Editing Toastmasters International (section)

==History==
On 24 March 1905, Dr. [[Ralph C. Smedley]], a 1903 graduate from [[Illinois Wesleyan University]], who was also the educational director for [[Bloomington, Illinois|Bloomington]] [[YMCA]] in [[Illinois]], started a club in a dinner meeting, to train young boys and men in speech, to face an audience, and to express their thoughts. He envisioned it as a weekly social club, with training programs for short speeches, debates, and work in chairmanship. The members took turn to speak in 5 to 6 minutes while the elder men served as speech evaluators. George Sutton, General Secretary of YMCA, named the club "a Toastmasters Club". Smedley later noticed a significant improvement in his members' speeches and leadership abilities. When YMCA transferred Smedley to another city named Freeport in Illinois, he decided to expand his club to the new city.<ref name="Levine 1999"/>

The organization grew out of a single club founded by Smedley on October 22, 1924, at the [[YMCA]] in [[Santa Ana, California]], United States.<ref name="OCM1" /> It originated as a set of classes with the aim of improving the communication skills of the young men under his charge.<ref name="Indie1">{{Cite news |last=Synge |first=Daniel |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/how-to-speak-in-public-1600759.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220621/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/how-to-speak-in-public-1600759.html |archive-date=June 21, 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=How to speak in public |date=September 12, 1995 |work=[[The Independent]] |access-date=June 14, 2018 |location=London}}</ref><ref name="LAT1">{{Cite web |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-10-29-mn-56025-story.html |title=Smedley: A Quiet Man With Lots to Say About Speech |last=Hamashige |first=Hope |date=29 October 1994 |website=[[Los Angeles Times]] |location=[[Los Angeles]] |language=en |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191125012532/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-10-29-mn-56025-story.html |archive-date=25 November 2019 |access-date=25 November 2019}}</ref> Toastmasters International was incorporated under [[California]]n law on December 19, 1932.<ref name="OCM1">{{Cite news |last=Scott |first=Majorie |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PWEEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA45 |title=Out of the Past: Toasting the Toastmasters |date=November 1990 |work=[[Orange Coast (magazine)|Orange Coast]] |access-date=June 12, 2018 |issue=November 1990 |pages=45–46 |format=Digitised magazine |via=Google Books}}</ref><ref name="KPF1" />

The first international chapter was established in [[Vancouver|Vancouver, Canada]], in 1932. The organization began admitting women in 1973.<ref name="OCM1" /><ref name="LaviolaYears">{{Cite news |last=Laviola |first=Karen |title=A toast to Toastmasters' 65 years |date=October 24, 1989 |work=[[Orange County Register]]}}</ref>

In 1999, Toastmasters International (TI) had 170,000 members spanning 68 countries.<ref name="Levine 1999">{{Cite thesis |last=Levine Bremen |first=Ellen Beth |title="Welcome, fellow toastmasters": The history and membership of a public speaking phenomenon |date=1999-01-01 |degree=Masters of Arts Degree |publisher=University of Nevada, Las Vegas |url=https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/rtds/1107 |doi=10.25669/f0y4-w1ku}}</ref> By 2016, TI had 16,000 clubs worldwide.<ref name="blakeHow">{{Cite news |last=Blake |first=John |url=https://www.cnn.com/2016/10/14/us/toastmasters-champions/index.html |title=Stop texting and start speaking: The Olympians of storytelling show you how |date=October 14, 2016 |access-date=June 12, 2018 |publisher=CNN}}</ref>