Lessons Learned

I would consider the last District 30 Spring Conference to be the most disappointing among those I’ve attended over the years, and that included the one which I was humiliated as Contest Chair.  Not because there wasn’t a “Tea Party” victory in which the rejected candidates did get elected to the Top 2 positions for [...]

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 [...]

I served as an Area Governor for the 2nd time in 2006-2007 Toastmasters year, five years since I took that role for the first time.  Unlike the first time, I knew far more people in District 30, knew more about how Toastmasters works and knew more about what was needed for events and people to [...]

I posted the following on my Facebook page the day of the District 30 Nominating Committee meeting which was March 27th: The District 30 Toastmasters Nominating Committee meeting is held today at the Bensenville Library. Be interested in finding out who is running and if there will be any contested races for the Top 3 [...]

The April 2nd edition of the Chicago Tribune had an article about the misfortunes of Ed Hearn, District 30′s very own World Champion of Public Speaking.  Among the comments posted in the online version of the article is one from someone who is/was a District 30 officer, which I would say the exact thing: That [...]

As mentioned in the last post, I was considering using Twitter to give my updates when I was at the Fall Conference.  Turns out that the conference committee was encouraging using the social media tool, asking us to use the hashtag #TMD30 when we send our “tweets” (click here for the most recent tweets).  During [...]

With the Fall Conference taking place next weekend, here are some things I’m thinking about as I look forward to some of the festivities: Looking forward to seeing many old friends and new faces as the last District 30 event I attended was the Spring Conference (I was out golfing during the Summer TLI). Definitely [...]

Well after at least a couple of years in oblivion, the District 30 website is coming back to life!  Information for the upcoming Fall Conference is up-to-date with the most recent version of the schedule and list of educational sessions.  The menus are now simplified and most items are active as opposed to being “under [...]

Tim Bolger, who has been our video cameraman for some of the District 30 events the last 3 years, has put some recent videos online at Motionbox.  Events include the last District 30 and District 54 Spring Conferences (the D54 one has a visit from then-International President Jana Barnhill), the last D30 Summer TLI and [...]

Last weekend, the Horseshoe Casino Classic took place at Lost Marsh Golf Club in Hammond, IN.  It is a tournament on the Duramed Futures Tour, the developmental tour for the LPGA, with the women golfers competing in the hopes of making it to the big tour. Two years ago, I took advantage of an interesting [...]