It’s that time again. Time for our officers to get trained in the roles for the upcoming Toastmaster year. It’s Summer TLI (Toastmasters Leadership Institute).
We started at 9 o’clock this morning. Our incoming District Director Bob Johnson gave the introduction and led us in the Pledge of Allegiance. He then introduced the new members of the trio. Dr. Elizabeth Carter for Program Quality Director, and Stephanie Scott for Club Growth Director. All three belong to exceptional clubs in the Cranberry area, so it goes without saying Cranberry Township will be well represented.
Our morning Toastmaster, incoming Division A Director Julia Wick, recognized past and present District Leaders and our International Director Melissa McGavick. Our current District Director Patti Thor installed new leaders for 2021-22. She also looked back on the current Toastmasters and her role as District Director. We’ve come a long way virtually.
We have an exceptional team of Division Directors and other District leaders coming in for 2021-22. Kat Licause moderated our Spirit of Toastmasters panel discussion and I know she’ll rock that Public Relations Manager position. Bob also introduced an exceptional slate of Area Directors. Afterwards Julia introduced our keynote speaker, Lance Miller.
Some of the things that I took away from Lance Miller’s keynote speech were the four areas of growth and the three reasons why clubs fail. Also, he mentioned that a Toastmasters membership is like a gym membership and that you want to build your club to be the best.
Isabelle Billig and her team led a great session on quality meetings. It means you don’t want to miss this meeting, and it means that members will be coming back after they’ve attended one. Quality meetings go a long way in determining success. Also, plan your agenda, plan your meeting roles, and plan for contingency.
Marci Antion and Carol Snyder taught us the importance of Member Engagement and Retention. We learned about some of the Soutb Hills members and how they’ve benefitted from joining Toastmasters.
Diana Lomelin led a panel discussion on the Pathways mentor program, and Joe Arnold led our Division breakout.
He made sure everyone got called on. He discussed the importance of the club success plan, highlighted clubs that were struggling (Penn Hills comes to mind as Nate Stephens resurrected the club from Extinguished to Distinguished). Joe also hit on evaluation. Mike Dalton provided the best answer to the question when discussing how he does evaluation. I think, as Toastmasters, we should follow his example of writing out an evaluation and saying something different for the oral evaluation.
We ended the afternoon with a club officer training session. Dr. Elizabeth Carter and Chad Hudson taught us incoming Vice Presidents of Education how to do our roles. It’s a lot more technical now with Pathways. I learned a lot in the session and am confident I can do my job well. I like the tips that Liz provided. In the next few weeks I plan to design a chart showing off our education goals and where we stand for the Distinguished Club Program.
We concluded with words of encouragement from our trio. I’m excited to see what they do for our District in 21-22. We have some great leaders coming in next year and I’m excited to serve as an officer under this exceptional group of Toastmasters. I leave you with our 2021-22 District Leaders.
Bye everyone. ❤️ you.
Stylish 🍒 