Allen Paul

Celebrating Gillian Myers: A Beacon of Youth Leadership in District 91

by

Wow! I am extremely humbled by this award! As soon as I heard about the Youth Leadership Programme (YLP), I knew it was something I wanted to be involved in. With public speaking now on the national curriculum, and the TMI YLP workbooks outlining each lesson; I knew now was the moment! However I didn’t feel the most experienced or qualified Toastmaster, I was not even sure about standing in front of a class of students! Yet, what I lacked in confidence I made up for in determination, in the full belief this programme really can transform the lives of students at Richard Taunton Sixth Form College.

The YLP was certainly a team effort, I could never have run the programme without the support and expertise of everyone who contributed. 11 toastmasters from Hamwic Speakers and Alex from Solent Speakers all participated on the course. As coordinator I attended every week, and 2 toastmasters joined me each week.

I would like to thank Janet Alkema the District 91 Youth Leadership Programme Champion 2023-2024 for nominating me! Janet gave me a huge amount of encouragement, support, and invited me to her YLP in Farnham. This experience was invaluable, giving me the vision and self-belief to go for it!

It has been so rewarding to see the students build confidence and public speaking skills; they really came alive in front of a live audience at our final celebration meeting between the college and Hamwic Speakers. By stepping forward I have also grown, gaining confidence in leadership, workshop facilitation, and public speaking. This has been one of the most fulfilling projects, and I am already planning the next YLP!

Thank you so much to everyone who contributed, we did this as a team! And thank you so much to District 91 for even thinking of me!

I dedicate this award in loving memory of my brother William Myers, who we very sadly lost during this YLP, and who always supported me on my public speaking journey.

   

Article by:

Gillian Myers
Hamwic Speakers, Southampton
District 91 Youth Leadership Facilitator 2023-2024 Award
in recognition of exceptional leadership and devoted service

 

Pathways to Success: Updates, Contests, and Rewards in District 91

by

Hello Fellow Toastmasters, 

It’s been a busy and productive month filled with club officer training, preparations for the contest season, and much more. As we look ahead, I’d like to focus on key updates to help you prepare for what’s coming next. 

Pathways Update 

The below message from Toastmasters International highlights an important transition ahead that I want to bring to your attention: 

Base Camp Outage (October 9th-25th, 2024):
To facilitate the transition to a new system, Base Camp will be inaccessible from October 9 until October 25, 2024, for critical platform testing. If you’re currently working on a project or plan to during this period, please download any necessary materials or wrap up outstanding tasks beforehand. Below are key items that will not transfer to the new system, so make sure to act if these apply to you: 

  • Feedback on Base Camp: If you have feedback you’d like to keep, whether it’s constructive criticism or words of encouragement, take a screenshot or save the text elsewhere. 
  • Documents in My Documents: Download any uploaded files you wish to retain. Once the new Base Camp is live, you can upload them again. 
  • Assess Your Skills Activity: This feature will be redesigned in the new system. If you’d like to retain your responses, take a screenshot or save them separately. 
  • Understanding Your Leadership/Communication Style Projects: The answers to these questionnaires won’t be transferred. Be sure to capture your results if you’d like to keep them. 
  • Story Collection Tool (Engaging Humour Path): Save any information recorded here by copying and pasting it to another document before the transition. 
  • Meeting Roles: Save a record of any meeting roles you’ve logged in Base Camp. 
  • Completion Certificates: Certificates won’t transfer, so download copies of any you’ve earned. 

Additionally, to ensure your educational progress is fully up to date, please ask your club officers to approve and submit any pending Level completions via Club Central before October 9. T 

The new system promises to be more user-friendly and will feature training videos to help you navigate the changes. 

 

 Contests 

For those of you who missed the recent webinar on contests with our District Chief Judge, Arnaud Sartre, you can catch up by watching the recording here:

In the meantime, here are some general FAQs that may help clarify any queries you may have: 

  • All contests at Area, Division and District Level will be held in person only. 
  • A Note on Eligibility: A contestant competing in, for example, the Table Topics contest is not eligible to hold a contest official role (e.g. judge) within the same contest type in which they will be competing. They would not be able to compete if they were a judge for the same contest type in a different area. It would be fine if they were competing in Table Topics and a judge for the International Contest. However, if a contestant were the judge for the same contest type that they would be competing in, they would be disqualified from competing as they no longer meet the eligibility requirements listed on page 7 of the Speech Contest rulebook. 
  • Remember, in Toastmasters, every contest is guided by our core values of integrity, respect, service, and excellence. 

 

Click here to see all the upcoming webinars we have for the year. Register for our webinars for October. They run weekly on Sundays at 5pm – 6pm. 

