Jeevan George

Club growth remains at the heart of everything we do, it is not only about increasing membership numbers; it is about strengthening our clubs, supporting our volunteers, and creating welcoming, active environments where people want to belong and grow.

As a District we are doing ok BUT surely we want to do more, this year the District is aiming for Smedley Distinguished, this means we need;

A Club Net Growth of 14 clubs from a Base of 176 to 190, this figure doesn’t take into account the loss of any clubs, currently we have 22 Clubs under 12 members, these all need coaches, so please contact me if you are interested in helping these clubs remain Active. 

Club Payments to increase by 766 from 9570 to 10336, these are made up of new members, re-instated and renewals. If we can get as many new members, as possible, in before the April renewals this will mean they count for 3 payments.  

We now have the increase in renewals, with a short time to get renewals in before the price goes up. Where possible get club members to pay before 2nd August and to renew for 12 months, thereby saving $24 (£18 at todays rate of exchange). 

We have some incentives to help with renewals 

If 75% of Clubs obtain 75% renewals in one Area for 6 months by August 3rd 26 they will get Humorous and Topic Contest trophies for their Area Contest. If they renew for

If 75% of Clubs obtain 75% renewals by August 3rd 26 for 12 months in one Area they will get trophies for all 4 Contests for their Area Contest.

Any club that adds 8 new or reinstated members paying up to 31st March 27 by 31st August 26 they not only complete 2 of the DCP points, they also achieve Smedley Award and in addition will get a Superstar Trophy and a Certificate.

Please Note : Any payments after 3rd August 26 will be at the New rate.

Clubs that charter by 30th September 26 and pay for 6 months up to March 27 will get $150 worth Goodies.

Clubs that charter by 30th September 26 and pay 12 months up to September 27 will get $200 worth of goodies for the club.

Even better Charter clubs can use the old renewal rate if they charter before the 30th September 2026.

My focus as Club Growth Director is to help clubs grow and maintain sustainable growth. This includes sharing ideas that work, supporting membership campaigns, helping clubs identify opportunities, and Divisions appointing a Division Club Growth Director to help both District and Members to find opportunities for new clubs. Our goal this year is to get at least one viable new club lead per area and to charter at least 2 new clubs per Division.

I encourage every club to take a fresh look at how it presents itself to prospective members. Is your message clear? Are visitors followed up promptly? Do you contact members if they haven’t attended for a while? Do you contact members before renewal to check they are renewing, sometimes all it takes is a quick message or phone call to make that member feel valued. 

It is every Members responsibility to build and retain members and Clubs, as stated in the Toastmasters Promise, which you signed up to when you joined.

Are you on Pathways Level 4 or 5 or even going for your DTM, do you need to be a sponsor or mentor for a club? Do you want to be a coach? We need you!

If anyone has any ideas for Club Growth or Membership Retention and Growth please contact me. 

Alison Morris DTM  clubgrowthdirector@d91toastmasters.org.uk 

As we reach the end of another Toastmasters year, it is the perfect moment to reflect on what we
have achieved together.

Club Growth is about more than numbers. It is about creating opportunities for people to discover their voice, build confidence, develop leadership skills and find a supportive community. Every guest who attended an open house, every member who renewed, every club that welcomed someone new, and every leader who invested their time has contributed to our collective achievements.

This year, District 91 celebrated the chartering of new clubs, membership growth across our District, and countless successful open houses that introduced Toastmasters to new audiences. These
achievements are a testament to the dedication, passion and commitment of our members and leaders.

To every club that hosted an open house: thank you for opening your doors and sharing the Toastmasters experience.

To every member who invited a guest: thank you for being an ambassador for personal growth.

To every club officer, Area Director and Division Director who supported club-building initiatives: thank you for helping our clubs thrive.

A special thank you goes to the Club Growth Team:

Your enthusiasm, creativity and unwavering commitment have made a real difference throughout the year. It has been a privilege to work alongside you and witness the impact you have made across District 91.

While we celebrate our achievements, we also look forward with excitement. The coming year brings new opportunities to strengthen existing clubs, support membership growth, charter new
clubs and introduce even more people to the life-changing benefits of Toastmasters.

Growth starts with a conversation, an invitation and a willingness to share our experience with others. Together, we can continue building strong clubs that transform lives.

Thank you for making this Toastmasters year such a success. Whether you joined recently or have been part of the journey for many years, your contribution matters.

Congratulations on everything we have achieved so far and best wishes to all our incoming leaders. I look forward to seeing District 91 continue to grow, inspire and achieve even greater success in the year ahead.

Together, we have grown. Together, we will achieve even more. THANK YOU.

Here from member, Eleni Kyrtsia, and her Toastmasters story

Membership Growth

So worth celebrating……..

District 91 is 2nd globally for new membership payments. Incredible achievement.

District 91 has consistently been in the top three globally for total membership payments.

