We feel that the best way to introduce ourselves to you is in reproducing the story of our being that we published when we launched our weekly newsletter.
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A fond look back—A Short History of City Speech Toastmasters
Chartered on June 30, 2014, City Speech Toastmasters already has a rich history. Ylma Gutierrez and Alice Piper-Morris, two of the 20 charter members, stuck with the club the longest. Alice was a member right up to last year.
Remember City Beach, the indoor sports complex—near Automall and Fremont Blvd (where current day Campo di Bocce is)? That’s where our club initially met when we started. Now you can see why we named our club the way we did. I missed the club charter by three months—started my Toastmasters journey on October 1. Never looked back!
It used to be an early morning club too. At 7:00 AM sharp, the meeting would start and would be done by 8:00 so that everyone can rush off to work.
Good things don’t last too long. We lost our meeting place soon enough, and were looking around frantically for a replacement location. We even took a few months off—didn’t meet because there was no meeting place.
Finally, we started meeting at the Depot Diner, the café at the Centreville Train Station. This was an eclectic location for a Toastmasters meeting and we had a ball. This is when the meeting times switched to 7:00 in the evening. Visitors to the café would sometimes get entertained by our speeches, but we largely had the place to ourselves. Many a memorable speech was made there. We even sent a member, Eric Brown, through the contest ladder all the way up to the district in the International Speech Contest.
However, not having had a place to meet did have its challenges. Enrollment suffered, and attendance was a major problem. But we never let up. I recall club meetings with 4 people juggling several roles to keep ploughing on with the Toastmasters spirit.
Slowly, but surely, things did improve. We started growing. Soon starting to burst at the seams, we needed a larger space! Alice christened us “The Little Club that Could” (a take-off on the story of The Little Engine that Could, a tale of determination and perseverence) in one of her speeches to commemorate our tenacity and commitment and our ability to endure.
Through the deft industry of Alice, we secured a room at the Fremont Adult School in April 2016, and we have been there since. Even at the school, our first room was interesting. It was a portable that was a fine accommodation until the a/c kicked in—then half the room could not hear the speakers.
Thankfully, we got moved and we are now in a classroom that is large enough to house about 50 people, and it is mostly free of noise challenges. Except when the drums start beating in the next classroom. But that story is for another day.
City Speech was blessed with another talented member in Annie Li, who showed her mettle by competing in the Table Topics contest and prevailing through three contest levels—club, area, and division. She represented our division at the district Table Topics Contest, just like Eric did previously in the International Speech Contest. She has moved on and is now scaling new heights with the launch of her American Dream campaign. Her story deserves a detailed look, also for another day.
In terms of an overall measure of club achievement, we have been steadily climbing: The year 2014-2015 was the starter year with its challenges. In 2015-2016 we achieved the Select Distinguished status, followed by becoming President’s Distinguished in 2016-2017. We were knocking on President’s Distinguished once again in 2017-2018, just waiting for membership growth that failed to materialize in time–by June 30, 2018. If you spot renewed vigor in our membership recruitment, now you know why!
We are taking several steps to continue deserving President’s Distinguished placement through a balanced achievement of all DCP goals, and also make it come through by managing membership levels.
Join us on our journey of successes!
CITY SPEECH TOASTMASTERS
City Speech Toastmasters 