Lessons Learned

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 (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.

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 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”.

Yes it’s been more than a month since I updated this blog.  Been busy with curling several days a week (except this past one as my club just held the US Mixed Nationals), plus been busy at work with a major project that I hope to complete soon.  Been attending most of my club meetings since the start of the year and served as Chief Judge for the Northwest 4 Area Contest, which includes the Arlington Heights club.  For the North Suburban club, the North 42 Area Contest will be held on Wednesday April 7th at CVS Caremark in Northbrook, and I may be taking a major role in that one as well.

Attendance has slowed at the Arlington Heights club recently, though we had an actual club contest for the first time in a few years.  After going past 30 members prior to the April dues renewal, we are almost 20 renewed and it is possible we can have as many as 25 renewed altogether.  With 5 Distinguished Club points already achieved, we should get Distinguished Club status for this year (for the first time in 5 years).  With our Club President already finished his Competent Communicator requirements last week and several close to achieving their CCs and Competent Leader awards, we should be able to reach Select Distinguished Club!  Next challenge – find some members to step up and take officer roles in July.

North Suburban, on the other hand, has been struggling with attendance since last Fall.  Many who have joined within the last year stopped attending, few of which indicated they’re returning to school and don’t have time for Toastmasters.  The VP Education stepped down due to work and family demands and her assistant has been MIA.  A couple of key members devoted most of last Fall on the last District 30 conference as they were on the committee, and when they attended the club meetings were more focused on getting the members to go to the conference, which was close by, than getting them to attend the club meetings and work the program.  The Club President has been scratching his head and have been asking the longest serving member (28 years) and myself for some guidance – I suggested that there should be more communication with the members as I’ve seen very little, resulting in meeting agendas with plenty of open roles.  Attendance has picked up last month, now the question is how many of the current members are renewing.  I could see at least 14 out of 28 renewing, not sure if most of the others are planning to continue.  Not having a full-time Area Governor has made it more difficult – the original one stepped down, his replacement appeared to have stepped down after the Fall Conference, and now the original one is back in an acting role and he himself is competing in the Area Contest!

I have submitted my presentation proposal for the District 30 Spring Conference on using social media for Toastmasters, not sure when they’ll notify me on their acceptance.  Regardless, I should start preparing after Easter (when curling season ends) and get back to giving speeches, something that I planned to do this year that I failed to do so far!

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 LinkedIn reply was the following:

One of my clubs also eliminated the printed agenda since the end of 2008.  It was more because the agenda can change radically a few days before the meeting.   What we have is a big blown-up version of a printed agenda along with the description of each role, covered in plastic to write a marker over so it can be erased and used again at the next meeting.

At a previous discussion here, many who commented did not seem receptive to this idea, especially as we don’t even have printed agenda for guests to take home.  On the other hand we give the guests a kit that includes a description of all the meeting roles.  And our club is now over 30 members with more than 15 new members since July after hovering around 12-18 the last few years!

It was Michelle Wee, last year’s Club President, that came up with this idea of no more printed agendas.  Her employer encouraged employees to limit their use of paper and she thought it could be something we try.

My own International Director, Mike Raffety, disliked this idea as mentioned in his reply:

Personally, I think a printed agenda is very important.  It gives people a place to write notes, and something to take with them.  I’ve saved agendas going back nearly to the beginning of my Toastmasters involvement, and I would be sad to see any of my clubs abolish them.

I don’t see 20 sheets of paper a few times a month as being significant, compared to the benefits of having them.

Side note: What’s on the BACK of your agenda?   Use that blank space — DCP progress, officer list, list of web sites, upcoming meetings, mentor/mentees, etc.

Well there were several years in which the Arlington Heights club went through a dry spell in which very few members signed up for roles and many who did pull out the last minute for whatever reason, leaving another role blank.  In that situation, I’m not sure it’s a good idea to show a guest an agenda with only a few names listed and many roles open – it gives the guest an impression that there is something wrong with the club and may rather join a club that has more participation from its members.

As far as back of the agenda as Mike mentioned, we did adopt that when I was the VP of Education for the Arlington Heights club a few years back (and it was Mike at my officer training who told me of this idea).  It is still a good idea, but it was during that dry spell in which many members didn’t really care about upcoming events whether it was the club contest or the district conference, or the web resources and the Toastmasters Promise that were also listed in our previous agendas.  If we provided something for years that most members and guests didn’t see any value of, that’s a message indicating it isn’t working and we should try something different.