New Clubs

Delighted to welcome our eighth new club this year with several more on the cusp of chartering before year end.

WELCOME – JP Morgan EMEA Solutions

Other clubs that chartered this are year:

• Richmond and Wandsworth communicators club
• Toastmasters at the BBC
• Wells Fargo Toastmasters Club
• Hemel Speakers Club
• Ciso Speakers Toastmasters
• Excalibur Online Global Speakers  (EOGS)
• Pen Test Parables

Club Celebrations – The building of Excalibur Online Global Speakers and The Charter Party

Read on to discover how Excalibur Online Global Speakers came about.

Somewhere in your Toastmasters journey, the question arrives. You’re sitting in a meeting  you’ve sat in a hundred times, watching it run like clockwork, and a quiet thought slips in:
What if we built our own?
Most of us let that thought pass. It feels like a lot. Twenty charter members, charter paperwork, the very real chance of standing up in front of the room and asking people to commit before there’s anything to commit to. Easier to keep attending the club someone else already built. 

But here’s the thing nobody tells you until you’ve done it….. there is no Pathways project that stretches you the way persuading 20 people to bet on a vision does. If you’ve ever wanted proof that you’ve grown, this is it.  We know, because we just did it.

The hardest persuasion task in Toastmasters

When Andrew Bennett, DTM, pitched the idea of a truly global online advanced club, the vision was simple to say, harder to build: a place where speakers from different continents
and cultures sharpen their craft together at the highest level. Saying it took a sentence.
Delivering it took several months.

The benchmark for chartering is 20 members. That number sounds modest until you try to gather it. Every name is a conversation, an evaluation, a small act of persuasion. It is the most sustained ask most leaders ever make. Excalibur Online Global Speakers didn’t  just hit 20. We chartered with 22 members across four continents, officially recognised on 29 April
2026.

If you take one thing from our story, take this: the milestone is real and reachable. A handful of committed people, the backing of an established club, and a refusal to quit got us there.
The same is available to you.

What the celebration actually taught us

You don’t charter a global club without throwing a party, and ours leaned all the way into the occasion: a virtual red carpet, matching red Zoom backgrounds, and a footprint that lit up in real time. Club Sponsor and Sergeant at Arms Samir Malak, DTM, set the tone the moment people logged in, getting attendees to add their home cities to their Zoom names so our global reach was visible on screen before the meeting even started.

It looked effortless. Thats the lesson. The smooth run wasn't luck. The committee spent time beforehand ironing out the agenda and the technical logistics so that on the day, the host could focus entirely on the people, not the controls. With President Andrew Bennett at the helm, Toastmaster of the Day Daniel Arda facilitating, and VPPR Krishn Ramchurn managing things on Zoom in the background, the event was smoothly led from the first second to the last. When you build a club, this is the muscle you’ll develop: the unglamorous preparation that lets a moment feel magical for everyone in it.

Some of the charter party attendees

And there were moments: Adam Paldyna, President of our sponsoring club, formally presented the Club Charter Certificate. Daniel kept the energy sky-high, at one point leading the whole room in a virtual samba celebration. VPE John Akers ran Table Topics with on- the-spot evaluations in breakout rooms, specifically so that every single guest got a chance to speak, not just the confident few. All 22 members received their Charter Member Certificates, presented by current District 91 Director Debbie Williams DTM and incoming Director (and our own club member) Seema Menon, DTM. Division B Director Mary-Anne Ledger closed the formal proceedings with a specially composed toast, delivered with real warmth and wit.

We were also honoured to welcome Verity Price, DTM, Accredited Speaker and the 2021 World Champion of Public Speaking, who shared her own communication journey and left
the room buzzing with ideas, followed by a Q&A facilitated by Lynne Gayer, DTM. But the most quietly powerful moment of the night wasn’t on the keynote stage. It came from a brand-new member who later described battling his old instinct to stay silent, then speaking up anyway, taking feedback and giving it in return. That is the whole point of a club, compressed into one person’s evening. Build the room, and you create the conditions for that to happen to someone else.

Verity Price DTM, Accredited Speaker and World Champion of Public Speaking 2021

When the formal meeting closed, the real EOGS showed up: our legendary After Party, where everyone stayed to mingle, debrief, and find out exactly how to join. Because here’s what we’d quietly proven over those months: building the club was never the end goal. The room full of people who didn’t want to leave was.

Your move

Here’s the uncomfortable, motivating truth: the only thing separating the club in your head from the club on the roster is the decision to start asking. The paperwork is learnable. The
members are persuadable. The party, frankly, is the easy part.
Maybe youre not ready to charter tomorrow. But maybe your club is sitting on its own milestone right now: a member about to earn a DTM, a Distinguished Club Program goal within reach, a contest win worth marking. Those are reasons to gather your people too. Don’t let them pass quietly.

