By-Laws

Unless otherwise provided by the Constitution of Toastmasters International, the Executive Committee is competent to consider any substantive or procedural matter relating to the Club’s operation.


(SECTION 1) Rules governing the procedure of joining the Club

1. A person who wishes to join the Club should demonstrate his or her sincere commitment to the ideals of Toastmasters including the following:

  • Regular attendance;
  • Regular participation in programs;
  • Good command of the English Language;
  • Compliance with the Club’s regulations;

2. To be entitled to deliver the “Ice-breaker” project, the guest is supposed to accomplish any two tasks of the following four:

  • Word of the day;
  • Joke of the day;
  • Invocation;
  • Timer;

3. Upon meeting the above-written requirements, the guest who wishes to become a member of the Club should request the Executive Committee to consider his or her candidacy as far as joining the Club is concerned;

4. The Executive Committee thoroughly studies the request and, with due regard to the requirements listed in paragraphs 1 and 2 of the present section, informs a requesting guest of its decision;

5. Nothing in the present By-Law should be interpreted as forbidding a requesting guest to appeal to the Executive Committee more than one time;

6. The rules set forth above do not apply to native speakers.


(SECTION 2) Exclusion from the Club

The issue of exclusion from the Club is within the competence of the Executive Committee. Exclusion might take place in the following cases:

  • Regular non-attendance of the Club (6 months) without informing the Executive Committee in advance;
  • Flagrant and (or) persistent violation of Toastmasters’ ethics;

The excluded member can at any time request the Executive Committee to reinstate his or her membership status.


(SECTION 3) Rules governing the procedure of inviting guests

1. Guests can be invited only by members. A guest should be at least 18 years of age as the Constitution of Toastmasters provides that members should not be younger this age (section 2, article 2 of the Constitution);
2. For the purpose of keeping order and magnifying the sense of personal responsibility for the Club among members, a member of the Club who wishes to invite a guest should observe the following requirements:

  • Registering a planned visit in the Guest Registration List prior to the meeting when the guest (no matter if it’s a new-comer or a regular visitor) is supposed to come;
  • Personally introducing the guest (a new-comer) in the beginning of a program;
  • Mentoring the guest on the Club related issues (mentoring should include, among other things, providing the guest with relevant materials: the Constitution and the Club’s by-laws);
  • Being the guest’s personal evaluator for the “Ice-breaker” project;

3. The limit number of guests that can be invited to a meeting is determined in each particular case by the Executive Committee depending on the total number of registered members and visiting foreign nationals (native speakers and members of Toastmasters International other than from Russia). The limit number of guests is indicated each time in the Guest Registration List;

4. The Vice President Membership is charged with the task of managing the procedure of inviting guests for an upcoming meeting. The invitation procedure organized by the VP Membership ought to be based upon the principles of justice and equal opportunity for everybody. The VP Membership is also responsible for resolving problems among members arising out of the invitation procedure;

5. The Vice President Public Relations pre-registers and mentors those guests who send visitation requests at the Club’s e-mail address prior to and during their first visit. At this point, at least, one vacancy in the Guest Registration List is reserved for the VP Public Relations. After the first visit, registration and mentoring responsibilities with regard to such guests pass to the Vice President;

6. If it happens that there are vacancies in the Guest Registration List after a meeting, the preliminary registration of the guest may take place any time before the next meeting. The inviting member should contact the Sergeant-at-arms and, after getting the confirmation about the existing vacancy, may pre-register the coming guest by informing the Sergeant-at-arms of his or her planned visit.
If you know that your guest is not coming, please, inform the Sergeant-at-arms of that to allow other potential guests to occupy this vacancy;

7. Before each meeting the Sergeant-at-arms verifies that the coming guests are those who were pre-registered on a previous meeting or afterwards, as provided above;

8. Visiting guests are under a duty to conform to the Club’s procedure rules. They should be encouraged by their mentors to take an active part in the Club’s programs;

9. Native speakers and foreign nationals who are members of Toastmasters International enjoy the most-favored visitor status what entitles them to visitation without preliminary registration. If the situation requires, exceptions to this rule might be considered by the Executive Committee;

