Lessons Learned

No, I’m not returning to a role in District 30.  I was recently elected to the board of the Chicago chapter of the American Singles Golf Association, which I mentioned in one of my earlier blog entries.

During September I was asked by a few people, including the current Chapter President, about taking on an officer role for the 2009 year, despite only joining the organization earlier this year.  I replied no to the questions, mentioning that I was deeply involved in an organization (Toastmasters) for many years and the politics in the local district (District 30) was so bad that it made me very wary of getting involved in another volunteer organization.  I was willing to take on a minor role, such as the webmaster for the chapter, as there is very little politics involved and there are not many people I know in the organization that works in a technical field.

Last month, the Chapter President contacted me again mentioning that the current webmaster wants to continue with his role and asked if I could either handle e-mail communication, which is an elected position as Communications Chair, or serve as the chapter newsletter editor which is an appointed position.  Read the rest of this entry »

When I scaled back my involvement in Toastmasters in the Summer of 2007, I did not see myself attending any more International Conventions after attending and enjoying the previous two.  I was planning on just being a club member and officer, occasionally attending some TM events outside of the club.  Instead of spending $600 to attend the convention, plus more for transportation and lodging, I’d rather spend my money and time on other pursuits.

Well next year the convention will be held at Foxwoods in Connecticut, just across the Long Island Sound from where I grew up in Suffolk County on Long Island.  And I just found out that my 20th high school reunion will take place on August 15th - the same day as the final day of the International Convention!  Assuming the reunion will take place in the evening, I could actually drive from my mom’s place on the Island, take the ferry across the Sound to Foxwoods early in the morning, watch the finals of the International Speech Contest, then return across the Sound with enough time to make it to the reunion.

So if the District 30 speech winner next year wins the Region V contest in June (which I will not be attending), or someone I know from one of the other Districts wins, perhaps that will tempt me to purchase a ticket for the contest and make the extra trip across Long Island Sound.  We’ll see….

There was a question recently in LinkedIn for those who are in the Toastmasters International Members group, the official LinkedIn group of Toastmasters International, from a Toastmasters member from India regarding a Division Lt. Governor competing in an Evaluation contest:

I wanted to know from you the rules.. can a Lt. Governor for Division participate in the Evaluation Contest? Currently, we have a suituation where the Lt. Governor for Division is the Division level Evaluation contest winner. I am not too sure if this is okay?

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After a year and a half absence from District 30 conferences, I did attend their Fall Conference this weekend.  Unlike previous times when I attended the entire conference, I decided this time to only take part of select festivities so I can try to be more selective as to who I want to be there for.

I initially was not planning to attend, but during the early part of this month it looked like I was trying to find a reason to go.  If you checked one of my earlier blog entries, one way to get me to attend a District 30 conference is if someone who is a close friend of mine was competing.  On a whim, I called Pam Nagel, one of my closest Southwest Division friends from my days as their Division Governor, to find out who won from their Division Contest.  Right after she said she won the Evaluation Contest, I told her “you’re giving me a reason to attend the conference”.

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Recently talked to someone who served as a Division Governor last year, he mentioned that one problem District 30 could be facing now is the economy, especially as job and corporate cuts have or will be affecting companies here in the Chicagoland area.  That would mean that for corporations that have Toastmaster clubs, layoffs could adversely affect those clubs to the point where a few of them could actually close its doors as those who stay in their jobs may have a difficult time rebuilding the clubs and replacing those who were let go.

Among the corporations that have Toastmaster clubs here in District 30, WaMu Too, the club for Washington Mutual’s Vernon Hills office, has recently folded as the bank has suffered major losses and was just recently took over by JP Morgan Chase.  Sears has been bleeding the last year like many other retailers, resulting in a club that traditionally had 25-30 members now cut down in half.  Motorola, with 3 Toastmaster clubs in District 30, could be affected by any reorganization that the company has been contemplating this year.  There could be plenty of clubs in downtown Chicago that could either lose plenty of members or shut down completely as a result of job losses or changes as most of their members are there due to work.

