Category: district conference

Ideas for scheduling Toastmasters contests

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calendarI’ve seen a lot of different practices in districts around the world.  I’d like to share my experiences, and make some suggestions on what seems to work best for this tricky topic.

First, most district hold four contests a year, the maximum.  They have two in the August-November period, usually humorous and either table topics or evaluation, and then two in the February-May period, international (required) and then the other one from evaluation or table topics.

The nice thing about this pairing is you have one prepared speech (humorous or international), and then another contest that newer members are less afraid to try (table topics or evaluation).  Some districts swap in tall tales for humorous occasionally.  It also allows new Area Governors to get some practice before needing to run the more visible international contest. Continue reading “Ideas for scheduling Toastmasters contests” →

District conference flashback

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My home district (D30, Chicagoland) had their conference this last weekend, and it was deja vu all over again for me.  The first district conference I ever attended had been at the same location, a suburban Holiday Inn, in 2002.

Not only was it my first district conference, but I had been cajoled into doing an education session on club newsletters!  I had started up a club newsletter (which was back before club web sites were really big), and the conference education chair happened to be the president of my club.  She was looking for people to do presentations, and talked me into it.

Now, I hadn’t even completed my CTM (the old CC) at the time she asked, but I rushed to complete that before the conference so I would have a badge.  I had been in Toastmasters for a year and a half, and was barely halfway through my first term of being a club officer, VP-PR, so I was pretty new at this, but felt confident, since this was a topic I knew a lot about.

Finally, it was time for my presentation, and there were maybe five people in the audience, most of whom were from my own club.  Why not more?  A well-known and very popular Toastmaster was giving a presentation at the same time in the next room over.  He had a room twice the size, and a standing-room-only crowd.

I think the presentation went well, but it’s been a long ways from that first district conference presentation, to my Living DCP presentation.

I learned a few lessons about conference planning from that …

  1. When planning parallel conference or TLI education sessions, be mindful of how popular the speakers and topics are likely to be.  Match up speakers to rooms based on that.
  2. If you have a terribly popular speaker, put him or her in a general session, don’t put starter speakers up against a star.

For anyone interested, here’s the PowerPoint presentation I gave — it’s pretty much still accurate, though club newsletters don’t get the same attention that they used to.

ClubNewsletters

Role of the PDG

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A PID out to pastureDoes your district put old District Governors out to pasture?  Or does it treasure and utilize this immense amount of experience to help the district and its members?  It’s not just an honorary title that means everyone applauds them every time they attend a function!

The district bylaws mention a past district governors committee in a lengthy list of other committees that the District Governor may appoint as deemed advisable (bottom of page 10).  TI also has a one-page policy on Role of Past Leaders Within Districts that’s good to review as well.  (Remember that International Directors and International Presidents were once District Governors too!)

What does a PDG bring to the table?  Quite a few things:

  • Knowledge about “how it’s done” in the district (though things may have changed since they were DG!)
  • Coach for the district trio (DG, LGET, LGM) and other district leaders
  • Advice on how to address challenges and where sensitivities may lie
  • Assistance at area and division events when trio members can’t attend
  • Experienced trainer for club officer training (but make sure they’re up-to-date)
  • Long-term view for strategic planning

In addition, the Immediate Past District Governor (IPDG) has specific value:

  • Voting member of the DEC
  • Reminders of critical deadlines (e.g., budget, submission of club officer training info, when to order contest/conference supplies)
  • Recognition of the previous year’s accomplishments at the October/November district conference

Don’t forget about the PDGs, call on them to help your district succeed!

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Award overload

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Ever been to a district conference where it seemed like everyone got an award?  Some districts have what feels like hundreds of awards.  At one district, I swear, they handed out an award for the conference education chair’s brother-in-law’s dog’s fleas.  Well, almost.

Awards are great things.  It’s the primary form of recognizing and rewarding our members’ accomplishments.  I wish we could give every CC recipient $1,000 like McGraw-Hill does, but alas, it’s probably not in the district budget.  Nonetheless, it’s critical that we do recognize our accomplishments.

Have you ever sat through a Lt. Gov’r of Education droning through a list of 50-100 CC recipients at a district conference, or a list of all the members who sponsored a new member?  Did this do anything to motivate them, or to motivate others to get that award?  It doesn’t seem likely.

Too many awards can dilute their value.  Handing out awards with no explanation for the accomplishments that earned the award has little value.  Reading lengthy lists of names as quickly as possible will bore the audience, and isn’t going to achieve anything useful.

