easySPEAK – passing the baton

A bit of history and a thank you to Malcolm

  • In January 2005, at a small meeting in Bicester Speakers, Malcolm Warden introduced what would soon become a transformative innovation in the Toastmasters community: easySPEAK. Initially conceived as a straightforward solution to streamline the confirmation of meeting roles for club members, this innovative software quickly evolved into a vital tool for clubs worldwide.
  • By May 2005, easySPEAK was fully operational and was introduced to all members of Bicester Speakers as their primary system for managing roles and meetings. Its simplicity and effectiveness soon drew attention, and neighboring clubs quickly began requesting access.
  • Recognizing its potential, District 71 showcased easySPEAK at their subsequent conference, significantly amplifying its reach. District 59 soon followed suit, and from these pivotal endorsements, easySPEAK rapidly grew into a global asset, adopted by thousands of Toastmasters clubs around the world.
  • As we approach easySPEAK’s 20th anniversary, Malcolm reflects fondly on the journey. While he’s immensely proud of its growth and impact, he’s also announced a significant transition: from October onward, Malcolm will step away from his active role in maintaining and supporting easySPEAK.
  • Having dedicated nearly two decades of tireless work to developing, improving, and maintaining the platform, Malcolm, who stepped away from active Toastmasters membership in 2018, feels it’s time to pass the baton. EasySPEAK stands today as a testament to Malcolm’s innovation, vision, and dedication—a tool born from necessity that became a global phenomenon.
  • As we celebrate this impressive milestone, we honor Malcolm Warden’s legacy and look forward to seeing easySPEAK continue empowering effective communication and leadership within Toastmasters worldwide.

The way forward

easySPEAK today is used by over 1.800 clubs across the world, by 82% of all clubs in Region 10 (Europe and a bit more), by 25% of all clubs in Region 12. In the following Districts easySPEAK is used by more than 20% of the clubs: 2, 5, 15, 21, 38, 39, 54, 55, 59, 60, 71, 72, 73, 74, 76, 86, 91, 95, 107, 108, 109, 110, 111, 112, 123, U.

Those clubs risk remaining without a tool that helps them organize their meetings and guarantee their members a better organized meeting and a better run club. We need to take action to make sure that easySPEAK continues to serve those 43.000 members across the world. This is why an effort is undergoing to pick up the baton and keep easySPEAK working and flourishing.

A first meeting was held amongst some leaders in Region 10 with the participation of Malcolm and some of the current staff supporting easySPEAK. The idea is to setup three teams to keep easySPEAK up and working, and possibly continue its development. We have three objectives:

  • Short Term: Stabilization, documentation, analysis, guarantee the continued operation of easySPEAK;
  • Mid Term: Incremental update of critical features of easySPEAK;
  • Long Team: Overhaul or replace the entire easySPEAK system.

The Organizational/Admin Team

The first team we would like to setup should tentatively cover the following objectives:

1. Establish a Robust Organizational Structure

  • Clearly define ownership and management responsibilities for easySPEAK, including the evaluation of associated costs, administrative manageability, and implications.

  • Develop structured collaboration guidelines with Toastmasters International, clearly specifying roles, responsibilities, and the scope of cooperation.

2. Transition Management for Sustainability

  • Implement an agile Executive Committee structure clearly segmented into:

    • Program Management

    • Technical Architecture, Implementation, and Maintenance

    • User and Technical Support

  • Formally establish an association or similar legal structure in a favorable jurisdiction to protect volunteers and secure sustained financial support.

3. Volunteer Engagement and Retention

  • Build and maintain a structured yet flexible volunteer-based framework to manage ongoing contributions effectively, addressing operational concerns such as invoicing transparently.

  • Recruit and retain volunteers committed to at least two-year terms to ensure continuity, effectiveness, and institutional memory.

  • Recognize volunteer contributions through certificates, awards, public acknowledgments, references, or progression towards Distinguished Toastmaster (DTM) accreditation.

4. Technical and Functional Excellence

  • Conduct comprehensive technical audits regularly to identify vulnerabilities, dependencies, high-maintenance components, and critical system updates.

  • Continuously analyze user needs, prioritizing essential features, phasing out underused functionalities, and strategically adding critical enhancements for safety, relevance, and user satisfaction.