While a down economy can result in clubs folding, particularly corporate clubs that go through layoffs, Read the rest of this entry »

About this time of the year with Area and Division contests taking place comes publicity for next month’s Fall Conference.  I’m not sure how much work has been done to promote the conference as I’ve only attended one Area Contest, but I’m sure some clubs are announcing this as often as possible.  The Club President of North Suburban has been promoting this at every meeting since July and has brought up having the club register for the conference under the club fee of $110, which allows every member to attend any part of the conference at no additional charge, with the exception of Saturday lunch and dinner.  District 30 has been using the club registration option since the 2005 Spring Conference and somehow I played a role in getting this to happen.

I was the District 30 Winter Toastmasters Leadership Institute Dean for the 2004-2005 year, which we had Read the rest of this entry »

I went to the North 42 Area Contest tonight, which includes the North Suburban club, serving as Chief Judge.  Interestingly enough the Northwest 4 Area Contest, which includes the Arlington Heights club, was also held tonight, but I went to North 42 as the Area Governor also belongs to North Suburban and I wanted to help her out with anything she’s involved with that job.

Prior to the contest starting, the Area Governor/Contest Chair told me that she planned to announce only the winner and not the 2nd place for the Humorous Speech Contest as there were only 3 contestants and felt announcing the 2nd place would reveal the 3rd (last) place contestant and would make that person look bad.  I told her I disagree with that as I think it is more important for the audience to find out who the 2nd place contestant is in case the winner was unable to compete in the Division Contest.

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It was seven years ago today that I got my first involvement in building a Toastmasters club.  On September 13, 2001, I held my first (and only) Area Council meeting as Northwest 1 Area Governor.  It was at the IHOP on Barrington and Higgins in Hoffman Estates.  Due to 9/11, it was very uncertain how many officers from the Area clubs would attend, but we had a good turnout with 5 other officers representing 4 of the 6 Area clubs in attendance, including District Governor Eric Matto, who represented one of the clubs.

One of the officers present at the meeting was Mei Li, the Fox Valley Club President.  Later in the meeting, Mei mentioned that she would like to get a club started at Palatine High School, which hosted a Chinese school on Sundays.  Her idea was that there are parents who generally have nothing to do at the school while their kids are taking classes on learning the Chinese language and culture, so why not have Toastmasters meetings there so they could not only learn public speaking skills but also help them with speaking better English.  Mei wanted me to get involved, plus would like some help from the other Area clubs.

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One of the biggest gripes some District 30 officers have had with the membership of the district is that many members complain about going far for a Toastmasters event. It can be a suburban member complaining about having to go to a TLI in downtown Chicago, a downtown member having to go to the suburbs to attend a district committee meeting, a member from the northern suburbs having to attend a conference in the south suburbs and vice versa. There are always requests from members to have an event held closer to where they live or work.

They do have a point - comparing to other districts, District 30 covers a very small geographical area. Most other districts cover a much larger area in which going from one end of a district to the other takes a day of driving. For districts outside North America, they span different countries and require flying to reach some places. I’ve heard that some Area Governors in larger districts have to make an overnight trip just to perform a club visit!

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I’ve been to so many Toastmaster contests over the years.  In many cases, I’ve witnessed a contestant going from one level to another, then another, until they either reached the ultimate goal, such as Ed Hearn when he won the 2006 World Champion of Public Speaking, or they come up short.  There was one contestant journey that I got a front-seat view at every level which had a very interesting start.

During my 1st term as Area Governor in 2001, I made a point to try to visit my Area clubs when they have their club contests.  Only 5 days before 9/11, I took a trip to the Fox Valley Toastmasters club in Lake-in-the-Hills.  The contest itself had its own set of stories to tell - they were bumped out of their regular meeting place and moved to a beach house across the lake, it rained heavily so we got to hear the storms from the inside, plus the target speaker for the Evaluation Contest failed to show up (it turns out she was sent to the hospital after a medical test at her work found that she had very high blood pressure) so the Chief Judge who is a past District 30 Governor stepped up to give a speech for the contest.

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