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:
| Club |
Month |
Year |
Years |
| London Business School Public Speaking Club |
June |
2001 |
25 |
| South West Speakers |
June |
2006 |
20 |
| Verizon EMEA Online Toastmasters Club |
June |
2021 |
5 |
| JAL Richmond Leaders |
June |
2025 |
1 |
| UK Speakers and Leaders Toastmasters |
June |
2025 |
1 |
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
