California, 1924

Toastmasters International is a non-profit educational corporation headquartered in Rancho Santa Margarita, California. Its mission is to improve communication and leadership skills of its members. Improving public speaking skills is a key element but there is also a potent leadership and management aspect.

In October 1924, a group of men assembled by Dr. Ralph C. Smedley met in the basement of the Santa Ana, California YMCA to form a club "to afford practice and training in the art of public speaking and in presiding over meetings, and to promote sociability and good fellowship among its members". The group took the name Toastmasters. Today, there are over 235,000 members.

All Toastmasters members belong to one or more clubs. Clubs consist of at least eight members and may have forty or more. The recommended size for a club is twenty or more. Clubs exist in communities around the world, especially in North America, and it's a rare locality in the United States that doesn't have at least one Toastmasters club within thirty minutes' driving time. There are, at present, over 11,700 clubs around the world, and most of them are in the United States.

WestConn Toastmasters club is a member of Toastmasters International.

Image courtesy of Toastmaster International.