I knew the North Division Governor, Rhonda Craven, far more than the other Division Governors that year because she was in Toastmasters the longest and I’ve worked with her in countless events.  Prior to the 2006 Fall North Division Contest, Rhonda was in need for help in various roles, one of which was the Target Speaker for the Evaluation Contest.  Since it was customary to have the North and Northwest Divisions to swap Target Speakers for their Evaluation contests, she wanted someone in the Northwest Division for that role.  And since I belong in that division I offered to find someone for her, which she greatly appreciated.

Since none of my Area clubs were strong and had very little interest in trekking outside of their clubs for any Toastmasters activity, I was looking at other clubs in the Northwest Division to find a Target Speaker.  One club that was increasingly involved in District 30 was the AT&T Chicagoland club that met at their Hoffman Estates campus.  Their Table Topics contestant last Spring won the District 30 contest with two dozen from that club cheering him on, their Club President made the trip to Washington, DC  for the 2006 International Convention and wrote her take on it in the October 2006 District 30 newsletter.  I keep hearing how the club was increasing and mentoring their membership and filling their agendas to the point where it could take months to get a speaking slot.  So this was by far the best club to supply a Target Speaker for the North Evaluation Contest and I called and left a message with the Club President asking for help.

Well AT&T was the home club of the Northwest Division Governor and a couple of days later during a phone conversation, I added that I gave the club president a call asking for a Target Speaker for the North Evaluation Contest.  What I heard from him was shocking – he ripped me for several reasons.  First he claimed that AT&T is a bad club to find a Target Speaker because they do not conform to Toastmasters International customs and rules, which he did not specify.  Second he claimed that I went behind his back and I should have talked to him or the Area Governor for that club (who was also an AT&T club member), implying that they both had authority over their club president on club matters.  He also mentioned that he heard many complaints about the way I did things in Toastmasters, which he also did not specify.

This was very demoralizing for me – I went out of my way to help many in District 30 succeed, attended many events because I knew my assistance was needed.  Plenty of people appreciated my help and leadership, one kept writing in her e-mail messages to me “thank you for all you’ve done in District 30″.  I never did this for my personal or political gain, I did it because I love Toastmasters and want to see everyone in the organization succeed.  It may have been one reason I was named the 2005 District 30 Toastmaster of the Year.  And now there seemed to be a backlash against me.  Or so this guy said…

I talked to the Area Governor for AT&T about this encounter with the Northwest Division Governor.  He mentioned that the Division Governor had problems with the club president and others.  The Area Governor did not find anything wrong with my actions.  It appeared the Division Governor just did not want the club to get any further credit for their accomplishments, apparently more for his personal issues than anything else.  Anyway, the Club President did find someone from the club to be the Target Speaker for the North Division Evaluation Contest.  Don’t remember if anyone credited me or thanked me for getting this done, if so I didn’t want to hear a word about it.

Whether what I did was noble or intrusive is up to you.  But I did it as a favor for a close Toastmaster friend, not for my own benefit.  I had no intention of undermining anyone or making a person look bad.  The Northwest Division Governor wanted to paint me the opposite.  I started asking myself what was the point of getting involved in Toastmasters if I had to deal with such crap.  It was one major reason why after this term as Area Governor ended, my involvement in District 30 “ceased to exist”.  It was the primary reason why I got into a big mess with this person as mentioned in a December 2008 blog entry.

I came to the conclusion that he just did not respect what I did as it did not match his view of the world.  And I was not alone.  The following year, my successor as Area Governor endured the same wrath due to the same club!  My successor was invited by the AT&T club to attend their club contest and was encouraged to let her own club know.  So she sent a broadcast e-mail to her club members about this.  The Northwest Division Governor, serving his second consecutive term, was at that time a member of her club as he was their club coach previously.  And he went on the same diatribe just like he had at me regarding how bad the AT&T club was and that she was going behind his and the AT&T Area Governor’s back.

That Northwest Division Governor is now the District 30 Lt. Governor of Education & Training.  As you may know he had his nomination for District 30 Governor rejected by the Nominating Committee.  While I am not a voting member of the District 30 Council, I saw the packet for the council members to be considered at the District 30 Council Meeting on May 22nd.  There was a letter mentioning why his nomination was rejected, among the reasons include  “Demonstrated disrespectful behavior to others in meetings, in person, or via phone.”  Not sure if he did something similar to what was mentioned above with both myself and my successor, but it wouldn’t surprise me if that was part of such reason.

