It is optional, but recommended.

Uploading Your Evaluation Form

While it's not strictly necessary, it's advised that you scan in your evaluation form and any notes relevant to your evaluation. Scan your evaluation in (preferably in PDF format). Assuming you are still on the Education Transcript screen, first return to the Home screen by using the Home > Home link in the top left:

Next, select the My Feedback blue box:

On the resulting screen, select E-Portfolio:

Next, select Documents.

After that, you'll get a screen for the levels you have available. Select Level 1 for this tutorial.

You will then have the file add screen. Select the Add File button. 

The Add File dialog will appear. Select the Select a file button and navigate to the folder on your computer with the scanned evaluation form, then select it. 

Once the file is uploaded, select Add.

You should be returned back to the folder, with your file in place. 

Congratulations, you've completed your first Pathways project!

3. Working With Your Mentor

One of the great services that Toastmasters offers is the mentor program, which provides one-on-one learning. You may choose a member of your liking or have one chosen for you that will help you develop and practice your speeches, get you familiar with roles, and much more. If you are interested in obtaining a mentor, contact the VP of Education.

During setup you should have been connected to a mentor or accountability buddy. Typically, if you have a mentor they will help you through your first three speeches at minimum, though this is not a hard limit. You also don't have to necessarily stay with only one mentor.

If you are a new member, your mentor will help you become familiar with the club meetings and roles of meeting participants and will help you with your first few speeches.  If you are an experienced member, your mentor will help you develop the special skills in which you are interested.

To receive maximum benefit from this relationship, it is important that you be...

• Eager to learn. You must be willing to take on new challenges.
  
• Receptive. You must be open to feedback, viewing it as an opportunity to improve.
  
• Open to new ideas. You should be able to see things from other perspectives.
  
• Loyal. You should be able to keep confidences.
  
• Grateful. Your mentor is volunteering his or her time to help you achieve goals and be successful.  Be appreciative.