Toastmasters International is the leading movement devoted to making effective oral communication a world-wide reality. Through its member clubs, it helps men and women learn the arts of speaking, listening, and thinking—vital skills that promote self-actualization, enhance leadership potential, foster human understanding, and contribute to the betterment of mankind.

TI was founded by Ralph C Smedley on October 22, 1924, at the YMCA in Santana, United States. It was then incorporated under California law on December 19, 1932.Currently; it is home to 2, 70,000 members spread across 13,000 clubs in 116 countries.

THE EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM:

A Toastmasters club adopts a "learn-by-doing" philosophy, wherein each member learns at a pace suitable to his or her developmental needs. The Toastmasters program is divided into two separate tracks - Communication and Leadership, with members progressing along each track by presenting speeches and taking on roles within their club, district, and Toastmasters International itself.

The heart of the Toastmasters curriculum is its educational awards. The most basic of these in the series is the Competent Communication manual. The competent communication manual comprises of ten speech based projects, wherein the level of complexity of each speech is higher than the preceeding one. After completing the ten Competent Communication projects, a member is entitled to the Competent Communicator award, and may add the post-nominal CC to their name for Toastmasters purposes.

Toastmasters' international also helps in strengthening one's leadership qualities. This is motivated in part by the fact that Toastmasters International is staffed completely by volunteers. Even the board of directors is composed of volunteers, who still hold memberships in local clubs, and are not paid. Besides, there is a Competent Leadership manual with projects to develop leadership qualities in an individual.

One progresses through the Toastmasters journey as shown in the flowchart above before finally attaining the highest honour, Distinguished Toastmaster (DTM), to members who have achieved both the Advanced Communication Gold and Advanced Leader Silver awards. To achieve the DTM typically takes five to eight years of dedicated service and leadership in at the local club, area, and division levels. The Distinguished Toastmaster title is not necessarily the end of the journey for most Toastmasters. Many Toastmasters will re-enter the program and repeat it at least once more. Every iteration through the program affords the individual additional experience in either the chosen direction or a totally new direction at their discretion.

In short Toastmasters VIT stands for "Vibrant & Informative Toastmasters"!

The mission of a Toastmasters club is to provide a mutually supportive and positive learning environment in which every individual member has the opportunity to develop communication and leadership skills, which in turn foster self-confidence and personal growth.

Sharing the same ideals, TOASTMASTERS VIT was chartered in VIT University on 25th Jan 2011. For large parts, TMI-VIT is a university chapter. With time, TMI VIT has constantly been adding new feathers to the wings of progress. Join TMI VIT and be a proud member of the internationally Chartered TMI-VIT chapter.

TMI-VIT is the most active student chapter in VIT. It hosts weekly sessions on Wednesdays, Thursdays & Fridays. With a team of dedicated members, desirous of learning and of helping others learn, all these sessions are very organized and well-structured, and give a fair chance to all its members and guests to develop and master the art of effective communication. Apart from regular sessions on weekdays, TMI VIT strives to conduct atleast two special events in a month on weekends to foster team-bonding and spread the happiness!

Spread over 300 acres, VIT University is strategically located at the crossroads of Chennai and Bangalore. It houses over 14,000 students from all across the globe, pursuing a broad array of disciplines from engineering and management backgrounds, all consolidated into six schools of excellence.

VIT has a unique combination of pioneering research and top class education with an innovative curriculum called "Fully Flexible Credit System" that gives students the flexibility in choosing their courses, faculty and even their class hours! - The institute fosters inter-disciplinary interaction which encourages a seamless flow of knowledge both within the institute, and outside. The undergraduate students also get a chance to participate in the on-going research projects of the university or start their own research work under the courses URE 001, URE 002, URE 003 and URE 004.

VITians have created placement records time and again, with the most recent one being Cognizant that placed 1820 students in campus recruitment. An unfettered spirit of exploration, rationality and enterprise thrives in the campus with the faculty being extremely supportive, highly qualified and student friendly. The chancellor, Dr G.Viswanathan was recently awarded the lifetime achievement award for the phenomenal reforms he has brought about in higher education.

VIT hosts two fests every year - Riviera, a Sports and Cultural carnival and GraVITas, a knowledge carnival inviting participation from a multitude of international universities.VIT is known for an excellent world-class infrastructure with a broad spectrum of modern technologies, highly equipped laboratories, research centers and a Central library built to International standards.