Even though it is apparent that the LGET is not liked at all by many in District 30, he still has some friends and allies who would nominate him off the floor for District 30 Governor.  I’m not convinced he has learned from his past.  Therefore he needs to be stopped before more damage takes place that could turn more people off from Toastmasters.

Many in Toastmasters are willing to take their time and energy to help the organization, to help the clubs they belong to, to help those in the organization that they hold dearly.  Why?  Because they love Toastmasters, what it stands for and the people in the organization.  And each has their own way of helping, another way to embrace the diversity of this organization.  It should be a win-win situation for everyone involved, from the member to the District Governor to the rest of Toastmasters International.

But if you berate and criticize, telling those who help that they’re doing things they are not supposed to do, not because they violated some rule but because you simply don’t like what they do or who they help, people would think twice before getting further involved in Toastmasters.  They may no longer get involved in the local district.  They may not want to be a club officer or stop attending their club meetings.  They could even leave Toastmasters outright.  As a result, you could lose a future District officer, a future conference chair, a future TLI Dean.  You could miss all the new people those members could bring to Toastmasters, the new club opportunities they could come up with.  You want a Distinguished District/Division/Area/Club?  Forget it, some you offend may even go as far as sabotaging those efforts if that is all you are concerned with because you may be so hung up in your legacy and glory.  It can be a huge lose-lose situation!

District 30 cannot afford this type of leadership.  It is important for those who are eligible to vote to either be at the District 30 Council Meeting on May 22nd at the Elk Grove Village Holiday Inn starting at 9:30am, or find someone in the club who can go.  When I was a District 30 officer, I mentioned when it came to the Spring District Council Meeting that “the future of District 30 is in your hands!”  None more so than this one.

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 (I hope, even for DG).

The reason for the last statement was that last year (see report) there were contested races for both Lt. Governor positions as well as nine candidates for the six Division Governor positions.  This time I was expecting all the top 3 positions to be contested as the current Lt. Governor of Education and Training continued to be very unpopular with many in the district, in fact he was the topic of some of my blog posts such as this and this.

Well this year’s Nominating Committee report did surprise me – not only I was wrong that they did not slate any contested races, but there were no candidates slated for either District Governor or Lt. Governor of Education and Training!  So supposedly the current LGET was the only candidate who filed for the District Governor nomination and the current Lt. Governor of Marketing was the only candidate who filed for the LGET nomination.  And both were REJECTED by the Nominating Committee, a group I did not think had the spine and courage to take some serious action like this!  In fact, I’m not a fan of the committee chair at all as I believe she has a tendency to sweep controversy under the rug as her way to keep District 30 “one big happy family”, rather than confront and address them.

For months I’ve heard some stuff from those who attend the District 30 Executive Committee meetings about the rift between the District Governor and the two Lt. Governors.  I’ve also heard some grumblings about the way the Lt. Governors, especially the LGET, handle their business.  Some examples include:

• Putting down others, including past District 30 Governors and International Directors, for not agreeing with them or doing something that doesn’t match their view of the world, even commenting them at DEC meetings.
• Reports at their DEC meetings include false or exaggerated information.
• Not available to sign any paperwork required for submission to Toastmasters International, claiming that “they are busy” – in spite of being part of several Toastmaster clubs, some of which they are mentoring or coaching.

One current Area Governor I talked to a few times this year dreaded attending DEC meetings, and it took only the first one to make that impression!  No wonder only 4 Area Governors are willing to step up and run for Division Governor this year, as opposed to 9 last year.

So what is the next step with no nominated candidates for DG or LGET?  Well anyone eligible for District Governor or Lt. Governor of Education and Training can run from the floor at the Spring Conference business meeting the morning of May 22nd.  And both rejected candidates are expected to run from floor, the current LGET is supposedly taking his campaign to “the masses” by attending as many Area Contests as possible (it is rare for Top 3 district officers to attend Area Contests other than those that include their home clubs).  As far as others who could run include both defeated LGET and LGM candidates from last year, as well as some past District 30 Governors, all of whom can do a better job and restore order to District 30.

It is no secret that I’ve had major problems with the current LGET, the guy I once referred to as “Blagojevich” for many reasons (including appearance and ethics), though this past year I’m somewhat in speaking terms with him, at least I’ll say hi and shake hands and not much else.  I do get along with the current LGM, but I knew all along that he was the LGET’s henchman since they belonged to the same club and worked closely together as successive Northwest Division Governors.  I mentioned to several people a couple of years ago in which if the current LGET tells the current LGM to jump off the cliff, he would do so without any hesitation!