10. No other visitation restrictions are placed on guests except those, which are provided by the present By-Law.


(SECTION 4) Miscellaneous provisions

1. Both members and guests are under a responsibility to maintain high ethical standards in the Club and observe etiquette;

  • An important way of observing etiquette is coming to meetings on time. If you know you are going to be late, please, postpone your coming till either 8 p.m. (tea break) or next meeting;
  • For the purpose of keeping order and discipline, speakers and other program participants should not be stopped or interrupted in the course of their speaking;

2. Both members and guests are supposed to constantly raise their participation level in the Club’s programs. The Vice President Education will monitor the participation level and, relying on the monitoring records, the President, when allotting duties in the end of a program, will be strongly recommending that an inactive member should take up a program assignment for an upcoming meeting;

3. Every four months the Vice President Education will make a program participation report which will indicate the participation record of members based on the system of points: manual speeches – 7 points, toastmaster, general evaluator, table topic master – 5 points, tea-master – 4 points, word of the day, joke of the day, invocation, grammarian – 3 points, timer – 2 points;

4. In the event of absence of volunteers among members and guests to make tea, the position of the Tea-master is to be assigned through the following procedure:

  • Upon making the “Ice-breaker” speech, the ice-breaker is under an automatic duty to serve as the tea-master next time;
  • In the event of absence of icebreakers, the President assigns this duty by using the alphabetic order rule in the members’ list.

5. The speech evaluation procedure is to be as follows:

  • A delivered speech is recognized as valid in case there are no objections from the personal and (or) general evaluators, the Club’s President and (or) Vice Presidents. Due regard should be given to opinions from the audience. If, in the course of evaluation, it becomes evident that any of the above-indicated persons is opposed to the validity of the speech, the arisen dispute falls within the competence of the Executive Committee that considers it immediately after the meeting;
  • If the speaker agrees that the speech made was poorly delivered, the project is to be re-delivered and no consideration by the Executive Committee is required;
  • The Executive Committee shall be composed of the following officers: President, Immediate Past President (Vice President), Vice President Education, Vice President Membership, Vice President Public Relations, Secretary, Sergeant-at-arms, Treasurer. All questions in the Executive Committee shall be decided by a majority of the officers present. In the event of an equality of votes, the President shall have a casting vote.

Information for guests

The Moscow Free Speakers Club is one of the many branches of Toastmasters International – an international organization head-quartered in California. Established in 1924 by an American Ralf Smedly, Toastmasters International operates as a private association whose goal is to provide public speaking opportunities for everybody irrespective of race, sex, nationality and religion.

The Moscow Free Speakers is the 3rd Toastmasters club in the history of Russia (at the moment the only one). A sincere enthusiast of the Toastmasters ideals – Robert Meyrson founded it as early as in 1989. Ever since, it has been spreading the word about communication and leadership skills.

Main goals of the Moscow Free Speakers:

  1. Practicing public speaking skills through the English language;
  2. Learning to be a better listener and communicator;
  3. Learning to become a leader;
  4. Achieving oratorical excellence;

These goals are to be reached through creating a mutually supportive environment. The latter is a common responsibility for both members and guests.

Miscellanea

Meetings are held twice a month (every first and third Thursday) from 7 till 9 p.m. To learn more about the Club and Toastmasters International ask your mentor (a member who invited you) to provide you with relevant materials, such as the Constitution of Toastmasters International and by-laws of the Moscow Free Speakers club.

As a guest, you are expected to take part in our programs (word of the day, joke of the day, invocation, table topic discussion, tea-master, timer).

If, eventually, you want to join the Club, study “the rules governing the procedure of joining the Club” section in our By-law passed in October 2001.

Important:

To invite guests is the prerogative of members. The only exception to that rule is native speakers and foreign nationals who are members of Toastmasters International. Do remember about preliminary registration. Your planned visits of the Moscow Free Speakers Club should be pre-registered each time in the Guest Registration List. Do remind your mentor of that if you want to continue to visit the Club.

Don’t forget to turn off your mobile phones after the meeting started.