The Distinguished Toastmaster (DTM) is the highest level of educational achievement in Toastmasters. For most members, it will take five or more years to accomplish, but there is no time limit. It represents dedication to your own personal development, support of other members, and investment into other clubs and the organisation.

DTMs are gifted a plaque of completion, and your badge will be yellow and burgundy. The DTM Award stays with you forever and can’t be superseded as you work again on new Paths or projects. Once a DTM, always a DTM!

The requirements can be done in any order*, and can be worked on concurrently.

Download the "Pathway to DTM" as PDF

EDUCATION

Pathways

All members are working on Pathways as the core education program of the organisation. It is an accomplishment to complete a Path. This requirement is simply to complete any two Paths. They must be two different paths (ie. it doesn't count to complete Presentation Mastery twice over).

It is likely you'll be working on your Paths as you work through the other requirements (slight exception for the DTM Project - see below).

DTM Project

Create and implement a project of your own design, to demonstrate the skills and expertise you've gained. The goal of this project is to improve an organisation more broadly. For a list of what other have done for their DTM Project, or some ideas you can use, look below.

The Project literature is supplied through Base Camp, but you have to request access to it, which you can only do after you've completed a full Path and Level 3 in your second. To receive this project, email educationprogram(a)toastmasters.org

Include your member number and briefly explain you're eligible and would like access to the project.

Past Completed Projects:

Here's some projects existing DTMs created and completed:

Design and create the Showcase Sprint program, run it twice and hand over.
Deliver the first five long-form masterclasses and host resources on The Club Up Project website.
Research, update and redesign the District 69 history documents.
Coordinate the District Conference.

The DTM Project overview begins: "Plan and complete a project that benefits an organization". Our advice is that a good choice of DTM Project is something that makes a positive, lasting difference to the organisation. While you can choose any organisation, most choose Toastmasters. It should be something that benefits more than just a single club or area, doesn't fit into another project or role, and is larger in scope than a HPL; being bigger than you alone can handle.

The overview continues: "The purpose of this project is to demonstrate your skills as a leader and a public speaker. You may choose to revisit any previous project that contains information to help you complete your project". This project has very little limits on what you can choose to demonstrate skills and lead a team to achieve. Most projects we've seen have taken 3-6 months to complete and extend skills significantly.

Ideas for DTM Projects:

Use these as inspiration if you wish, or take them wholesale:

Coordinate the District Conference (note this says District, not Division or Area).
Build regional landing page websites for the District and track traffic.
Develop a strong social media presence for District 69, or a Division.
Leverage Canva accounts for areas/divisions, including branding and templates for flyers.
Some appointed District roles, such as Training Manager.

LEADERSHIP

Club

Serve as a club officer for one year (two six–month terms is required if your club only has six-month terms). You can serve as any of the seven elected club officers:

President,
VP Education,
VP Membership,
VP Public Relations,
Secretary,
Treasurer, or
Sergeant at Arms.

You must also participate in the preparation of a Club Success Plan for that year, and attend at least one of the Club Officer Training (COT) sessions that year.

In practice, you will likely end up serving as a couple of those club officers in the period of working towards DTM. For instance it is recommended that a good Area Director candidate (see District Leadership below) would have served as President or VP Education. And both of those roles are not often first-timer roles.

Futhermore, there are two COT rounds provided each year, and most keen club officers attend both of these each year.

District

Serve as a District Leader for a full term. These terms are all a year long.

There are a few District Leader roles available, but the vast majority of people will serve as an Area Director. Each year, this is the most numerous role, and it is the "entry level" role. In essence, you will be providing direction, guidance and support for 4-6 local clubs. See our How To: Area Director page for a comprehensive guide and resources.

In practice, while an Area Director, you can also:

Start/complete your DTM Project,
Serve again as a club officer, and/or
Serve as any of the four options in Club Support.

But we wouldn't recommend doing all three at the same time! Each is a time and effort commitment, and you don't want to burn out.

CLUB SUPPORT

Build

Speechcraft Co-ordinator

Speechcraft is a finite public speaking and leadership course that normally a club runs to achieve public outreach and membership building. It is a significant project that runs over multiple meetings (usually 5-6).

Thomas held a successful Speechcraft for Downunder in 2023, and we are working on readying those resources to host on this site. Good things take time!

Until then, contact us if you'd like advice on Speechcraft and what we know works. We'll happily share as much information as we can - Speechcraft can be a daunting task alone.

A subset of the Speechcraft is to run a Youth Leadership program. It is very similar in execution, but is aimed at under-18s. It is beautiful for helping young people, but has a much lower membership building capacity.

New Club Sponsor

Up to two experienced members may serve as sponsor to a new club. They are responsible for getting a club officially started, including setting up meetings, the club officers, and filing all required paperwork. They are appointed on the prospective club’s Application to Organize or up to 60 days from the charter date. Sponsors get their credit after the club has chartered.

Growth

Club Coach

A club coach is an experienced member who works with a struggling club to rebuild strength.

To be eligible to be a club coach, a member must:

not be a member of the club to be coached, and not been so in the last six months,
been an active member for at least one year and served a one year term as a club officer,
completed at least a Level 2 in Pathways, and
not currently coaching another club.

There is training provided to club coaches (completing it is a requirement). But it is strongly suggested you look at being a club coach around the time you're an Area Director, or soon after.

A club may have up to two coaches. To be eligible for a coach, a club must:

have between three and twelve financial members, and
not currently be suspended.

Not all clubs are open to coaching, and the best club coach is a natural fit for the club in question. Finding this right fit shouldn't be hard as there is so many clubs to choose from, but is worth considering.

A club coach receives credit when at 30 June:

the club is distinguished or better (that is, net membership growth 3+, and 5+ DCP goals achieved), and
the coach has served minimum 6 months as coach.

There is some paperwork to be filled and training requirements also. Additionally, if the club finishes with 20+ members, then the coach also receives credit as a District Leader.

Pro-tip, to successfully coach a club, feel free to use all the resources on The Club Up Project.

Club Mentor

Up to two experienced members may join a new club as club mentors to provide support and guidance through the new club’s first six months. They are appointed on the prospective club’s Application to Organize or up to 60 days from the charter date. Mentors get their credit after they have completed six months of service.

In 2025, roughly a third of all clubs in District 69 are eligible for a coach, that is, have less than 12 members and are struggling. It is a crisis of clubs and membership we're currently in. Therefore, we very strongly recommend those seeking a DTM choose of the above "Speechcraft Co-ordinator" and "Club Coach".

New Club Sponsor and Club Mentor both pertain to newly created clubs. Sometimes, organisations and communities reach out, seeking a club in their space so is an excellent opportunity. Likewise, if you see a legitimate geographic gap near you, then a new community club is a welcome addition. Starting a new club can be a deceptively difficult and long process, so have some help.

We have seen members recently opt to create a "dual membership club" - often called "advanced" or "specialty" club as an easier route to the new club. While noble in their mission, the reality is that it asks existing, dedicated members to become dual (or more) members to make the new club a reality. Thus, it asks more time and service of those members who are more valuable with their focus going to growing their own or other struggling clubs, and brings in a net of no new members.

So, we suggest running Speechcraft to help grow your own, or another struggling club. And Coach a club from <12 members back to distinguished. You will get the same credit but will have a much more positive impact on the state of our District.

For all three (Sponsor, Mentor and Coach), the Toastmasters official resources can be found here.

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