District 12's 30th Anniversary 1989-2019 History Blog
compiled by District Historian Bob Palmer, DTM
NEW: 2023 addition: scroll down to the end of CHAPTER FOUR to see the history of District 12 starting semiannual Club Officers Training workshops which were called Toastmasters University (TMU) and how the name had to be changed to Toastmasters Leadership Institute (TLI) by a mandate from World Headquarters
NEW: 2023 addition: scroll down CHAPTER NINE to see the D12 DTMs listing
For brand new DTMs, the magazine published them from 1974 to 2008. I have compiled a few pages of the DTMs in District 12 during that period. After that, as it is noted, the DTM names and certificates went straight to the various Districts for their newsletters and award ceremonies at Conferences. The list is only the names found in the old Toastmaster magazines.
PREFACE
Ralph Smedley officially started Toastmasters in October 1924 with the very first club at theSanta Ana YMCA where he was General Secretary (like an executive director in YMCA terms).
As more clubs took up the basic idea of Toastmasters, a loosely-knit group of leaders in Santa Ana referred to the collection of clubs as "The Federation".
Eventually, Ralph Smedley copyrighted the name and started calling itself Toastmasters International (1930).
Toastmasters International was incorporated (1932), and an organizational system came into being.
DISTRICTS
In Ralph Smedley's book, The Story of Toastmasters, Reminiscences of the Founder (1959),recapping the first business meeting (convention) on October 6, 1934, on page 22 he writes:
Perhaps the greatest matter coming out of the San Diego
convention
in 1934 was the beginning of
our district organization.
The increasing number of clubs made it mandatory to provide better
means for
supervision, and the organization into districts,
appeared to be on the way."
Arizona 1, Florida 1, Indiana 1, Canada 1, and Washington State 3.
"Districts" formally began on Saturday July 6, 1935 with District 1 covering all of California and Arizona. District 2 was created as the Northwest clubs grew in Washington (10 clubs),
and Oregon (1 club).
There were 40 clubs in existence at that time, and the clubs outside of District 1 and 2 were not yet districted.
Chapter 1: District 12 comes into being
By 1942, District 1 had grown so geographically large that it was very difficult for leaders in the southern part to make visitations and work with clubs in the northern part.How would you like to be a District 1 official and travel almost 200 miles for club visitations and speech contests and new club demo meetings? District 1 was so desperate for mileage relief that the new District 12 was spun off with only a handful of clubs!
You would think that in order to create a new District at the north end of District 1 that lots of clubs would be needed to split off into a viable district. THAT WOULD BECOME DISTRICT 12.
Are you ready for the punchline? District 1 split off AREA 8 encompassed Ventura, Santa Barbara, Oxnard was started in 1942 with only 7 clubs, and Bakersfield made 8 total the following year!
The first mention in The Toastmaster magazine was July 1942 and mentioned that it covered the areas of Ventura and San Luis Obispo.
Below is a 1948 map of T.I.'s Districts.
The map was part of an article on the 24th anniversary of Toastmasters' founding.
Chapter 2: District 12's
Second Incarnation July 1, 1989
A
review of old Toastmaster magazines at the Santa Ana History room
revealed that Districts across T.I. were listed in the back of each
issue. This historian noticed that in the early 1980's District 12 as
it used to be in Ventura, Santa Barbara, and San Luis Obispo
counties
had disappeared! The District was probably assimilated into District 27
or District 4 in Central California.
Founder's District: Too Big for Its Britches
Founders
was created July 1, 1944 and celebrates its 75th anniversary in 2019.
By 1989, it had Divisions A through F with the Divisions C and F
reaching way out into the Inland Empire.
The same problem that District 1
had back in 1942 of great distances to travel from one end of the District
to the other was solved by splitting off Divisions C and F from
Founders and creating District 12, a district number that was "up for grabs" since it disappeared some years before.
The 1988-1989 Founder's District Governor
Brenda Keeling, DTM, was instrumental in working with established leaders in Divisions C and F to create the new district.
