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Toastmaster Magazine November 2024
Toastmaster Magazine November 2024

November 2024 View PDF

Creative Club Locations

For 100 years, members have challenged themselves to speak in unique settings.

By Toastmaster Magazine Staff

Black and white photo of group of men outside of transcontinental sleeper plane
In 1940, 23 members of the Downtown Toastmasters Club of Los Angeles flew in a huge transcontinental sleeper plane, piloted by Captain (and club member) Byron O’Hara.

Toastmasters’ founder, Dr. Ralph C. Smedley, once said, “We learn best in moments of enjoyment.” Over the years, many clubs have taken to heart the concept of learning while enjoying, and have gone to great heights, and depths, to practice speaking, and listening, in unusual environments.

In honor of Toastmasters International’s 100th anniversary, this is the ninth in a year-long series of articles commemorating historic milestones.


The Madison Toastmasters Club in Madison, Wisconsin, holds a “Table Topics on Wheels” event in 1958. Members of the Bakersfield Toastmasters Club of Bakersfield, California, hold a meeting at 14,496 feet (4,418 meters) elevation at the top of Mt. Whitney, the highest mountain in the contiguous United States, in 1959. Members of Coimbatore Toastmasters Club, along with their family members, hold an outdoor meeting in Coonoor, a hill station near Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India, in 2017. Members in Michigan conduct a meeting in 1966 in an underground mine (complete with a Toastmasters lectern). Toastmasters in Division N, District 98, host a meeting onboard the Mazi Metro in Nagpur, Maharashtra, India, in December 2020. The meeting space allowed for social distancing protocol during the COVID pandemic, and introduced a new metro system to nearby residents.
 
 

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Toastmaster Magazine Staff is composed of five editorial team members. Learn more about them on the Staff page.

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