Membership Period 

The membership period for Timber Talkers and Toastmasters International is 6 months.  The 6 month period begins in April and October.

New Member Fee 

If you are new to Toastmasters, there is a $20 one-time new member fee.  This fee covers the cost of your first 2 manuals, the Competent Communicator Manual and the Competent Leadership Manual.

Dues 

Dues are pro-rated by month.  Toastmasters International is $4.50 per month.  Timber Talkers is $2.00 per month.  Therefore, each month comes to $6.50.  About 22 cents a day!!

Month by month the breakdown is:

• April/October: $4.50 x 6, $2.00 x 6 = $39.00
• May/November: $4.50 x 5, $2.00 x 5 = $32.50
• June/December: $4.50 x 4, $2.00 x 4 = $26.00
• July/January: $4.50 x 3, $2.00 x 3 = $19.50
• August/February: $4.50 x 2, $2.00 x 2 = $13.00
• September/March: $4.50 x 1, $2.00 x 1 = $6.50

The Toastmaster membership application in PDF format can be downloaded here.

Comparison

Compare this with a Dale Carnegie public speaking course.  First of all you need to travel to California, Georgia, Illinois, New York, or Virginia.  Second the course costs almost $1600 for 2 days.

The Dale Carnegie courses are $100 per hour.  The Toastmaster club, including the new member fee, is $2.30 per hour, and without the new member fee, is $1.50 per hour.

For the price of $1600 (disregarding travel cost), you could be a fully paid member of Toastmasters for 20 years!!!!!

Sure, it is nice to have a 2-day course where you can really concentrate on public speaking skills.  Unfortunately a 2-day course cannot take your future growth into account.  Your experience will be limited based on your current level.  In Toastmasters, you make progress every meeting and will get suggestions based on your current level.  If you start doing something new that works well, it will be noticed.