Surviving the Club Success Plan: A President's Guide to the September 30 Deadline

If you became club president in July, you have roughly 90 days to submit the most important document of your term: the Club Success Plan. Submit it well by September 30 and your club is on track for Distinguished status. Skip it, rush it, or fill it in carelessly, and you start the year handicapped—goals you cannot revise, members who have no idea what success looks like, and a Distinguished Club Program (DCP) scoreboard you will struggle to climb back onto.

This guide is for first-time presidents who want a clear, calendar-driven plan that ends with a submitted CSP, an aligned officer team, and a credible path to Distinguished or better.

What the CSP Actually Is

The Club Success Plan is Toastmasters International's annual goal-setting document. It maps your club's intentions onto the ten DCP goals, organized into five areas:

• Education: How many members will complete Pathways levels and projects this year.
• Membership: How many new and reinstated members the club will add.
• Training: Whether at least four officers complete Club Officer Training in each of the two training rounds.
• Administration: Submission of officer lists and dues on time.
• Communication: Goal alignment and member communication strategy.

The CSP is filed in Club Central, the back-office portal at toastmasters.org. It is not optional if you want DCP credit, and missing the September 30 deadline cannot be undone—you can still earn DCP points after that, but the planning credit is gone.

The 10 DCP Goals Decoded

Most first-time presidents lose points by misunderstanding what each goal actually counts. Here is what counts and what does not, in plain English.

Education Goals (6 of 10)

• Goal 1: Four members complete Pathways Level 1 (or four old-program CCs). Counts: certified completions in Base Camp. Does not count: projects in progress.
• Goal 2: Two more members complete Pathways Level 1 (six total). Same rules.
• Goal 3: Two members complete Pathways Level 2.
• Goal 4: Two more members complete Pathways Level 2 (four total).
• Goal 5: Two members complete Pathways Level 3, 4, or 5, OR a DTM.
• Goal 6: One more member completes Pathways Level 3+, or a DTM.

Membership Goals (2 of 10)

• Goal 7: Four new, dual, or reinstated members. Counts: dues paid. Does not count: guests who have attended four times.
• Goal 8: Four more (eight total).

Training Goal (1 of 10)

• Goal 9: At least four club officers trained at the district-sponsored training sessions in both rounds (summer and winter). Missing one round forfeits the goal entirely.

Administration Goal (1 of 10)

• Goal 10: On-time submission of one officer list and on-time payment of one round of dues. Both halves required.

To hit each DCP tier, you need a minimum number of goals plus a minimum membership base:

Status	Goals Required	Membership Required
Distinguished	5 of 10	20 members or +5 net
Select Distinguished	7 of 10	20 members or +5 net
President's Distinguished	9 of 10	20 members or +5 net

A 90-Day Timeline

Treat the CSP like any other deadline-driven project. Here is a week-by-week timeline that gets you submitted with margin.

July: Kickoff (Weeks 1–4)

• Week 1: Schedule the officer planning retreat for the last weekend of July. Send a save-the-date.
• Week 2: Pull last year's CSP and DCP report from Club Central. Note which goals were hit, missed, and by how much.
• Week 3: Audit the current member roster: who is mid-Pathways-level, who is close to a DTM, who is a flight risk.
• Week 4 (Retreat): Two-hour session, draft goal targets together (see retreat agenda below).

August: First Draft (Weeks 5–8)

• Week 5: President writes the first CSP draft using retreat outputs.
• Week 6: VPE confirms Pathways completion forecasts member-by-member.
• Week 7: VP Membership locks the recruitment goal and the campaign plan to hit it.
• Week 8: Audit officer training: who attended summer round, who needs winter round? You need at least four, both rounds, for Goal 9.

September 1–15: Final Review

• Officer team reviews the full draft together at the regular officers' meeting.
• Run the numbers one more time against last year's actuals—are the targets ambitious but realistic?
• Add the communication plan: how often the club will hear about progress (monthly minimum is best practice).

September 16–30: Submit and Announce

• Sept 16–20: President logs into Club Central and enters the CSP. Take a screenshot of the submission confirmation.
• Sept 21–25: Announce the goals to the club at a regular meeting. Make it a 5-minute "state of the club" segment.
• Sept 26–30: Email the full CSP to every member. Pin it in your club communication channel.

Goal of this cadence: the CSP is submitted by September 20, leaving a full week of buffer for Club Central downtime, password resets, or emergencies.

Step-by-Step: Filling Out the CSP in Club Central

1. Go to toastmasters.org and log in with your member credentials.
2. Click Leadership Central → Club Central.
3. Select your club from the list (presidents, secretaries, and treasurers see clubs they administer).
4. In the left sidebar, click Club Success Plan.
5. For each of the 10 goals, mark whether your club intends to pursue it and enter your target.
6. For each goal you select, list specific actions the club will take and the officer responsible.
7. Complete the membership and communication strategy free-text fields. Two to four sentences each is plenty.
8. Click Save, then Submit. The form locks once submitted.
9. Download the PDF copy and email it to all officers. This is your year-long reference.

If something is wrong after you submit, contact your Area Director—some fields can be re-opened by district leadership, but it is not guaranteed.

How to Run the Officer Planning Retreat

Two hours, in person if possible, with all seven officers and any incoming officer-elects. Coffee helps. So does a printed copy of last year's DCP report.

