Common Terms & Terminology

The Distinguished Club Program (DCP) is a set of goals that measure the success of the club in various areas, including earning educational awards, building membership, having trained officers, and some administrivia. Clubs should develop a Club Success Plan (CSP) to meet these goals over the course of the year.

In addition to the DCP goals, there is a baseline membership requirement that must be met of having at least 20 members, or base membership plus five, whichever is lower. For example, if a club starts with 12 members in July, and has 17 by the end of June, they qualify. That same club would only need to make it to 20 over the next year.

Achieving 5 out of the 10 goals awards the club Distinguished status for that year. 7 out of 10 earns Select Distinguished status. 9 out of 10 earns President's Distinguished. Some districts have special awards for 10 out of 10 goals earned.

A district is an organizing body in Toastmasters that tends to encompass a fairly large geographic area (for example, District 56 covers Houston, College Station, and Galveston in Texas). A district is typically composed of 5-6 divisions, which are made up of 5-6 areas each, which have 4-6 clubs each. 

Districts have a governing body that has a number of volunteers, and put on at least one conference a year.

Sometimes roles above the club will be referred to as "district-level" in a generic sense.

A division is a collection of 4-6 areas, with a division director having responsibility for them.

Division directors (formerly division governors) are responsible for their division. They work with the area directors to make sure clubs are progressing toward DCP goals, and report to the higher ups in the district.

The evaluator delivers an evaluation of a prepared speech during the evaluation segment of the meeting.

More information can be found in the RDG TM Meetings program. 

The General Evaluator evaluates a meeting from start to finish, giving feedback on the planning and execution as well as critiquing the evaluators.

More information can be found in the RDG TM Meetings program. 

This meeting role monitors for good, bad, and the ugly uses of the language, delivering a report at the end of the meeting. 

More information can be found in the RDG TM Meetings program. 

The Humor or Joke Master delivers an amusing joke or story to help open up the meeting.

More information can be found in the RDG TM Meetings program. 

This speech contest is held once a year, and culminates in the World Championship of Public Speaking. Participants can speak about any topic for 5-7 minutes (same timing rules as regular speeches), though most focus on inspirational or motivational type content.

For some sample speeches, go here.

The invocator delivers an invocation at the start of the meeting, which can be a quote, poem, or short story. 

More information can be found in the RDG TM Meetings program.