How to Dress For a Toastmasters Meeting

I’m always getting asked questions about Toastmasters. Some are a little crazy – are there many single men in your club? Others are amusing – what does Toastmasters have to do with making toast? The most common question I’m asked is which club to join. However, I was recently asked an interesting question: how should I dress when visiting a club?

Every club is different, so it really depends on the club. Community clubs meeting at night or on the weekends might be casual, while corporate clubs might require a more formal dress. So here are some tips:

• If the club has a website, look for pictures of meetings to see what the dress code is.
• If the club meets at a business, even if it’s not sponsored by the company, call the company’s main switchboard and ask what the dress code for the company is. You’ll want to respect the company’s dress code when on their premises.
• Even if a club allows casual dress, make sure what you wear is clean and neat and don’t dress too casual.
• When in doubt, dress business casual. Even though no club will reject you for dressing too casual, dressing up will help you make a good first impression.

I have frequently noticed people dressing sloppily for Toastmasters meetings and even district conferences. There are some women I used to see at district events that always dressed like complete slobs. They wear outfits that were only appropriate to wear at Woodstock back in 1969, and their hair looked like it hadn’t been brushed or washed since then. While they’ve all held officer positions within the district and were well known within Toastmasters, I doubt anyone attending the event would be compelled to hire them as a speaker. So here are some tips for Toastmasters on how to dress.

• For conferences, always dress business formal. For men that means a jacket and tie, for women, it means either a dress, skirt, or pants suit.
• If you’re speaking at your club, dress up. Remember that it’s hard to motivate and inspire people when you’re wearing shorts, a t-shirt, and flip-flops.
• If you’re competing in a speech contest, dress up a lot (unless the topic of your speech requires you to dress a particular way). A good friend and I were involved in a contest where the top two contestants gave speeches of equal quality. My friend was the deciding vote, and he chose the woman that was dressed up over the one dressed casually. He said it showed more preparation for her speech.
• For TLI training sessions, district meetings, and other events, dress at least business casual.
• It’s okay to show up to meetings dressed casually if your club allows it – especially during warmer weather. But don’t dress like you’re going to the beach unless you’re actually meeting at the beach.
• If you’re the Club President, Vice President of Membership, or highest-ranking officer at a meeting, dress up for meetings. You want to impress your guests.
• If you’re an Area Governor or other district officer doing club visits, find out the club’s dress code and dress a notch above. When I was an Area Governor, I used to dress business casual at a minimum when visiting clubs. My predecessor used to wear a suit for all his visits.
• When visiting other clubs, don’t assume they have the same dress code as your club.

In general, just remember that appearance matters when it comes to public speaking. While you don’t need to look like a supermodel to be taken seriously, you do want to make the effort to look clean and neat. You should always dress up a notch whenever you give a speech – Toastmasters related or not. And if you’re looking to get hired as a speaker, all the more reason to dress up.

James Feudo

James Feudo owns the Boston Web Design Agency JVF Solutions and loves blogging about personal development and communication in his spare time.