Is this “change we can believe in”?
Hard to believe that there is only a month and a half till the Fall District 30 Conference to be held on November 5th and 6th at the William Tell Holiday Inn in Countryside. Looking at the conference website, it appears District 30 is addressing a few problems from the last conference, such as those mentioned in my own entry, showing I’m not alone in having major issues from that event.
First the Conference Chair is NOT a current District 30 officer, but a past Conference Chair in Stella Lorens. She ran the 2007 Fall Conference which many considered one of the best District 30 conferences ever (one of the few I did not attend at all during my time in Toastmasters). She also created the “Advisory Council for Events”, which during the last conference I wondered if it really had any substance, so for this one she may actually put their recommendations to use.
Second the conference schedule is altered dramatically from the previous one, actually starting early Friday afternoon with a session on being a professional speaker. They reduced the number of events, such as eliminating the Youth Leadership showcase and new club recognition, reducing from three sets of breakout sessions to two, and no late evening entertainment. The most radical change to the schedule was moving the District 30 Humorous Speech contest from Saturday evening to late in the afternoon – the catch is the contest results won’t be unveiled until the evening portion of the conference! Some will be very disappointed that it is not part of the evening entertainment, plus it would be hard for the contest personnel to hide the results for several hours. However having the Humorous Speech contest early may be the best way to get the contest started on time as I don’t remember seeing that happen in any Saturday evening contest.
My question now which I haven’t had the chance to ask anyone directly is if the conference committee consists mostly of those who are not currently District 30 officers. That was a major concern in the last conference and it appeared then that multitasking and risking burnout are “badges of honor” in District 30, proving that a few in D30 may win but the rest of D30 loses as a result! Already I noticed one Facebook friend who is a current Division Governor bragging that he is helping out the Fall Conference after serving as Education Chair in the last conference, while at the same time was a current Area Governor running for Division Governor. That should raise a red flag that even if that person is somehow capable of doing all of that and have some sort of a life outside of Toastmasters. The people serving in critical conference roles such as Education Chair and Facilities Chair should be those who will spend their conference time exclusively in their conference roles and not hobnobbing with their Area or Division constituents that come with being an Area or Division Governor, nor take part in the politics in District 30 that take place at the business meeting and discussed throughout the conference. I truly believe that if that was the case in the last conference, the outcome would have been much better than it turned out!
So will this conference be the “change we can believe in”? It’s very likely I won’t attend this at all after being totally soured from the previous one (plus I do have an excuse, at least for the Saturday evening portion as my singles golf group has their end of the season dinner dance at the same time). So I would have to hear from others who did attend, maybe find out instantly through Twitter or Facebook. But if there is anyone I can trust to fix what ails the District 30 conferences, it would be Stella Lorens. I wish her the best of luck and hope the event turns out all right.
October 1st, 2010 at 11:31 am
Will, every organization goes through some kind of “Change” and Stella is probably the best person to organize a conference.
The Advisory Board was created to maintain some continuity and keep up a good conference.
By the way I gave a speech last night at the Area 2 contest about eating CROW. I do eat a lot of it, however serving it is really special.
I hope you will attend the conference and I believe you will have a good time.
I will of course have to deliver the CROWS to you personally then.
Look forward to seeing you there.
Best Regards,
Tim Bolger
District 30 Sgt at arms.
October 11th, 2010 at 10:11 pm
“The Advisory Board was created to maintain some continuity and keep up a good conference.” Well as I mentioned before, it appeared they did not do sh*t otherwise we would not have had some of the same problems that plagued conferences several years ago.
I won’t be attending the conference. I hope it turns out a whole lot better than the Spring.
November 9th, 2010 at 9:09 pm
Hi Will!
Having attended the conference, I can’t say the timing was any better with things running long in the afternoon as well and almost as bad as if the contest was in the evening.
However, I can say these efforts were not so much the conference’s fault but other obstacles they had no control over. The big ones being the Fall Meeting running almost until noon and a surprise apperance by Les Brown during the afternoon which was delayed due to a late flight and Chicago area traffic.
Like you, I think ACE needs to be more infused somehow. And while I’d like to tell you this committee wasn’t people pulling double duty, a lot of them were or it was indeed the same usual names and faces.
The truth is too much is jammed into Saturday. For some, the day starts at 7am with the achievers breakfast and doesn’t end until the conference closes on Saturday night. I’ve wondered if maybe you couldn’t combine the banner parade and the achievers breakfast which might then allow them to start the business meeting earlier.