Today is another busy day like yesterday, spending most of the day next to this larger-than-life black-and-white photo of myself. Lunch was the Golden Gavel award, to Pamela Wallin, the Canadian journalist and media personality. She had quite an interesting talk on Canadian/American politics, and just as she made a small joke about Canadians being the Americans’ best friends, whether the Americans knew it or not, the stage lights slowly dimmed down to black! At first, I think some thought it was a joke, but they didn’t come back up. She kept on going, and then someone got a spotlight on her, and after a while longer, the lights sort of came up. Apparently a technical glitch!

Thursday evening was the candidates’ showcases, where we (candidates) travel through four rooms (grouped by region) answering questions for 10 minutes about our candidacy in a table topics style. All three unopposed candidates (including myself) were put into a single group for questions (opposed candidates were questioned alone). It was only enough time for an average of three questions for each of us.

In the first room, I didn’t do very well on a question about team-building, but I think I did well in the second and third rooms. In the last room, which included my own home region, I was in the middle of answering an easy question, and I completely forgot what the question was! I mumbled off something about “and that’s why we have to keep on doing what we’re doing”, when I should’ve asked for the question to be repeated. But from the feedback I got afterwards, not many people noticed, I guess.

After that, all candidates were asked to attend a reception back in the area where our tables were set up, but that was in a different building, and the attendance was pretty light. By the end, I had given out over half of the printed directories, and actually had a few DGs coming to me and asking for them! Apparently there was some pretty good word of mouth going around, I received many many flattering compliments on the value of the book.

I have one important word of advice for anyone running for ID: Have your poster printed locally, instead of trying to bring it on the plane. It’s probably the most clever thing I’ve done on this trip. Instead of bringing a 30″x40″ poster on the plane (impossible, either carry-on or checked), I e-mailed it to a print shop a few blocks from the convention center, and then I walked down and picked it up this morning. Just slipped it right into the holder in place of the blank foam-core board that TI provided.

Oh, and one other important bit of advice: Wear comfortable shoes. You’re going to be doing a lot of standing.

There was just two events in the convention schedule that I attended, the board of directors open briefing (standing room only!), and the opening ceremonies. At the board briefing, we learned a few important things:

• The board has approved spending $1.2 million on an upgrade of the software our organization runs on, since it will be unsupported by mid-2010.
• District 79 is potentially splitting, and district 59 is adding Poland to its boundaries.
• In the governance proposal, the district changes are being taken out of next year’s vote, deferred to a separate initiative.
• For the new regional advisor (RA) concept, we’ll begin with just the RA for marketing, since that’s where the most help is needed, and the best “return on investment”.
  • Other RAs will be phased in over time.
  • For now, the IDs will continue to support the DG and LGET.
  • RAs may be reimbursed for one visit to each district per year, subject to the approval of the International President.
• The special half-day training for all district “top three” this morning was very popular, which led to the announcement that starting next year, all district officers (top three) would be trained at the international convention.
  • The implication, which some people didn’t seem to like, is that the regional conferences will no longer include training. Along with the proposed change in how IDs are elected (effective in 2010 if passed in August 2009), I suspect June 2009 may see the last regional Toastmasters conferences.
  • Mid-year training will continue at the regional level, but supplemented by the presence of world headquarters staff (like they’ve done at regional before).
• The board approved a pilot (coordinated by headquarters) for districts to hold one of the two district council meetings (presumable fall) electronically, to help districts that are geographically large.
• In the new governance scheme, IDs will return to two-year terms, not three years as previously proposed.
• There are some potentially significant changes in the ID/IO campaign rules, like requiring campaign web sites to “stand alone” and limiting electronic media distribution (like CDs and flash drives). They defined three levels of campaign violations, minor, major, and severe.

The evening’s opening ceremonies were great. An hour before, the board and candidates came in for a practice run. We got to practice walking across the stage, smiling and waving at the audience! It’s very important to use the left hand, since we walk left to right, and turn our head to the right to face the audience. Using the left hand avoids obscuring our faces as we walk.

The opening ceremonies began with the parade of flags, the U.S. and Canadian national anthems, and then finally our brief shining moment, our walk across the stage — no one tripped! The keynote speaker, mountain climber (and author) Laurie Skreslet, was next, talking about our seven dragons (our faults) and “SAFE PEACE” (an acronym for the things that drive us). The majority of his talk was about his amazing climb up Mt. Everest (the first Canadian to do so), with fantastic photos and video. I know one thing for sure now: I’ll never climb a mountain like that.