HISTORY

Prior to 2009, District 79 comprised of the GCC countries with Jordan, and Lebanon. The exponential growth witnessed during that time, required that the district be split into two districts, namely District 79 and District 20 for ease of administration.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia comprising one of the larger segments retained the District 79 tag and the others came to be called as District 20.

The application for “Reformation” as this process is called was done to TMI in 2009-10.

The process entails a “wait” period during which the separating district is said to be “under reformation”.

This was in 2010-11 for District 79 or Saudi Arabia.

A “Reformation Committee” with DTM Abdurazzak Ali Al-Turky as the Chairman and DTM Saif Ali Shaikh as Co-Chairman and Author of Reformation Recommendation Documents guided the district as the first Lieutenant Governor (Education and Training) and the first Lieutenant Governor (Marketing) respectively during this period.

Come 2011-12, Saudi Arabia became an independent District and in the very first year of its existence the district achieved the no. 1 status in the world under the able leadership of first District Governor of Saudi Arabia DTM Khaled Matlagaitu.

2012 marked the first ever District Conference held in Jeddah – DTAC, 2012.

Last April 2013, the second District Toastmasters’ Annual Conference which is aptly called Saudi Arabian Toastmasters’ Annual Conference 2013 or SATAC, ’13 was held. 

The present term (PY 13-14) is directed under the leadership of District Governor DTM Saif Al-Sheik. The Lieutenant Governor (Education and Training) DTM Joey Villanueva and Lieutenant Governor (Marketing) DTM Abdullah Al-Sharif form the triad at the helm of the Executive Committee for District 79.