Last Wednesday Jack Snow presented the new Pathways program at our Toastmasters meeting. It was great to have a good turn-out of members to hear about this new model and how it will affect us. Some of key points from Jack Snow’s new Toastmaster’s Pathways session are:
• There are 10 Pathways to choose from, each with a slightly different focus.
• Each Pathway starts with an Icebreaker speech.
• The speeches come with more guidance for both the speaker and the evaluator than the current system.
• To become a Distinguished Toastmaster (DTM) you complete 2 Pathways.
• There are 5 levels in each pathway and you receive an award for completing each level.
• As existing members we receive free access to any 1 pathway of our choice.
• All manuals and materials are available online once you are enrolled in a pathway, you can download and print these for free or choose to purchase a hard copy.
• Additional Pathways can be purchased for US$20 each (Just like advanced manuals can be purchased in the current system).
• We will each have a logon to ‘Base Camp’ where we access materials and record what we have done. The VP Education then validates this.
• As existing members we can continue with our current books for the next 2 years. We can also start on a pathway and do this at the same time if we wish.
• Current awards cannot be credited towards Pathways, i.e. we all start from the beginning with the Icebreaker.
• The meeting format stays the same with speeches, evaluations, tabletopics, grammarian etc.
• Pathways will become available from early December.

Some people, especially our newest members, may wish to switch straight to the new Pathways program. Others may wish to complete their CC manual first, and some may wish to keep a foot in each camp. It is up to each of us to decide.

Ngā Mihi
Hazel
Hazel Bidmead