So what do I think of this whole thing?  Well since Toastmasters is no longer a major part of my life, I no longer feel bothered if those two ever become District 30 Governors.  My gripes against them are my own and if 99 percent of District 30 disagree with me, so be it.  I was part of District 30′s past, they are supposed to be part of District 30′s present and regardless of what I think of them, I hoped that they eventually do their jobs for the good of District 30 and not necessarily for their own personal gain.

Of course if they were doing those things I was told, they are not fit to serve in a top District 30 role.  I remember the current LGET telling me a couple of years ago when I considered bolting District 30 that “the past is the past” when it came to his troublesome actions.  However it only means something if that person did anything to address those actions.  It appears that was not the case and a more appropriate quote would be the Dennis Green’s “they are who we thought they were”!

While I don’t feel vindicated despite having serious issues with the current LGET and LGM before most others realized who they are really like, it does give me pleasure that serious action is taken and I’m glad there is a “tea party” rebellion in District 30.  Perhaps there really is hope, we’ll see on May 22nd.

That is quite an unfair classification. You can’t say that anyone involved with the Catholic church is a nutjob just because some priests molested kids. Toastmasters is a great organization for bettering public speaking and leadership skills.
Now, having said that, from my time in the lower political ranks of the Chicagoland district of Toastmasters I have found that anyone that gets that far gets really crazy. They seem to think that holding an office in a volunteer organization is some major accomplishment. It’s both sad and funny at the same time to see people stabbing each other in the back for a power grab in a public speaking volunteer group that has no power whatsoever.
So in my opinion, Toastmasters clubs and Toastmaster members are great and no more or less normal than anyone else I’ve met. However, these people behind the scenes fighting over nothing are the whack-jobs.

My guess is that this person is currently a District 30 officer who has the misfortune of witnessing a lot of power struggles and backstabbing that supposedly has been taking place with the top District 30 officers this Toastmasters year.  That was why there were NO nominations listed for both District 30 Governor and Lt. Governor of Education and Training in last weekend’s Nominating Committee report.  There will be more about this here once I get more information on what was going on and what possibilities could take place around election time, but the whole thing appears to be fun and exciting!

Anyway what this person has mentioned are things I’ve seen myself during my time as a District 30 officer and I’m sure there were problems before I joined Toastmasters.  Even if a new set of leaders take over come this July, I won’t be surprised if there are still more politics and power struggles as it seems to be human nature for people with not much accomplishments in life to use Toastmasters as “some major accomplishment”.  And that is why my involvement in District 30 leadership continues to “cease to exist”.

However, I also mentioned to my friend that I don’t think Dietmar is going to win, in fact it would not surprise me if he lost big in the 3rd VP race.  Why would I say that about someone from District 30?  Someone who I think highly of?  Someone who made great contributions to District 30 and to Toastmasters?  The person who named me District 30 Toastmaster of the Year?

It has nothing to do with Dietmar.  It has nothing to do with Ralph Wallace, the other nominated candidate for 3rd VP.  It has to do with John Lau and the way the nomination process was handled by Toastmasters International.

John Lau wanted to run again for 3rd Vice President for the 2009-2010 year.  This past winter, Toastmasters International sent out the International Officer Candidate Survey for the Board of
Directors, past Board members for the last two years, Past International Presidents, current District
Governors, and Immediate Past District Governors.  The respondents list preferences for each of the four International offices, with the 3rd VP position being the lowest and the most contested.  John Lau reportedly received more than 70% of the votes for 3rd VP, the next candidate received less than half of that vote.  Dietmar Wagenknecht came in 4th place with less than a third of John Lau’s votes.  Ralph Wallace, based on a blog that has since shut down, came in 6th, though Past International Director Jenny Pagano claimed that he was not campaigning for the office when the survey took place.  And John Lau was not nominated, neither the 2nd vote-getter Margaret Wan nor 3rd vote-getter Kathy Miles.  It was Dietmar the 4th place candidate and Ralph the 6th place candidate.

Nobody outside of the Toastmasters International Nominating Committee knows why they made these selections.  And virtually everyone outside of District 30 and 23 (Ralph Wallace’s district) finds this hard to comprehend.  How come someone who nearly won the 3rd VP race last year and received overwhelming support from past and current Board and District officers not get nominated this year?  With the Nominating Committee prohibited from unveiling the decisions behind the nominations, we can only speculate.  Jenny Pagano thinks race and gender played a part in the process.  She also wrote a letter recently that mentioned some past indiscretions supposedly made by the committee.

