Toastmasters in Southern Africa is a shining example of what can be achieved if you believe. For the first decade of the 21st century, District 74—which started in 1978—experienced no net growth in clubs. It had 125 clubs in 2000, and despite small drops and increases in intervening years, 125 was still the club count in 2010.
So there was plenty of skepticism when 2011–2012 District 74 Governor Erich Viedge, DTM, announced his new vision for the District: attaining 250 clubs by 2016.
Current International President Aletta Rochat, of South Africa, was Division Governor at the time. She remembers thinking, Why on earth would we be even thinking of doubling the size of our District in four years?
What was needed, says Viedge, was a belief shift. You have to believe you can achieve big-time results for your District. It doesn’t matter what kinds of obstacles you face—lack of funds, entrenched ways of doing things—you can change your situation, he stresses.
And “if you’re not changing it,” he adds, “you’re choosing it.”
Viedge challenged leaders to up their game. A premium was placed on creative problem-solving. For example, the District established corporate-focused events to provide skills training and pitch the benefits of Toastmasters to companies in the area.
Corporate clubs would become a big part of the District’s renaissance, with prominent companies such as Old Mutual, Standard Bank (the largest bank in Africa), and Vodacom sponsoring clubs in Southern Africa.
District 74 went from the 46th-ranked District in the world all the way up to 8th by the end of the 2011–2012 program year, upping its growth by 12%, the highest ever achieved by a District up to that point, says Rochat, a longtime member of Cape Town Club. And, impressively, it was done the same year that Toastmasters raised its dues.
Viedge, she says, “changed my belief in what was possible.”
Aiming for 250 clubs sparked greater ambitions and energy, as did the new wave of Toastmasters leaders. And District 74 did eventually reach that high-water mark, leading to its 2024 reformation into Districts 74 and 129.