Lessons Learned

There were times in which I did not take some facts well and expressed them emotionally, like the more recent entries here such as changing the contest room or finding the results of a recent election unfavorable.  At the end, it was a set of facts that I accepted, whether I like it or not, and I tried to learn something from that and move on.

Now what if there was a decision made based on facts which resulted in an ENTIRE district going in an uproar?  It just happened recently in District 21 in British Columbia in which the District International Speech Winner was disqualified to compete in the Region I contest.  Why?  Because it turned the speech winner, who was out of Toastmasters for years, returned to her home club on the night of the club contest to rejoin and was asked by her club to compete that night.  What is wrong with that?  At the time of the club contest, the speech winner was not considered a member in good standing with that club because Toastmasters International did not receive that person’s application until after the contest.  The contest rules mentioned it very clearly under Eligibility in page 9:

Be a member in good standing of the club in which he or she is competing.  The club also must be in good standing.  A new, dual, or reinstated member must have dues and membership application current with World Headquarters.

Maintain eligibility at all levels of any contest.  If at any level it is discovered that a contestant was ineligible to compete at any previous level, the contestant must be disqualified even if the ineligibility is not discovered until a later level and has been corrected.

This is similar to what I’ve seen in District 30 as mentioned in an earlier blog entry.  And just like in that entry, the D21 winner was hurt by the decision made after the District Contest.  In this case as she won the contest with a speech that many seemed to both rave and be touched by it (here is her speech at her Division Contest), it appeared everyone in District 21 is up in arms.  Both the D21 conference website and Facebook group page, members took their anger at WHQ believing that yes there was a mistake but it was not the contestant’s fault at all and should be given the chance to compete at the Regional Contest.  One went as far as saying in the Facebook group: “This is yet another example of TMI turning into another faceless corporate entity and the new Governance Model that they are unveiling will further erode the voice of the individual members.”

Unfortunately the members of District 21 based their comments on emotions rather than facts.  They’ve seen someone who deservedly won their District Speech Contest and now with that winner cannot continue, they felt they were unfairly screwed.  Those outside of D21, even those who have seen firsthand similar disqualification stories, looked at it through facts such as the discussion in the ToastmastersPrime Google group.  It was something that could have been prevented at any level, whether it was the contestant, the Club Contest Chair, the Area Contest Chair, the Division Contest Chair, the District Contest Chair, but perhaps they either were not aware of the rules or misinterpret them.  Perhaps because the contestant was returning to TM, the contest chairs and others in D21 only thought of encouraging her to go on as she’s been through a lot in her life.  We could easily blame any of them for not doing their jobs.

Rather than pointing fingers, I think we should let the folks in District 21 accept that something bad had taken place that could have been avoided and look at what they could do in the future to not let this happen again.  And I hope these folks will put aside their emotions and learn the facts that cause this unfortunate situation to happen, hopefully before their Fall Contests start.  It is a lesson to be learned for not just District 21, but for every member and officer in Toastmasters.

The debate regarding Proposal A and other recent issues from Toastmasters International rages on, in particular on the LinkedIn Toastmasters International Members group, which even had two International Directors actively participating.  For the most part, the debate was very civil and those who have issues with the proposed changes came away with a lot more respect for the two IDs who took the time to answer their issues and problems.

Susan Ellsworth, one of the loudest critics of the proposed changes, recently put in her website a letter from Jenny Pagano, a Past International Director, expressing her concerns and stated her opposition to many of the changes:  http://www.pequodsystems.com/toastmasters/pagano.pdf.

