Even though I’ve been using this blog to express my own views about Toastmasters, some of which may be controversial, I’ve been reluctant to go in detail various incidents that could get my blood boiling, as the blog is public material that could be used as a weapon against the entire Toastmasters organization, which has never been my intention. The recent entries from Bill Bishop and Sara Marks have, for whatever reason, compelled me to write about one instance by a current District 30 officer whose maneuvering got me upset to the point where, more than anything I’ve written about here, it was the primary reason why I considered leaving Toastmasters, or at least leave District 30 and transfer my Toastmasters membership to a neighboring district, since D30 covers a small land area.

During my final months as Northwest 4 Area Governor in 2007, I’ve focused less on my role as Area Governor and more on the Arlington Heights club as I was also their Club President and have been struggling to keep that club afloat. Early in that term, two key members left, one of which called on the club to fold or merge as he was unwilling to carry a challenge of improving the club. I’ve been carrying plenty of misgivings about serving as AG that year primarily due to that. So when May 2007 came around, my club was putting together an Open House to boost the sagging membership and I’ve all but completely focused my attention to that as I’ve carried the burden of keeping the club alive and prove others wrong that the Arlington Heights club is still viable.

Another reason I’ve had misgivings about serving as AG was the Northwest Division Governor, as there were times I wonder if that person respected my involvement. While I’ve been involved in TM longer than him, he at times yelled at me for saying or doing things that he did not want to hear or do not seem to match his view of the world. When I told him I regretted serving as Area Governor midway through the term due to problems with my club, he replied “why didn’t you come to me about this?” I replied “because you complained about me being so negative”. The guy thinks he could make a difference with everyone, but he’s not doing himself any favor by putting down or criticizing just because he didn’t find it favorable for him – when I was Division Governor myself I would rather work around someone else’s faults than confront them as I treated them like adults and look to them as partners rather than subordinates like how this person treated me.

I knew this guy would manipulate his numbers for Distinguished Division to get what he wants. When he was an Area Governor the previous year, his Area earned Select Distinguished easily as all his clubs did very well in the Distinguished Club Program. But he wanted more – he wanted President’s Distinguished Area and Area Governor of the Year. Unfortunately, there were no viable new club opportunities in the geographical area he had, which consists of Schaumburg and Hoffman Estates. However the top 3 in District 30, in particular the Lt. Governor of Education and Training, put forth an directive that if an Area Governor gets involved in building a club regardless of its location, as long as it is within District 30 boundaries, the club will go to the Area Governor’s Division and Area. The main intention was to allow someone belongs to a club at his or her work, who is also an AG for that club, to be able to earn President’s Distinguished Area by chartering a club near the person’s home location if that person lived elsewhere, then the following year it would be aligned geographically. In the LGET’s view as he came from a downtown Chicago club, it would allow an AG who lives in the suburbs but works downtown and serves that area to get a club chartered at his or her hometown. Well the NW Division Governor did not fit that mold as he lived not far from his Area, but to get what he wanted, he ended up seizing a club opportunity elsewhere that seemed out of the way for him by jumping on the opportunity to have a club chartered at the Motorola location in Libertyville, which is not even in the Northwest Division. Since the District 30 top 3 looked at only what AG was involved in this club, they gave that club to this guy’s Area, giving him President’s Distinguished Area and Northwest President’s Distinguished Division. In fact, this club remains in the NW Division to this day, whereas everyone who is NOT a District 30 officer knows that Libertyville belongs to the North Division – I told some people recently at a North Division contest about this and they seemed puzzled at this concept, especially since a recently chartered club very close to LibertyMoto is in the North Division. Perhaps I should have known before what type of person I was going to deal with when this person was passed over for Area Governor of the Year and mentioned to me his displeasure of being passed over right after the award was announced.

