Second Round of Club Officer Training
is Coming!
Save the date! December 1st is the first day of the second round of training and District 99 is hosting a Toastmasters Leadership Institute in Edmonton. As club officers, we are not born knowing how to do our jobs. Training will give you the leg up and help you to serve the members of the club to achieve a first-class club environment that supports their growth and achievement. And, after all, Members Are The Main Thing!
District 99 has adopted that motto to drive everything we do. Offering training to club officers is just another way we serve the members. Members benefit from a healthy club environment. And, that is where trained club officers come into the equation. The statistics don’t lie. Clubs with trained executives achieve more success and growth.
The Toastmasters Leadership Institute is Club Officer Training taken to the next level. Not only will you receive the basic requirements of your role and working together as a club executive, but you will also have access to sessions to help with practical skills that you will need to succeed. The program will be posted soon and will have a wide selection of value added sessions to help you finish your year strong.
As a special treat, we will have a special guest in attendance. Rob Christeson DTM, our Region 4 Advisor will be here all the way from Overland Park, Kansas. Rob will be providing his insight and expertise on the Pathways Learning Experience. This is a treat for our District Leaders to be exposed to a Toastmaster of Rob’s experience and background.
So, mark December 1st, 2018 on your calendar. Details to be posted soon, but the event will start first thing in the morning with registration at 8:30AM. The program will start promptly at 9:00AM. Make the commitment to your club members! Training is your opportunity to find out how to perform your role to the best of your ability.
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
Back from the Brink – From Facing Closure to Closing in on Distinguished Club Award
By Nick Wilson
Drayton Valley’s Derrick Toastmasters, located west of Edmonton, have just hosted their area contest for the first time in 15 years. It was an extremely high-quality competition, which is driving the club towards distinguished club status for the third time in almost three decades, and powered its champion speaker into the Division B contest with his eyes on the District contest at the Convention.
This energized team’s roll call of success is now: four CCs, three CLs, one ACB and an ACB-ACL pair of awards on target for end-April. Furthermore, it takes a leadership role supporting other widely dispersed clubs in this rural area: Derrick’s president is the dynamic Area 6 Director Von Eric Tandoc.
But it wasn’t always like this. Four years ago the club was down to one member and faced closure – until the then Area Governor Marc Haine put a team of toastmasters from Beaumont and Devon together, who built great camaraderie while traveling for more than a two-hour round trip on long, bitter winter nights to breathe new fire into the embers.
That same year the rejuvenated, now double-digit-member club celebrated its 25th anniversary. The mayor, MLA/government minister, and guest speaker – the semi-mythical club founder Peter Kossowan aka “Mr. Toast” – attended to celebrate its Phoenix-like success. Peter’s torch, sputtered but never went out and now burns as brightly as when he first lit it in Drayton Valley in the previous century.
Today, it’s Von who carries the Derrick torch on visits to clubs up to two-hours away. Of his frequent visits to different clubs and Toastmasters-related activities he says, “It’s rewarding and satisfying to be part of such a dynamic club and help its members reach their potential as I grow with them – I want to help grow the club that is responsible for my growth.“
And as for “Mr. Toast” – the serial founder, who in 2016 became the first Albertan on the cover of Toastmaster magazine for holding the world record for starting most clubs (164 at the time). He’s taken his total to 171, and says “there’s another on the way hopefully before the Convention.”
There will always be more torches to light.
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!