Here are some key tips:

  • Recognize major accomplishments in the context of your audience.  Reading out a lengthy list of CC awards at a district conference isn’t helpful, though having them (and other awards) in a printed keepsake “Hall of Fame” booklet is a great idea.  Instead, recognize those recipients at the area or division level (depending on the size of your district).  If you must recognize a large group, ask the audience to hold their applause until all names have been called, and have them stand at their place.
  • Explain what the individual did to earn the award.  One of the best examples is a well-done DTM ceremony.  While the new DTM is walking down the reception line shaking hands, the emcee reads 2-3 paragraphs about the recipient, especially including details on their year of district leadership service and their high-performance leadership project.  Be specific with the praise, just like a speech evaluation.  (Yes, it requires some advance preparation!)
  • Present awards in a timely way, as soon as possible after the accomplishment.  Rather than waiting for the end of the year to present an “Area Governor of the Year” award, why not also have four “Area Governor of the Quarter” awards every three months?  (Same for Division Governor and even Toastmaster of the Year/Quarter.)

If you haven’t handed out many awards, consider doing the “Presenting an award” project in the advanced manual “Special Occasion Speeches” (this works especially well with someone else doing the “Receiving an award” project in the same manual).  There’s a skill to the “grip and grin” routine for the camera!  For more award presentation tips, TI has a good page on this topic.

Running unopposed?

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Running for Second Vice President is an interesting experience for me, particularly running against other candidates.  Of course, running for a world-wide office is considerably different from running at the district level.  When I was Area Governor, I was appointed, and for Division Governor, I was unopposed.

When I ran for Lt. Gov’r Marketing (LGM), there were two other candidates (rare in my district!), and I took it pretty seriously.  I developed a tri-fold brochure and a small poster to take to all the division contests, and the other two candidates were at all the same contests with a flier as well.

At the election, I gave a two-minute speech, and I honestly don’t remember a word of it at this point, but I guess I got through it (I was an ATM-B at the time).  No one got a majority at the first vote, it took a second vote before I got a slight majority (64-61, I think).  It really was a great experience!

As is typical, I was unopposed for Lt. Gov’r Education and District Governor (photo above).  When I announced for International Director, someone else also announced, but a couple of months later, he dropped out due to a huge increase in responsibility at work.

However, I still ran it as if I were opposed, hitting 11 out of 16 district conferences in the region in the fall and spring (the others were on conflicting dates).  I had a professional photograph taken, did a tri-fold brochure and a posterboard to take to conferences, and built a web site.  I had intended to set the campaign up as a High Performance Leadership project, but I have to confess that when I became unopposed, I didn’t follow through on that idea.

In many ways, I regret that no one was running against me.  I believe a little friendly competition can bring out the best.  Still, I have a chance to do that now, as there are at least three other people, all incredibly talented, also running for Second Vice President.

I really enjoyed handing out the announcement cards at the end of the Palm Springs convention last month.  It gave me a chance to confirm what some people were suspecting, and I had some fascinating (though brief) conversations.  It was my last opportunity to see most of these Toastmasters leaders face to face before the convention in Las Vegas next August!

I will be reaching out to Toastmasters leaders in the coming months with personal phone calls (campaign rules sharply limit my use of other means), and I look forward to finding out more about what YOUR concerns are, where we’re doing well, what we can improve upon, and sharing my ideas about future directions.

Please feel free to contact me directly (details are at the bottom of my site’s home page), or if appropriate, just add a comment on my blog here, I’ll reply!

District hall of fame

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Added one more new feature to the district reports.  My own district needed a list of the distinguished divisions, areas, clubs, and educational awards for last year to use at the fall conference, so I wrote a little Perl script to do it, and as long as I was at it, ran it against the rest of the districts as well.  You can find it on the reports page on my site, after clicking on a district, there’s a link labeled “Hall of fame”.

Let the fall conferences begin!

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Yes, it’s that time already!  Just got back from the first one, District 11 (Indiana and northern Kentucky), and it was a good visit. This was the first district I visited last year during my campaigning (and also the first district conference I’d ever attended outside my own district!).

I drove down on Thursday evening after work (from Chicago) for dinner with the group, and on Friday, we had two marketing visits, one with a casino and one with a bank.  We were early for the casino meeting, so we spent a few minutes becoming more familiar with their product.  There were quite a few people gambling at 8:30 AM on a Friday.

The district presented their annual C&L award to Thomas Carroll, President and CEO of Lakeshore Public Television, the northwest Indiana public television station (PBS).  D11 has a very interesting membership promotion based on a football theme; you earn yards and points based on club activity, bringing in guests and sponsoring members, etc.  It’s generating some great excitement — District 11 has some real fire in their eyes and will surely be distinguished this year!

