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.

One of the officers present at the meeting was Mei Li, the Fox Valley Club President.  Later in the meeting, Mei mentioned that she would like to get a club started at Palatine High School, which hosted a Chinese school on Sundays.  Her idea was that there are parents who generally have nothing to do at the school while their kids are taking classes on learning the Chinese language and culture, so why not have Toastmasters meetings there so they could not only learn public speaking skills but also help them with speaking better English.  Mei wanted me to get involved, plus would like some help from the other Area clubs.

While Mei later on claimed that I motivated her to start up this club (see page 9 of the April 2002 issue of District 30 Spotlight newsletter), nothing could be further from the truth.  I was brought up in the Arlington Heights/Rolling Meadows club, which had some prominent members that had a very negative view on building new clubs in northwest Cook County.  They think it didn’t make any sense that new clubs are being built while our club was struggling to get new members.  One member went as far as getting his boss to join our club, despite the fact he was working in Northbrook and living in Vernon Hills at the time – there are plenty of clubs that would be more convenient.  This member claimed he would discourage his boss from joining Toastmasters if he couldn’t join our club!

Well later that month I did go to Palatine HS to meet up with Mei and we went to the cafeteria to promote Toastmasters to the parents of the kids who attend the Chinese school there.  Not only I was in unfamiliar territory with people I never met, but just about everyone came from China and English was not their 1st language.   Mei tried to use me as the main attraction for promoting a new club as I was an Area Governor, but I was talking aimlessly about how Toastmasters can be useful for them.

XL demo team at the very first meeting on October 21, 2001. From left to right, District 30 Lt. Governor of Marketing Charles Brooks, Bonnie Wiltz of South Suburban club, Mei Li, Cindy Dingwall of Palatine club, Northwest Division Governor Bruce Burrow, Northwest 1 Area Governor Will Hsiung

We did have a demo meeting on October 21st with Charles Brooks, then the Lt. Governor of Marketing, plus Bruce Burrow, then the Northwest Division Governor, who gave a speech.   It wasn’t a big turnout (about a dozen present) and they weren’t enthusiastic but seemed to be curious.   We continued holding meetings every Sunday since, with later meetings included other District 30 dignitaries such as District Governor Eric Matto, International Director Justin Gottfreid and a then-unknown professional speaker wannabe named Johnny Campbell, who joined Toastmasters a few months previously, tried to speak as many clubs as possible to achieve his Competent Toastmaster and is now an accredited speaker through the organization.  Many of the Chinese parents that were at the 1st meeting stuck with us and we attracted additional potential members to the point where we had the 20 to charter the club in less than two months.

I began to realize that what got many of these people to join wasn’t necessarily that we did a lot to impress them, but they found Toastmasters to be a very useful tool for them to learn and speak English better.  Many of them were raised to be quiet and reserved, not speak up, not expressing their views and feelings freely, due to how both the Chinese culture and government work.  Toastmasters empowered them to get to the same level personally and professionally as their native-born colleagues at their work.

As we were ready to charter, we had to vote on the name of the club. The Chinese school at Palatine HS is called Xilin and that was the working name of the club.  But Mei wanted to not only open the club to those not associated with the school and she kept pushing the members to promote it outside, even getting outside Toastmasters to push the idea.   So after giving them some names related to Xilin, we voted to name the club XL.   Since then, we had several outsiders to join the club, primarily from India, also speaking English as a 2nd language.  It turned out they were more comfortable in a club where the majority were in the same boat as them when it came to English.

Since we chartered, the club reached Distinguished Club status every year except one, when the Chinese school split up in 2004 and the club relocated to Conant HS in Hoffman Estates with one half of the school. They earned President’s Distinguished Club 5 times, two in which they earned all 10 goals. They participated in nearly every Area Contest as well as most District conferences.

I enjoyed the experience in starting the XL club and treasured the memories throughout the years I was involved in them.  While I seriously questioned the way District 30 approaches club building (acting desperate by doing things such as steering prospective Toastmasters to build clubs rather than joining an established one just to pump up their numbers and meeting their paid club goals), this is one example in which most who visited and joined probably would not have looked at Toastmasters at all if it wasn’t for the XL club.