5. Financial Transparency and Efficiency

  • Clearly define and manage infrastructure hosting costs, operational expenses, administrative compliance, and financial reserves.

  • Establish transparent, fair, and annually updated cost-sharing methodologies among different geographies and user groups.

  • Set clear invoicing, accounting practices, and explore revenue-generation avenues to ensure financial sustainability.

6. Collaborative Community Building

  • Facilitate community-building activities like hackathons, virtual meetups, collaborative sprints, and training excellence challenges to foster innovation, skill development, and volunteer engagement.

  • Foster a culture of small, manageable steps leading to significant long-term impacts, ensuring incremental improvements and sustainable progress.

The Technical Team

The second team should tentatively have the following objectives:

1. Infrastructure and Security Enhancement

  • Transition hosting services to a reliable provider to ensure robust, regular backups, and enhanced system security.

  • Conduct periodic security reviews and system vulnerability assessments to maintain a secure platform.

2. Technology Modernization

  • Initiate a gradual migration to contemporary technologies, prioritizing high-usage functionalities to optimize user experience.

  • Evaluate and select modern architecture frameworks and programming languages that balance maintainability, scalability, and volunteer accessibility.

3. Feature Optimization and Integration

  • Identify and strategically phase out rarely or never-used features, streamlining the platform to focus on core functionalities.

  • Enhance integration across existing easySPEAK versions, ensuring consistency and a seamless user experience.

4. Documentation and Accessibility

  • Create comprehensive and accessible technical and user documentation to improve onboarding, usability, and volunteer engagement.

  • Simplify workflows and modernize user interfaces, making the platform easier to learn and more intuitive to operate.

5. Sustainable Staffing and Expertise Development

  • Develop a structured plan for knowledge transfer and expertise sharing among team members to mitigate dependency risks associated with limited core personnel.

  • Foster an environment that encourages continuous skill development and sustainable volunteer involvement.

6. Incremental Improvements with Maximum Impact

  • Set clear, achievable goals that prioritize impactful enhancements, such as improving core functionalities, simplifying the codebase, and introducing meaningful incremental updates.

  • Regularly assess technology implementation strategies to ensure continuous alignment with user needs, security standards, and maintainability best practices.

The Support Team

The third team should guarantee a support to the users of easySPEAK, providing for example the following:

1. Routine Operational Support

  • Email Management: regularly process bounced emails, investigate delivery failures, and update system records to protect the reputation and ensure reliable communication.
  • User and Club Assistance: provide timely, clear, and helpful responses to user queries via support forums, addressing common “How do I?” questions effectively.
  • Advanced Issue Resolution (2nd Line Support): expertly handle and resolve complex user or club issues that exceed the capability of basic support channels.
  • Club Management: efficiently review, validate, and process requests to add new clubs, reactivate legitimate clubs, update statuses of newly chartered or suspended clubs, and manage statuses of inactive clubs.
  • Year-End Processes: execute additional annual backup operations and run year-end system routines meticulously.
  • Path Completion Adjustments: evaluate and authorize closure of learning paths when special circumstances arise, despite discrepancies in official easySPEAK records.

2. Longer-Term Operational Tasks

  • Pathways Maintenance: regularly update Pathways curricula by incorporating new content and promptly addressing corrections across all supported languages.
  • Language and Localization Updates: continuously maintain accurate language translations, correcting mistranslations and introducing new terminology as required for clarity and user experience.

Would you like to contribute ?

If you are willing to support the efforts described above, are NOT part of the District Trio (just because we believe you already have a lot to do) and can take a 2/3 years commitment, please add your contact details in this list.: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xhOUtp4y-Fak1ccBNfvCT54Z-2qy1bCX2ybVgGCalGw/edit?usp=share_link

Another meeting is scheduled for Thursday April 17th, 2025. Those that are listed in the above list will be notified and invited.

We need to act fast, to keep easySPEAK alive. We need to pick up the baton from Malcolm. We owe it to Malcolm and his team, to make sure the work they have done until now does not go lost. We owe it to the over 43.000 users who relay on easySPEAK to make their club experience organized and the best it can be.