According to the book “Africa Rising”, with a population of over 40 million people, the average age in South Africa is 21. This is a huge opportunity for Toastmasters to grow our future communicators and leaders.

We live in challenging economic times, but in some ways, the depression we are currently facing is a depression of perception. With challenge comes opportunity, and now more so than any other time, we need effective communicators and leaders, a need which Toastmasters is well positioned to meet. Toastmasters provide one of the most effective and affordable communication and leadership programmes in the world, and you as Club Officers are part of that programme.

The district theme this year is GROWING PEOPLE. That is what we do at Toastmasters; we grow our members, our officers, our leaders and our clubs. Some people join for a few months, and other are members for years. But almost nobody leaves Toastmasters without experiencing personal growth.

You may be attending your first training session, you may have been to a few, and you might be here just here to get the DCP point! However, for the next four hours or so, you are going to here, so use the time to best prepare yourself for the year ahead.

If you are a new officer, learn the valuable skills that you will need over the next year, and if you have been here before, share your knowledge, and help others to grow from your own personal experience.

We have a vision of growth – the Big 3 vision

It is a vision of excellence and achievement for Toastmasters Southern Africa. It is a vision of three goals:

1. 3% net Club Growth
2. 3% net member growth
3. 3 Excellence Awards
   • Excellence in Marketing
   • Excellence in Education
   • Distinguished District

Can we do it?

Yes, if we all work as a team.

• Help your members to set and work towards their goals
• Help your club to grow its membership
• Help your club to become more effective

Over the past three years our membership has been fairly constant at about 2500 members. We bring in approximately 1000 new members per year, but we loose the same number. If we can reduce our loss by just 100 members (less than one member per club), we will grow by over 4%. Imagine if we can do that, and bring in even more members!
If every club achieves just 2 CC’s, we will exceed our educational goals. It is easy for us to achieve, but we need a small effort from everybody. And by achieving, we will be growing people into better communicator and better leaders.

Enjoy training, grow your members, grow your clubs, and most importantly, grow yourself.

Craig Strachan, DTM

District Governor, 2009/2010