Downtown Business Associates Toastmasters
District 49, Club 2076

Honolulu, Hawaii

A    H  I  S  T  O  R  Y

DBA Toastmasters

Downtown Business Associates, better known as DBA Toastmasters, is one of the oldest and most active Toastmasters clubs in Hawaii history. DBA Toastmasters was originally founded on April 1, 1956. At that time, the club was called YBA Toastmasters, which stood for Young Buddhist Association. The club was known as YBA Toastmasters for over thirty years.

In 1987, YBA Toastmasters and Tamarind Park Toastmasters began meeting together. Tamarind Park Toastmasters was named after the location where the club met, Tamarind Park. At that time, both clubs each had about 6-8 members. After meeting for a few months, the clubs decided to merge and keep the older charter of YBA (1956).

When the clubs merged, the members agreed that they needed a new name for the club. Several names were considered until future club president Nelson Nakagawa proposed Downtown Business Associates, or DBA Toastmasters. This new name stuck, and it continued the abbreviated name tradition of the original YBA. The new name also was a more accurate representation of the clubs members at the time, who met in Downtown Honolulu at the American Savings Bank building.

In 1997, computer science professor and DBA member Richard Halverson created the DBA Toastmasters website at https://dbatoastmasters.com. As VP of Education, Richard realized how much work it was to schedule weekly meetings. At the time, all scheduling was done manually and over the phone. This provided the motivation to automate meeting scheduling. The website also pioneered a unique scheduling and notification system, that automatically creates meeting agendas three weeks in advance and auto-assigns members to the various meeting roles.

At the time, the club was struggling to attract new members, but the website proved to be a major game changer. DBA Toastmasters began attracting guests to its weekly meetings on a regular basis, a tradition that continues to this day. When the website launched in 1997, one member commented, "But not everyone has email."

Notable members of DBA Toastmasters include:

In 2006, DBA Toastmasters celebrated its 50th Anniversary with a celebration at the exclusive Bayer Estate. The event included many members from the past and present, including several original YBA members. For DBA's 60th Anniversary in 2016, the club held a celebration at the Ward Buca di Beppo that featured awards, prizes, and Mad Lib Table Topics. For the 2019 Holiday Party, the club hosted a White Elephant Table Topics meeting, where members all brought random items from their home and wrapped them as gifts, which the unsuspecting recipient opened and had to explain why it was the best gift they had ever received.

In the 2019-2020 club year, DBA Toastmasters achieved the highest recognition in Toastmasters for the fourth year in a row, President's Distinguished Club. It is the seventh time in the past nine years the club has achieved this esteemed status.

In 2020, DBA Toastmasters began meeting virtually for the first time in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The club did not miss a single meeting and continues to meet weekly. Since going virtual, DBA Toastmasters has hosted guests from around the world, from as far afield as Bangladesh, Ireland, Germany, Nepal, and Thailand.

Today, DBA Toastmasters is a diverse club of business professionals who support and encourage each other on their journey to become better public speakers and leaders. It has been the meeting place of many lifelong friends, and where many excellent speeches have been shared.

DBA Toastmasters continues to meet in Downtown Honolulu every Wednesday from 12:00-1:00pm. The current meeting location details and weekly agenda can be found on our website at https://dbatoastmasters.com.

If you have not had the pleasure of visiting our wonderful club, please join us!