Unfortunately, I have been suffering from a pretty bad cold the last few days, I almost lost my voice, but fortunately, it wasn’t until after I had conducted my afternoon educational session on “The Courage to Conquer:  The Four Critical Success Factors”.  My meeting with the district leaders afterwards basically consisted of me listening to them, and croaking out a few words!

This weekend is my home district’s monthly DEC meeting (no official role there), and next weekend is my home district’s conference, so not very far either.  Two more in November, D54 (Champaign-Urbana, also close) and D8 (St. Louis).

District visit schedule

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The district visit schedule has been approved.  I’ll be going to:

  • D11, Merrillville, IN, Oct. 10-11
  • D30, Elk Grove, IL, Oct. 24-25 (home district)
  • D8, St. Louis, MO, Nov. 14-15
  • D54, Champaign, IL, Nov. 21-22

I’m excited about D11 being my first official visit, as it was also my first-ever Toastmasters district conference outside my home district, and the first visit during my campaign year.  They’re all in driving distance too, so no airport hassles this time.

As part of each conference, I will present a keynote based on International President Jana Barnhill’s theme for the year, “Toastmasters: The Courage to Conquer”.  Every ID makes up their own speech; I’m going to structure mine around conquering each of the four critical success factors.  And I’ll make it a manual speech too!

At most conferences, I’ll also lead an educational session, something appropriate for each district, like staying distinguished, the DCP, club coaching, etc.

Perhaps the most important part of each trip is the marketing visits.  This typically involves meeting with executives from companies thinking about sponsoring a local Toastmasters club.  It can also include media visits, like television or radio or print.  And it can also include presenting an award to companies that have s history of strong Toastmasters support.

The goal is FIVE marketing visits for each district.  I’d love to see every district achieve and even exceed this goal!  Getting new clubs started early in the year makes the whole year go much more smoothly!

District 8 conference, St. Louis

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The last spring conference! 11 district conferences in the course of my year of campaigning. And the I-70 bridge across the Missouri river is closed — the hotel is just over the bridge, a couple more miles, but traffic’s not moving. I inched closer to the next exit, and finally, was able to get off the stopped highway, with my car navigation system showing me the alternate route.

Friday night started with dinner and the evaluation contest with some time for socializing. Saturday morning had a continental Richard Avdoian gave a powerful keynote address about following your dreams, wherever they might lead you.

The business meeting went smoothly with a couple of minor policy changes to vote on, and uncontested district elections. Lunch included another keynote address, this one by Sharon Scott-Moyer.

The afternoon was filled with education, I started by attending Jerry and Cindy Hoeflein’s session on contest briefings, which was very useful. Then it was time for my own Club Coaching session, which had every seat in the room filled! This time, I concluded with a clear call to action — asking people to sign up to be a club coach, on a sheet in the back. Seven people signed up! But the district needs fifty. I gave the list to the District Governor.

Dinner was a delicious prime rib, followed by awards, officer installation ceremony, and the international speech contest. Sunday, I get to drive home — and get to stay home for a few weeks! The regional in Kansas City is just six weeks away! Meanwhile, there’s DEC meetings and club meetings and new club building to keep me busy.

District 35 conference, Wisconsin Rapids

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With this conference, I’ve visited all eight districts at least once this year. And perhaps, just perhaps, I’ve saved the best for last.

Saturday morning kicked off with the opening ceremonies, and a lot of club banners festooned with a lot of ribbons! The keynote speaker was Professor C. Y. Allen, who gave an amazing inspirational speech titled “Leadership Communication: The Art of Shaping Change”. He discussed generativity (what will our legacy as ancestors be), and intergenerational communications, and he defined leadership as a series of transformative acts.

Lunch included some awards, and a keynote speech from Dietmar, followed by the business meeting. After that, the international speech contest was held in the late afternoon. I thought that was an interesting scheduling decision, and kind of nice, as it gave the audience plenty of opportunity to talk about the speeches and who they thought did better (the results were announced at the very end of the Saturday evening program).

After the Saturday banquet, the District Governor presented annual awards, things like Area Governor of the year. To me, this seemed a little unusual, since there’s still two months left in the year, the two months with the most work, when half of the educational awards will be filed. The district did a great job of presenting them, with a dramatic multimedia presentation (Powerpoint with photos and music).

One local award I especially liked is the “T” award, which is like Toastmaster of the year, except to recognize someone’s contributions over the course of 5-10 years, not just one year. I think that’s something all districts could support.