Beginning your TM Career

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.