I already notified a few District 30 officers I’ve contacted on a regular basis and ask them to forward this link to others.  Unfortunately this is going to fall on deaf ears on the Top 3 and the Immediate Past District Governor as the letter mentioned her take on the nomination process for 3rd Vice President and may give an unfavorable view of Dietmar Wagenknecht as someone who benefited from what was considered a poorly handled process.  The Top 3 and the IPDG have had a tendency to avoid controversial and challenging issues and would rather not hear such concerns or anything that they consider unfavorable.  Too bad for them they cannot prevent District 30 members from accessing such information online.  I’d go as far as to say that Dietmar will be far more receptive to Jenny’s concerns than the current District 30 leadership as he’s been willing to listen and address many controversial and challenging issues over the years.

I have my own concerns regarding the proposed changes, which I may present later on before the International Convention.  I may not agree with everything that Jenny wrote but I think everyone in the leadership part of Toastmasters needs to know what is going on with Toastmasters International and hear all views and from all sides.

Last week at the last Arlington Heights club meeting, I was elected to serve as the club’s Vice President of Public Relations for the 2009-2010 year.  I never served in that position before, in fact the only other club officer position I never served is Treasurer, which will likely continue as many newer members who want to become officers want to start in that role.

The reason I want to take on the PR position is that I have some ideas we should try to implement to get more guests to our meetings.  The position is usually very neglected not only with the Arlington Heights club but in many other clubs here in District 30, so I believe I can do something to change that.  Some of the ideas I want to try in my club include:

• Put together press releases whenever we have an event or a member accomplishment, something we never did during my 10 years as a member.  This may be difficult as we only have the Daily Herald to submit releases to.  We used to have the Pioneer Press papers such as the Arlington Heights Post and the Rolling Meadows Review, but they ceased printing the beginning of this year and is just a news website.
• Enhance the club website, both to increase the number of guests to our meetings and as the primary resource for the members.  To use it as a publicity tool, I’d like to start putting in pictures of our meetings and our members (with their permission as there are those who are sensitive to privacy), plus add a page detailing what goes on in a meeting.  For members, I’d like to upload templates of worksheets we use, plus links to other Toastmasters-related resources.
• Find local websites to put a link to our club website.  Usually the website is accessed through toastmasters.org, however what if there are those who either never heard of Toastmasters or never thought of finding it through Internet?  Perhaps putting our club link at appropriate local websites can get more people who may not initially thought of us to take a look and realize that Toastmasters can benefit them.
• Putting together regular printed advertising – we only have done this periodically, usually when we have an open house.  I plan to put together different flyers that members can use to post in places with bulletin boards, such as Panera Bread or Jimmy John’s.  Plus I’m thinking about reviving the club newsletter, which we haven’t had in the last 5 years.  Previously the newsletter was for the members especially before we used e-mail and the club website around the time I joined.  Instead I’m thinking we should use it as a publicity tool and design the articles around the benefits of Toastmasters as well as profiling our members as testimonials.
• Look at regularly advertising in the municipal TV channels in both Arlington Heights and Rolling Meadows as well as in their respective city/village halls.  We did try that for an open house two years ago, in fact it brought a guest to the event who not only became a member but will be our next Club President!
• Work with neighboring clubs on doing joint and group promotion of Toastmasters.  One club can’t do this alone, getting a team of PR officers can do plenty.  I plan to contact incoming VP PRs of the neighboring clubs to see if we can collaborate on publicity.  With a new Northwest Division Governor coming in who is not a member of a division club, it would allow me to revive my involvement with the Northwest Division after a 2-year absence.

I’m looking forward to taking on this role in July and work with not just the Arlington Heights club members, but members of other Northwest Division clubs to boost our presence in northwest Cook County.

Most of us joined Toastmasters to work on our weaknesses, whether it is to simply speak in front of people, giving a speech without fainting, responding to an impromptu question or giving an constructive evaluation.  For many who never served in a leadership position for any company or organization or find it intimidating, Toastmasters is a great way to build leadership skills and allow members to stretch their comfort zone.

But how about those who have “been there, done that”, whether it is taking on every meeting role, serving as a club officer (especially President) or a district office, or dealing with numerous situations with other members?  If it’s OK to try and try better again, how long should we be doing this until we either get it absolutely correct or give up?

