When I arrived at the conference site for Saturday’s portion of the conference, it was 6pm and dinner was supposed to start.  After hearing from a conference co-chair that the ceremonies after the dinner will take place at 7:15pm, I headed to the restaurant hotel and grabbed a bite to eat, encountering several Toastmasters and talking about numerous topics.  When I went to the main conference room at 7pm, the servers were only handing out salad!  Looks like it would be a while before anything else will be taking place.

More people were waiting outside of the main room as time was approaching 8pm and only then the people were starting to eat their main dishes (8pm was supposed to have the District 30 International Speech Contest).  Many, including contestants and their families, were impatiently waiting for the dinner to conclude and the contest to start.  Almost 8:30pm, some speaking started.  Those who didn’t have the dinner were told to move to a spillover room to watch live footage in the main room.  Then, Past International Director Dietmar Wagenknecht was introduced and all of a sudden there was a “This is Your Life” skit that was supposed to be a surprise for him.  NOWHERE in the program indicated that this was supposed to go on, which did take half an hour.

9pm came and there was the DTM ceremony.  Unlike last Fall in which it was well coordinated, many of us were waiting for several minutes for any of the 7 to show up on stage and get the “high fives” from the previous DTMs.  After that, 9:30pm came and there were supposed to be two more things going on before the contest – the installation of new District 30 officers and to recognized the Conference Committee.  But without any indication that these two events were going to be deferred till later, the International Speech Contest took place!  After the contest was over at 10:30pm, announcements were made that the other two events will take place afterward and those not interested are free to leave.

Only a third of the contest audience remained, the 2010-2011 District 30 elected officers were inducted, the District Governor elect gave his presentation and the Conference Committee were recognized.  I left around 11pm while the committee recognition was going to start.  Well there was supposed to be one more thing that was supposed to start at 9:30pm till midnight according to the program – evening entertainment called “Saturday Night Live with Toastmasters”.  Doubt anyone could stick around after 11pm as many were “conferenced-out”!

OK, there was all this hype months before the conference about how much work and people were behind the event.  There was this hype shown in the Barry & Jerry Show that had videos out in YouTube claiming that this conference was going to be one of the best ever.  Many in the conference committee were part of previous conferences and had a lot of experiences and lessons learned.  We have a so-called “Advisory Council for Events” the last two years that is “committed to the development of conferences and TLIs from one event to the next”.  So why with all these things in place it appeared we were taking many steps back with this last conference?

I look at three fundamental areas in which District 30 officers and conference chairs need to address, failing to do that could cause more problems such as this one:

1) Conference personnel – The conference chair, one of the co-chairs, both contest co-chairs, the facilities chair and the educational chair also served as either Area or Division Governor.  Not only that but 4 of them who were Area Governors were also running for Division Governor at the conference.  I mentioned a couple of years ago that those handling two or three major Toastmaster roles could result in neglecting one or all of their roles.  And since they were close to District 30 politics and may have had their opinions on the top leadership, the election results could have affected their morale – which I did notice Saturday night.  Perhaps if we had people in critical conference roles that did not have other significant Toastmaster responsibilities and were not deeply embedded in Toastmaster politics or personal ambitions, we would have a team solely dedicated to delivering a great conference and can adequately deal with any situation during the event.

2) Transparency when the schedule changes – No matter what steps the conference committee take in making sure everything starts and ends on time, many things could happen.  From what I heard for this conference, there was miscommunication between the hotel staff and the conference committee regarding dinner that may have led to the huge schedule delays in the program.  What the conference chair should have done was to huddle with critical committee personnel to revise the schedule, then (most importantly) communicate that to both those attending the dinner and others outside of the dining hall on the changes in schedule.  If it had to be changed several times and need to be announced several times, so be it – it is better than surprising the attendees.   Many attendees set limited time in their schedules for this event, if they were told in advanced that the contest starts two hours late they could, for example, tell their kids or their babysitter that they will be returning home late.  Or it may not be worth waiting that long and they would go home early.  Leaving the attendees guessing, which this conference committee did, would cause not only a disservice to them but to many not at the conference who are dependent on the attendees.

