Toastmasters Organization

Organization and Club History

TM INTL was started from a single club in 1924 to promote speech communication and leadership. The organization as we know it today was chartered in 1932, by Ralph Smedley. This organization has spread throughout the world to 7 continents.

Where does our club fit in this organization?

TM INTL holds an Annual Convention in August where business is conducted, training sessions are presented and the International Speech Contest is held.

TM INTL is broken first into Regions. Our club is in Region 8, which runs from Virginia to Louisiana. A Regional Meeting is held in June every year where the Region's Finalist for the International Speech Contest is held. The Humorous and Evaluation Speech Contests end at this level.

Region 8 includes several Districts: the next classification. All of Alabama, the West Florida panhandle and South Mississippi is part of District 77. Our District holds meetings 3-4 times a year around the state to conduct business and hold qualifying speech contests.

District 77 is broken into six Divisions: A (Huntsville, Shoals), B (Birmingham, Anniston, Tuscaloosa), C (Montgomery, Auburn, Dothan), D (South MS), E (Mobile Co.), F (Pensacola/Baldwin Co.). (The Divisions will probably be renamed eventually.) This designation is mostly for administrative purposes, holding speech contests and for hosting the distict meetings.

Our Northern Division contains four Areas, of which we are in Area 3. The Area holds contests 3 times a year and is run by the Area Governor who visits our club twice a year to fill out a report. Most Areas have 3-4 clubs. Intergraph is in an area with clubs from Redstone Arsenal, Alabama A&M University, and a couple of local community clubs.

Our Toastmasters Club is Number 6206 and was founded in March 1986 by John H. Allen, an Intergraph employee. This clubs has its roots in a corporate level course on listening and meeting skills that Mr. Allen led in the Fall of 1985. The club began in Building 1 and for 18 months was subsidized by Intergraph as an official company financially-supported organization. Since then, we have been considered an employee service but not eligible for tuition-type dues refunds. Our club once had around 40 members and has had as few as 7.

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