Sunday, July 12, 2020

Reasons Not to Join Toastmasters

  1. Toastmasters is a money making scheme. It's president makes over $100,000. This is supposed to be a 501c3 charity rather than a money making venture
  2. Many employees are also members who will try to protect Toastmasters rather than follow policies that protect victims
  3. Corporate silencing of criticism
  4. Victims of harassment are not protected. No transparency.
  5.  Sources of harassment are not removed. It is a bully's paradise.
  6. Annual Conferences are listed as income in tax returns.
  7. Speech contest cheating.
  8. Leaders lying during HPL.
  9. Toastmaster Arizona has a D+ listing at the Better Business Bureau.
  10. Year long recruiting campaigns, which disqualifies it from being a club (501c7) for tax purposes even though it claims to be a club. 
  11. The Association of Speakers Clubs de-merged from Toastmasters in UK.
  12. Regular clubs that bring in money are good, and starting gavel clubs for people that do not qualify to join does not bring in money. They are bad. It seems to be all about money
  13. Do not join Toastmasters

Why Toastmasters is a Bully's Paradise


  1. Some venues will not get involved unless there is an overt act of violence. When violence occurs it is too late. These venues do not care. If they did,  violence prevention policies to secure violence-free venues would be in place rather than violence reaction policies that wait till violence has  already occurred.  The time to stop violence is before violence occurs rather than after. It is the difference between being proactive and being reactive.
  2. There is no transparency when a complaint is filed against a Toastmasters leader. The victim is never told the outcome. No notes are taken. No emails are accepted. There is an effort to eliminate documentary evidence that would verify a complaint
  3. There are dishonest and abusive leaders in Toastmasters. They are currently given free rein to bully
  4. Complaints are met with egocentric behavior. Thought terminating cliques like "disparaging toastmasters," and "If I went somewhere else, it would not be Toastmasters" are common. This kind of thinking is scary and promotes irrational thinking where legitimate issues are not handled but excused
  5. The victim is belittled by the leaders. The only options suggested by the leaders is to leave Toastmasters
  6. Arizona Toastmasters received as D+ at the local Better Business Bureau web site
  7. There are attempts to silence criticism by the corporate leadership
  8. There are no courses on the ethics of leadership. This produces unprofessional behavior from wannabe leaders
The above 8 items have been specifically documented in Toasmasters with the help of various current and former members. We will continue to document abuses.

Thursday, April 23, 2020

Beyond Toastmasters season 2. Stay Tuned...

   


   Ahoy there mates, Beyond Toastmasters is coming back for season two. Did you know that an entire region of Toastmasters clubs left Toastmasters. Stay tuned for the answer in season 2 of Beyond Toast-masters. 

Sunday, July 8, 2018

New Site Name

Tucson Toastmasters Club Reviews and the member complaint form are being consolidated into one site: Do not Join Toastmasters
 (http://www.donotjointoastmasters.net)

Wednesday, March 7, 2018

Declaration! The Autism Delegation is Here!

The Autism Delegation now exists. After six months of discussion and a year and a half of complaining, the kers that started this while expecting me to quietly leave are in for the proverbial shit storm.

For Immediate Release


For More Information Contact: John Bowen Brown II
Tucson Toastmaster Club Reviews (TTCR)
Phone (520) 477-1084




Tucson, AZ
Tucson Toastmaster Club Reviews (TTCR)
News Release

For Immediate Release:

Autism Delegation to Hold Accountable Toastmasters

and the Policies that Shield it from Accountability



 For Immediate Release:
 Tucson, AZ, and March 7, 2018: The majority of autistics cannot defend themselves against bullying. What happens when bullying occurs in a club?  What happens when the facility where the club meets claims bullying is not their problem? The club is District 3 Toastmasters, and some of the facilities with this noninterference policy are Tucson City Council offices
When John Bowen Brown II, who is autistic, complained to Distinguished Toastmaster Randy Casarez, he was told, "Don't disrespect me, John, or you will have a problem with me." Then Casarez started to bully Brown, which included challenging Brown to a speech contest to prove to Brown he was not "dumb." When he complained to other local Toastmaster leaders, he was told to mind his own business. "It is my business because it happened to me," says Brown. Brown dug deeper. He discovered worse issues in Tucson Toastmasters that included a four-year-old pattern of bullying and nepotism in a speech contest. Toastmaster International's response to this issue is apathy
Brown complained to the Ward 3 City Council Office. They told Brown it was not their problem unless violence was involved. Brown, who studied conflict issues with the U.S Institute of Peace, says, "Violence is not a punctiliar event. Violence is the result of a series of escalations. Violence is preventable, but waiting until a violent act occurs is too late to address violence.
Brown complained to the Better Business Bureau about Toastmaster reprehensible behavior. District Director Enid Cranshaw said Brown was not a member of Toastmasters. When Brown challenged the claim, Cranshaw never responded. The Better Business Bureau closed the case as unresolved and gave Arizona, District 3 Toastmasters, a D+
            To respond to District 3 Toastmasters and Toastmaster International unwillingness to address these issues  Brown started the Autism Delegation. The mission of the Autism Delegation is to hold accountable any autism apathy in Toastmaster clubs and the facilities that harbor them. These current noninterference policies have produced harmful side effects that in application permit bullying. These noninterference policies create an unsafe environment for autistics. The only option for autistics that cannot advocate their concerns are to suffer in silence or leave. These policies give groups that meet in Tucson City Council offices the license to bully at-will knowing that no one will step up to protect vulnerable populations that include autistics and other members of the disability community.
Ends
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