By now, most district leaders have probably heard about the new Distinguished District recognition program (DDP). It goes into effect July 1, 2012, and basically does two things:
- Eliminates the competitiveness; every district can be President’s Distinguished, or Select Distinguished. The objectives to meet those recognition levels are set for each district independently, as percentages based on the district size.
- Replaces the CC and AC critical success factors with Distinguished Clubs (and also eliminates the other point-accumulating goals of Distinguished Areas and leadership education awards). Note that these education award goals are already in the Distinguished Club Program (which is unchanged), six of the ten DCP goals are education awards.
Here’s the breakdown of the new DDP goals. The old qualifying requirements of completing and filing a District Success Plan Matrix and training at least 85% of Area and Division Governors by Sept. 30 are unchanged.
- Club growth (July 1 base to June 30 end of year) of 3% to be Distinguished, 5% to be Select, 8% to be President’s. 3% is the same goal as past years to be Distinguished.
- Membership payments growth (July 1 to June 30 as well) of 3% to be Distinguished, 5% to be Select, 8% to be President’s. In the old program (still in effect this year and next), this goal is 2%, so this is an increase, but now it’s consistent with the club goal.
- Distinguished clubs (as of June 30, as a percent of the club base) of 40% to be Distinguished, 45% to be Select, 50% to be President’s. In the old program, districts began accumulating points at the 30% threshold, topping out at 75%.
To reach any of the three recognition levels, the district must meet all three goals! A shortfall in one goal is not made up by an excess in another goal.
How will this affect your district? You can find out right now: http://mikeraffety.com/NewDist.html
Here’s what you’re looking at:
Each district has one row (hover the mouse on the district number to see where it is located). There are six groups of columns, one for each year from 2004-05 through 2009-10 (the year just completed). In each group, you see the three goals with how the district did each year (the percentage goals from above are repeated in the column heading for easy reference). If the goal was missed, it’s shaded in light red.
The district recognition status in the old and new programs is also listed for each year, “D”istinguished, “S”elect, “P”resident’s (or blank if not). The ranking is also given as the small number after the letter. Note that I invented a possible new program ranking, there is no published ranking system for the new program! So that’s quite unofficial and subject to change.
There are also some totals down at the bottom. If the total distinguished districts looks a little small, that’s OK, because in the past, districts didn’t focus on distinguished clubs as much. As that becomes a factor equal in importance to clubs and membership payments, the added emphasis will bring those numbers up; people manage to the goals you set for them. If you want to plan ahead to be distinguished in 2012-13 (and later), focus on improving DCP performance, it will take more than one year to make a significant change. (Over 80% of the clubs in D85-China were distinguished last year!)
It’s fully expected that future boards will review performance against these percentages and increase them periodically. Hopefully, every district will reach 50% or more distinguished clubs soon, and then those thresholds can be adjusted upwards. Remember how practically every district always hits the old AC goal, sometimes doubling or tripling it? When a goal is reached consistently, it’s time to raise the goal, to keep stretching and getting better.
The number of consecutive years each district has been distinguished (as of 2009-10) is listed on the right (“DY”), and just three districts have been distinguished for six (or maybe more!) years: 59-Continental Europe, 71-Britain/Ireland, and 79-Middle East. Sort of a “double Excellence in Leadership”, very impressive!
Thanks Mike, I will be sharing this link with the current LGET and LGM.
Yours in Toastmasters, Martie
Mike, tell us more about the ranking system; you said it’s not set, so you showed results using one possible system. What was it?
George, sure, happy to explain. My article above was getting too long as it was.
I separated the four groups, President’s, Select, Distinguished, and none, and ranked those within each group separately, then put the groups in sequence. In today’s system, you might have a non-distinguished district that is ranked, say, #44, above some other distinguished districts, because in the ranking formula (the current points system), a deficit in one goal can be made up in another goal.
Within each group, the ranking is based on how far they exceeded the requirements for that group. Points are awarded on a 2-for-1 basis for clubs and payments, and 1-for-1 for distinguished clubs; these three numbers are then simply added together for the point total.
Why 2-for-1 for clubs and payments? Because the spread from Distinguished to President’s is half as much as the distinguished clubs percentage. The goals for clubs and payments goes from 3% to 8% (5 point change), while the goal for distinguished clubs goes from 40% to 50% (10 point change).
Make sense? You can see the point totals by hovering the mouse over the ranking number. To achieve that grouping, I simply added 1000 points for each level of distinguished (distinguished districts are 1000-something points, select are 2000-something, president’s are 3000-something). Note that each level is scored against its own threshold (different than other levels).
As someone who has served as AG or Div Gov for 4 of the last 6 years, I would like to create a similar spreadsheet for our district. I am assuming that the goals for distinguished/select/president’s will change for both of these groups. Is this information available to those of us who prefer to lead from behind?
Deborah, I’m not sure what information you’re asking for, but yes, the Distinguished Area and Distinguished Division programs are also changing, even more. Click on the link near the very top of my original post above to see the details, but in brief, distinguished areas and divisions are ALL about distinguished clubs now (besides keeping and growing clubs, and making club visits). Feel free to e-mail me direct for more information!
These are great changes! Area Governors have sometimes been embarrassed that they could have a Distinguished Area that had no Distinguished Clubs. Small clubs will have to step up to the plate.