Toastmasters Distinguished Club Goals 

By Jim Robison

Toastmasters International has established the "Distinguished Club Program" (DCP) to recognize clubs for success. There are ten specific goals in the DCP which clubs strive to achieve. A club working successfully to support members in achieving their personal goals, will succeed in achieving the DCP goals. Below is an outline of the DCP goals, described in a way that associates the club goals with member success.

Goals your club should strive to meet:

1. Two people who felt uncomfortable giving a prepared speech when they first joined the club, have completed ten projects which incrementally work to improve their presentation skills. They now possess the basic skills necessary for preparing and presenting an effective speech. (Two Competent Communicator Awards completed).

2. Two additional members of the club have further polished their presentation skills by preparing and presenting ten speeches which each helped them practice good presentation skills. (Two more Competent Communicator Awards completed).

3. One member has achieved a greater level of comfort with their presentations by completing at least ten speeches from advanced manuals which help them prepare and present more difficult presentations. (One Advanced Communicator Bronze, Silver or Gold).

4. One other member has further improved their presentation skills by practicing and presenting some of the more difficult presentations of the advanced manuals, as well as other projects. (One more Advanced Communicator Bronze, Silver or Gold).

5. One member has demonstrated leadership skills by fulfilling the duties of a club officer, and practicing organizational skills within the club. ( One Competent Leader, Advanced Leader or Distinguished Toastmaster).

6. One other member has further improved their leadership and organizational skills by putting them to practice in Toastmasters. (One more Competent Leader, Advanced Leader or Distinguished Toastmaster).

7. The club as a whole has shown openness, acceptance of others, and value, demonstrated by the fact that visitors to the club have joined. (Four new members).

8. Members of the club have taken it upon themselves to encourage others to visit and join the club so that they too can improve their leadership and communication skills. (Four more new members).

9. Club officers take advantage of the opportunity afforded them to learn new leadership skills and put those skills into practice. (Minimum of four Club officers trained during each of two training periods).

10. Club officers do their best to complete the duties of their offices in order to help the members of the club reach their educational goals. (One semiannual membership report and one Club officer list submitted on time.)

In addition, the club has attained a size which will best encourage the growth of members skills without overtaxing any individuals, or the club is rapidly approaching such a size. (At least 20 members OR a net growth of five new members).

A club which meets the membership requirement is recognized as a "Distinguished Club" if it completes at least 5 of the goals, "Select Distinguished" if it completes at least 7 of the goals, and "President's Select Distinguished" if it completes as least 9 of the goals.

 Congratulations Hilo Toastmasters on achieving SELECT Distinguished status!