Lessons Learned

Toastmasters International recently put up a new webpage titled “Environmentally Friendly Meetings”, in which I mentioned a way the Arlington Heights club saves paper.  My comments were from the LinkedIn’s Official Toastmasters International Members group discussion that a staff member asked us “What steps has your Toastmasters club taken to become more environmentally friendly?” My [...]

My 11th year in Toastmasters should be an interesting and challenging one, at least when it comes to my skills.  Here are some plans I have for this year:

Submit a proposal for the upcoming District 30 Spring Conference to present a session on Social Media, in particular how LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter can benefit Toastmaster [...]

When Bruce Jin gave his speech about his name at the XL Toastmasters Club around the time the club chartered in 2001, little did anybody know that he was going to give the same speech last month at the 2009 District 30 Humorous Speech Contest and come in second place!  I still remember when Mei [...]

The Arlington Heights Toastmasters Club will have an Open House this Wednesday at the Arlington Heights Historical Museum, starting at 7pm Central time.  While we have been doing very well this Fall with 15 new members since July 1 and currently at 30 paid members, it doesn’t hurt to bring in more guests and add [...]

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 [...]

Chicago has been hit with really bad weather this winter, with this past week having some snow and really freezing temperatures, going down to -10 Farenheit later that week.  For the Arlington Heights club meeting that Wednesday evening, there was a discussion among the officers about whether to go forth with the meeting or cancel [...]

I’ve been reading some of the posts in the ToastmastersPrime discussion board in Google Groups in recent months after I found out someone used one of my posts as part of a discussion.  One of the recent discussions was in regards to club officer training in which someone was given a list of reasons to [...]

I’ve been a regular reader of Sara Marks’ Ah, Um, Er… blog, which was the 1st Toastmasters-related blog I ever encountered.  While she has not written entries as frequently as before, I still check her blog whenever I check other Toastmaster-related blogs most days in case she has something new.  I noticed she put an [...]

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 [...]

It’s been more than two weeks since I last put together a blog entry.  There have been some topics that I have thought about for a while to write but haven’t had the chance to do that yet.
Anyway, I’m still in TM and still with the Arlington Heights and North Suburban clubs.  With the new [...]