Vancouver Gavel Club Celebrates 10-Year Anniversary

If you were at this year’s Conference, our odd-looking bright yellow banner (pictured above) might’ve caught your eye. It was handmade in September 2015 by the late Annie Wang and a small group of youth. Annie founded VGC because she saw a void – there was no place for her kids to get the Toastmasters experience over the course of their high school years. Sure, there are private academies, but they’re far too expensive for many. While Youth Leadership Programs provide an invaluable experience, they run for a couple weeks at most. Thus, Annie launched VGC – an affordable alternative that offers youth the Toastmasters experience with long-term consistency, allowing them to cultivate their skills over six years. At the time, it was a small club made up of Annie’s and her acquaintances’ children. Since then, it’s grown into a network of three clubs with a strong foothold in the District.

Our first club was at Kerrisdale Community Centre. It didn’t take long for interest in our program to grow, leading to the establishment of a second club at Wesbrook Community Centre two years later. Finally, in 2019, our network incorporated a third chapter at Killarney CC. VGC has had to face existential challenges over the years. During the COVID pandemic, our membership took a hefty blow as we scrambled to organize online meetings without losing the social dynamic that’s vital for youth. With five members, our Killarney chapter nearly folded. Our greatest challenge, however, struck when Annie tragically passed away last spring. Annie not only built our network from the ground up and maintained all the contracts needed to keep the lights on, she also set an educationally rigorous yet fun and informal cultural tone. She created a caring environment where teenagers and Counselors alike could develop confidence and unlock their potential.

Darren Frew, DTM and I inherited this legacy last year. Running VGC has been a tough experience, but I believe that we had one of our best years to date. We put a strong emphasis on our network’s community aspect. We ran several contests, inter-club collaborations and a joint meeting with Earth Aware Toastmasters - our new sponsor - with record engagement. I can confidently say that our last four contests – Speech, Evaluation, Table Topics and Humorous – were the highest quality contests I’ve witnessed at Toastmasters, comparable to the District level. That’s perhaps the most notable metric for how far we’ve come – the sheer talent of our members. Out of dozens of examples, I could point to a recent grad who’s absorbed complex educational principles and served as the lead Counselor for our summer program, delivering effortless (noteless!) GE’s. I could point to one of our Grade 8 students who has a passion for feedback, giving engaging evaluations with depth that I rarely see in any setting.

Our unofficial motto is “put our members in the driver’s seat.” Over the past year, I’ve seen this in action from our elected Club Officers, who’ve set the tone for our meetings and encouraged members.

We look forward to bigger initiatives and further collaboration with the District as we go into our eleventh year.

P.S. We still have a few spots left for our upcoming term! For more info, visit the ‘Gavel Clubs’ section on the D21 website: https://d21toastmasters.ca/join-us/gavel-clubs