Pre-Retreat Prep (President sends 1 week ahead)

• Last year's DCP report (downloaded from Club Central)
• Current member roster with Pathways level for each member
• Officer training calendar from the district
• This blog post (or an equivalent CSP cheat sheet)

2-Hour Retreat Agenda

1. Minutes 0–15: Review last year's DCP results. What did we hit? What did we miss? Why?
2. Minutes 15–30: VPE walks through every member's current Pathways level and projects in flight. Identify realistic Level 1, 2, and 3+ completion targets.
3. Minutes 30–45: VP Membership presents the recruitment plan. How many new members? Through which channels (open houses, district referrals, corporate outreach)?
4. Minutes 45–60: Confirm officer training attendance for both rounds. If anyone cannot make a round, identify a substitute officer to attend.
5. Minutes 60–75: Set membership stretch goal for net growth. Decide on a marquee event (anniversary, contest, open house) per quarter.
6. Minutes 75–90: Assign goal owners. Each of the 10 DCP goals needs a named officer accountable for it.
7. Minutes 90–120: Draft the communication plan (how the club hears about progress) and the monthly checkpoint cadence.

Common Mistakes That Tank DCP Status

Mistake 1: Skipping a Round of Officer Training

Goal 9 requires four officers trained in both rounds. Many clubs nail summer training, forget about winter, and lose the goal entirely. Add the winter training dates to your CSP document and to every officer's calendar in July.

Mistake 2: Counting Pathways Projects Instead of Levels

DCP credit is awarded for completed levels, not individual projects. A member with three finished Level 2 projects but no certified Level 2 completion does not count. Make sure your VPE is closing levels in Base Camp, not just tracking them.

Mistake 3: No Real Membership Plan

"We will recruit four new members" is a wish, not a plan. Specify the channels: how many open houses, how many corporate outreach calls, what the guest follow-up email looks like, who owns the new-member onboarding. Without specifics, Goals 7 and 8 are coin flips.

Mistake 4: Submitting Late

The September 30 deadline cuts off DCP planning credit. Even if you would have hit Distinguished on goals alone, missing the CSP submission is a small but real DCP penalty and an eyesore on your district report. Submit by September 20 and the deadline becomes a non-issue.

Mistake 5: One-and-Done Communication

Most clubs announce their CSP once at the September meeting and never mention it again. By March, no one remembers what the goals were. Build in a 5-minute "DCP scoreboard" segment at the first meeting of every month and the goals stay alive.

Tracking Progress Through the Year

Submitting the CSP is the start, not the finish. Set up a monthly checkpoint cadence so you are never surprised in May.

Monthly Officers' Meeting (15 minutes on DCP)

• Pull current DCP scoreboard from Club Central
• Each goal owner reports: on track, at risk, or off track
• Identify any goal that needs an intervention this month
• Update the club via the next regular meeting

Quarterly Course Correction (30 minutes)

• Compare actuals to the CSP plan
• Re-forecast year-end—will you hit Distinguished? Select? President's?
• Decide whether to push for a higher tier or shore up at-risk goals
• Refresh the membership campaign if Goals 7 or 8 are off track

March Health Check

By March you have eight months of data and four months left in the program year. This is your last realistic chance to course-correct on Pathways completions (Levels 1 and 2 take roughly six weeks each from a focused start). If a member is one project away from a Level 1, a March push usually closes it before June 30.

What Happens If You Miss September 30

First: do not panic. Missing the CSP deadline does not disqualify you from DCP status entirely. You can still earn points on all 10 goals. What you lose is the planning credit and some moral authority with your officer team and area leadership.

Recovery options, in order:

1. Submit anyway: Club Central will accept a late CSP. It will not count for DCP planning credit, but it documents your intentions and helps officer accountability.
2. Contact your Area Director: Some districts have informal grace periods. Ask politely.
3. Mid-year amendment: If circumstances change drastically (officer resignation, venue loss, dramatic membership change), districts can sometimes accept revised plans. Document the reason in writing.
4. Reset for next year: If you are in a deep hole, focus on Goal 10 (administration) and Goal 9 (training) for guaranteed wins, set realistic stretch on Pathways for the back half, and build retention so next year's incoming president has more to work with.

Tools and Templates

The CSP itself lives in Club Central—you cannot work around that. But the supporting tracking (Pathways progress, role completions, member retention) does not have to be manual.

What helps:

• A live dashboard of every member's Pathways level and current project
• Automated tracking of speech counts toward Pathways completions
• Officer training attendance reminders for both rounds
• Monthly reports to drop straight into your officers' meeting
• A retention dashboard so Goal 7 and 8 are forecast, not hoped for

One Last Thing

The CSP is more than a compliance document. It is the only place in the year where your officer team sits down together and answers, on the record, "what does success look like for us?" Done well, it sets the tone for every officer meeting, every recruitment push, every member retention conversation.

Submit by September 20. Announce in late September. Check in monthly. Course-correct quarterly. Do that and you are not just surviving the Club Success Plan—you are using it the way Toastmasters International intended.

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About: Compiled from current Toastmasters International DCP guidelines and interviews with presidents who hit President's Distinguished in their first term. Always confirm specific goal counts against the official Distinguished Club Program manual at toastmasters.org.