As I mentioned in some of the previous entries, there are some things in Toastmasters that I’ve been involved in the past that I don’t want to do again, such as holding a District 30 office or a committee role or serving as a Club President.  As mentioned in the most recent entry, I’ve reacquainted myself with Marcus Buckingham and since that time I purchased his most recent book “Go Put Your Strengths to Work”.  Throughout the book, Marcus stressed that what we should be focusing is what we enjoy doing and if there is something that has drained or aggravate us, regardless of whether we are good at it, we should stop or at least try to avoid that.

This does contradict what we in Toastmasters are preaching to our guests and our newer members, however as a 10-year member who seemed to has seen everything and dealt with an enormous amount of situations, I tend to evaluate what in Toastmasters I enjoy doing and what has aggravated me.  One thing that has annoyed me recently in my primary club is that many of the other members seem to typecast me as someone who is still deeply involved in Toastmasters.  I skipped both April meetings as I had some conflicts and when I returned for the first May meeting, there were a few members that asked me if I left town last month, as if I don’t have anything else going on besides Toastmasters!

The book reinforced my current Toastmasters direction that I want to get involved in my own terms and focus on the work that gives me fun and enjoyment.  It doesn’t mean I’ll stop taking on new challenges, for instance I told my primary club that I want to serve as next year’s VP of Public Relations as I never held that position and have some ideas we could try, while I’m not interested in serving as Club Secretary again as I feel obligated to attend nearly every meeting and reinforce what other members think of me.  I will still encourage other Toastmasters to try something that they never done which they may find intimidating, in the hopes they will grow and find something that they can build on as a Toastmasters member and beyond.  If they went through that experience several times and not enjoy it, I’ll understand if they don’t want to go through it again.

Not long after the District 30 Spring Conference, it appears work is now under way for the Fall Conference coming up on November 13th and 14th.  After last Thursday’s North Suburban meeting, one member who was on the Spring Conference committee mentioned that he will be the Publicity Chair for the Fall Conference.  He also mentioned that the Conference Chair wants to pursue the “best contest chair in District 30″, namely yours truly as the Chair mentioned to me at the end of the Spring Conference about wanting to see better-run contests and thought it would be great if I get involved with that next Fall.  She remembered attending a presentation about contests I gave at the 2006 District 30 Summer TLI and seemed to be impressed by that.  I mentioned to her that my involvement in District 30 activities is in the past and my fellow club member also indicated that to her when my name was brought up to his attention.  What the club member, who’s only been in Toastmasters for a year, does not know was that there was an incident at the 2006 Fall Conference that clinched my decision to completely slam the door on my involvement in District 30.

The Evaluation Contest at the Friday portion of 2006 Fall Conference went very well, with no problems and everyone, including myself, was happy with everything that went on.  The Humorous Speech Contest at the Saturday night portion of the conference was another story.  The Conference Chair, who is still a very close friend of mine and the reason why I was part of the conference committee, planned to have the dinner and Communication & Leadership awards presentation in one room , which is larger but is adjacent to another room that was having a wedding reception, and the contest in a different room, which while it is smaller would be far away from any noise from the reception.  The District 30 Governor noticed that more and more people were showing up during the dinner for the sole purpose of watching the contest and looked into keeping the larger room for the contest.  While we had a band playing music and a past District 30 Governor singing he stopped by the wedding reception to check if he could hear the music and singing from our room.  Convinced that he didn’t hear a thing, he unilaterally decided to keep the contest in the larger room, supposedly without any input from anyone else, not the Conference Chair, not myself as the Contest Chair.

I was very mad at the decision for several reasons, one was that we were already setting the contest up in the original room, another was that there were already a couple of contestants that were practicing their contest speeches at the stage we were originally be using.  Furthermore, it appears that no one else had a say on this, especially those from within the conference committee – had the Conference Chair been involved in the decision making and told this to me instead of the District Governor, I probably would have been more receptive to this move.  Instead, I went back to the original contest room steaming mad and even threw a chair at a closet door in that room!  After telling the people there of the news, both the contest personnel and the contestants that were there, they too were puzzled by the sudden decision.

