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.

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.

I admit that part of what got me interested in this discussion is that the tactics Toastmasters International and its board used in promoting Proposal A reminded me of a set of tactics a past District 30 Governor and Lt. Governor of Education and Training have imposed on other District 30 officers in which there was no transparency, no input from the rank-and-file, and a possibility of a large schism between the leaders and the members.  I was going to write an entry about this as a reason to oppose Proposal A, but now I think I’m better off directly addressing the issues I have with this:

1. Best and worst case scenarios – While TI has mentioned what is great about implementing the proposed changes and claimed they used their own figures to justify them, there is always a possibility that things may not go well as planned.  As a software engineer, whenever I have to add new code or fix bugs, I have to look at not just the ideal or expected way to input and interface with the code but also look at how the code handles an error or an improper input so the program would not crash or cause problems.  TI has done very little in addressing what could go wrong with what they are proposing and whether the potential problems can keep the proposed system better than the current system.
2. Consolidating all District Top 3 training – In the past at least those who belong to a Region could attend a different Regional Conference if they are unable to attend their own Regional Conference for their training.  Now that it is all in one week in August, what would happen if a Top 3 officer is unable to attend?  I remember in 2006, the District 30 LGET couldn’t attend the International Convention in DC due to work demands, so it could happen very easily.
3. Costs – TI has not unveiled the costs of keeping the current Regional and International conventions vs. the new plan of consolidating speech contests and training to International – especially with paying all or some of the costs the speech contestants and the Top 3 District officers.  What if transportation costs, especially gasoline, skyrocket?  What if we have another 9/11 in which airline service can be suspended during the conventions?  Can the convention site adequately house all the 70+ contestants and the 200+ Top 3 officers along with thousands of other attendees, and are there neighboring hotels that can be used?
4. Interational Leadership Committee (ILC) candidate survey – This year, many considered the candidate survey to be a complete joke – one 3rd VP candidate, John Lau, received more than 70% of the survey vote and was not nominated for that position, while the 4th and 6th vote getter were.  Will the ILC take the candidate surveys seriously, or the scenario that apparently took place this year could happen again?
5. ILC candidate search – What if the ILC cannot find candidates?  Is it possible they can resort to “bullying” tactics if they were desperate to find someone?  That could be embarrassing to TI as the ILC was formed to find candidates to fill the officer roles, especially International Director.
6. ILC recommendations – Can the ILC set up recommendations or have any authority to make it easier for candidates to run?  What appears not to be addressed by TI is why there are so few candidates for each of the International Director spots and try to remove barriers that may prevent a potential candidate from running for office.
7. Region Advisor Marketing (RA) – If the RA conflicts with districts or the Board, what steps can be taken to resolve them?  TI can’t just assume that the RA can easily work with each of the Districts in a Region as each District and its leadership can be different.  Even neighboring districts can be radically different.
8. RA selection – Can the Districts in a Region have input on who should be selected as their RA?  It does not say in their FAQ.  Plus for the RAs to work well with their Districts, they should visit them at their conferences and other events prior to their selection, which can cost them plenty of money with no assurance that they will be selected.

I am not convinced that Proposal A can address the problems regarding costs of running their events, recruiting candidates for International office and serving the needs of the Districts as well as the members.  The way the Board of Directors unveiled this proposal is abysmal – they never publicize any sessions or any way for members to give input on how to fix what’s wrong, then when they unveiled this proposal they should have given more details as to why they came up with their decision.  They should have unveiled comparison of costs between the current system and the proposed changes as well as how the ILC is better at recruiting candidates than the current process, in an ideal situation and especially in some worst-case scenarios.  They also should have explained alternatives that they considered and why they were not used.  TI has done a poor job in addressing the complaints regarding Proposal A and have not given adequate examples of why this proposal can address these concerns.

With that I recommend a NO vote.

The reason I want to take on the PR position is that I have some ideas we should try to implement to get more guests to our meetings.  The position is usually very neglected not only with the Arlington Heights club but in many other clubs here in District 30, so I believe I can do something to change that.  Some of the ideas I want to try in my club include:

• Put together press releases whenever we have an event or a member accomplishment, something we never did during my 10 years as a member.  This may be difficult as we only have the Daily Herald to submit releases to.  We used to have the Pioneer Press papers such as the Arlington Heights Post and the Rolling Meadows Review, but they ceased printing the beginning of this year and is just a news website.
• Enhance the club website, both to increase the number of guests to our meetings and as the primary resource for the members.  To use it as a publicity tool, I’d like to start putting in pictures of our meetings and our members (with their permission as there are those who are sensitive to privacy), plus add a page detailing what goes on in a meeting.  For members, I’d like to upload templates of worksheets we use, plus links to other Toastmasters-related resources.
• Find local websites to put a link to our club website.  Usually the website is accessed through toastmasters.org, however what if there are those who either never heard of Toastmasters or never thought of finding it through Internet?  Perhaps putting our club link at appropriate local websites can get more people who may not initially thought of us to take a look and realize that Toastmasters can benefit them.
• Putting together regular printed advertising – we only have done this periodically, usually when we have an open house.  I plan to put together different flyers that members can use to post in places with bulletin boards, such as Panera Bread or Jimmy John’s.  Plus I’m thinking about reviving the club newsletter, which we haven’t had in the last 5 years.  Previously the newsletter was for the members especially before we used e-mail and the club website around the time I joined.  Instead I’m thinking we should use it as a publicity tool and design the articles around the benefits of Toastmasters as well as profiling our members as testimonials.
• Look at regularly advertising in the municipal TV channels in both Arlington Heights and Rolling Meadows as well as in their respective city/village halls.  We did try that for an open house two years ago, in fact it brought a guest to the event who not only became a member but will be our next Club President!
• Work with neighboring clubs on doing joint and group promotion of Toastmasters.  One club can’t do this alone, getting a team of PR officers can do plenty.  I plan to contact incoming VP PRs of the neighboring clubs to see if we can collaborate on publicity.  With a new Northwest Division Governor coming in who is not a member of a division club, it would allow me to revive my involvement with the Northwest Division after a 2-year absence.

