The District 30 Spring Conference will be taking place this Friday and Saturday at the Holiday Inn in Elk Grove Village.  In my 11 years in Toastmasters, this is the latest the Spring Conference is being held relative to the start of the calendar year, in part due to the loss of the Regional Conferences that traditionally were held in June.  I’ll be attending parts of the conference, so here are my plans as well as additional thoughts about the event:

  • I plan to attend only the Friday and Saturday evening events, so if you follow me through Facebook and Twitter you’ll hear from me regarding the conference during those evenings, maybe a few comments when I’m not there.
  • I already have a job to do on Friday evening portion, serve as a judge for the District Table Topics contest.  Hopefully they’ll have a question that can measure the best impromptu speaker during the contest.
  • My proposal to give an educational presentation on using Social Media for Toastmasters was turned down last month by the conference committee.  Not disappointed at all as their priority was to get newer members to present, not those washed up or “has-beens” like myself.  If you check the agenda, they did have some experienced members to present as well such as Johnny Campbell, guess they wanted those who seemed well-liked and not those like me who may be polarized figures.
  • So since I don’t need to be at the conference during the day on Saturday, I opt to golf at Seven Bridges in Woodridge with my singles golf group.  This may be my best opportunity to play what many considered among the best public courses in the Chicagoland area plus the weather is supposed to be great on Saturday – 70s and sunny!
  • While golfing, maybe I can check Twitter and Facebook to see if anyone posts the results of the District 30 elections (for attendees who read this before this weekend and use either network, please post).  Hope that Kentucky will not be the only place having a “Tea Party” victory this week!
  • I should be back at the conference site in time for the DTM ceremony, honoring 7 who achieved the goal since the last conference.  Hope to be part of the DTM “high five” ceremony that the conference committee is planning to follow from the previous one (which I did not take part in).
  • Among the 7 newest DTMs, 4 belong to PESO club (Philippine Engineers and Scientists Organization).  When I attended my first District 30 conference in 2000, among the first people I met include members from that club.  Don’t remember their names, but a few of them may be among the DTM honorees!
  • Based on the 3 Division Contests I attended, the District International Speech Contest should be a real good one.  Two of the contestants were past District 30 Humorous Speech Contest winners – 2003 winner Conor Cunneen and 2007 winner Rudy Segovia.  Both are now representing different clubs from which they won their District contests, in Rudy’s case it is also in a different Division as he’s now in the Northwest Division.  The North Division representative, Tom Keefe of VW Credit, also has a great speech and can hold his own against the other contestants.

Look forward to seeing some old friends and hope that everything turns out for the better!