6th Oct: What is Speechcraft – https://tinyurl.com/D91-what-is-speech-craft 

13th October: How to use Concur – https://tinyurl.com/D91-HTUConcur 

20th October: Conflict resolution – https://tinyurl.com/D91-conflict-resolution 

27th October: Growing membership – https://tinyurl.com/D91-Growing-membership 

  

Incentives and Congratulations

Brighton & Hove Speakers Club 

Cardiff Toastmasters 

Excalibur Speakers 

Hallmark Speakers 

Harrovian Speakers Toastmasters 

Infineum Milton Hill Speakers 

Kent Speakers Club 

Legacy Speakers Brixton 

Lewisham Speakers Club 

London Cardinals 

London Olympians Speakers  

LSBU Public Speakers Club 

 

 PMI UK Toastmasters Club 

Polish Your Polish 

Riverside Communicators 

Salisbury Speakers 

Shilling Speakers 

Surbiton Speakers 

Sustainable Speakers Online 

The Speakers of Croydon Club 

Wembley Stadium Speakers 

Winchmore Hill Speakers 

Wye Knot Speakers 

 

For clubs who would like additional general training, please connect with your Area Director to arrange further sessions.  In the meantime, here is a link to Club Officer Tools—which has further information on roles, tutorials, resources, and more for club officers.  

Link: https://www.toastmasters.org/leadership-central/club-officer-tools  

 

Save the Date – District 91 Conference 2nd-4th  May 2025 

Mark your calendars! The winner of each Division contest will compete in the District Contest at the District 91 Conference in May 2025. This exciting event will take place in London, with the venue to be confirmed soon. If you’re interested in supporting the conference, perhaps as part of a High-Performance Leadership project, please get in touch. There will be plenty of roles available for those who want to get involved and make the event a success.  In the meantime, check out this video of me looking at venues – the fun has started! 

Thank you for your ongoing dedication and enthusiasm. Let’s continue working together to make this a remarkable year for District 91. 

 

Warm regards,
 

Debbie Williams 

Program Quality Director, 2024-2025 

District 91 

 

Spotlight on Innovation: Edeje Onwude’s Impactful Role in D91 Webinars

by

Have you attended a D91 webinar lately?

If the answer is yes, then you have Edeje to thank for that. Edeje Onwude is a relatively new toastmaster, she joined Chiltern speakers in April 2024 and has quickly made a significant impact. She is currently the VPM for Chiltern speakers and oversees our weekly webinar sessions, ensuring they run smoothly, aligning with our goals to continuously improve our program and provide value to all participants. We’re excited to have her energy and dedication on board. Here she shares a little more about herself and highlights some of the upcoming webinars.

Edeje Onwude, D91 Webinar manager and VPM for Chiltern Speakers club, tells us a bit about herself and her experience setting up and running the D91 webinars.

Tell us a little bit about yourself.

I am a marketing & communications expert, with 14 years of brand, marketing and communications experience working with some iconic brands like Coca-Cola, Henkel and Reckitt, where I have managed everything from new product development to brand growth strategies and communications. I currently sit on the board of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC), responsible for running the mentoring programme and student partnerships. Giving back is very important to me, hence I volunteer with Cancer Research UK, UN Women UK and Diana Awards. It is also one of reasons I took up the webinar manager role. In my free time, you will find me reading a book, writing (including speeches), listening to podcasts or spending time with family and friends. I also raise two beautiful souls who teach me things about life and myself every day.

What have you been doing for D91?

I’ve been co-ordinating with the D91 leadership team, to build the weekly webinar schedule, based on member’s needs, the Toastmasters calendar and aligned to the district goal of continuous improvement of the program. I also ensure the smooth running of the webinars by setting up the zoom sessions, liaising with the PR team to promote the webinars and gain participation. Finally, I work very closely with the zoom master’s to collate feedback from each session – allowing us to get input from participants to continue to improve the experience.

What have you most enjoyed?

My favourite part has been the people (I know corny right?) and exposure. Being a relatively new Toastmaster, working with the district leadership team has exposed me to the opportunities both from a leadership and learning perspective. Something that is not always obvious looking from only a club Lense. On a lighter note, I have also decoded more Toastmasters acronyms e.g. DEC – That is not short for December as I thought; it is District Executive Committee meeting. You’re welcome 😊

What is the most challenging aspect of the role?

What I find challenging on some occasions is low participation on the webinars. Imagine spending weeks setting up a webinar, getting a host and zoom master. The host comes prepared with content and only 2 people show up for the webinar. I find that very demoralising. I am never one to give in to a challenge though so with the help of the collated feedback and webinar engagement analysis, I am working to pinpoint the most interesting topics for members and improve the experience.

How has your experience so far helped in your day job?