Understandably there is an uproar over the selections.  What is the point of these surveys if Toastmasters International seems to ignore them?  Are they listening to the will of the members or are they only care about their own interests?

Well John Lau is running from the floor for 3rd VP.  And among those who were surveyed and give John 70% of the vote are current District Governors who will be carrying most of the votes for their districts.  While John won’t be part of the candidate program distributed at the International Convention, he will have his own candidate table and take part of candidate interviews.  And since most of the current District Governors were at last year’s convention in Calgary, especially as they were part of Top 3 training that TI started that year for International Conventions, they already are familiar with John Lau’s candidacy when he came close to winning that year.

One other thing to consider and it may be the pivotal factor in the 3rd VP race is Proposal A, especially with the International Leadership Committee.  The ILC is basically expanding the nomination process of the Top 4 International Officers to International Directors.  Many, including myself, fear that the supposed bungling of the 3rd VP nomination process this year could be compounded if similar situations take place with International Director races, perhaps several in one year.  With many prominent Toastmasters opposed to Proposal A, those who will be delegates next Friday can send a huge “eff you” (thank you Bill Simmons of ESPN.com) message to Toastmasters International by voting for John Lau and disregarding the nominated candidates because TI disregarded their views and wishes, in addition to voting down Proposal A which can cause further disenfranchisement.

As a District 30 member and a good friend to Dietmar Wagenknecht and his wife Heidi, it would be great to see him get elected 3rd Vice President of Toastmasters International.  But if I was one of the more than 70% who was surveyed that preferred John Lau for 3rd VP, I’d be steamed as well and take it out on the ballot box.  It would be impossible for me to keep an open mind if my opinion and with those of the huge majority are ignored.

Susan Ellsworth, one of the loudest critics of the proposed changes, recently put in her website a letter from Jenny Pagano, a Past International Director, expressing her concerns and stated her opposition to many of the changes:  http://www.pequodsystems.com/toastmasters/pagano.pdf.

I already notified a few District 30 officers I’ve contacted on a regular basis and ask them to forward this link to others.  Unfortunately this is going to fall on deaf ears on the Top 3 and the Immediate Past District Governor as the letter mentioned her take on the nomination process for 3rd Vice President and may give an unfavorable view of Dietmar Wagenknecht as someone who benefited from what was considered a poorly handled process.  The Top 3 and the IPDG have had a tendency to avoid controversial and challenging issues and would rather not hear such concerns or anything that they consider unfavorable.  Too bad for them they cannot prevent District 30 members from accessing such information online.  I’d go as far as to say that Dietmar will be far more receptive to Jenny’s concerns than the current District 30 leadership as he’s been willing to listen and address many controversial and challenging issues over the years.

I have my own concerns regarding the proposed changes, which I may present later on before the International Convention.  I may not agree with everything that Jenny wrote but I think everyone in the leadership part of Toastmasters needs to know what is going on with Toastmasters International and hear all views and from all sides.

While many of my entries in this blog reflect someone who is disillusioned with the organization, whether in the club, District or International level, I admit even within the last couple of years I:

• check the TI website nearly every day to find out who in D30 achieved an award, what club was chartered recently, what clubs paid or haven’t paid their dues, etc.
• browse the various Toastmaster-related blogs and discussion groups often
• talked and e-mailed to several TM friends about a variety of Toastmaster issues

With one of the District 30 Area Governors this year from one of my clubs, I talked to her often about what’s going on with her role and with D30.  Now she’s running for Division Governor, one of nine candidates for six spots.  So I ended up talking to her about how her campaign is going and how she’s stacked up against the others in the race.

In addition, District 30 has contested races for Lt. Governor of Education and Training (which I mentioned previously) as well as Lt. Governor of Marketing, both which have a candidate I have a strong preference (and a candidate which I have an intense dislike).  In the International level, Dietmar Wagenknecht, past District 30 Governor and International Director, is running for 3rd Vice President.  Right after I found out he was nominated, I asked a couple of past D30 Governors if there was someone in D30 that ran for such a position (no one had ever made a serious run, though there was Russell Puzey, 1953-54 TI President who lived in the Chicagoland area but was more involved prior to District 30′s creation in 1950).   While Dietmar has an opponent in Ralph Wallace from New Mexico, there was talk in the ToastmastersPrime group of drafting a 3rd candidate from the floor due to their concerns about the proposed TI changes including eliminating the Regional Conferences.