Well back to the main story, rather than get active in getting Northwest 4 Area Distinguished, I outlined to all the officers in the clubs in mid-May what is needed to get Distinguished Area, which is to reach the minimum Competent Communicator awards, and told them it’s up to them to achieve this and I would be assisting them if they need my help. That did not suit well for the Division Governor and at the beginning of June demanded that I get actively involved in getting the Area Distinguished, especially as that was needed for him to get President’s Distinguished Division as all the other Northwest Areas either have achieved it or have no chance of achieving. He noticed that I was close to getting a 3rd Competent Communicator award and pressed me to give the last two speeches for the award by the 30th. I told him I will not be able to put together two speeches in a short time. He replied that he will set up special speaking opportunities in other clubs to get that completed (does it remind you of this entry?) and even offered a meal for this. I replied very angrily that this in my opinion constitutes BRIBERY and I wanted no part of it!

What happened afterwards did not surprise me. He first recruited someone in his primary club, which is not located in Northwest 4, to help out a Northwest 4 club in June as it has been decimated by membership issues. This person gave one more speech to complete his CC and put it to that club, which I did not have a major issue with that as he was going to help the club the following year (he is now their Club President). The CC that got Northwest 4 Area Distinguished was the one that got me very upset. The Division Governor got the president of his primary club to not submit her CC award to their club but talked her into submitting it to a different club as their primary club had plenty of Competent Communicators achieved that year and another club can used it for their goals. So on June 29th, the Division Governor asked the Club President of one of the Northwest 4 Area clubs to process both the membership application AND the Competent Communicator application. The Club President told me this after I found out about this award in mid-July and was suspicious about how someone I knew was not in that club got an award for that club. The Division Governor later claimed that his Club President did want to seek a 2nd club membership, but that turned out to be false as she never was active in that club or any other club before or after the award was submitted.

I brought this up with the outgoing District Governor, he did check with World Headquarters and there was nothing that can be done to reverse what the Division Governor had done. So I got Distinguished Area which I knew we did not deserve at all (that is why I did NOT mention this in my About page) as most of the clubs I had were struggling throughout the year, while the Division Governor got what he wanted in getting President’s Distinguished Division, and even got Division Governor of the Year later on, both of which he seemed to strive for at all costs!

Since the Division Governor was serving a second term in that position the following year, I decided to disassociate myself with a corrupt Division Governor by transferring my membership in the XL club to a North Division club, which is why I’m now a member of the North Suburban club. I stayed with the Arlington Heights club as I wanted to be there for the new officers and leaving them would only let them down.

However on February 2008, the Division Governor was named the sole nominee to run for District 30 Lt. Governor of Marketing for the following year. That is when I started to consider leaving District 30 and seek up membership in District 54, where there is an Advanced club that meets only on one Saturday a month and I could make an easy trip there on most meeting days. My reasoning was that since this person has already manipulated numbers to get President’s Distinguished Area and Division, he could do the same to get his numbers for LGM, which includes membership payments and clubs paid. Since I belong to two clubs, that constitutes 4 membership payments – in past years District 30 failed to reach the membership payment goal, in some cases by such a small number! So leaving District 30 would make it harder for the LGM to manipulate his numbers to reach his goals and I was unwilling to see that person succeed due to his past reputation.

Yes there were other factors mentioned in a previous entry that also played a part in considering my departure from District 30 or Toastmasters in general. I decided to stay in District 30 in spite of that person getting elected LGM, in fact I’m still not in speaking terms with that person even though I started to attend District 30 events again this year. The incidents mentioned above changed my view of the Distinguished Club/Area/Division/District program probably more than anything else and made me think they are all overrated, especially if it is in the hands of people like this past Division Governor/current LGM who wanted to seek the glory at any cost. Even if this person changed his ways (and for the sake of District 30 I hope he does or will), I can never ignore what he did previously and will still be a factor in terms of my membership and future achievements if he is elevated to Lt. Governor of Education and Training and, god forbid, District 30 Governor.