Every year, Districts are required by Toastmasters International to review the distribution of their clubs within Areas and Divisions. Currently our District has more than 140 active clubs distributed among 35 areas with 3 to 6 clubs per Area and 9 Divisions with 3 or 4 Areas per Division.
Each year, we charter new clubs, some clubs stop meeting and disband, and some clubs move to new locations within our District. Each year we review the location and health of all our clubs and with this information we redistribute Clubs and realign Area and Division boundaries so we can optimize the strength and balance of clubs in each Area and Division. This process is known as realignment.
To create the realignments, the leadership team used the following criteria:
- workload for the Area Director
- geographical locations of the Club
- balance of aspiring and strong Clubs (an aspiring club is one working on building membership, educational and leadership growth and is below 20 members)
- what will be least disruptive to the Area and Division
The proposal is generated and first voted on by the District Executive Committee (DEC) and then presented for a vote at the District Council meeting held during the Business Meeting at the Spring Conference.
Keep in mind that this is a snapshot of our District at the time of the assessment and approval but that some additional changes may be proposed as a result of the growth or loss of clubs between its approval at the Business Meeting and its coming into effect on July 1. The final version of the Club, Area and Division alignment will be published just prior to taking effect on July 1.
The document governing realignment is Policy and Protocol 7.0 District Structure, 1. Club Assignments https://www.toastmasters.org/Leadership-Central/Governing-Documents#Protocol70DistrictStructure465