Well here we are, the final day of the Toastmasters year, and the final day for all of us in our 2015-16 roles.    As the dog walked me this morning, I reflected on the boundless effort and enthusiasm I could see all across the district this year and especially this last month as we got closer to the end.

It is extraordinary to me that we have so many people doing so much for the sake of our members and not one of us is paid.    Not paid in money anyway.  But of course we all know that everything we give we get back in the satisfaction we get from seeing others grow, and from growing ourselves as we stretch ourselves in our roles.  What is it from this year that will give you the greatest satisfaction when you look back on this last Toastmasters year?  Who have you helped? what have you learned?

For me, it has been being part of a team that gave me permission way up front at the beginning of the Toastmasters year to switch my leadership style towards the end to being a Pacesetting Leader.  If you read up on Daniel Goleman, the emotional intelligence guru, he will say that the ideal leadership style is Authoritative – set the outcome and let your people find their own approach to getting there.  But he says that there are times to switch into being a pacesetter, to drive the action and I think coming up to the end of the Toastmasters year is one of them.  I would never have felt comfortable doing it without the permission and encouragement of our team and I have learned loads from driving the pace in a thoughtful way this last month.

So, as your pacesetting leader, let me say – “One More Day!”

• One More Day to register the members and educational awards you know you have, but were holding back to make next year a little bit easier.  Be brave!  Believe you can do even better next year.
• One More Day to register your club officer lists on TI
• One More Day to submit Nominations for Recognition for members, clubs, area directors and division directors
• One More Day to thank the people who helped you achieve your goals, and those of your members, clubs, areas and divisions while you are still in post.

I know that all over the district there are stories of great achievement and personal success and behind every number on the dashboard, there is a tale to tell.  Here’s where we are right now;

• 10% of our clubs are Presidents Distinguished this morning
• 85% of our clubs are Distinguished or higher
• We have 12% club growth with a 17 new clubs this year
• We have 10% more members than we did this day last year – an additional 409 people
• 33 people achieved Triple Crowns – that is 3 or more different educational awards
• 635 educational awards were achieved by our members.

We are 54 member payments away from being a Presidents Distinguished District with one and maybe two clubs to complete chartering today.  That means that we need between 34 and 10 additional member payments across the district today.  So the pace is set for this final day – please do what you can to help us achieve this goal together.

I will be back in touch with you in Mid July when the dust settles to let you know how we got on and to celebrate all we have achieved this Toastmasters Year.  Thank you for your amazing service so far.  Best of luck for this one more day, and for your roles in 2016 17!

Jean