I am currently on the lookout for my next opportunity. Hence, supporting with the webinars has helped me make use of my time productively by utilising my existing skills of collaboration, content development/curation, stakeholder management and listening to enhance the learning experience for Toastmasters. It has also been great for expanding my network of Toastmasters beyond the club level. If you’ll like to connect, you can find me on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/edeje-onwude

Click here to see all the upcoming webinars we have for the year. You can also register for our upcoming webinars in October. They run weekly on Sundays at 5pm – 6pm.

6th Oct: What is Speech craft – https://tinyurl.com/D91-what-is-speech-craft

13th October: How to use Concur – https://tinyurl.com/D91-HTUConcur

20th October: Conflict resolution – https://tinyurl.com/D91-conflict-resolution

27th October: Growing membership – https://tinyurl.com/D91-Growing-membership

Navigating Our Toastmasters Journey Together: A Message from Your District Director

by

I remember writing a similar article class year, where I reflected that sometimes the best intentions simply do not go to plan. The key of course is not to beat ourselves up, take it as a learning experience and decide when good is ‘good enough’. I had every intention in creating a video for my newsletter article this month – but I simply ran out of time. With one or two curve balls in my professional world, coupled with some important Toastmaster milestones, I have had to settle with this format, so that our friendly Public Relations Manager does not get upset with me for holding up his publication date!

We are fast approaching a key deadline in the Toastmaster calendar, where districts have to submit their success plan, budget, communications plan and market analysis. Thanks to amazing work from the District Leadership team we are almost there in ensuring these deadlines are met. The District Executive Committee approved our success plan (strategy) for the coming year, and then both the District Executive Committee and the District Council approved our budget. I am so grateful to all the district leaders, together with Club Presidents and Vice Presidents of Education who attended council a couple of weeks ago, ensuring they carried out their important role in the governance of District 91.

On 11th October Toastmasters International will officially be 100 years old. I think its important to pause for a moment in tribute to Dr Ralf C Smedley who would surely be so very proud of what has happened to the organisation he founded. Members will have no doubt heard me say this, but whether you are looking to find your public speaking voice, whether you are looking to become a better leader or even if you are hoping to become the next World Champion of Public Speaking, Toastmasters has something for you. Don’t forget the ‘plus one pledge’ which was launched at the International convention – a challenge for each member to bring just one guest each with a view to get them to join your club. People often say that Toastmasters is a best kept secret and I could not agree more!

Thinking about things closer to home, I need your help! We are still looking for a number of Area Directors across the district to join the team. Area Directors carry out a really important role in supporting the clubs in their areas with advice and support, and take responsibility for local officer training and the management of local level speech contests. If you have been a member for a little while, and don’t mind doing a tiny bit of travelling to visit the clubs who don’t currently have an area director – I would love to hear from anyone out there that could offer us some support with some of the critical tasks, and to try and limit the pressure on our existing officers.

Last night at my home club, I finally got through my Level 4 in my current pathway, and inline with the reminder from Debbie have already planned my speech ahead of the base camp outage.

Best of luck for all those currently competing or will be competing in this round of speech contests – remember, whatever the result to have fun and enjoy the learning experience.

A Wedding at City Limits Speakers

by

On August 22nd at the early morning online meeting of City Limits Speakers Toastmaster Rashmi married Toastmaster Leo!  

The club played host to the Wedding Speech Workshop devised and led by  DTM Andrew P Bennett.  

Many guests become members of Toastmasters International Clubs because they have been asked to give a speech at a wedding or partnership celebration.  

The Wedding Speech Workshop made an excellent Open House event for the club. 

So real was the sense of being at a wedding that one guest participant even sent written congratulations to the Bride and Groom. 

 Adding to the enjoyment of the occasion our ‘wedding family’ and even some of our guests dressed in style for the great day. 

City Limits members gave short, model wedding speeches with Toastmaster Andrew underlining the all-important learning points. He also gave us an interactive  physical and vocal warm up to calm nerves on the big day. 

 We were pleased and mindful that there were several guests attending their very first Toastmasters meeting . To assist them Toastmaster Laura Chattington  gave a ‘Tips for creating a speech ‘ presentation. 

Indeed attendance included not only many  folks from the UK , but also New Zealand , Korea and Uganda . 

A breakout session allowed guest workshop participants to try out parts of speeches they were preparing and receive encouraging feedback . 

There were also fascinating public speaking discussions in response to the workshop content. These ranged from how to cope with noisy distractions during a wedding speech to the balance between a scripted speech and spontaneity for an inexperienced speaker. 

Thanks were given to Toastmasters Kim Crosby ( Workshop Promotion) and Julie Parker ( Acting President for the session) who joined with Toastmaster Andrew in organizing the event. 

City Limits Speakers will receive credit for their model Wedding Speeches towards their Pathways Educational Awards. Our guests were delighted and inspired by this Open House event.  

 Julie Parker & Andrew Bennett.