A testament to the value of the Youth Leadership Program

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From  Andrew P Bennett DTM District 91 Youth Leadership Adviser, 2014/15 District 91 Toastmaster of the Year

Youth Leadership - Toastmasters InternationalFellow Toastmasters I can remember taking on my first club Presidency and wanting to contribute something of lasting value that other members could then mold and build upon as time progressed. I think we all, be it as club member or officer, are working towards both our personal growth goals and the continued long term development of our clubs, areas,divisions , districts, taking the communication and leadership skills we gain at Toastmasters International out into our daily lives. communities, the world ……….we can and do make a difference!

One aspect of our Toastmasters Program that is definitely making a difference, especially in District 91, is our commitment to the Youth Leadership Program which is inspiring young people in schools and colleges. That is why I am encouraging you today to choose your favourite tea or coffee and sit down for five minutes to read a remarkable post from Paul Olaiya who gave a speech during ballot counting at Tower Conference in May 2015.

It is time for us to feel both humbled and very proud that through the commitment of our District 91 Toastmasters giving their time and skills as YLP Coordinators we are making a difference to young people’s lives. They are delighted to learn and taking their new found skills with them through continuing education and ……out into the world!

Enjoy reading of Paul’s experience ………https://oasessite.wordpress.com/2016/02/13/leadership-gravitates-to-the-one-who-can-talk/

PR Publications Service – Call for Quotations

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PR Publications Service – Update

Following discussion at the District Executive Committee in September and November, this February we published a call for quotations for the PR publications service on behalf of both Districts 91 and 71.  By the closing date of the 25th of March we had received four proposals from prospective suppliers.  Having reviewed those proposals, the leaders of both districts agreed to re-appoint Panpathic Communications for the period 2016-19, subject to annual renewal.

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Toastmasters UK and Ireland (Districts 71 and 91) are seeking a supplier to deliver a public relations publication service for the period beginning July 2016 for three years, subject to annual renewal.

The following document; UK and Ireland D91 and D71 PR Publication Service Requirement, describes the requirements for the service and provides information about Toastmasters International. It also provides the questions we would like to have answered in any quotation for the service.

The closing date for quotations is the 25th March, 2016.

May 7-8 Spring 2016 Londinium Conference – update

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Keynotes, Contests, Councils and Elections
Come and see our District International Speech and Evaluation Finals!

Date: 7 -8 May 2016
The Grange City Hotel, 8-14 Coopers Row, London EC3N 2BQ (close to the Tower of London)

Spring 2016 Londinium Conference Highlights:

Saturday 7 May Keynote – David Taylor The Naked Leader

 

Sunday 8 May Keynote – Mohammed Qahtani, 2015 World Champion of Public Speaking

 

Buy Tickets :
HURRY!! EARLY BIRD OFFER ENDS 29 FEBRUARY 2016
Click the button below to buy your tickets for Spring 2016 Londinium Conference

Saturday 7 May 2016
09:15 Mohammed Qahtani “The Other side of Toastmasters”
14:00 Max Ridder Patrick “Struggling Clubs/State Street revival
14:00 Elizabeth Toohig “Table Topics”
14:50 David Taylor “Keynote speech”

Sunday 8 May 2016
10:20 Bret Hollywood “Personal Branding”
10:20 Florian Bay/Andrew Bennett “Youth Leadership Program”
11:30 Maria Deegan “Visual Aids”
11:30 Ciaran Moore “Leadership/REP”
12:15 Eric Skates “Mentoring”
13:55 Mohammed Qahtani “Keynote Speech”

And much more….

  • Speech Contest Finals
  • Evaluation Contest Finals
  • Workshops, Keynotes & After Dinner Speakers
  • Election of new District Officers
  • Networking Opportunities
  • Tasty lunch, Gala Dinner & other entertainment

Date:  7- 8 May 2016

Buy Tickets :
HURRY!! EARLY BIRD OFFER ENDS 29 FEBRUARY 2016
Click the button below to buy your tickets for Spring 2016 Londinium Conference

Contact us:
Email: info@springconference2016.org
Facebook: Spring2016LondiniumConference
Twitter: @SpringLondiniun

Youth Leadership – one coordinator’s experience

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The Toastmasters Youth Leadership Program (YLP) is a workshop consisting of eight one- to two-hour sessions that enable participants to develop communication and leadership skills through practical experience. The YLP is presented during or after school. 

A local Toastmasters club serves as sponsor and provides a coordinator to present the program. The individual coordinator attends each meeting, where he or she will lead most of the presentations and counsel participants. The school provides a member of staff to support the sessions and to follow up with the young people between sessions.  YLPs have also been run at Youth Centres.

Our most recent YLP in London

Florian Bay was the coordinator for the most recent YLP that has been sponsored by a club in London. We asked him to tell us about the experience and what he had learned.

YLP Hilde and Florian

Q: How did you get involved in Youth Leadership?

A: It began with a phone call from a fellow club President who suggested I’d be a good person for this challenge. I‘d previously been made aware of Youth Leadership by one of my mentors Andrew Bennett (our District 91 Youth Leadership Adviser) but did not take the lead in coordinating a project, until that phone call.

Q: What were the objectives for the school for the YLP?

A: The school’s objectives were linked to the IBCC/Career Ready programme aimed at providing middle-achieving young people with transferable skills that can be used in the workplace.

Q: Toastmasters is about teamwork: who was involved?

A: Canary Wharf Communicators sponsored the YLP and provided the equipment to get it running. Visiting Toastmasters running educational sessions were Catherine Casale, Elizabeth Toohig and David Marks.

The key contact at the school was IBCC/Career Ready coordinator Hilde Lewis. Her help was invaluable in making the programme a success. She helped by highlighting the value of the skills the students could learn from the YLP; supporting each session as well as following up with students in between sessions.

Huge credit must go to the student committee itself. The committee members quickly made use of the tools provided to them, primarily spreadsheets, and liaised with Hilde to ensure that roles were filled.

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Making your Area Directorship a High Performance Leadership experience

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From Alan McMahon, Area 61 Governor 2014-15

HPL Alan McMahon The ‘Best’ Plan

I know that you won’t believe this, or maybe you will, but when I was in my teens and early twenties I was young enough and arrogant enough to really think that I knew everything, I knew the best way of doing things, it had to be Plan A or in other words it had to be Plan Alan . It was all about meeeeeeeee!

A few hard knocks from life, and entering the world of real work, and I soon came to learn that to achieve your goals you must instead always go with Plan B, which was of course the BEST plan.  And that BEST plan was very often found and made to happen when other people were involved, in other words when you had have a team working at and making the plan a reality.

Knowing that I decided that when it came to being the Area 61 Governor last Toastmaster year it was not going to be based on a single person …. The vision was that the Governorship was to be a team effort.  The hope was that this approach would continue in the year ahead with the renamed role of Area Director.

How did we start?

The first step of in this was to be have two Area Governors which happened with, Steve Brewer, who had the formal title Assistant Area Governor but who was in reality a joint Governor.

The vision continued with the idea that the Area Governorship was to be a Team of people and much bigger than the two of us. We wanted huge support and input from as many of the Area members as we could get.

The previous year’s Governor Coralie Francis joined the Area Team ( Council), and along with her many of the Club Officers and Members from our five Area clubs including Gill Orstein, David Phelops, Mike Freedman, Peter Jacques, Indra Sikdar, Rob Edlin, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc ……joined the Team.

All of this focus on teamwork was very deliberate and gelled exactly with making my Area Governorship year the focus of Toastmasters High Performance Leadership Program (HPL).

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