There is cause for celebration. As Toastmasters clubs around the world adapt to the effects the coronavirus crisis is having on in-person events and meetings, Toastmasters International is taking note of the overwhelming positive energy and resiliency. With year-end approaching, many of you have risen to the very difficult challenge of continuing to achieve membership and education goals, despite what is going on around you, and for this, you and your clubs are an inspiration and deserve special recognition.

The Board of Directors is sensitive to those clubs that have been dealing with membership challenges brought on by the current crisis; in fact, the Board and World Headquarters has received much feedback requesting a modification of the Distinguished Club Program (DCP) or even postponing the program year-end date to a later time. After careful consideration, the Board determined that any recognition program change to lower the qualifying requirements or goals would be unfair to those of you going above and beyond—and amazingly, still striving toward achieving Distinguished status!

To ensure all clubs, Distinguished or not, are recognized for their outstanding efforts, new club-level awards have been created for the 2019–2020 program year only. They were designed with the same enthusiasm so many of you displayed to earn them:

Online Ovation/Education Award Silver, Online Ovation/Education Award Gold

Clubs will qualify for these awards by meeting both of the following criteria by June 30, 2020:

• Indicating in Club Central that they allow online attendance

• • The club must have allowed online attendance between January 1 and June 30, 2020. If the club already allowed online attendance prior to January 1, 2020 and continued to allow online attendance, it would qualify. If the club did not allow online attendance prior to January 1, 2020 and began allowing online attendance, it would qualify. Clubs that have never allowed online attendance at any point between January 1 and June 30, 2020, would not qualify.
• Achieving the listed education goal requirement in one of two tiers
  • The first tier/silver award will be presented to those that achieve four education goals (traditional, Pathways, or a combination), based on the DCP.
  • The second tier/gold award will be presented to those that achieve six education goals (traditional, Pathways, or a combination), based on the DCP.

The Great Revival Award 

This award will be presented to clubs that were suspended by April 1, 2020, then reinstated between April 1 and September 30, 2020.

Membership Consistency Award, Membership Resiliency Award

Based on a club’s membership base as calculated on July 1, 2019, the first award is presented to any club that experienced no net member loss; the second award is presented to any club that experienced a net member gain by June 30, 2020.

You can find descriptions of these awards and check your progress by visiting the Recognition Awards tab on the COVID-19 page of the Toastmasters International website www.toastmasters.org/covid-19. Recognition for a club that achieves any of the awards described above would be listed in Club Central under Club Awards. For any questions on how your club can achieve any or all of these awards, please contact our Club Quality and Member Support team at clubquality[at]nulltoastmasters.org.

Toastmasters International admires and appreciates the truly extraordinary efforts of club officers who are diligently supporting club meetings and actively encouraging members to achieve their year-end goals in these unprecedented times. If you can achieve this today, there is no telling what you will accomplish tomorrow—and we look forward to continuing to recognize you.

Sincerely,

Deepak Menon International President Toastmasters International	Daniel Rex Chief Executive Officer Toastmasters International