Happy Birthday Top of Texas Toastmasters!

This year is our 12th Anniversary! Top of Texas Toastmasters chartered on February 4, 2002 as a corporate club at Con-Way Freight in North Richland Hills. Three years later, it became a community club - still meeting in the North Richland Hills area.

The club struggled along for several years with membership hovering between 11 to 13 members. We had several coaches who worked with the club to try to get membership up to 20 people but it just didn’t happen. At some meetings, there would only be 2 or 3 members in attendance. We were a failing club.

And then things began to change. We lost our location in North Richland Hills. Our newest members, Dan and Faith Pinto, offered us a place to meet at the Northwest Bible Church, our current location. Then we voted to change our meeting time from Thursday evenings to Saturday mornings. At the time we were the only club in District 25 meeting on Saturdays. Then we got another coach, Larry Nickerson, and our members got fired up and got active! They were passionate, competitive, and organized. They hung fliers all around the neighborhood. They organized Youth Leaderships and Speech Crafts. They put info in the local newspaper and the Star Telegram. Then we started getting new members.

The 2009-2010 year was the first year we met both membership and distinguished club goals. Because of our comeback from near death we received the Phoenix Award. The Phoenix Award was based on the mythological creature that died by fire, was reborn and rose from its ashes.

We’ve been doing well ever since; achieving our membership and distinguished club goals for the Distinguished Club Program while also reaching personal goals for our members.

2012-2013 President's Distinguished Club: We had 21 members and achieved 9 DCP goals.
2011-2012 President's Distinguished Club: We had 23 members and achieved 9 DCP goals.
2010-2011 Select Distinguished Club: We had 20 members and achieved 8 DCP goals.
2009-2010 President's Distinguished Club: We had 20 members and achieved 9 DCP goals.
2008-2009: We had 11 members and achieved 9 DCP goals.
2007-2008: We had 13 members and achieved 6 DCP goals.
2006-2007: We had 11 members and achieved 4 DCP goals.
2005-2006: We had 13 members and achieved 7 DCP goals.
2004-2005: We had 11 members and achieved 3 DCP goals.

Sandra Price, DTM