One thing that Toastmasters clubs are required to do is to vote new members in. I don’t like this. And I really don’t like the way I’ve heard of at least one club doing it, though I’m sure they’re not the only one. I once listened to a fellow member describing the initiation ceremony at his club that was so weird it would creep out a Mason. This fellow thought it was wonderful how solemn the ceremony was, how they led the person out of the room to await the results in silence, how they were given some special club badge, and all that trying really hard to be sublime stuff.

Toastmasters is supposed to be a fun community organization that is open. I did ask if that Masonic Lodge Toastmasters Club had ever denied anyone membership and found out they always unanimously approved new members. They got that part right at least. But to my thinking, getting overly ceremonious this early is a turn off. On top of that, I really would have wondered whether they would vote me in or not or if anyone was conspiring against me while I was waiting the results.

Why are we required to vote people in? It gets into dealing with jerk members. Let’s say a member wants to rename your club “Nazi Toastmasters USA.” A jerk like that will drive good people away. Assuming you try to talk sense into the person but fail and after working with the legal people at Toastmasters Headquarters, you decide to kick the jerk out of your club.

Guess what? If you didn’t vote him in then you can’t kick him out! Voting members in isn’t meant to filter out undesirables but rather to give you an escape clause to kick undesirables out later. I don’t know the exact law around this but I understand it’s pretty black letter and it is the Law law, not some made up Toastmaster law. I’ve heard that in a District (about 100-150 clubs) there’s a handful of complete jerks that have to be removed each year.

As much as I dislike the idea of “Masonic Lodge Toastmasters,” I prefer it to “Nazi Toastmasters USA.” That said, there’s nothing that says you have to be weird about voting members in. In my club, which is very laid back, we do the vote at the end of the meeting in about ten seconds with the new member in the room and having already explained to him what we’re doing. If you want to be more solemn about it and have the person leave the room, be nice. Have one of your members go out and wait with them and explain that the vote is a formality.

If your club hasn’t implemented voting members in already, for form’s sake (and potentially legally) you need to retroactively vote all existing members in at one swoop. If you’re not voting people in now but decide you want “jerk insurance,” you should explain to your club why you’re not turning into a cult. Or if becoming a cult is your desire, just try not to get too creepy.

Moral: If you’re setting up any organization, from a quilt makers club to an LLC, you need to make sure you have escape clause to take care of jerks and you need to follow it.