And if you’d like to see what a global charter celebration actually looks like, you can be our guest. Watch the EOGS Charter Party on our YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/seHPbAb7jlA.

And come visit us live; we meet on the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays of each month at 7:00 PM UK time, on Zoom. All you have to do is drop an email at ExcaliburOnlineGlobalSpeakers@gmail.com or visit us at https://excaliburonline.toastmasterclub.org.
By Krishn Ramchurn, EOGS VPPR

Club Celebrations – Club Anniversaries

Congratulations go to:

June data – Based on the Official Charter Date

Beat the Clock 

And remember there are still a few days to go for the Beat the Clock incentive.  It is a race to the finish, get those last few guests converted to members before 30th June.  Once again, Clubs will be recognised by both TMI and District 91 where we offer £25 to 25 clubs who bring in five new, dual or reinstated members. The District needs just a few more members, we can do this, together.

Top Tip from your Club Growth Director, Lynne Gayer DTM

As we transition to our incoming leaders, I encourage every member to continue being an advocate for growth:

• Invite a guest to your next meeting
• Support your club’s membership-building efforts
• Volunteer to help with open houses and club-building activities
• Mentor new members and help them discover their potential
• Champion the Toastmasters mission wherever you can

The end of April, beginning of May has been another busy period, with a visit from our International Director, Corporate Award visits, our District Council meeting and Elections, our fabulous District Conference, notification of the Talk Up Toastmasters Award winners and, I am delighted to say, we have added four new clubs to our Toastmasters Family.

New Clubs

Lets give a very warm welcome to the following newly chartered clubs:

• Ciso Speakers Toastmasters
  o A specialist club focusing on Cyber Security, meeting 3 rd Thursday 6pm
• Excalibur Online Global Speakers (EOGs)
  o An Advanced Club meeting, 1 st & 3 rd Wednesday 7pm
• Hemel Speakers
  o A local community club, meeting 1 st & 3 rd Thursday 7.30pm
• Pen Test Parables
  o A corporate club, meeting times to be confirmed

Congratulations to all the Sponsors and Presidents who brought these clubs to life; Andy Green, Nicola Ferrari, Andrew Bennett, Samir Malak, Sujanth Sivanesan, Imke Hoffman and James Beamish. As well as the home team, Ramesh Hali Demo Lead, Mary-Anne Ledger Division B Director, Alison Morris Division J Director and everyone else who gave a helping hand. Ciso and EOGs go into Division B, Hemel and Pen Test into Division J.

EOGs, Hemel and Pen Test were all started by current Toastmasters, so if you have an idea for a club in your Area; Community, Specialist or Corporate please do let us know.
club.growth.director@d91toastmasters.org.uk

Delighted to do an Area Visit to Ciso and see them in action for their first meeting

Delighted to be going to Excalibur’s online charter party on Wednesday 27 th May

It was wonderful to see Hemel Founders Sujanth and Imke at the D91 Conference

Pen Test are currently planning their first meeting since chartering.

Talk Up Toastmasters Award

I am finally able to announce the winners of the Talk Up Toastmasters Award. Apologies for the delay, Head Office were behind schedule. Congratulations to all of the following clubs who added five or more new, dual or reinstated members between 1 st February and 31 st March 2026. It was great to see clubs adding five to 16 members. All will be recognised by both Head Office and District. Well done.

Beat the Clock

And remember we are in another club building incentive period with Beat the Clock. It is a race to the finish between 1st May and 30th June. Once again, Clubs will be recognised by both TMI and District 91 where we offer £25 to 25 clubs who bring in five new, dual or reinstated members. Many clubs are planning Open Houses to help increase membership, so go on, invite your friends, family and colleagues, let them see the wonders of Toastmasters and what it can do for them.

Back to Charter Strength

We challenged all those clubs that started the Toastmaster year on 1st July under charter strength, which is less than 20 members, to grow. We challenged the clubs to get back to 20 by adding a minimum of plus five, new or re-instated members. I am delighted to say that nine clubs achieved this, some adding not just five but up to 10 new members. A fabulous effort and achievement, setting these clubs up for a stronger start to the next Toastmaster year. If your club is under 20 members you still have time to add more with the Beat the Clock incentive above. A stronger club ensures meeting roles are more easily filled, prevents member burnout, and creates high energy meetings.

Congratulations go to the following clubs.

• Canary Wharf Communicators Club
• Gatwick Communicators
• Meridian Speakers Club
• Northern Lights Speakers Club
• Romford Speakers
• Spinnaker Speakers
• St Pauls Speakers
• Sussex Online Speakers
• Thamesdown Speakers Club

Anniversaries

Another way to attract guests and potential members is to have an Anniversary celebration.

Congratulations go to:

May data – Based on the Official Charter Date

Top Tip
Borrowed from one of the presenters at conference:

Toastmasters is not about perfection, it’s about progress. So grab the opportunity and give it a go. Whether it’s doing your first speech, running an Open