Toastmasters International is a non-profit educational organization headquartered in California. Its mission is to improve communication and leadership skills of its members and in general. Mainly, this works out to 'improving public speaking skills' but there are also leadership and management aspects.
The name "Toastmasters" comes from early days of the organization, when after-dinner speaking was common.
A The format varies slightly from club to club, but the basics include: the business meeting (usually very short), introduction of the Toastmaster of the Meeting, who presides over the program that day and explains the meeting as it goes along, impromptu speeches from members (also known as Table Topics), prepared speeches from members, oral evaluations of the prepared speeches, reports from other evaluation personnel, such as the speech timer, the grammarian, the "ah" counter and the General Evaluator.
Meetings last two to three hours and may be combined with dinner.
A Toastmasters provides a structured method and materials for improving important personal communication skills. For those who are more or less fluent in English it provides an excellent opportunity for speaking practice and the acquisition of organisational, presentation, evaluation and leadership abilities. It is excellent long-term value.