BURIED TREASURE

Frank Paulding & First Canadian Toastmasters Club #38 (Part Five)

Harvey Schowe, DTM - District 7 Historian

Ralph Smedley began discussions for a Toastmasters federation in July 1930 at the YMCA Summer School at Whittier College in California. Clark Chamberland was the temporary chairman. Committees were assigned to study the federation plans. Frank Paulding expressed interest in having the Spokes Club become part of Toastmasters. In his book, Ralph Smedley wrote, “It occurred to me that with a club in British Columbia seeking to join us, we might consider us international too; and so, I suggested that we call ourselves Toastmasters International, frankly acknowledging that the source of my idea was Rotary International.”

In late summer 1930, temporary officers were appointed. Clark Chamberlain requested all known clubs to send representatives to an organizing meeting in Los Angeles, California on October 4, 1930. The first permanent officers elected during this meeting were: J. Clark Chamberlain, President; Arthur H. Johnson and C. George Hedstrom, Vice-Presidents; Robert H. Orr, Secretary; George M. Grant, Treasurer. During this meeting, the idea for a newsletter or bulletin named The Gavel was proposed as a means for clubs to communicate with each other. The first issue of The Gavel was published December 6, 1930. Two years later it became Toastmaster.

Frank Paulding wrote the following article for the December 6, 1930 issue of The Gavel:

THE NORTHWEST SPEAKS

THE SPOKES CLUB

Our good friend Frank Paulding, General Secretary of the “Y” at New Westminster, B.C. sent in the following interesting account of the Spokes Club, which corresponds to our Toastmaster Clubs here in the States.

In speaking of the club program, he says: “You will notice that we have four Toast nights, five Debate nights, and one continued study subject, namely recreation, together with some miscellaneous topics. So far, we are having the best attendance that we have had in years, which speaks volumes for the popularity of the program. We have approximately forty members.

The Spokes Club is not a regular dinner club; it holds dinner meetings occasionally. At the beginning of the season, they send out a printed program, which schedules coming topics and events, from October to April first when an Annual Toast Night is held to wind up the season. This program idea is a splendid one and no doubt some of us could profit from our meetings by following this idea.