Why am I still paying attention to such issues, instead of focusing more on my non-Toastmaster (or post-Toastmaster) activities?  Shouldn’t I be saying “I don’t give a s–t about what’s going on in District 30 or in Toastmasters International”?

I guess the primary reason for this is that I still truly care about Toastmasters and am concern about the direction the leadership is taking, be in District 30 or International.  I still think about ideas that we can develop to make District 30 much better than it is now.  I’m concerned about the members in my clubs, the friends I made through Toastmasters throughout the years and even those I just met at recent events as many represent the future of this organization.

I get that impression from other TM-bloggers such as Bill Bishop and Sara Marks, as well as discussion group participants like Rich Hopkins.  We write about TM because we care.  If we didn’t care, we wouldn’t be spending the time complaining and ranting about any TM issue that is bothering us at this time.  Those in power want to shut us up, I get that impression from those at the top in District 30 the last few years.  Instead of putting up with those who think what we do or believe don’t match their view of the world, we are using the Internet and other “grass roots” methods to advocate what we believe in, for the good of the organization and not in our own interests.

Well I just found out today that he is going to have an opponent in the race for Lt. Governor of Education and Training.  District 30 had their Nominating Committee meeting last Saturday and they slated a current Division Governor to run against the current LGM for that race.   This is the first time in the 10 years I’ve been in Toastmasters that there is a contested race for LGET.  I know a little about the Division Governor and met her once, she seems to be a nice person who is willing to do her job properly from my past conversation with her, but all I can say is she’s got to be a much better person than the LGM.

I’m hoping that this will be a real race and that we have someone completely new for the LGET role.  I’m hoping that this will lead to change in District 30 that even I can believe in.  I’m hoping that this will make me be proud to be a District 30 Toastmaster.  Perhaps instead of looking to be like Rush Limbaugh, I could think about getting involved in District 30 again!

During my final months as Northwest 4 Area Governor in 2007, I’ve focused less on my role as Area Governor and more on the Arlington Heights club as I was also their Club President and have been struggling to keep that club afloat. Early in that term, two key members left, one of which called on the club to fold or merge as he was unwilling to carry a challenge of improving the club. I’ve been carrying plenty of misgivings about serving as AG that year primarily due to that. So when May 2007 came around, my club was putting together an Open House to boost the sagging membership and I’ve all but completely focused my attention to that as I’ve carried the burden of keeping the club alive and prove others wrong that the Arlington Heights club is still viable.

Another reason I’ve had misgivings about serving as AG was the Northwest Division Governor, as there were times I wonder if that person respected my involvement. While I’ve been involved in TM longer than him, he at times yelled at me for saying or doing things that he did not want to hear or do not seem to match his view of the world. When I told him I regretted serving as Area Governor midway through the term due to problems with my club, he replied “why didn’t you come to me about this?” I replied “because you complained about me being so negative”. The guy thinks he could make a difference with everyone, but he’s not doing himself any favor by putting down or criticizing just because he didn’t find it favorable for him – when I was Division Governor myself I would rather work around someone else’s faults than confront them as I treated them like adults and look to them as partners rather than subordinates like how this person treated me.

I knew this guy would manipulate his numbers for Distinguished Division to get what he wants. When he was an Area Governor the previous year, his Area earned Select Distinguished easily as all his clubs did very well in the Distinguished Club Program. But he wanted more – he wanted President’s Distinguished Area and Area Governor of the Year. Unfortunately, there were no viable new club opportunities in the geographical area he had, which consists of Schaumburg and Hoffman Estates. However the top 3 in District 30, in particular the Lt. Governor of Education and Training, put forth an directive that if an Area Governor gets involved in building a club regardless of its location, as long as it is within District 30 boundaries, the club will go to the Area Governor’s Division and Area. The main intention was to allow someone belongs to a club at his or her work, who is also an AG for that club, to be able to earn President’s Distinguished Area by chartering a club near the person’s home location if that person lived elsewhere, then the following year it would be aligned geographically. In the LGET’s view as he came from a downtown Chicago club, it would allow an AG who lives in the suburbs but works downtown and serves that area to get a club chartered at his or her hometown. Well the NW Division Governor did not fit that mold as he lived not far from his Area, but to get what he wanted, he ended up seizing a club opportunity elsewhere that seemed out of the way for him by jumping on the opportunity to have a club chartered at the Motorola location in Libertyville, which is not even in the Northwest Division. Since the District 30 top 3 looked at only what AG was involved in this club, they gave that club to this guy’s Area, giving him President’s Distinguished Area and Northwest President’s Distinguished Division. In fact, this club remains in the NW Division to this day, whereas everyone who is NOT a District 30 officer knows that Libertyville belongs to the North Division – I told some people recently at a North Division contest about this and they seemed puzzled at this concept, especially since a recently chartered club very close to LibertyMoto is in the North Division. Perhaps I should have known before what type of person I was going to deal with when this person was passed over for Area Governor of the Year and mentioned to me his displeasure of being passed over right after the award was announced.

