Tag: convention

Annual business meeting proxy returns by district

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It’s always interesting to see how seriously the districts take the business of collecting proxies from the districts.  With the new electronic process for processing proxies, we hit a record high average (68.5%), well above previous years (52.4% last year and 48.9% the year before).

But how did individual districts do?  I’m proud to say that my home district had 92.0% of their clubs represented (missing just 15 proxies) and ranked 4th.  D50 set the mark with 95.3% (all but 7 clubs!).  D54 and D49 were 2nd and 3rd, each missing just 4 clubs (they’re much smaller districts).

At the other end of the spectrum, those districts with the most room for improvement start with D34 (just 13.9% of clubs represented), D87 (28.5%) and D81 (36.7%).  Just six districts were under 50%, and 46 were over 70%!

Full details in the Excel file here:  ProxyReturns

Sunday: Back home

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The scene at my Sunday morning flight’s gate at the Palm Springs airport was quite interesting; most of the people were Toastmasters! Including Jana, who declared as she boarded the plane “No speeches on this plane!”

It was a long trip home, via Dallas, but fortunately, I got upgraded on the last segment home to Chicago. It’s good to be home, but I’m already missing all my Toastmasters friends!

Soon it will be time to start calling them though, it’s just 2 1/2 months until the ILC starts their International Officer Candidate Survey (IOCS)!

Saturday evening: President’s dinner dance

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Tonight was the installation of the new board, Pat Johnson’s presidential address, and the formal beginning of my campaign.

The installation concluded my service on the board, and Poh Kim Siong and I exchanged Past International Director pins.  Pat’s address gave a review of how she got involved in Toastmasters and how we can all contribute.

The moment that Jana gaveled the convention to a close was when my work began, though.  That was the signal that candidates could begin their campaign in earnest in the hall outside the ballroom, as people left.

I brought 2,500 cards to the convention, and I think I must have given out 1,800 of them.  I received so many comments like “I thought you would run, and I’m so glad you are!”, it was great!

I couldn’t have made it through without my campaign team, most especially my campaign manager, PID Joan Diehl, and Joe Esler.  This was my last opportunity to meet most of these people face-to-face until the next convention in August, 2011.  The dancing didn’t stop until 1 AM, and I stayed to make sure I had a chance to meet every single person there.

Saturday lunch: PID luncheon

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Obviously, I’ve never attended one of these before.  The main event was “announcements”, where 2VP candidates formalized their ambitions.  As widely expected, Mohammed Murad from UAE announced (ID 2007-09), and then Mary G. Russell announced (ID 2008-10), and then I announced (ID 2008-10).  Bash Turay (not sure what years he served as ID) announced he is also running again.

It’s going to be fun, that I am certain of!

Saturday morning: Business meeting

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Was quite interesting, THREE ballots for Second VP!  It didn’t wrap up until 11:30, after several breaks while the ballots were counted.

Second Vice President, first ballot:
Ralph Wallace, 5,673
George Yen, 4,545
Bash Turay, 3,636
John Rich, 3,499

Second ballot:
Ralph Wallace, 6,843
George Yen, 6,087
Bash Turay, 3,972

Third ballot:
George Yen, 9,365
Ralph Wallace, 7.801

Region 2:
Kevin Doyle, 10,810
Debra Ledsinger, 6,629

Region 4:
Jacqueline Schnider, 12,795
Patricia Hannan, 4,628

 Region 6:
Gina Cook, 13,733
John MacDonald, 3,652

Region 8:
David Hollingshead, 10,581
Patricia Gann, 6,749

Region 10:
Roberta Perry, 14,710
Lois Sicking, 2,704

Region 12:
Mike Storkey (uncontested)

Region 14:
Gea Ban Peng, 12,048
Adelina Cuizon Roya, 5,392

Friday dinner: Golden Gavel Dinner

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Wow, caught myself typing LUNCH up there in the headline — hard to think of it as dinner.  The honoree was Carolyn Kepcher, who became famous as Donald Trump’s assistant on “The Apprentice”.  Now, however, she is writing books and providing career advice in a New York Daily News column, and started a web site to help professional women, WorkHerWay.com.

Her presentation was a very interesting review of how she got to where she is.  One of her most interesting claims is that she didn’t believe in work/life balance; she used to believe that if you weren’t in the office, you weren’t working.  But the Blackberry has changed all that.

The distinguished districts were the guests of honor for this, they were announced, and pictures of the DGs and the trio names played on the video screens throughout dinner.

Friday morning: Candidate showcases

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Oh my back!!!  4 1/2 hours of interviews, standing up, reading the same set of questions to 13 different ID candidates (and four 2VP candidates), while making it sound fresh and exciting every time!  At least there was a short break in the middle; the first version of the schedule had NO breaks at all from 8 AM to almost noon.

It was very interesting hearing what the candidates had to say, of course, but by necessity, I’ll keep my opinions on those to myself.  Some were clearly a little confused by the question, but I could not do anything to help them understand it — just repeat the question verbatim.

Being on the other end of these questions next year will certainly be interesting!

Thursday evening: Speech contest semifinals

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As a second-year director, I was chief judge for one of the nine semi-finals, but it wasn’t exactly hard work.  WHQ staff had already recruited all the judges, timers, and ballot counters, and all I had to do was find a tiebreaker judge.

It was a great contest, we had a fantastic winner, and I can’t wait to see how he does in the finals on Saturday afternoon!