3) Conference priorities – District 30 conferences in recent years have become more and more like “Lollapalooza” with educational sessions, contests, business meetings, showcases, award ceremonies and entertainment all mixed into one.  The problem with that is how to deliver all of that in one Friday evening and all-day Saturday without either overwhelming the attendees or dragging them to late at night.  From my past experience in conference committees, District 30 has absolutely NO COURAGE in making tough decisions on what to keep and what to drop.

I still remember after the 2006 Spring Conference when there was a transition meeting with the 2006 Fall Conference committee, which I was part of both.  The Spring Conference ended at midnight for the Saturday portion, irritating plenty who were present and assumed that it would end a couple of hours before.  One thing we did in the 2006 Spring Conference was had a special ceremony on Thursday night to honor the International President on his visit.  So at the transition meeting, a question was asked about if we should continue that for other purposes.  I suggested that we use that in a Fall Conference to recognize Distinguished Clubs, Areas and Divisions, as I believed many who attend the conferences are not club or district leaders, but rather regular members who want to learn to be better speakers from the keynote speakers and educational presenters.  Mike Raffety, current International Director who was at that time the District 30 Lt. Governor of Education and Training, vehemently objected to that suggestion stating that recognition is extremely important in Toastmasters and we have to do that with the most audience possible.  Others agreed with Mike, so I gave them this question  – “so what else can be cut so the conferences will no longer end late at night?”.  There was silence then, there may still be silence to this day.

There have been surveys out in past conferences as to what the attendees want to get out of the conference.  Asking attendees if they were most looking forward to the educational sessions, the keynote speakers, the contests, the awards, the entertainment, or any showcase of speakers.  Instead of just giving “lip service” and pretending to tell everyone that District 30 cares about the attendees through so-called committees and YouTube videos, they need to put those surveys in action and start setting up conference schedules to what the majority of conference attendees want, n0t what they have always been.  If it meant reducing the need for, let’s say, recognition or entertainment, District 30 should try that and see if it makes a positive impact on the next conference.

District 30 needs to take a long, hard look on the organization, scheduling and execution of their conferences so members attending can get what they came in for.  Personal visions and ambitions along with traditions should be set aside if these conferences have any chance to move forward, otherwise many including myself may never attend another District 30 conference again.

The Evaluation Contest at the Friday portion of 2006 Fall Conference went very well, with no problems and everyone, including myself, was happy with everything that went on.  The Humorous Speech Contest at the Saturday night portion of the conference was another story.  The Conference Chair, who is still a very close friend of mine and the reason why I was part of the conference committee, planned to have the dinner and Communication & Leadership awards presentation in one room , which is larger but is adjacent to another room that was having a wedding reception, and the contest in a different room, which while it is smaller would be far away from any noise from the reception.  The District 30 Governor noticed that more and more people were showing up during the dinner for the sole purpose of watching the contest and looked into keeping the larger room for the contest.  While we had a band playing music and a past District 30 Governor singing he stopped by the wedding reception to check if he could hear the music and singing from our room.  Convinced that he didn’t hear a thing, he unilaterally decided to keep the contest in the larger room, supposedly without any input from anyone else, not the Conference Chair, not myself as the Contest Chair.

I was very mad at the decision for several reasons, one was that we were already setting the contest up in the original room, another was that there were already a couple of contestants that were practicing their contest speeches at the stage we were originally be using.  Furthermore, it appears that no one else had a say on this, especially those from within the conference committee – had the Conference Chair been involved in the decision making and told this to me instead of the District Governor, I probably would have been more receptive to this move.  Instead, I went back to the original contest room steaming mad and even threw a chair at a closet door in that room!  After telling the people there of the news, both the contest personnel and the contestants that were there, they too were puzzled by the sudden decision.

While I admit that I tended to be a bit of a perfectionist in which everything I planned for should come up with a predicted outcome, plus I thought that previous contest chairs were not subjected to unexpected maneuvers by a District Governor, there were a couple of factors that continued my anger towards this move.  One was that it would result in the contest starting later than scheduled as there would be a need to move the head table out as the platform it was on would be used as a stage.  The other was that some of the contestants would have to readjust their speaking plans for a stage that is set up far differently from the original contest room – the stage in the original room is a plain rectangle with plenty of room from front to back, the stage where we actually had the contest is a half-hexagonal shape with little room to move from front to back.  I felt rushed to have the contest started almost on schedule and was trying swiftly to go through the contestant briefings.  When the District Governor approached me as if he wanted to help out, I did not want to see that person and went as far as saying “leave me alone or you will get a broken nose!”.  One of the current Division Governors also approached me and I ended up saying the same thing (I apologized to both of them within the next couple of days).  The whole thing already took the energy out of me that I ended up fumbling my opening comments for the contest.