Well back to the main story, rather than get active in getting Northwest 4 Area Distinguished, I outlined to all the officers in the clubs in mid-May what is needed to get Distinguished Area, which is to reach the minimum Competent Communicator awards, and told them it’s up to them to achieve this and I would be assisting them if they need my help. That did not suit well for the Division Governor and at the beginning of June demanded that I get actively involved in getting the Area Distinguished, especially as that was needed for him to get President’s Distinguished Division as all the other Northwest Areas either have achieved it or have no chance of achieving. He noticed that I was close to getting a 3rd Competent Communicator award and pressed me to give the last two speeches for the award by the 30th. I told him I will not be able to put together two speeches in a short time. He replied that he will set up special speaking opportunities in other clubs to get that completed (does it remind you of this entry?) and even offered a meal for this. I replied very angrily that this in my opinion constitutes BRIBERY and I wanted no part of it!

What happened afterwards did not surprise me. He first recruited someone in his primary club, which is not located in Northwest 4, to help out a Northwest 4 club in June as it has been decimated by membership issues. This person gave one more speech to complete his CC and put it to that club, which I did not have a major issue with that as he was going to help the club the following year (he is now their Club President). The CC that got Northwest 4 Area Distinguished was the one that got me very upset. The Division Governor got the president of his primary club to not submit her CC award to their club but talked her into submitting it to a different club as their primary club had plenty of Competent Communicators achieved that year and another club can used it for their goals. So on June 29th, the Division Governor asked the Club President of one of the Northwest 4 Area clubs to process both the membership application AND the Competent Communicator application. The Club President told me this after I found out about this award in mid-July and was suspicious about how someone I knew was not in that club got an award for that club. The Division Governor later claimed that his Club President did want to seek a 2nd club membership, but that turned out to be false as she never was active in that club or any other club before or after the award was submitted.

I brought this up with the outgoing District Governor, he did check with World Headquarters and there was nothing that can be done to reverse what the Division Governor had done. So I got Distinguished Area which I knew we did not deserve at all (that is why I did NOT mention this in my About page) as most of the clubs I had were struggling throughout the year, while the Division Governor got what he wanted in getting President’s Distinguished Division, and even got Division Governor of the Year later on, both of which he seemed to strive for at all costs!

Since the Division Governor was serving a second term in that position the following year, I decided to disassociate myself with a corrupt Division Governor by transferring my membership in the XL club to a North Division club, which is why I’m now a member of the North Suburban club. I stayed with the Arlington Heights club as I wanted to be there for the new officers and leaving them would only let them down.

However on February 2008, the Division Governor was named the sole nominee to run for District 30 Lt. Governor of Marketing for the following year. That is when I started to consider leaving District 30 and seek up membership in District 54, where there is an Advanced club that meets only on one Saturday a month and I could make an easy trip there on most meeting days. My reasoning was that since this person has already manipulated numbers to get President’s Distinguished Area and Division, he could do the same to get his numbers for LGM, which includes membership payments and clubs paid. Since I belong to two clubs, that constitutes 4 membership payments – in past years District 30 failed to reach the membership payment goal, in some cases by such a small number! So leaving District 30 would make it harder for the LGM to manipulate his numbers to reach his goals and I was unwilling to see that person succeed due to his past reputation.

Yes there were other factors mentioned in a previous entry that also played a part in considering my departure from District 30 or Toastmasters in general. I decided to stay in District 30 in spite of that person getting elected LGM, in fact I’m still not in speaking terms with that person even though I started to attend District 30 events again this year. The incidents mentioned above changed my view of the Distinguished Club/Area/Division/District program probably more than anything else and made me think they are all overrated, especially if it is in the hands of people like this past Division Governor/current LGM who wanted to seek the glory at any cost. Even if this person changed his ways (and for the sake of District 30 I hope he does or will), I can never ignore what he did previously and will still be a factor in terms of my membership and future achievements if he is elevated to Lt. Governor of Education and Training and, god forbid, District 30 Governor.