I’m looking forward to taking on this role in July and work with not just the Arlington Heights club members, but members of other Northwest Division clubs to boost our presence in northwest Cook County.

My initial plans at the conference was seeing both the Table Topics and International Speech contests and being at the DTM ceremony where we had five people who received their ribbons.  I really wanted to be there for two of the five, Ron Lorsch and Keri Silk, both who I’ve known very well over the years.  I did not have any intention to do much at the conference, say hi to some old friends and meet some newer folks and stay in the sidelines as my days of having any role in a conference are long over.  Sherry Jost, one of my Area Governors who was an unsuccessful candidate for Division Governor, along with current District 30 Governor Pat Martin, mentioned about having me be part of the District 30 Wall of Fame as the 2005 D30 Toastmaster of the Year.  I replied “that was 4 years ago, I’m irrelevant in District 30 these days and I’d like to keep it that way!”

Well not long after I showed up at the Saturday night portion of the conference, Past D30 Governor Hugh Dunbar, who was the Chief Judge for the International Speech Contest, asked me to be a judge for the contest.  Having served as the Chief Judge for that contest two years ago, be one of the judges the year before that, and the Tiebreaking Judge even several years ago, I wouldn’t mind seeing different people getting the experience of serving as a judge for the most prestigious contest we have.  Hugh was someone who helped me out when I was Southwest Division Governor years ago as it was his home Division, and has encouraged me to stay involved in District 30 the last couple of years in spite of my problems with the people running D30 and their priorities.  So I accepted serving as a contest judge, which made me somewhat relevant in District 30, at least for that night.

But what made my comment that I was irrelevant to District 30 more contradicting was that I spent plenty of time at the conference discussing Toastmasters with many of the attendees, whether it is old friends that I haven’t seen or talked often or those who I only met last weekend.  I planned to leave the hotel both nights right after the contests, however I ended up staying longer because I still was talking with different people.  Saturday night’s contest ended just before 10pm, I left the hotel just after midnight!

When I talked with those who are currently serving as an Area or a Division Governor, I asked them how they liked their job and mentioned some of my stories from my days in those positions that may relate to theirs.  For those who I’ve known for years, we discussed about District 30 and Toastmaster International issues as well as what we’ve done since we last met and what our future plans are.  Many of them, even a few who barely know me were asking me questions such as:

• When will you ever become District Governor?
• When are you going to be involved in District 30 again?
• How come we don’t see you much anymore?  We used to see you around a lot!

I even had a couple of suggestions to run off the floor against the current Lt. Governor of Education and Training for District 30 Governor as I’ve heard many people having concerns about his work (or lack thereof) in his current and previous Top 3 positions.  Well my replies to all of that appear in previous blog entries.

I realized after I left the conference that I do spend more time than I planned to when going to events outside of my clubs, and most of it had to do with talking with others.  There is always something I could learn from them, while I can make some contribution in return.  At the North Division winter officer training a couple of months ago, I was there in case I was needed to train officers.  Since my services were not needed, I planned to leave when training started and after finishing my pizza that was provided there.  Well I ended up leaving an hour later after discussing Toastmaster issues with the District 30 Secretary who is an employee of the facility where the training took place!

I’m still irrelevant in District 30 in terms of having a formal role, but I get the impression that many who know me would disagree with that in general.  It’s hard for me to turn down engaging others in a one-on-one or a small group discussion about Toastmasters, or taking a role in a contest or a conference if it was offered by someone who I greatly respect.  Regardless of whatever problems I have in Toastmasters, there is always something for me in that organization to deal with and that is why it seems impossible for me to ever leave.

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!

The most notable one currently campaigning this year is Jill Morgenthaler, who was with Argonne Toastmasters and past District 30 International Speech and Humorous Speech contest winner. She’s the Democratic candidate for Illinois’ 6th Congressional District currently held by Peter Roskam.

I don’t know of any other current or former District 30 members running for public office this year but there were several in recent years that did take a stab at it and didn’t win, more due to demographics and incumbency working against them than their campaign skills:

Jason Tabour – Former member of The Center Toastmasters Club in Palos Park. Was the Republican candidate for Illinois’ 1st Congressional District in 2006 against incumbent Bobby Rush. Also ran in 2004 for Illinois House in the 36th District against incumbent James Brosnahan.

Roberta Rekus – Former member of Talk of Lincolnshire club. Was the Democratic candidate for the 10th District seat in the Lake County (IL) Board in 2004 against incumbent Diana O’Kelly.

Ashur Odishoo – Former member of Toastmasters of Lincoln Park club and past Area Governor. Was the Republican candidate for Illinois House in the 11th District in 2006 against incumbent John Fritchey.

Don Sampen – Member of Speakers Forum Toastmasters Club in downtown Chicago and past District 30 Humorous Speech Contest winner. Was a Republican candidate for Judge in Cook County 12th Subcircuit against Mary Katherine Rochford to fill a 2006 vacancy.

For more local offices, there are at least two District 30 members currently holding office:

Sam Cunningham – Member of Relatively Speaking club that meets at Allstate in Vernon Hills, currently the 1st Ward Alderman for the City of Waukegan.

Rose Mosely – Member of Batmasters (downtown Chicago) and Maywood Library clubs, currently President of the Maywood Public Library board.

Let me know if there are other Toastmasters running or currently holding office here in the Chicagoland area or elsewhere.

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