My advice to clubs regarding meeting agendas would be to go with what works with your club, not necessarily what every other club does.  If you’re struggling with getting the guests to join your club, consider looking at the meeting agenda among the plenty of areas your club can improve on to get new members.

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:

1. 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 members -  in particular obtaining information not found by their club and district leaders, as well as publicizing the organization to their friends, connections and followers.  If the conference committee are not interested, I hope this would be considered for the next Summer TLI.
2. Plan to give more speeches as I only gave one in 2009 and that was for the International Speech Contest.  Some of the speech topics I plan to present are using Social Media, promoting Scott Berkun‘s Confessions of a Public Speaker book, the Tiger Woods scandal, and Curling, which is my new interest this winter.  I need to make use of the speech skills and experience I obtained throughout the years as I don’t have many opportunities to speak outside of Toastmasters, plus give speeches on topics that matter to me.
3. Avoid being a club officer after June 30th – I haven’t done much as the Arlington Heights‘ PR officer, so my goal should be the lay the foundation for my successor to build on.  The club is doing well with membership so we should not have a dearth of members who are willing to step up and become officers for the upcoming term.  While I plan to remain a dedicated Toastmaster member for my two clubs, my days of being heavily involved in the clubs should long be over and I need to move forward in becoming a more well-rounded Toastmaster member, especially with speaking.

There may be more things I plan to do for this year, I’ll post updates throughout the year.  I’ll continue to update the blog on a variety of Toastmaster topics, including observations on District 30 and Toastmasters International.  So stay tuned…

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 Li and I went to Palatine High School to promote the idea of a Toastmasters club as mentioned in a previous entry, Bruce was one of the first to expressed interest in taking part of the club as he had been in Toastmasters previously as a college student in Milwaukee and already achieved his Competent Toastmaster award.  When the club was close to chartering and we were looking for members to step up as officers, Bruce was willing to take the role as the club’s first Vice President of Education.

Bruce (or Jinyu as he preferred to be called in the club – see the video below for an explanation) also gave his “My Name” speech as a target speaker the following Fall in the Northwest 3 Area Contest and the Southwest Division Contest (when I was the Division Governor there), and everyone cracked up at most of what he said.  I still remember Sporty King, who was the Toastmaster of the Division Contest, mentioning in jest at the start of the Division Humorous Speech Contest that “Bruce Jin has just entered the Humorous Speech Contest”!

Bruce also used his speech when competing for the Northwest 2 Area International Speech Contest in 2003, representing the Northwest Toastmasters Club in Elk Grove Village, where he lived at that time.  This was a club that all but disappeared from the District 30 map in 2001 as the club hasn’t paid their dues or submitted their officer list.  Both the Division and Area Governor for that club could not reach anyone who served in that club the previous year.  At the XL charter party in the Spring of 2002, as Area Governor I discussed with both the Club President and Bruce after the meeting to go over any possible educational goals that could be achieved for the 2001-2002 Toastmasters year.  Bruce mentioned that he was working on his 2nd CTM award and was giving speeches at his other club.  The District Governor and Lt. Governor of Education & Training were at the charter party and overheard that, so they went straight to Bruce and asked him what other club he belonged to.  Bruce gave them the names and phone numbers of a couple of people from that club who were running it, and all of a sudden the Northwest Toastmasters Club came back from oblivion and started participating in the Area and Division contests.  A week after the charter party I was at the Northwest 2 Area Contest and met the two ladies who stepped up to keep the Northwest club alive.  So in such a very short time Bruce made an impact in District 30!

Bruce and his family moved to Naperville in the Summer of 2003 and with that left the XL club as well as the Northwest club.  Sadly the Northwest club folded for good a couple of years later as the two ladies that were leading that club gave up on it after resisting help from District 30 to boost the membership (I heard they wanted to keep the club small for whatever reason).  I found out through the 2007-2008 District 30 Directory that Bruce resurfaced in Toastmasters with the Saturday Morning Workout club in Naperville.  In the fall of 2008, I heard he came in second in the Southwest Division Humorous Speech Contest and that was when I contacted him for the first time since he left the XL club.  He didn’t give his “My Name” speech but mentioned that had he given that he might have a better chance of winning.

