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Professional toastmasters for hire
from some of the most popular and experienced toastmasters in the country.
Whatever your event - We are here for you
We would like to find out what is important for the success of your event and deliver excellence.
The English Toastmasters Association is here to help our clients (our member toastmasters) and our members' clients.
Toastmasters in our Association will deliver only the highest level of professional service to and for you.
Our role as your toastmaster is to make your special occasion go with a "WOW".
Hire your professional wedding and event toastmasters here
The English Toastmasters Association for toastmasters in London and across the country is arguably the ultimate organisation based in England, offering a variety of toastmaster training courses for those wishing to learn the skills required to be a properly trained toastmaster and/or master of ceremonies. You can learn the toastmaster's duties for all types of events by joining the English Toastmasters Association and attending our training courses.
If you are looking for a toastmaster training course, The British Toastmaster School runs courses on a one-to-one basis for best results for our toastmasters to achieve a higher professional level of service.
You can select the best wedding toastmaster for your special day from a selection of the top wedding toastmasters. Master of ceremonies and celebrant services are also available from any of our professional toastmasters. Our toastmasters will attend your service or civil ceremony. Our toastmaster duties are extensive and are aimed at the highest level of service for you and include surrogate host presenter MC. All types of events and cultures are catered for including Christian, Jewish, Sikh, Hindu, Asian and Muslim to name but a few.
This site is a complimentary site to The English Toastmasters Association's main site, which may be found site at www.englishtoastmasters.co.uk
We will shortly be bringing our Service Level Agreement to the front page of this site. It is important that the level of service offered by each one of our members conforms to the highest standards. We will be publishing this service level agreement so that every client can see the services and quality standards that every one of our toastmasters will work to at you event. If you have any comments about the quality of any of our toastmasters, please use the contact us form to advise us of your comments. We will be pleased to publish any testimonials and take up any issues on your behalf.
The aim of this site is to give as much help and information as possible to potential clients who wish to find out more about toastmasters and the services that they offer or who wish to book a toastmaster for any type of function or event. We also run regular training courses and seminars for new and existing toastmasters to help them to provide the best possible services for their clients.
Toastmaster Questions and Answers
Why use a toastmaster?
If you would like to have a colourful, professional and extremely smart presence at your special occasion, who is there for you, to make sure that your event runs the way that you want it to, a toastmaster is for you.
If there are special people that you would like looked after, your toastmaster should be pleased to take great care of the people that are special to you.
If you want to feel special at you own event, a toastmaster will be certain, by the way that you will be looked after, to make you feel very special.
If you are worried by any part of your special occasion, in any way, your toastmaster will in most cases, be able to get rid of any of your worries and make you feel relaxed and know that you are in safe, experienced and caring hands.
What is our history?
The very first toastmaster to wear the red tail coat was a gentleman called William Knightsmith. The year that this first happened was 1894 in the Freemasons Hall, London. He was applauded by Prince Edward, who was amongst the guests at a giant banquet. This action was taken as the Royal seal of approval and the scarlet coat, as the long tailed jacket may also be referred to, has been the regular uniform of the toastmaster, ever since.
Where have we come from?
Going back in history, there are many tales about the master of the toasts and toast masters. There are at least two meanings to these phrases and we will explain later. The toastmaster in the striking uniform that is worn today really started with a gentleman by the name of William Knightsmith in London in 1984. The jacket was applauded by Prince Edward at a function where this was taken as the Royal seal of approval. From this time onwards the scarlet long tail coat was to become the uniform for all toastmasters.
How do you get the best from us?
Make sure that you meet your toastmaster before your event. You will need to discuss your event in detail, to make sure that you get what you want on your special occasion. Your toastmaster should note all your requirements with timings and fine details. If you provide your toastmaster with your schedule, he will have a very good start to understanding your occasion.
What standards do we work to?
At The English Toastmasters Association, we have a Code of Ethics that are published further down on this, the first page of this web site.
Why choose a toastmaster that is a member of the English Toastmasters Association?
The simple answer has to be, because you know that you will get a toastmaster that has been through an extensive and ongoing training process. All our members offer excellent quality services tailored to your needs. We will be pleased to listen to your requirements and work out the best solutions for you.
All of our members who live and work in the UK are covered by our £5,000,000.00 Public liability insurance policy.
How do I make sure that I get an excellent toastmaster that I can trust to look after my every need?
When appointing anyone to look after you and your guests, you would be best advised to meet them and make sure that you are comfortable with them, and to look at their testimonials from satisfied clients.
 What is the difference between a toastmaster and a master of ceremonies?
A toastmaster may also be a master of ceremonies and will act as a master of ceremonies at most of the functions that he will be working at. The main difference is that the toastmaster will be dressed in his smart uniform, the main characteristic of which is the scarlet long tailed coat. The uniform comprises of;-
A pair of very highly polished patent leather shoes or boots without toe caps.
A pair of very high waisted, double braided trousers that will generally be held up by braces and be much higher than the short cut top of the scarlet long tailed jacket. This uniform worn correctly with no white of the waistcoat showing below the level of the jacket, gives the appearance of elongating the body. The uniform is generally made by specialist military tailors and when worn properly will help the wearer to stand more upright.
A white or red waistcoat that will be entirely above the level of the red tailcoat. It is very important that the waistcoat does not in any way show below the level of the jacket.
The only way that this method and way of dress works correctly is when every part of the uniform is correct. If a toastmaster does not have a pair of high waisted trousers the whole uniform looks wrong and may appear very scruffy or at best very untidy. There should be at least a one inch gap between the bottom of the jacket and the waistcoat and ideally more than this.
A pair of clean white gloves.