So when the contest started and the first contestant came up, I should have been relieved that the mess was done with and we move on to have a great contest.  Unfortunately it took a turn for the worse.  Just as the first contestant was giving her speech, the DJ at the wedding reception next door started to blare out some music and nearly everyone in the our room heard it very clearly.  Well that anger came back and came back very hard.  Since I was responsible for putting together the contest, I was very concerned that the audience would put the blame on me for a decision that I definitely did not have a say on it.  I was so embarrassed for being associated with the District Governor that I took my Area Governor badge (as I also served as AG during that time) and bent it in half.  One member came up to me and complained about the noise, I replied “it ain’t my fault!”.  The District Governor came up to me during one of the speeches and admitted that he “fucked it up”, I acted like it was too little, too late as the damage was already done.

As if it can’t get even worse, after the contestant interviews, I was still waiting from the Chief Judge of the results of the ballot counting.  So I notified the Contest Toastmaster to bring up the Conference Chair, who had another raffle drawn and acknowledge those who worked on the conference.  After I received a gift she gave to each of her committee chairs, I rushed back to the side of the stage to wait for the Chief Judge, who finally showed up with the results and the certificates of the winners.  The Conference Chair then brought up the District Governor at his request, and after presenting a plaque to the chair for the work she did he asked for more people to come up with his announcements, going as far as asking the Region V Conference Chair to promote the Regional Conference that was going to take place seven months later!  Then he asked the crowd “when will we find out the winners?”, so I finally went up with the certificates.  The District Governor was rushing to get the certificates and hope that I go away, but I had to recognize the contest personnel who had to go through all this mess, so he told me to make it quick.   While I started introducing my team, the District Governor was begging me to hurry up, when I was done he put me to the side and asked the visiting International Director to come up and help present the contest trophies (which also was done at the Evaluation Contest).  The DG mentioned after the previous conference that we need to take as much time at a conference to recognize anyone for their accomplishments, and now he wanted me to shortchange those who really did their jobs well under unfavorable circumstances.  I also felt that the others he brought up for announcements were given as much time as possible to speak.  Yes I felt I was thrown under the bus, my worst nightmare had just happened!

After the contest was adjourned, I went to the District Governor, tossed him my bent Area Governor badge and said “it was nice working with you, I’m stepping down as Area Governor”.  He replied “I hope you reconsider your decision”.  I went to several other people, including my Division Governor and the other Area Governors of that Division to mentioned that I resigned and mentioned that “I don’t have any interest working for morons”.  This had to do with my problems with my primary club a couple of months before where some prominent members decided to abandon the club when they promised to be there, one of whom as I mentioned in a previous entry someone who had a lot of TM experience seemed to be unwilling to help the club after promising to serve as the VP Education.  So there are now two cases within a few months where I was set up to fail and probably for the first time in my years in Toastmasters I began to question whether it was worthwhile to remain involved in this organization.

I initially told the Conference Chair that I was going to skip the debrief meeting the next day as I did not want to relive the mess.  When I left the contest room and returned to my hotel room at the conference site, I was very cold-faced and had no interest talking or even saying hi to anyone.  When I got back to my room, I found my “Key Area Governor of the Quarter” certificate I received earlier in the  day and ripped it to pieces, maybe tearing it apart a hundred of times.  I contemplated getting to my car and find some place to blow off steam such as a gym, as I belong to a 24-hour one, but after several minutes I took my laptop and brought it down to the hotel lounge to check on my e-mail.  There were several Toastmasters hanging around that I noticed, I didn’t bother to speak or say hi to them and focused on getting and reading my e-mail, then returned to my room.

