Westport Club

Our club started with interest from someone who  needed to do a lot of public speaking for work. After approaching a colleague and asking how she had become such a good public speaker, she shared that she had attended Toastmasters meetings. A while later, a Toastmasters advertisement in the local paper led to the opportunity to make contact with Toastmasters, who then connected us with Greymouth Toastmasters. Andrew Elphick from the Greymouth Club agreed to assist us in starting up Toastmasters in Westport. 

We advertised asking for expressions of interest and got quite a few replies. We held a meeting in Westport for those interested and Andrew was able to guide us and explain everything we needed to know about the Toastmasters process. Andrew continued to travel to Westport each fortnight to hold our meetings and guide us on the Toastmasters protocol. We soon reached 20 members and were able to become a Chartered Club. A Charter dinner was held to celebrate this achievement, attended by charter members and invited guests from Toastmasters New Zealand. The date of the Westport Toastmasters Club charter was 14 April 2014.