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I did attend the Friday night and Saturday night portions of the District 30 Spring Conference held this past weekend.  During the day on Saturday, I was at Broken Arrow in Lockport playing a round in my singles golf group, with no plans of finding out who won the D30 elections that morning until I returned to the conference that night.  Well we had a lightning delay, so I ended up calling someone at the conference with the news.  The two candidates I did not want to see win did and I got upset about it as the incoming LGM definitely was not well known and the incoming LGET who I couldn’t stand had crediblilty issues among others who I talked to over the last year.  That person seemed to have gone around all Friday night as if he’s trying to pander them for their votes, as if he was doing anything and saying anything to get elected.  So after I hung up, I threw my cellphone against a brick wall.  It looked smashed but got it back together and it still works!  While many in my outing decided to pack it in as they thought the weather could get worse, I along with most of my foursome continued the round, which I felt was necessary to get my mind off of the elections.  And it seemed to help my game as I scored better since the delay.

My initial plans at the conference was seeing both the Table Topics and International Speech contests and being at the DTM ceremony where we had five people who received their ribbons.  I really wanted to be there for two of the five, Ron Lorsch and Keri Silk, both who I’ve known very well over the years.  I did not have any intention to do much at the conference, say hi to some old friends and meet some newer folks and stay in the sidelines as my days of having any role in a conference are long over.  Sherry Jost, one of my Area Governors who was an unsuccessful candidate for Division Governor, along with current District 30 Governor Pat Martin, mentioned about having me be part of the District 30 Wall of Fame as the 2005 D30 Toastmaster of the Year.  I replied “that was 4 years ago, I’m irrelevant in District 30 these days and I’d like to keep it that way!”

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As mentioned in the previous post, the contested races in both District 30 and in International seemed to interest me.  It is great to see competition as the voters do get to decide who would be serving us, so it is up to the candidates to get their messages across and listen to those who would be voting.  Those who get elected are expected to serve the needs of the members in International and in District 30, hopefully putting their personal ambitions aside for the good of everyone else.

If you ask me, however, if I want to run in a contested race, the answer would be a big, fat, solid NO!  It was not because I don’t really want to match my candidacy against others, or afraid to lose if I ran.  It had to do with my experience dealing with a contested race in my home club 8 years ago which at times I remained scarred by it to this day.

During my first term as Club President, there were two ladies that wanted to run to succeed me in that office.  The first person to display her interest, and display it very publicly, was someone who had not held an officer position.  For whatever reason, she seemed to want to take the top club post rather than starting off at a lower position and work her way up.  The second person was the club’s Sergeant-At-Arms.  I considered both candidates “less than desirable”, the former having no experience and no interest dealing with club matters or getting involved outside the club, the latter being at times absent-minded.  Neither of them was willing to move to a lower position to avoid a contested race.

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A few weeks ago, I spoke on the phone for a half an hour with one of the Region V International Directors regarding the recent TI report that they are considering eliminating the Regional Conferences after this year.  This issue raised my attention as it was a hot topic in both the ToastmasterPrime Google group and Toastmasters International Members LinkedIn group, and I couldn’t find an opinion supporting this move.  At the end of the conversation, I mentioned to the ID that I shouldn’t be discussing such issues at all as I’ve stayed away from the District 30 and International scene for the last couple of years, but for whatever reason issues such as the Regional Conferences kept me interested.

