DCP? Those letters may sound familiar. If you have been a Toastmaster for a while, you probably have been monitoring Your Distinguished Club Program or DCP. In any case, let me remind you how it works and what goals all clubs strive to achieve within a Toastmaster year.
How Does It Work?
The Distinguished Club Program is an annual program, running from July 1 through June 30. The program consists of 10 goals for your club to obtain, using the Club Success Plan. To help keep track of your progress toward these goals throughout the year, updated reports are posted daily on the Toastmasters International website.
At year-end, the number of goals the club achieved is calculated. Based on the goals met and whether or not the qualifying requirements have been met, the club may be recognized as a Distinguished, Select Distinguished, or President’s Distinguished Club.
Qualifying Requirement
A qualifying requirement is a prerequisite or prior condition for participation in the program. If a qualifying requirement is not met, your club may not earn Distinguished recognition even if all of its goals are met. To be eligible for recognition, a club must be in good standing according to Policy 2.0, Section 4: Good Standing of Clubs and must meet the qualifying requirement of having either 20 members or a net growth of at least five new members as of June 30. Transfer and honorary members do not count toward the qualifying requirement.
I would like to encourage every club in District 83 to work on the club success plans with the vision and goal of reaching Distinguished and beyond.
The 2017 – 2018 Toastmaster Year is only 78 days old as of today Sunday, September 17, 2017; the District have two clubs that have achieved Distinguished, noted below:
| Club Name | Goals Met |
| Impact 21 Toastmasters Club | 5 |
| Speak and Lead Toastmasters Club | 5 |
In any case, the Toastmaster’s year is still young and within the next week, I would like to see where the tally is and who will achieve Distinguished status. The only way to get these goals is through focus and teamwork. Let’s put our efforts to make this the start of a renaissance for our District and work hard in helping our members reach their goals and aspirations. The key to our success will relay in our ability to work and deliver on mentoring, coaching, and elevating the quality of Club’s meetings. Distinguished the destination where we are going this year. I am looking forward to seeing you all crossing that finish line at the end of June 2018.