Page 43 - 2019 March Voices

the magnanimity of this effort and give the delivering what new members need, leading
organization credit and some slack (or leeway). to a low percentage of incoming Toastmasters

And, despite this incredibly large improvement receiving a Competent Communicator Award,
effort, the fees have barely gone up. The value and much lower level earning a Competent
has gone up about eleven-fold, and the price is Leader Award. These numbers, along with high
the same! overall attrition rates for Toastmasters led to a

Which brings me to the actual content. Yes, it concerted effort to improve the quality of the
takes a long time to go through the Ice Breaker. new member experience. I completely support
You’re expectations are being setup. High the Toastmasters BOD effort to improve the
quality material cannot be breezed through. member experience. (As a market researcher,

The intention is for everyone to learn skills in I know firsthand that satisfaction is critical to
the project material, and then practice them success for any organization.)
in speeches or other types of projects. People Experienced members have a significant
who got in a habit of skimming the manual challenge with Pathways. They have to get out

content and delivering speeches were not fully ahead of the new members, or else they really
embodying the intention of the program. We can’t be valuable mentors to them. Fortunately,
learn skills theoretically, and then practice them by now there are enough people out there in
experientially. Experiential learning is probably Toastmaster “Landia” that have overcome the

the main thing I love about Toastmasters. The new initial software challenges. So, no one has a
Feedback & Evaluation (Project #2) is incredibly legitimate excuse for not being a Pathways
important for everyone. The video example on Champion or promoter, any more.
how to give a speaker evaluation is priceless! I

always say that “feedback is the backbone” of
the Toastmasters program, so this video (for me)
fully exemplifies the type of quality improvement
that we all receive in Pathways. I am far more

excited about learning the content in Pathways
projects than I ever was for the traditional ones.
If you think about it, content 30 years old really
is dated. It is, however, a testament to its initial

quality that it lasted that long.

What advice do you have for people who
have been slow to adopt Pathways?

I strongly encourage experienced Toastmasters
to view the 2-1/2 minute video Why Was Pathways
Created? at toastmasters.org/pathways-overview.
In it we learn that the traditional tracks are not

VOICES! | MARCH 2019 43