27/07/2026
🌟 Celebrating Dundee’s Newest Distinguished Toastmaster! 🌟
Our latest meeting gave us plenty to celebrate, but the biggest celebration belonged to Julia, who has officially achieved the title of Distinguished Toastmaster!
The DTM is the highest individual educational honour in Toastmasters and is achieved by only a small proportion of members. It represents years of learning, completing projects and pathways, developing as a leader, and giving significant service not only to a club but to the wider Toastmasters community.
Anyone who knows Julia will know how thoroughly deserved this is. She is an experienced speaker, a generous supporter of others and someone who continues to inspire us by taking on new challenges herself.
Even after achieving the organisation’s highest honour, Julia was not sitting back during Wednesday’s meeting. She took on the role of Timekeeper and was absolutely on fire! With several of us known to become rather attached to the sound of our own voices, Julia found a brilliantly humorous way of making sure that nobody could overlook the red light. Her additional “visual reminder” after 30 seconds had passed kept us on time—and gave us some of the biggest laughs of the evening!
Our Toastmaster of the Evening was Peter, whose warmth and personality made him a natural guide through the meeting. Peter has a wonderfully engaging way of connecting with a room, and he brought the different parts of the evening together while making everyone feel welcome.
We also enjoyed three very different prepared speeches.
Georgia delivered only her second speech, Sustainable Water Management Strategies for Golf Courses. Her knowledge and understanding of water use radiated throughout her presentation. It was professional, informative and assured—an impressive achievement so early in her Toastmasters journey. We cannot wait to see where her growing confidence takes her.
Rachael spoke about emotional intelligence, delivering another powerful and thought-provoking speech with real authority. Rachel has an ability to take a substantial subject and communicate it in a way that encourages the audience to examine their own thoughts and behaviour.
Finally, Claire explored the role of Vice President Membership and the idea that it can sometimes be framed as a sales position. The speech challenged the traditional idea of “selling” and instead considered how ethical selling begins with listening: understanding what someone hopes to gain, being honest about what Toastmasters offers and helping them decide whether the club is genuinely right for them. The aim is not simply to gain a member—it is to create a positive outcome for both the individual and the club. A Win-win relationship.
Rachael then led an excellent and suitably thought-provoking Table Topics session.
Magda was asked how best to communicate disagreement and gave a particularly clear, confident and constructive answer—practically demonstrating the very approach she was describing.
Georgia spoke about self-compassion and shared an important message about extending some of the kindness and understanding we give to others towards ourselves.
Peter explored the importance of listening, using expressive gestures and facial expressions that made his contribution especially engaging.
Our guest Timitayo spoke about the importance of being willing to have difficult conversations. Taking part in Table Topics during a first visit is a brave step, but nobody entering the room would have guessed that this was her first meeting. She spoke with excellent eye contact, a confident stance and wonderful composure. We thoroughly enjoyed having her participate.
Our Word of the Day was resilient. Rather shamefully, only our Wordmaster managed to use it during the meeting—but it could hardly have been a more fitting word.
Resilience is not something we either possess or lack. We build it by stepping forward, trying something difficult, learning from the experience and then returning to try again.
Every speech, role and Table Topics answer helps us become a little more resilient.
And Julia’s journey to becoming a Distinguished Toastmaster shows just how far repeatedly stepping forward can take us.
Congratulations, Julia, DTM—a huge achievement and an inspiration to us all. 🎉👏
