• I plan to attend only the Friday and Saturday evening events, so if you follow me through Facebook and Twitter you’ll hear from me regarding the conference during those evenings, maybe a few comments when I’m not there.
• I already have a job to do on Friday evening portion, serve as a judge for the District Table Topics contest.  Hopefully they’ll have a question that can measure the best impromptu speaker during the contest.
• My proposal to give an educational presentation on using Social Media for Toastmasters was turned down last month by the conference committee.  Not disappointed at all as their priority was to get newer members to present, not those washed up or “has-beens” like myself.  If you check the agenda, they did have some experienced members to present as well such as Johnny Campbell, guess they wanted those who seemed well-liked and not those like me who may be polarized figures.
• So since I don’t need to be at the conference during the day on Saturday, I opt to golf at Seven Bridges in Woodridge with my singles golf group.  This may be my best opportunity to play what many considered among the best public courses in the Chicagoland area plus the weather is supposed to be great on Saturday – 70s and sunny!
• While golfing, maybe I can check Twitter and Facebook to see if anyone posts the results of the District 30 elections (for attendees who read this before this weekend and use either network, please post).  Hope that Kentucky will not be the only place having a “Tea Party” victory this week!
• I should be back at the conference site in time for the DTM ceremony, honoring 7 who achieved the goal since the last conference.  Hope to be part of the DTM “high five” ceremony that the conference committee is planning to follow from the previous one (which I did not take part in).
• Among the 7 newest DTMs, 4 belong to PESO club (Philippine Engineers and Scientists Organization).  When I attended my first District 30 conference in 2000, among the first people I met include members from that club.  Don’t remember their names, but a few of them may be among the DTM honorees!
• Based on the 3 Division Contests I attended, the District International Speech Contest should be a real good one.  Two of the contestants were past District 30 Humorous Speech Contest winners – 2003 winner Conor Cunneen and 2007 winner Rudy Segovia.  Both are now representing different clubs from which they won their District contests, in Rudy’s case it is also in a different Division as he’s now in the Northwest Division.  The North Division representative, Tom Keefe of VW Credit, also has a great speech and can hold his own against the other contestants.

Look forward to seeing some old friends and hope that everything turns out for the better!

• 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.

I initially was not planning to attend, but during the early part of this month it looked like I was trying to find a reason to go.  If you checked one of my earlier blog entries, one way to get me to attend a District 30 conference is if someone who is a close friend of mine was competing.  On a whim, I called Pam Nagel, one of my closest Southwest Division friends from my days as their Division Governor, to find out who won from their Division Contest.  Right after she said she won the Evaluation Contest, I told her “you’re giving me a reason to attend the conference”.

Initially I was just going to the Friday night portion, which includes the Evaluation contest.  Then I realized that North Suburban was to be honored on Saturday around lunchtime for earning President’s Distiniguished Club last year.  Also I found out that last year’s District Humorous Speech winner was going to compete again at this year’s contest Saturday night, and with the North Suburban Club President kept raving about him, I thought I got to see how he performs along with the other contestants.

Well I did go to all three parts I was intending on going.  And Pam won the Evaluation Contest, with another good friend, Phil Coolidge, who was part of my 2005 Summer TLI committee, also competing.  We had 4 others from North Suburban there to pick up their President’s Distinguished trophy and certificate.  And while last year’s Humorous Speech winner came in 3rd this time, all the contestants did an excellent job – I thought it was the best District Humorous Speech contest since 2001, which I explained a bit in an entry a couple of months ago.

With North Suburban members after receiving Presidents Distinguished Club trophy and certificate.

There were other things I got to see, such as the year-end award winners – the 2008 Toastmaster of the Year, Stella Lorens, kept telling me I was an inspiration to her, though I’m sure there were others that helped her far more than I did.  I got to see the Wall of Fame that Stella put up last year when she ran the 2007 Fall Conference, which still had my name as the 2005 Toastmaster of the Year – I guess many of the higher-ups in District 30 don’t read my blog since some entries have been critical of them!  Plus for the first time I got to be part of the DTM line to congratulate two recent DTMs Saturday night as they receive their DTM medallions (I got mine at the last conference I attended in Spring 2007).

The District 30 Wall of Fame - my name is still listed as the 2005 Toastmaster of the Year!

Unlike previous conferences I’ve attended in which I ended up with some role, whether its a contest judge, facilitator or some other volunteer, I stayed in the sidelines.  Oh there were times I felt like I need to do something, like when someone had their cell phone on during the Humorous Speech Contest and I felt like going to that person, take the phone and crush it!  But those days are over.

While Pam Nagel was what got me to attend the conference, what I treasured most about going this time was the plenty of people I missed seeing over the years.  Many have asked me what happened to me as it seemed to be a given that I’d be at these events.  Sometimes I’ll answer that I just needed a break.  Other times I’ll actually get to some of the things I’ve dealt with in Toastmasters that nearly led to my departure.  But I told everyone from the past I met that it was great to see them again and I was glad to be at the conference.  I also got to meet some of the current Area and Division Governors I never met in the past, as well as other Toastmasters whom I’ve noticed in other websites.

I’m glad I made the trip.  While I now tend to be more inclined to attend a District 30 event depending on who will be competing, presenting or be honored, I also now realized that I would miss a lot of people if don’t attend.  Regardless of what I think about District 30 or the powers that be who run it, it was the plenty of people at these conferences that motivated me to be heavily involved in Toastmasters through the years.  They’ve been my friends and they’ll always be my friends.