In this blog, I’ll talk up Toastmasters, my upcoming dinner tradition with Mr. Clougherty and, my recent trip to Ligonier.
This past weekend was the 2023 District 13 Conference which was held at the Doubletree Pittsburgh hotel in Washington, PA, near the Meadowlands. I didn’t attend, however I have been to a past conference at this venue. It was April 2015 when Sharon Hill was the keynote speaker.
I was sad to miss what was a great conference but I saw pictures from one of my fellow members in Greensburg. Her husband was competing in the Table Topics and Speech contests. Also, new officers were nominated for the district and division as well as the finance manager (formerly known as District Treasurer). We vote for four division directors, as well as the three “District Trio” positions. Those are Club Growth Director, Program Quality Director, and District Director. We also vote for the Finance Manager. All other positions are usually filled before our summer Club Officer Training in June, including the Area Directors.
Our officer list for Greensburg is nearly complete as six of the seven roles for next year have been filled. All we’re still looking for is a club secretary. I’ll be assuming the duties of Club President starting on July 1. Back on March 15, I was asked if I was interested in leading the club and immediately agreed.
For the longest time, I’d been going through the motions in Toastmasters and wasn’t sure I wanted to stick around too much longer. I didn’t know where I was in my path as I hadn’t spoke in several months plus, my interest had been waning since the pandemic forced us all to meet online back in the Spring of 2020. When Jim and Michelle asked me about serving as President at Greensburg for the upcoming Toastmasters year, that changed things and renewed my interest. My excitement for going to the meetings has come back. Even though it was too little too late for me to sign up for the Spring Conference, I also had other pressing family matters on my mind as well.
2023-2024 will be a great Toastmasters year for me and for Greensburg. I plan to give more speeches and be a great example that my club can follow. I want to stay up to date on the Distinguished Club Program and learn all the paths in Pathways and what they entail so I can educate myself better. We have a chance for our club to be no worse than Select Distinguished by the end of the year.
I will do everything I can to lead us to Presidents’ Distinguished by June 2024.
This month kicks off another year of Mr. Clougherty and I getting together for dinner. We have done this tradition regularly since 2013. It’s just a nice way for these two longtime friends to catch up. We’ve known each other since I started my first day of high school back in 1996. I was a student of his and also assisted him on the swimming team. He helped me to become a better person and being on the team with him helped me develop better social skills.
Even as I graduated and moved on in life, our friendship has never died. I visited a few times for practice and he always tells his freshman swimmers about me. Our first meal together this year will take place on April 27 at Oliver’s Pourhouse. I have a slate ready to go for 2023 on where to eat. Since the swim team just had their banquet Sunday, I might add Rizzo’s to that list too.
Finally, I took advantage of the beautiful weather on my two days off last week to go see the Super Mario Bros movie. I talked about that more in Friday’s blog. I got a nice walk in on Friday at Twin Lakes and drove out to my happy place; my little Hallmark town and little Stars Hollow, Ligonier. I watched the world go by from the Diamond, had an ice cream cone from the Ligonier Creamery, and thought about all the fun things I want to do.
It’s a side trip but it’s nice to getaway once in a while. I got some sun on Friday and it’s probably the most time I’ve spent outside in quite a while. I hope to make it to a Night Market or Country Market some time this summer as well.
Stylish 🍒 