🌟Celebrating an Unforgettable Year: We Did This! 🌟

Dear District Members and Leaders,



What a historic, monumental year! We set our sights high, and together we shattered expectations. Through a massive effort, we successfully merged three districts into ONE powerhouse unit, briefly becoming the largest Toastmasters district by club count in the world!

An achievement list this massive doesn't happen by accident. Thank you for your tireless dedication, your passion, and your hard work. We did this!

🚀 Our Year at a Glance

• 46 Distinguished Clubs (23 Distinguished, 8 Select, 9 President’s, 6 Smedley)
• 7 Distinguished Areas
• 98 Triple Crowns & 16 DTMs awarded
• 4 New Clubs chartered
• 160 Club Success Plans completed
• 314 total Area Director visit reports across November & April
• Historic Firsts: Inaugural Leadership Summit, First Parliamentarian Training, First Hybrid District Conference, and a Hybrid Member Development Day
• Non-Stop Engagement: 12 Town Halls, 5 DECMs, 2 District Councils, 52 Starburst Newsletters, 9 Division contests, many Area contests, a brand-new website, and a new incentive software tool
• World-Class Support: Visits from our Region Advisor, Karen Burgess, DTM and International Director, Michael Bown, DTM, 2 Corporate Award ceremonies, and a ton of Club Officer, District Leader, and AD/Division Director trainings

THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR HARD WORK THIS YEAR!

As we close this chapter, we carry unstoppable momentum into the new Toastmasters year. Our focus on being unified, member-centric, and future-ready has helped us build an unbreakable foundation. Let’s take the energy from this year's victories and use it to reach even greater heights tomorrow!



With deepest gratitude,



Anu Jokinen

District Director, 2025-2026

🌟Momentum is Building: Excellence is Happening All Around Us! 🌟

Success leaves clues, and right now, our district is showing exactly what is possible when we work together. Across our community, clubs and leaders are stepping up, hitting milestones, and raising the bar for all of us.

Look at what we are achieving together:

• Leading the Way: A massive round of applause to Area 11, Area 22, Area 35, Area 42, 64. 83 and Area 84 for officially achieving Distinguished

Area status! Their proactive leadership is setting a powerful example

of what supportive guidance looks like.

• Congratulations to the following Area Directors -

• A11 - Paul Perry
• B22 - Patrice Tabor
• C35 - Kelly Fallucca
• D42 - Suzanne Hakam
• F64 - Gary Hartmann
• H83 - John Durrant
• H84 - Michael Matol

• The New Standard: An incredible 47 clubs across our district have already crossed the finish line to achieve Distinguished or higher status! Excellence is becoming the norm, and the momentum is catching on everywhere.

• Reaching the Pinnacle: Setting the ultimate benchmark, 9 clubs have pushed through to achieve the highest honor as Smedley Distinguished! They’ve proven that the path to the top is fully mapped out and achievable.

• Congratulations Smedley Distinguished Clubs
• Twin Speaks Toastmasters Club
• Barkley Toasters
• Northeast Toastmasters Club
• Kirkland Eclectics Toastmasters Club
• Willows Voices
• Costco Techmasters
• Conservatively Speaking
• Lake Pend Oreille Toastmasters
• Talk of the Town
• 
  

These 46 clubs and 5 Areas are showing us the way. They are proving that despite any challenges, growth and breakthrough milestones are happening right now in our immediate community.



Is your club next to join the leaderboard?



There is still time to map out your final goals, submit those last education awards, and secure your place alongside the clubs leading the charge this year. Let’s look to our Distinguished peers, draw inspiration from their blueprint, and finish this year incredibly strong together!

WE ARE GOING BIG IN 2026-2027

DISTRICT 2 MONTHLY NEW MEMBER ORIENTATION

LAUNCHING IN JULY

BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE SPARKLING SYNERGISTS

REGISTER NOW

PRISON CLUBS PROVIDE UNIQUE VOLUNTEERING OPPORTUNITY

Toastmasters provides learning, speaking and leading opportunities in communities and businesses around the world. Did you know that we even have clubs in prisons in District 2? These four corrections centers have Toastmasters Clubs: Twin Rivers, Monroe, WA; Two Rivers, Umatilla, OR; Coyote Ridge, Connell, WA; and Airway Heights, WA. These clubs are open to visitors upon advance request, an application process and a background check. Outside volunteers (or sponsors) are needed to enable the clubs to meet in person.

Recently, I attended The Insiders Club's 19^th anniversary at the Airway Heights Corrections Center. At this special event, over 40 inmates attended. What a celebration it was! All the inmates made me feel very welcome and many introduced themselves to me. It was an ethnically diverse group of individuals. There were openings for volunteers and I applied and completed the necessary paperwork. Currently, three Toastmasters Clubs meet all together at Airways Heights from 12:15 – 2:15 p.m. every Saturday: Insiders, Verbal Architects, and Veritas Warriors. The clubs meet in formal Toastmasters fashion and all the inmates in attendance who had roles were professional, organized and respectful. Table Topics, Speeches, Evaluations, Timer, Grammarian, Ah Counter. They try to give as many opportunities for inmates to participate and thus had five formal speeches. The Table Topics Master even asked the corrections officers in attendance if they wanted to speak! The Area Director is also an inmate. The clubs at Airway Heights also have a speech contest once a month as none of the inmates can participate in contests outside the prison. Data show that inmates who attend a professional organization like Toastmasters while incarcerated have lower recidivism rates once released.

Several inmates asked me publicly and privately on numerous occasions to be a “sponsor.” At Airways Heights, the clubs can meet only if an outside volunteer or sponsor is attending. With one volunteer or sponsor, 20 inmates can meet. With two, 30 can meet. The clubs are grateful to the three current sponsors: Viki Leuba, DTM; Pam Beasley, DTM and Nancy Shatto, DTM. But as they meet every Saturday, they are looking for more volunteers or sponsors to spread the load with the current sponsors. Viki, Pam and Nancy are truly dedicated but they can’t attend every meeting. Sometimes only one can attend and thus that severely limits the inmate participation.

As volunteers, you do not join the clubs as members, you don’t have regular meeting roles, you are not officers. You attend in person and offer to speak or take a role upon request. This does not add significantly to your other Toastmasters activities. I was very impressed with the professionalism and flow of the meeting and even though I live 1 hr 40 minutes away, I signed up to be a volunteer and will try to attend once a month to assist the sponsors. I am looking forward to this opportunity to show support, engage with a community separated from the outside, and be a communication link to the outside.

Will you please consider this, too, whether you belong to one or several clubs? Find the point of contact for the prison clubs nearest to you and request to attend one meeting first. It may take time, some paperwork, but it’s well worth it. Be a prison club volunteer today!



David Core, DTM

VP Membership

Frank E. Balmer Toastmasters Club #95

Pullman, Washington

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