District 99 2019 Spring Conference
As hard as it is to believe, the District 99 Spring Conference & AGM in Saskatoon is less than three months away—May 3-5, 2019!
We have a fantastic program of incredible speakers and professional development sessions lined up, including DEBBIE MOYSYCHYN. As the Chief Change Artist at Re3 Consulting, Debbie helps companies create sustainable change and high-performing organizational cultures—something that will benefit all Toastmasters.
So, don’t wait until the last moment to register as we don’t want you to miss out on an incredible weekend of learning and networking. Register now!
If you are interested in joining the Conference Planning Committee or becoming a volunteer at the event, Conference Chair Linda Holmevik would love to hear from you at lholmevik@gmail.com
You always get more when you give. If you are interested in contributing your time or have something to contribute, contact springconvention2019@d99tm.org.
IS DISTRICT LEADERSHIP IN YOUR FUTURE?
Past District Director, Donald Zurakowski, is the chair of the 2018/2019 nominations committee for District 99 and he is extending the date for submitting your candidacy for District Leadership to March 24/2019.
If you are interested in putting your name forward for an Area Director, Division Director, Club Growth Director, Program Quality Director, or District Director…or any of the other supporting roles in District 99 please complete the attached forms and send to Don at Donald.Zurakowski@d99tm.org.
District Leadership is a highly rewarding experience and is just one step along your Toastmasters Journey! Step up and be the Leader you have always known you can be.
Toastmasters – Where Leaders Are Made!
NAVIGATE TO YOUR FUTURE
2019 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING/CONFERENCE
May 3 – 5, 2019
Saskatoon Inn & Conference Centre
Saskatoon, SK
Nearly 150 Active clubs
Become the speaker and leader you want to be.
Confident, charismatic leaders weren’t born that way. Toastmasters members learn to tell their story. They listen and answer. Through our community of learners, they find their path to leadership.
Over 2000 Members
News
Boosting Membership: A Strategy That Works
Last summer, most of College Plaza’s guests didn’t join.
Six months later, 70 percent of visitors to this Edmonton club were becoming members and giving their icebreaker within five weeks: 14 of them in five months.
The Success Strategy?
Personal engagement.
Most guests come via the website and email in advance. “Getting a prompt – same day – reply is important,” says President Wenjng He. A warm welcome and guest pack is equally important and finding out what the guest hopes to gain from Toastmasters.
The follow up – a personal email referring to visitors’ expectations and needs after their first meeting – invites them to the next one. So does a friendly reminder the day before. If they return, they are asked to be the joke master at their third meeting, to join the club and are offered a date for their icebreaker (no one to date has refused). They get a mentor and icebreaker pack.
From the moment they walk through the door they have someone they can ask questions of. Guests and new members often go for a coffee with a Toastmaster to learn more about club roles, which most guests have found confusing at their first couple of meetings.
Club Coach Nick Wilson says, “Last summer when the club was still work in progress people came to meetings for weeks and weeks and we never asked them to do a role or join, and even after they joined it would be months before they did an icebreaker. Everything was on the guest.”
The Result?
Only 30 percent of guests joined.
Today, that’s 70 percent.
A problem the club has to fix is that becoming a bigger club (20 members+ per meeting, with each meeting having perhaps five people who weren’t at the previous one, and committee members needing assistants to handle the workload) has crashed into Pathways. New members aren’t sure who does what: takes the money, processes membership, the Pathway Champion (not the same person as VP Education), matches mentors, does the agenda, arranges for them to speak in other clubs… The club found that some members had given up to seven speeches without registering any – once they’d given a speech they were reluctant to go back and do the training for it afterwards. Pathway speech registration being clunky also put them off: an unfortunate combo.
Nonetheless 17 members of College Plaza who’ve joined since May are now finally on their Pathway to success.
The University of Alberta’s Department of Surgery, which is ranked sixth globally for transplantation, is preparing its first Communications Strategic Plan – with a lot of Toastmasters International input going into it.
District 99 PR Manager Nick Wilson, who heads the department’s communications, authored the plan using knowledge gained from his experience as a journalist and TM leadership and communications programs. “Everything I’ve learned in Toastmasters: delegation, performance measurement and accountability, the High Performance Leadership Project and the advanced series it comes from, including speaking on video and public relations, is pouring into the strat plan,” Wilson says.
“In fact,” he adds, “I wouldn’t have landed this job without the confidence and impromptu speaking skills I needed for the interview – when I first joined Toastmasters I was even nervous about introducing myself at meetings.”
The University of Alberta is no stranger to the program. It has three clubs, and Toastmaster volunteers have been teaching speech craft at The Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences – ranked number three in Canada and 15th in the world for research – for more than three decades.
Toastmasters has provided the opportunities to improve my skills that benefit me in the workplace. Less than a year into my membership and I can already feel the results of my efforts. I no longer mumble or speak too fast while giving instruction, and my interactions with newcomers in the workplace have become more fluid. My confidence is through the roof and so I have become a better leader and have garnered respect from my colleagues. Whenever my team receives new members I no longer fret over my initial meeting with them – I know I can wing it with confidence!