The Toastmaster
magazine listed all the 1989-1990 District Governors complete with
pictures. District 12's very first District Governor was the late
Marian Bell who is prominently featured in the middle of the third row.
[There were many more DGs featured in the issue. This is only the page with District 12 on it].
What Did District 12 Do a Month After Being Formed?
With incoming Founder's District Governor William J. Doane, District 12 CO-HOSTED the August 1989 International Convention at the beautiful Marriott Resort in Palm Desert!
Imagine that! Co-hosting the International Convention in
District 12's own "backyard"!
[Oddly
enough, the Toastmaster issue shown above didn't have an article
welcoming District 12 to the family of districts nor a mention of
co-hosting the convention with Founder's District, but the late Ionna Sandlin was featured in the issue.
Pause the history for a word about the District 12 logo.
The best word we have on its creation is from Delores Weck.
She said the logo was most likely created by a friend of her husband Chuck Weck at General Dynamics.
Lou Wheeler, perhaps?
The distinctive logo was used in the Images newsletter, on trophies, certificates, contest programs, flyers, club directories, and name badges.
The logo was created in time for the production of the second District Directory which covered the July-December 1990 term.
Chapter Three: The first District Directory,
Clubs Comprising District 12 in 1989,
and District Staff
Inside the front cover was a welcome letter from the
District Governor
Mileage, mileage, mileage.
The new District 12 went from Pomona on the west to Barstow on the north to Indio on the east to Lake Elsinore on the south.
District 12 had 69 clubs in four divisions: A, B, C, and D.
They come and they go. This list has 30 defunct clubs whose club numbers were not recycled elsewhere around T.I.
Division A had 16 clubs:
A-1: 1506 Upland, now in Phelan
3810 Rancho Cucamonga, now in Apple Valley
5247 Rancho Cucamonga
6606 Upland
6836 Upland (number retired by T.I.) (the old Board of Realtors club)
A-2: 110 Pomona, now in Claremont
168 Diamond Bar
1083 Pomona (number retired by T.I.) (a General Dynamics company club)
3957 Chino (number retired by T.I.)
4280 Pomona (number retired by T.I.) (another General Dynamics club)
7213 Ontario, now in Claremont
A-3: 12 Pomona now in Claremont
55 Pomona, now in Corona
1475 Claremont (number retired by T.I.) (a Claremont Colleges club)
2250 La Verne, now in Redlands
4264 Claremont, now in Calimesa
Division B had 15 clubs:
B-1: 788 San Bernardino (number retired by T.I.)
2593 San Bernardino, now in Lake Arrowhead
3820 San Bernardino (number retired by T.I.) (an old YMCA club)
4202 Highland (number retired by T.I.) (the Rosaland club)
5257 San Bernardino (number retired by T.I.) (a company club at SRA)
B-2: 1124 San Bernardino
1166 San Bernardino
1374 San Bernardino (number retired by T.I.) (a county health dept club)
1556 San Bernardino, now in Moreno Valley
6513 San Bernardino (number retired by T.I.) (a Norton AFB club)
B-3: 942 Hesperia, now in Big Bear
1026 Victorville (number retired by T.I.) (the High Noon club)
1043 Victorville (number retired by T.I.) (the High Desert Toastmasters)
1180 Barstow (number retired by T.I.) (the Barstow Toastmasters)
4397 Victorville (number retired by T.I.) (Toastmasters Oasis)
Division C had 21 clubs:
C-1: 414 Moreno Valley now in San Jacinto
815 Riverside
1348 Riverside
1351 Riverside (number retired by T.I.) (ROHR aircraft company club)
2169 Moreno Valley
C-2: 334 Riverside (number retired by T.I.) (the Bourns club on Iowa)
797 Riverside
2488 Rialto now in San Bernardino
4064 Rialto
4443 Fontana (number retired by T.I.) (a Fontana P.D. club)
6588 Rialto (number retired by T.I.) (a So Cal Edison company club)
C-3: 130 Riverside
1682 Riverside (number retired by T.I.) (Sunday Rappers club)
1976 Corona (number retired by T.I.) (Corona club)
3059 Riverside (number retired by T.I.) (a Riv. Off. of Education club)
4039 Corona
C-4:
1677 Temecula
3806 Hemet (number retired by T.I.)
4063 Canyon Lake (number retired by T.I.)
5170 Temecula, now in Riverside
6900 Lake Elsinore (number retired by T.I.)
Division D had 17 clubs:
D-1: 4 Blue Jay in Ireland since 1995
346 Big Bear Lake (number retired by T.I.) (Timberline club)
929 Big Bear Lake (number retired by T.I.) (Big Bear Lake club)
D-2: 105 Redlands
290 Grand Terrace
1041 Loma Linda (number retired by T.I.) (Epicenters club)
1255 Yucaipa now in Calimesa
4659 Redlands (number retired by T.I.) (Redlands Citrus A&M club)
7188 Colton
D-3: 118 Indio (number retired by T.I.) (Desert Palms club)
1601 Twenty-nine Palms
2528 Indio
D-4:1969 Palm Desert
2793 Palm Desert (number retired by T.I.) (Achievers club)
4199 Palm Desert
4440 Palm Desert (number retired by T.I.) Desert Empire club)
D-1's Club #4 is an awfully EARLY-numbered club, right?
It
was chartered in Long Beach, CA in 1928 at a YMCA and was known as the
"Y" Club. In 1935, it was the Long Beach Shell club, but in all the
subsequent directories of clubs, #4 is mysteriously missing until the
1949 and the 1959 directories. Both listings show the club still in
meeting in Long Beach.
More research in Founder's District archives is needed, but when District 12 was founded, #4 was Toastmasters of Blue Jay.
That charter number has been in Enniscorthy, Ireland since February 1995.
Chapter Three-continued
District 12's First Directory went from July 1989 to June 1990.
LGET used to be the designation for Lt. Governor of Education and Training which morphed into the
present day Program Quality Director.
ALG Administrative Lieutenant Governor later became LGM Lieutenant Governor of Marketing
which later became Club Growth Director.
CTM a designation created by T.I. in 1968, was Competent Toastmaster which is now CC,
Competent Communicator.
ATM first began in 1964 as "Able Toastmaster", then later renamed "Advanced Toastmaster".
It is now the AC, Accomplished Communicator award with bronze, silver, and gold levels.
DTM was created in 1970 and has remained that designation ever since.
Why can't you put DC, Distinguished Communicator, on your badge? It's because DC is the
proper designation of a Doctor of Chiropractic which you ain't.
All of the first DTMs you see on the above District Roster from 1989 attained their DTMs
while their clubs were in Founder's District.
Historian Bob Palmer was the first in the new District 12 to achieve the DTM award.
Chapter Four: District 12's first
District Conference Spring 1990
The District 12 Spring Conference was held at the Riverside Holiday Inn on Saturday May 19, 1990. Below are some of the pages from the conference program.
Special thanks to past District 12 Historian Paul Clark, DTM, PDG for these contributions.
Chapter Four addendum
1991: District 12 Invents
TMU which later became TLI
This historian is working on a longer version of this story which will feature prominent names as well as the fact that District 33 assisted District 12 in the creation of TMU.
Chapter Five: District 12's Longest-Tenured clubs in 2019
It
is interesting to see where each club was originally chartered. It's
also noteworthy to see which decade District 12's clubs were
chartered.
Chapter Six: District 12's District Governors
District Governors and the themes they chose for their term.
Updated in 2024 to show the latest District Directors
After their term, they have PID status on their name badges.
1. Greg Scott*
2. Rick Danzey
3. Richard Snyder
4. Michael Osur
*retired from his Riverside County Fire Department job and moved to northern California
The other three PIDs are still very active in the District.
In Memoriam: Dearly Departed District 12 Governors
Marian Bell
Chuck Weck
Ken Averill
Many
District 12 and Founder's "old timers" remember Ken Averill. He was
one of the main promoters of bringing semiannual club officer trainings
(TLI) into being.