While many of my entries in this blog reflect someone who is disillusioned with the organization, whether in the club, District or International level, I admit even within the last couple of years I:

• check the TI website nearly every day to find out who in D30 achieved an award, what club was chartered recently, what clubs paid or haven’t paid their dues, etc.
• browse the various Toastmaster-related blogs and discussion groups often
• talked and e-mailed to several TM friends about a variety of Toastmaster issues

With one of the District 30 Area Governors this year from one of my clubs, I talked to her often about what’s going on with her role and with D30.  Now she’s running for Division Governor, one of nine candidates for six spots.  So I ended up talking to her about how her campaign is going and how she’s stacked up against the others in the race.

In addition, District 30 has contested races for Lt. Governor of Education and Training (which I mentioned previously) as well as Lt. Governor of Marketing, both which have a candidate I have a strong preference (and a candidate which I have an intense dislike).  In the International level, Dietmar Wagenknecht, past District 30 Governor and International Director, is running for 3rd Vice President.  Right after I found out he was nominated, I asked a couple of past D30 Governors if there was someone in D30 that ran for such a position (no one had ever made a serious run, though there was Russell Puzey, 1953-54 TI President who lived in the Chicagoland area but was more involved prior to District 30’s creation in 1950).   While Dietmar has an opponent in Ralph Wallace from New Mexico, there was talk in the ToastmastersPrime group of drafting a 3rd candidate from the floor due to their concerns about the proposed TI changes including eliminating the Regional Conferences.

Why am I still paying attention to such issues, instead of focusing more on my non-Toastmaster (or post-Toastmaster) activities?  Shouldn’t I be saying “I don’t give a s–t about what’s going on in District 30 or in Toastmasters International”?

I guess the primary reason for this is that I still truly care about Toastmasters and am concern about the direction the leadership is taking, be in District 30 or International.  I still think about ideas that we can develop to make District 30 much better than it is now.  I’m concerned about the members in my clubs, the friends I made through Toastmasters throughout the years and even those I just met at recent events as many represent the future of this organization.

I get that impression from other TM-bloggers such as Bill Bishop and Sara Marks, as well as discussion group participants like Rich Hopkins.  We write about TM because we care.  If we didn’t care, we wouldn’t be spending the time complaining and ranting about any TM issue that is bothering us at this time.  Those in power want to shut us up, I get that impression from those at the top in District 30 the last few years.  Instead of putting up with those who think what we do or believe don’t match their view of the world, we are using the Internet and other “grass roots” methods to advocate what we believe in, for the good of the organization and not in our own interests.

One of the reasons I haven’t put in more entries in my blog is that I’ve been reading and participating in the Toastmasters International Members group in LinkedIn.  There are also Toastmaster discussion groups if you have an account on Facebook, which I’m not a member, and on Plaxo, which I’m a member but don’t use it as much as LinkedIn.  I also check the ToastmastersPrime Google group, which I also haven’t joined, as it has plenty of thought-provoking discussions, in particular with the new changes TI is planning regarding overhauling the regional structure of the organization as mentioned here.

What’s great about these groups is that as long as there is plenty of participation, we get to hear not only from Toastmasters of different levels but also those from different parts of the world.  We get different perspectives from what we’re used to from our own clubs and districts.  It is great for the new member seeking out more information about speech objectives and examples as well as the veteran member who is willing to share what they’ve learned through the years.  If their club or district officers can’t or won’t be of any help, they can no longer be helpless as there’s someone out in cyberspace that can help.

Some of the recent discussions I’ve participated in the LinkedIn group include whether a club needs a printed agenda, contest judging and results, plus how long it took to achieve the educational awards.  I even opened a discussion about “speech-a-thons” as there’s one that is held in one of my Divisions today that I have a concern with.

BTW, click here if you want to look at my LinkedIn profile or perhaps connect with me.  Look forward to hearing from you.

I finally decided to change the appearance of this blog, so goodbye to Mandigo and hello to Vistalicious.  The appearance looks simpler and should make the entries more readable.  I’ll continue to tweak the blog appearance a bit from time to time, let me know if you have any suggestions.  Hope you enjoy the new look!