I saw his name on last month’s Fall Conference program as one of the contestants and even put a tweet about not being able to see him give his speech.  After finding out from one of his club members that he was going to give his “My Name” speech (now titled “The Story of My Name”), I knew everyone was going to enjoy the speech and laugh hysterically, perhaps he could even win the contest.  Here is the video of the first part of the District 30 Humorous Speech Contest, with Bruce giving his speech starting at about 38:40:

Here is the second part, with Bruce being interviewed at 23:06, it appears he was representing the Beyond the C’s club, a recently chartered Advanced club that meets in nearby Aurora:

From what I remembered the previous times he gave this speech, he revised and refined it for this contest, thanks to those in his two clubs as well as others who have seen him compete in the previous levels.

The XL club invited him to give that speech at their Open House two weeks ago.  When he joined the XL club eight years ago, he was no different from the others who joined that club.  Now coming full circle by recently revisiting the XL club and having his speech shown online to countless others, he returned as a solid speech contestant known by many in District 30.

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 more members as we have a few who haven’t attended a meeting in a while plus members can have a sudden change in plans that prevent them from continuing their Toastmaster involvement.

For publicity, we have a flyer for the event which we encourage members to post in a variety of places, such as eateries like Panera Bread and Potbelly’s.  We have a press release (with the help of the wife of our VP of Membership) that we sent to the local papers, not sure if they will be posted or published prior to the meeting.

As far as an online presence, we did update the club website to show the event, then afterwards we revert back to promoting the regular meetings.  In a June entry that I put in about becoming the VP of Public Relations, I mentioned “Find local websites to put a link to our club website” as one of the things we need to work on for PR.  Rich Hall, our current Club President, replied that he already implemented that for a while and has continued to do so for the Open House.  Here are some places Rich posted that can be easily accessed by our local folks:

http://chicago.craigslist.org/nwc/eve/1488832094.html

http://arlingtonheights.org/forum_posts.asp?TID=96976

http://eventful.com/arlingtonheights/events/does-public-speaking-make-you-nervous-/E0-001-026627961-8

http://chicago.kijiji.com/announcements/arlington-heights/does-public-speaking-make-you-nervous-arlington-heights-toastmasters/?ad=923600

http://www.adoos.us/post/9958333/does_public_speaking_make_you_nervous_arlington

http://www.when.com/arlington-heights-il/events/show/89450421-does-public-speaking-make-you-nervous-arlington-heights-toastmasters

http://www.freelistingsonline.com/?view=showevent&adid=2335&cityid=-14&lang=en&date=2009-12-09

If you belong to an open club, we encourage you to look at posting your club information and website at these places as well as your local-only event websites.  As Rich mentioned in his reply, it moved our club to the top of our local Google search.  It probably was a major reason why we’ve been attracting plenty of guests in recent months leading to the 15 new members!

Well this is Tim Bolger’s finest hour, over 12 hours of video from last weekend’s District 30 Fall Conference can be viewed here.  Most notable include both the Evaluation and Humorous Speech Contests, won by Rahsaan Brown of South Suburban #5534 and Bob Chikos of Crystal Lake #2724 respectively.  Many of the educational sessions can be viewed, including one by Ed Hearn, the 2006 World Championship of Public Speaking who was also the Master of Ceremonies for the entire conference.  Special non-Toastmaster guests include Illinois State Representative Lou Lang, whose district includes the conference site and presented the state proclamation at the Friday night festivities, plus George Van Dusen, the mayor of Skokie who was the 2009 District 30 Communications and Leadership award recipient.

One video that I enjoyed which I was not present for was the DTM ceremony.  As in a previous post, I was concerned about how they can fit 12 new DTM medal recipients in a short time.  Well they opted for the “high-five” ceremony where the new DTMs run down the front of the stage high-fiving the other DTMs as if they were introduced as starters for the Chicago Bulls!

Tim mentioned when I was there that he was planning to start putting videos up late this week, I replied that he should not make these promises public unless he’s definite that they’ll happen.  Well he supposedly not made any guarantees to the crowds unlike the last conference and he actually delivered his work very quickly.  Way to go Tim!

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 the conference, the volunteer desk sometimes had a display up that showed up-to-the-minute tweets, such as this one which I took a picture of from my phone.