I went to bed expecting to wake up very late as I was completely worn out in the wee hours of the morning.  However I woke up much earlier than I thought.  When I went to the hotel lobby to check out, the Conference Chair was standing in front of me in the line and I ended up telling her that I now decide to attend the debrief meeting, mentioning that I owe everyone an explanation.  At the meeting, there was the District Governor, the Lt. Governors and most of the conference committee.  The District Governor saw me prior to the start of the meeting, I did not say a word.  Nearly everyone in the committee gave their reports before it was my turn, then I explained my side of the events taking place.  At the end I said “I’m not sure it is worthwhile for me to remain involved in District 30 so I resigned as Area Governor”.  The District Governor replied that it was his fault for all the mess that took place and tried very hard to absolve me of any blame that could take place.  The others in the room tried to comfort me and mentioned how valuable I was to them and District 30.  I did feel better as I left the hotel but wasn’t sure if I was still going ahead with my resignation as Area Governor.

After seeing an e-mail from one of my Area clubs about an planned holiday event involving the Area clubs, I felt I owed it to the clubs that I need to stay on as AG.  At that time I did not want to be known as a quitter who abandoned the people who I represent, just like some in my club who did abandon us a few months before.  So I sent an e-mail to my contest team, the District Governor and others that I will continue to serve my term as Area Governor for the 2006-2007 year.  In retrospect, that may be the most regrettable decision I made in Toastmasters and my initial decision to resign would have been the best decision as it led to another incident that radically changed my course in Toastmasters as mentioned here.  The whole incident was a “wake up call” that I spent a lot more time in Toastmasters than I should have and perhaps I should have seen it coming beforehand.

Was there something good that came out of this story?  Yes, one of which was that District Governors now try to stay out of the decision making set forth by the Conference Chairs and their committees.  For contests, the Contest Chairs are now given more authority such as allowing ample time to recognize their team, announcing the winners and adjourning the contest.  The District Governor that nearly drove me out of District 30 involvement became much more respectful of my involvement in Toastmasters and seemed to tolerate anything that I said or write, even if others in D30 had problems with that.  Perhaps he is acting as if I had incriminating pictures of him, or he just felt that an “angry Will” is better than “no Will”.  Now as one of our International Directors, he seemed thrilled that I was contacting him regarding my concerns about the changes Toastmasters International are proposing this year and mentioned that he values my input.

So do I really want to get back to the “abyss” by serving as Contest Chair again?  I admit I was very flattered that someone I didn’t really know thought highly of what I have done.  However I remember reading Marcus Buckingham’s book “The One Thing You Need To Know” that I purchased at the 2005 Toastmasters International Convention as he was the Golden Gavel recipient.  His One Thing about sustained individual success is “Discover what you don’t like doing and stop doing it”.  While I enjoyed running a contest and felt I could come up with something that could be a model for future contests, what I don’t like doing is dealing with any mess cause by others that could result in destroying any work and effort I put into.  While our District officers have learned from this mess and are intent not to see this happen again, there is no guarantee that something else bad could happen that would result in me being thrown under the bus again.  What I’d be willing to do now is to serve as a mentor and an informal advisor to whoever will be the next Contest Chair, instead of being the Contest Chair again.

One reason I think loading committee chairs and other volunteer positions with those currently serving a major role in a District is not a good thing is that any District role, be an officer or in a committee, requires plenty of time and energy for the person to perform well.  Having more than one responsibility could result in the person neglecting one of his or her responsibilities and perhaps dilute the person’s performance in all Toastmaster roles.  The results could be devastating for the District – the conferences and TLIs may not be conducted as well as they could have, those with multiple roles could get burned out and disillusioned with Toastmasters perhaps even before their terms as District officers expire (I’ve seen this with some people here in District 30), those on the outside that wanted to help but were not offered anything could feel neglected by their District and may no longer consider volunteering for a District role, resulting in a depleted pool of talent the District could use in recruiting future Area Governors, conference chairs, TLI Deans and many other roles.  The District may end up going back to square one and take more riskier chances in recruiting new talent.

I would urge anyone who is running an event such as a District Conference or a TLI to expand their pool of potential chairs and other volunteer roles by looking past those currently with a District role, ignoring them altogether if possible.  I think those who have served as Area or Division Governor the previous year or two and are not serving a District role to be better candidates as they could continue contributing to their District in a different capacity with a much shorter time commitment.  Those who never were involved beyond the club level but have shown a passion for Toastmasters are great candidates as they could learn more about the organization, perhaps motivating them to take more responsibilities in their own clubs and Districts.

In a volunteer organization like Toastmasters, the future can be as important or even more so than the present.  It is up to those running their Districts and their events to ensure that the ride can be easier later on than it is now by making talent development one of their top priorities.