Toastmasters International

Toastmasters International (TI) is a nonprofit educational organization that operates clubs worldwide for the purpose of helping members improve their communication, public speaking, and leadership skills. Through its thousands of member clubs, Toastmasters International offers a program of communication and leadership projects designed to help people learn the arts of speaking, listening, and thinking.

The organization grew out of a single club, Smedley Chapter One Club, which would become the first Toastmasters club. It was founded by Ralph C. Smedley on October 22, 1924, at the YMCA in Santa Ana, California, United States. Toastmasters International was incorporated under California law on December 19, 1932. Throughout its history, Toastmasters has served over four million people, and today the organization serves over 332,000 members in 135 countries, through its over 15,400 member clubs.

History

The beginning of Toastmasters clubs

Toastmasters originally began as a series of short-lived speaking clubs organized by Ralph C. Smedley during his tenure with the YMCA. In 1903, as education director of the YMCA facility in Bloomington, Illinois, he discovered there was a need for training in speech. As Smedley designed a club within the "Y" for speech training, he struggled for a name, until George Sutton, the general secretary, suggested calling it a Toastmasters club. The boys liked the name and the club was a success.

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