Well as you see from this picture, that was what I did for a significant time at the conference.  Anything that I observed that was worth mentioning in my view gets posted.  It made an otherwise uneventful conference fun, and I admit that it made me want to get back to the conference site early Saturday morning instead of sleeping in.  Of course I got to meet with many old friends and meet some new ones, a few even mentioned that they read this blog.  The events I attended were OK, but they weren’t much different from past conferences I attended.

What is great about using Twitter is that I was able to enter what I feel like without any interference from others, without being part of someone else’s agenda.  That was a major reason why I’m no longer involved in District 30 and why I turned down being the Evaluation Contest chair for this conference as there are many in leadership here who are more concerned about their view of the world than letting those who volunteer at the event do their jobs and grow from it.  I went as far as pushing the limits of what I write by referring to the business meeting as the “bs meeting” (I admit it was intentional and not use it as an abbreviation) and mention the first sentence of this paragraph as my parting shot before I left the conference.  Not sure if the conference committee and D30 officers read what I wrote, they may be too politically correct to not want me to do this again or restrict or drop using Twitter, but it is worth a try.

On the other hand if more Toastmaster members are aware of using Twitter, more could check out the feed when they’re unable to be there.  They can even get an instant announcement as to who was a contest winner, which I did for Friday’s Evaluation Contest (too bad no one put one for the Humorous Speech Contest in my absence).  Someone in the volunteer desk mentioned it can be a great way to tell if there were concerns or issues about the conference so the committee can learn from them, such examples that I entered include:

strange they’re asking someone from each 7-officer trained club to go up and shake the LGET’s hand and leave the stage w/ nothing!

and

main room seemed dead during lunch and c&l now it is packed for main educ session with the ID!

I was excited on using Twitter to report from the conference, even forward my tweets to my Facebook page.  Only four others used it during this conference, if there is more publicity on it perhaps we can get more to tweet in the 2010 Spring Conference.

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 will be at the Friday portion of the conference, definitely won’t be able to attend the Saturday night portion of the conference as my singles golf group has their dinner dance (and being on the board for the group that now takes precedence).  As far as during the day Saturday, I may attend parts of it just to meet more old friends as not much in the schedule or the educational sessions seems appealing.
• Both the Evaluation and Humorous Speech contests should be fun.  I already seen both the North and Northwest Division representatives, the Evaluation contestants are both relatively new to contests but have done great so far (the North contestant came from Master Speakers @ Baxter club, which only chartered in April!), while both Humorous Speech contestants have excellent speeches that can wow the audience.  If the other Division representatives are as good, it may be the best District 30 Humorous Speech contest in years – I’ll be missing that one though.
• Early last summer I was offered to be the Evaluation Contest Chair, turned it down for reasons mentioned in a previous entry, plus still have no desire to get back to active service in D30.  Never thought about what might have been if I did accept it.
• One thing I did find bothersome with the upcoming Evaluation contest, the Toastmaster is a current Division Governor who also serves as the District 30 Club Building Chair, while the Chief Judge is the Immediate Past D30 Governor.  Not sure they offered last year’s winner the Toastmaster role, which has been the tradition here, but regardless shouldn’t we give these opportunities to others without major roles and responsibilities?  Time to go back to this old entry from last year.
• I shouldn’t care because I won’t be there and don’t have any say on the quality of D30 events, but it’ll definitely be a challenge honoring last year’s Distinguished winners and the end-of-the-year winners within a 25 minute time frame.  I hope whoever emcees this won’t spend any time talking more than necessary especially about themselves – last year the IPDG not surprisingly did just that prompting someone to tell me “no wonder why it took her 4 tries to reach Top 3!”
• Same problem with the DTM ceremony, there are at least 12 new DTMs to be honored at the ceremony with their new medallions and receiving congratulations from the other DTMs.  At the last conference, there were 6 honored with the ceremony taking at least 6 minutes as shown in this video.  The upcoming conference will have 15 minutes and with likely more DTMs at the line congratulating the new ones, it could take longer than that.
• On the lighter side, District 30 put out a YouTube video promoting the conference, featuring the “faces of District 30″.  It doesn’t appear I’m among the faces, so I can definitely say I’m a “has-been” and proud of it!

Since I just joined Twitter after getting a new smartphone (HTC Droid Eris), I may use that to post updates from the conference, so check http://twitter.com/willhsiung next weekend.  Otherwise check my Facebook page for some updates or wait until I put in a summary in this blog.