A medallion or badge to show membership of one of the recognised organisations that support their member toastmasters. This should also mean that the toastmaster is working with public liability insurance, but this may not be the case. Certain of the organisations that support toastmasters do not offer this as part of their membership package. It will be well worth while checking your toastmaster's insurance details. All our members who are insured will be found on our members list on the main English Toastmasters Association web site. Toastmasters Insurance
A white stiff fronted or starched Marcella shirt with a wing collar and single cuffs. The wings of the collar should be worn behind the bow tie. The shirt may have buttons but more usually will have studs which should be either white, mother of pearl or gold.
A white Marcella bow tie which may be self tied or ready tied.
These and many more questions will be answered more fully as this site is developed.
The big drinking debate!
Should any toastmaster drink whilst wearing his red jacket and working for a client?
The answer is a definite NO!
No professionals who work for clients and take their job seriously would tarnish the name of their profession by behaving in an unprofessional manner!
Why is it that the English Toastmasters Association lead the way on this debate?
It may be because drinking was seen to be one of the perks of the job and many of the old school toastmasters or non professionals think this is still an acceptable standard and practice.
At The English Toastmasters Association we think different. We believe that we are here to care for you and to take care of you in any situation.
If you really want to see how a toastmaster was perceived some years ago, try putting "Michael Bentine Toastmaster" into Google and see the result. This sketch may be difficult to find for a while as it seems to have been removed from youtube. It showed a toastmaster getting more and more the worse for drink during his performance. As any client will know, a toastmaster has to be a person that you can trust to take great care of you and all of your guests.
So... Why use our toastmasters for your special event?
If we share our Mission Statement and our Vision with you.....
You may understand why the toastmasters at The English Toastmasters Association may be different from many other toastmasters.....
Our mission is to establish and grow a quality organisation for toastmasters based on the highest levels of service, loyalty, and integrity. As an organisation, our aim is to provide consistently superior services to our members. We will foster an environment that enables our members to achieve personal and professional growth and success. Our members' professional needs and objectives are paramount.
Our vision is to be the highest quality Toastmasters Association and leading provider of superior support for Toastmasters and Masters of Ceremonies worldwide. The English Toastmasters Association will facilitate excellent quality training and marketing services. These services will enable our members to exceed their clients' expectations and raise the profile of toastmasters. By delivering superior quality services to our members and offering our members the highest level of training, support, loyalty and integrity, our members will be able to achieve personal and professional growth and success whilst providing consistently superior services to their clients.
The Code of Ethics that all our toastmasters work to is a very important statement and highlights how seriously we take our work and our commitment to our clients. Our members are committed through this statement of ethical practices to promote the highest possible standards of professional conduct.
It is interesting to note that there is no other organisation for toastmasters that publishes their Code of Ethics or that subscribe to the non participation in alcoholic beverages whilst working ethos.
It has been a tradition for some time that toastmasters have participated in taking the toast or toasts as part of their duties. That was before the drink driving laws were established and also before client focus was realised to be an important, shall we say major, factor of our work relating to professionalism and client care.
 
There were even special drinking glasses for toastmasters that made it look like toastmaster were participating in more alcohol than was actually being drunk. We have moved on since those early days and now we have to be very client focussed toastmasters that care more about our clients that having what has been considered a perk of the job.
There is reference to a Toastmaster's glass in the Victoria and Albert Museum. Toastmaster's glass with heavy conical deceptive bowl on large ball knop with tear stem and folded foot. The toastmaster's glass of about 1730 to 1750 looks to be like any normal drinking glass but only holds around a quarter of the capacity of the normal glass.
The way that the glass was made created the illusion that it was full. It is said to owe its origin to the clubs of the 18th Century where the toastmaster had to remain sober enough to carry out his official duties. It has been good etiquette that a toastmaster never consumes alcohol when working. We still really enjoy our work but must always remember the main focus of our duties has to be to take care of our clients and to make sure that their wishes are being taken care of to the highest standards.
Our members will undertake the following:
- We will conduct ourselves in a professional manner and perform competently and to the highest possible standards at all times.
- We will refrain from participating in any alcoholic beverages whilst working for our clients.
- We will present or supply services honestly and without misrepresentation, avoiding the use of false, confusing, inaccurate or misleading terms, descriptions and claims.
- We will earn, establish and maintain a reputation for giving excellent quality service.
- We will render proper, fair, reasonable and efficient services to our clients.
- We will deal promptly with any issues and endeavour to make every client an advocate for our services.
- We will advise every client, as we would wish to be advised, if we were the client.
- We will make every service a brick in the foundation of confidence, without which, we would not be permanently successful.
- We recognise that other toastmasters will compete for business within lawful practice.
- We will refrain from discriminatory practices.
- We will maintain the highest reasonable level of safety for all services.
- We will undertake training for the development and improvement of professional standards and practices, on a regular basis.
- We will be responsive to and available for clients before, during and after the event.
- We will hold adequate public liability insurance. (We are obliged to provide evidence of such insurance on request and have a £5,000,000 Third Party Liability insurance).
- We will support the Association by taking an active role in the activities of the Association and promoting the Association to the Profession.
- We will maintain and enhance the reputation, standing and good name of the English Toastmasters Association® and its membership.
- We will recognise the authority of the English Toastmasters Association® in all matters relating to the interpretation of this code of ethics.
This Code of Ethics is a guideline and does not represent the entire scope of good conduct and ethical behaviour. Our acceptance and adherence to this Code is our standard practice.
Our main site may be found here The English Toastmasters Association
Honorary Fellow Members of the English Toastmasters Association
Practicing and Non practicing toastmasters
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