This historian discovered a tragic news story from 1965 involving Ken and secured permission from Ken's widow, Carol, to relate the story:
Ken (1937-2011) was first married to Cleo Nadine in 1961
and had a son, Ken Jr., in 1962. The family was living in
Kalispell, Montana but was driving near Klamath Falls, Oregon
in September 1965, when the family was involved in a head-on crash
that killed Cleo and little Ken Jr.
It turns out that a suicidal woman had tried smashing her car into
oncoming traffic once, and on the second try she succeeded.
Ken married Carol a few years later and lived happily ever after.
Pause the history for a discussion of a
Past District Governor's Club
Past District Governors (PDGs) and now Past District Leaders are automatically invited to join
Club 407 which is a Past District Governor's Club that meets on the first Sunday of each month
at
the Embassy Suites in Brea. That club number was reissued by T.I. in
November of 1978, but was originally chartered in June 1946 as the
"Winslow Toastmasters" on Bainbridge Island in Washington.
Chapter Seven:
District 12's 2019 Anniversaries
These clubs will celebrate anniversaries in the 2019-2020 year.
Chapter Eight: District 12's Top Awards to-date
Toastmaster of the Year, Division Governor of the Year, and Area Governor of the Year.
(This
list was created in time for the 2019 Spring Conference and covers the
time periods up to the 2016-2017 year. 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 awards
will be added to the blog later.
You'll
notice a couple of years are missing. Major annual awards were posted
in yearly Club Directories, and those year's directories are still
missing as of the creation of this history blog.
Chapter Nine: DTMs Promoted in District 12
(a new 2023 addition)
NEW: District 12 DTMs compiled from
a 2022 Directory
Reminder from above: the magazine ceased listing NEW DTMs in July 2008 and adopted a policy of mailing notices to Districts.
Chapter Ten: In Memoriam- a work-in-progress
A proper "In Memoriam" for a history blog such as this would include brief biographies of the dearly departed.
District 12 old-timers and history buffs are encouraged to send material to District Historian Bob Palmer, DTM at juddpalmer3@icloud.com
Notable names from the past (in no particular order) include:
[feel free to add to the list]
Jerry Weitzman
George and Marilyn Mitchell
Tom McKerlie, PDG
Earleen Norris, PDG
Penny Cole
Bettye Underhill
Ruth Koepp, PDG
Kay Presto
Grace LeFevre
Bios might include home club, offices held, accomplishments, headshots.
Special Request: Tom Jameson, PDG, suggested compiling a list of all the District 12 members who have competed at INTERNATIONAL, when and where.
Another history note for you:
Prior to the current rise from Area to Division to District to International, the former winners at District went on to Regional competition in June of each year. If they won there, the nine speakers from the nine regions went on to International two months later. After District, you had to write a whole new speech for Region. Going on to the finals at International, you had to write yet another whole new speech and provide judges with notes from your previous District and Region speeches to ensure you didn't lift whole passages from the other speeches for the final speech contest.
Special Request: Historian Bob Palmer would like assistance on compiling a list of current, longest-serving active members.
[For example: At the last TLI, the longest serving Toastmaster present that day was Ralph Rivers from Club 797 in Riverside who joined in 1968.]
About the Historian/Blogger:
Bob Palmer, DTM, joined Club 130 in Riverside in August 1973. Over the years, he has been Area Governor five times, Division Governor twice and earning Division Governor of the Year in 1993-1994. He founded Club 815 in Riverside and Club 105 in Redlands.
In addition to Historian, Bob has also served as Parliamentarian and is also the president of the Riverside Society of Parliamentarians which meets the second Tuesdays of each month at 6:00 PM at Habitat for Humanity in Riverside. Founded in 1986, the Roberts Rules of Order study club recently lost its website host. Contact Bob for information on the meetings. Club dues are only $10 per year. Come study with us!
With a side-hobby of conducting Toastmasters research, Bob created a blog similar to this one back in 2014 when Toastmasters International turned 90.
You can see the blog at: toastmastersat90.blogspot.com
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