The year 2024 Marks the 100 year anniversary of Toastmasters. I have been reading some of the great information about this history on Toastmasters International Webpage. Much has changed in those years and yet much has remained from those original humble meetings.
The club remains today the core and center of all of the Toastmasters International organization. Ralph Smedley the founder of Toastmasters wanted the club be a community that was supportive as one progressed.
Much of the toastmasters experience looks very familiar today as it did one hundred years ago. Here is an evaluation form from 1936. Look familiar? What we know today as the evaluator was known as the critics. An overall meeting critic we now call general evaluator. There was prepared speakers and impromptu speaking now known as table topics.
We now know our education material as Pathways. In the beginning they did not have any materials as they did not create the first manual until 1942. Prior to this, speeches would often be created based on the theme of the meeting. We still assign a theme to our meetings here in Pioneer Toastmasters.
Smedley himself referred to the first speech members would give as "Ice Breakers" and was intended for members to introduce themselves to the club.
Much like people, clubs have different personalities. Some or more formal some are not. Some are corporate clubs which meet during work hours of a business, others are community clubs. Some are even formed in prisons. I have enjoyed the community and sense of camaraderie that Pioneer Toastmasters has and continues to offer. In that same way there were even in the tough times of war, clubs formed in prisoner of war camps during WW2 and Vietnam.
Many of us that were in TM at the time of the pandemic found ourselves in a virtual environment having toastmasters meetings on the computer. That has, in a large way, transformed toastmasters meetings to this day. Who would have never even been considered just a few years ago are reality today. Having international members attending via computer screens? This would definitely would be an eye opener for those early members 100 years ago!
I have said for many years when asked what is my favorite thing about Toastmasters. The diversity that it exposes me to. Long time friends and fellow toastmasters members share a very differing view about many things. We come from very different backgrounds and faiths, We still can come together and work on becoming better speakers and leaders. Bottom line we work on becoming better people!
Pioneer toastmasters shares very much in this rich history of Toastmasters as the club was originally founded in1959. Even as I advance in age and often joke how old I am getting that was before I was born.
With all of this history in mind and how far Toastmasters has come, the challenge as I see it is where do we go from here? What will the next one hundred years look like? Where will you go from here? Let's move forward together. The future is now.
The source of inspiration for much of what I have written here is this article: https://www.toastmasters.org/magazine/magazine-issues/2024/oct/enduring-structure
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