Saturday morning was the District 13 Fall Symposium. It was the first time Fall contests took place since the final conference eight years ago. For the District, today was also a bittersweet day.
It’s one of the last events for the District before they merge with Northeastern Ohio (District 10) to form the new District 219 in the 2026-27 Toastmasters year.
The morning kicked off with a continental breakfast prepared by the kitchen staff at the DoubleTree. I was serving as the Sergeant at Arms for the first contest, which was Table Topics. We were looking for a room to put the contestants in while the first person spoke. Our Toastmaster of the Day and current club president, Mike Dalton, did an excellent job serving in that role.
Program Quality Director Sharon Imes and her team did a great job putting this program together. Autumn and Helene were amazing co-chairs. I’m proud to serve with both of them in Area 23. Autumn is Area 23 Director and President of Western Maryland Toastmasters, and Helene is Vice President Membership of Laurel Highlands.
Keynote speaker Craig Valentine surely did not disappoint in his morning and afternoon presentations. Mr. Valentine is a world champion of public speaking and wasn’t afraid to pass off some tips onto us. Here are some of the tips I acquired from him this morning:
- Less is more
- Find your “Steves”
- When it comes to leadership, you’re the pilot!
- Sell the results, not the product, idea, etc.
- Those who blame, stay the same.
- Share the credit, take the blame.
- Speak to one, but look to all!
The Table Topics question was, “If you could take a single photograph of your life, what would it look like?”. For me, my answer would be… one that showed how I’ve evolved over the last quarter century. Therefore, it would look like a mural. Starting with college, when I lived in Johnstown before transferring to Slippery Rock University. Then it shows my struggles to adjust to a post-academia life, before I joined Toastmasters. Fast forward to when I earned my DTM and started working on my blog. Finally, go to the present as I’m still writing, learning to be my unique self, and enjoying seasonal coffee at Cutie’s.
The Humorous Speeches had us laughing. We wouldn’t have been able to do that if not for the warm up exercises that our Contest Chairs had us do. Lin Hitt was Humorous Speech champion, while Michael Nelson took home the trophy for best Table Topics speaker.
We welcomed some first time Distinguished Toastmasters in the family. Our Club Growth Director Douglas McCall earned the highest honor in Toastmasters as well as TJ Rose. We took part in the gauntlet and high fived them. Melissa McGavick earned another DTM as did Colleen Bynum. Colleen is our past Area Director and was attending the event online via Zoom. We gave out awards for Toastmaster of the Year as well as Area and Division Directors of the Year. Also, our current District Director Kathy Wolf did something nice for her current team of Division Directors. She recognized them for stepping up to serve the District in that capacity and gave them medals. She also gave one to Dawn Carnegie, who would have been Division A Director. That division was retired because it had a small number of clubs. Thus, those clubs were merged into Divisions B and D. That was a kind gesture by our District Director.
Dawn also won Area Director of the Year. We met at the Winter TLI last December and she wowed my outfit that day as did many others. The weather was cold, but my heart was warm inside at WCCC. Julia Wick won Division Director of the Year. I attended her Division Contest in March. While I helped out at B and C, I enjoyed the speeches that morning. Cricket Henderson won Toastmaster of the Year. Congratulations to those who won these awards as well as everyone else who was recognized.
As soon as the contest ended, the 2025 Fall Symposium did too. Our next event is Winter TLI on December 6 at WCCC. We saw videos of those who are promoting it and helping to put it together. I enjoyed my full day and thus ends the Three Saturdays in October miniseries.
Stylish 🍒 