Lessons Learned

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 [...]

I did attend the Friday night and Saturday night portions of the District 30 Spring Conference held this past weekend.  During the day on Saturday, I was at Broken Arrow in Lockport playing a round in my singles golf group, with no plans of finding out who won the D30 elections that morning until I [...]

For a while, I’ve resigned to the likely possibility that District 30′s Lt. Governor of Marketing Blagojevich (not his last name, but no different from the ousted Illinois Governor in many ways – appearance, style and even ethics) will be the District 30 Governor in two years.  I was looking at some options in the [...]

The recent arrest of Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich uncovered plenty of his leadership flaws, some of which reminded me of the problems I have seen in District 30.  Not respecting other people’s views unless it matched their view of the world.  Picking pet projects while ignoring higher priority issues.  Showboating instead of addressing problems and [...]

One thing that did not surprise me today when I attended the District 30 Winter Toastmasters Leadership Institute is that the team put together by the TLI Dean includes a couple who are current Division Governors, each holding two major positions.  One Division Governor was the Assistant Dean and Publicity Chair, the other was the [...]

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 [...]

No, I’m not returning to a role in District 30.  I was recently elected to the board of the Chicago chapter of the American Singles Golf Association, which I mentioned in one of my earlier blog entries. During September I was asked by a few people, including the current Chapter President, about taking on an [...]

Recently talked to someone who served as a Division Governor last year, he mentioned that one problem District 30 could be facing now is the economy, especially as job and corporate cuts have or will be affecting companies here in the Chicagoland area.  That would mean that for corporations that have Toastmaster clubs, layoffs could [...]

One of the biggest gripes some District 30 officers have had with the membership of the district is that many members complain about going far for a Toastmasters event. It can be a suburban member complaining about having to go to a TLI in downtown Chicago, a downtown member having to go to the suburbs [...]