Guests are welcome to visit our meetings as often as they want. They can also participate in our impromptu debates and discussions. To become members, they join both Toastmasters International (TI) and the Manhattan Chowder & Debate Society, which is a specialty Toastmasters club. Those who already belong to a regular Toastmasters club would have dual memberships.

We do not require prospective members to be Toastmasters already or have attained the level of Competent Toastmaster (CTM) as do advanced clubs. However, we do recommend that they be fairly comfortable in their public speaking and have basic skills. Such comfort and skills are essential to persuasive debating; however, we must devote our time together to learning debate principles and techniques. Consequently, many members belong to both MCDS and a regular club.

Members join on a six-month basis. Membership dues are prorated at $5 per month, or $30 for the full period. For new members, there are onetime fees of $16 for TI and $5 for MCDS. So that a new member would pay a maximum of $51 for the first six months and then $30 thereafter.

Guests can obtain applications from the Vice President of Membership at our meetings.