October 1 just passed. Dues came due. And in clubs across the world, many officers are now staring at rosters that might look thinner than they did in June.
Here’s one possible reason. In the final weeks of the program year, some members join a second club, sometimes a third, to help push a club or their District to Distinguished status. It works … for a night. The roster looks fuller; the numbers hit the mark.
But that’s a rental member, not a full commitment. When those members don’t renew in October, the club doesn’t just lose a name off a list—it gains the added task of finding a replacement just to stay static, let alone grow. I understand why it happens. I just don’t think it should be how a club or District becomes Distinguished.
So let’s talk about what’s real.
For most of my time in this organization, I kept two lives separate. There was my Toastmasters life, and there was my work life. Different rooms, different people, almost different versions of me. I didn’t invite colleagues to my club. I didn’t mention Table Topics in a work meeting about a data migration. I assumed the people around me either already knew what Toastmasters was, or wouldn’t care. I was wrong on both counts, and it cost me years of members I never tried to reach.
You already have the confidence this program gave you. Use that confidence to encourage others.
It’s only in the last five years that I purposefully started mixing those worlds. And every time I did, something happened. Someone I worked with for a decade said, “Wait, you do that? I’ve always wanted to get better at this.”
They didn’t know. Not because they weren’t interested—because I never opened the door.
That’s the job now. Not waiting for October to fix itself. Not hoping the members who joined for June stick around out of habit. Going and finding the people who don’t know we exist yet.
That might mean posting a TikTok video of your Ice Breaker, badly lit and real. It might mean creating a Meetup listing instead of a flier. Or it might mean finally telling the person at the next desk what you actually do on Tuesday nights.
You already have the confidence this program gave you. Use that confidence to encourage others. Every member you invite is a club beginning again.
Growth was never someone else’s job. It was always ours. Let’s get to it.
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Stefano McGhee, DTM is the 2026-2027 International President of Toastmasters International. Learn more about him on the Board of Directors page.
