Chris Arning

The Laughing Toastmaster: The Geeky Feminist

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The Laughing Toastmaster: The Geeky Feminist Who says the age of miracles is past? Here’s one for you: I’m a GEEK! Me, the woman who has spent her life trying to be ‘cool’ but always ends up with parsley stuck between her teeth. Last week I successfully completed an after-dinner speech at an IT conference, making me … Read more

Spring Conference Contest Winners

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Spring Conference Contest Winners By Chris Arning, PR Manager Introduction The Spring Conference saw 4 epic contests and 4 winners from across the District. As always it was so inspiring to witness 8 contestants in each contest representing the best of their Division competing for the glory of the coveted District shields (seen below). I … Read more

Distinguished Clubs, Educational Awards, Contests

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Nearly Distinguished, Membership Recognition and Contests

Nearly Distinguished

Publication deadlines mean that I am drafting this article on the 30th April, rather than in May. It also means that as District we are “nearly Distinguished,” with 66 clubs having already passed the Distinguished milestone, we need two more to become a Distinguished district. When I look at the Toastmasters International dashboard, I also see that many other clubs are working hard to reach this goal and are tantalizingly close. I know from my three years serving as a club officer how difficult and how much hard work and planning is needed for a club to reach Distinguished or higher status. It is a great achievement and leading a Distinguished Club helps officers’ point to successfully running a team on their CV, to their employer or LinkedIn profile, hopefully meaning that members gain an economic benefit outside of Toastmasters. Please also remember that a member of the D91 Pathways Champion team can help club officers with data cleansing to ensure that clubs have claimed all or their DCP (Distinguished Club) points, just get in touch with me if you need this additional support.

Membership Recognition

On the City of London Toastmasters LinkedIn page, they recently wrote “receiving awards and recognition for our performance serves as a powerful motivator, inspiring us to continuously improve as speakers and leaders”. The text was accompanied by a video showing members having a great time being applauded by their fellow members as they received Pathways certificates from the Club President. This is one of the reasons why we ask clubs to register members on Pathways and to track their progress.

If you are a new member, don’t miss this great learning opportunity. Please do log-in to the Toastmasters website (toastmasters.org) and using the profile button to register on a Pathway. Choose anyone from the 11 on offer. If you need help deciding which one to choose, then to take the online quiz which matches your interests with a path. Registering and following the guidance in Basecamp will help you become a better speaker quicker than if you create everything yourself from a “blank page”.  I know when I am thinking about a design/communication problem I find it much easier to be creative when I have a brief to work to and it is the same for many other creative people. Using the training materials available in Basecamp will save a lot of time and effort, with the added benefit of making you a better speaker quicker.

Several clubs have said that they are concentrating on membership recruitment this year and not on Pathways recruitment. Unfortunately, this does not help clubs in the long term. An analysis of the last set of renewals shows that clubs with a high percentage of non-active Pathways members, are the clubs who lose most members when it comes to renewals. The help build membership clubs should have members who are fully engaged with Pathways and celibate their success in the same way City of London Toastmasters club do as its help with membership retention. If you are a new member, then please do ask your Vice President of Education or Membership to take you through the process of registering.

Contest Finals

The District 91 contest finals will be taking place during the annual conference between 12th and 14th May. We have 32 outstanding speakers competing all marshalled by four fantastic conference chairs. If you have not already done so, please purchase a ticket and support your Divisional finalist. Several past district finalists have said how they gain a great deal of confidence when they see familiar faces in the audience. To support your divisional champion either in person or online, please purchase your ticket at the D91 Conference website at https://conference.d91toastmasters.org.uk/buy-your-tickets-here/

Diane Richardson,

Program Quality Director, 2022-2023

Club Growth Newsletter – May 2023

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Eight Weeks to go: Let’s Finish Strong!

We are just eight weeks away from the end of the Toastmasters year, and I want to encourage you all to finish strong.

District 91 is currently sitting at an impressive number four in the world for member payments and with Select Distinguished status, which is a testament to the hard work and determination of all clubs in recruiting new members and renewing existing ones.

I am pleased to announce that we have welcomed almost 2000 new members since July 1st, 2022, and I want to extend a warm welcome to you all.

We’ve accomplished so much already, but there’s still work to be done when it comes to the number of paid clubs.

To ensure that we end the year on a high note, I would like to ask for your help in completing any outstanding renewals as soon as possible. Every renewal counts towards our overall success, and with your support, we can achieve our goals.

Additionally, if you or anyone you know is interested in starting a new club in the community or within your workplace, then please don’t hesitate to reach out to me. This is a fantastic opportunity to expand our reach and make Toastmasters accessible to even more people.

I want to share with you my top tips to help you finish strong.

1. Don’t give up on your goals. Even if progress has been slower than you had hoped, keep pushing forward and identify what you can do in the next eight weeks to achieve them.

2. Use this time to make a final push to bring in new members. Invite friends, family, and colleagues to attend meetings and experience Toastmasters.

3. Encourage members in your clubs to work together to achieve their goals and finish the year strong for added motivation.

4. While growth is important, it’s equally important to focus on the quality of your meetings and the experience your members are having. Ensure your meetings are engaging, interactive, and fun, and encourage your members to take on leadership roles and give feedback to improve the club experience. This will also motivate guests to become members.

Finally, take a moment to reflect on what you and your club have achieved this year so far, whether it’s a successful speech contest, a new member achieving their goals, or a great meeting. Celebrate your successes and use them as motivation to keep going.

To further motivate you, here is a reminder of incentives still to be won:

Net Growth 10

The first 20 clubs who, by the 15th of June 2023, achieve a net growth of ten new members from their 1st July 2022 base number will win £100 to boost their club’s funds. Will your club win?

Beat the Clock

Clubs adding five new, dual, or reinstated members with a join date between May 1 and June 30 receive a Beat the Clock ribbon to display on the club’s banner.

District 91 will offer an additional monetary incentive for unique new and reinstated members only of £30.

Phoenix Award

This is an award to any club that started the year with 12 or fewer members and throughout the same Toastmaster year built their membership to charter strength (20 members) by 30th April 2023. Three clubs were so close to achieving this award but sadly missed out on this deadline.

So, to give everyone a fighting chance, we are extending the deadline to 15th June.

Let’s use the next eight weeks to complete our goals and finish strong.  I look forward to seeing you at the finish line, I’ll be holding a virtual (sustainable and reusable) bottle of water for you for the final month in the next newsletter.  Let’s keep going and let’s win together!

Debbie Williams
Club Growth Director, 2022-2023

The Laughing Toastmaster: What They Don’t Tell You About the D91 Conference

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When Rakhi Jain (conference PR) suggested I write an article on, ‘Why Attend the D91 Conference’ I was all for it! At the same time, I thought, ‘Shouldn’t she ask someone who’s a bit more Toastmasterly?’ And by that, I mean people who say things like, ‘Everybody’s a Winner!’ Not a bitter person like me who thinks, ‘If everybody is a winner, why didn’t I even PLACE?‘ and starts to cry?

But then I realized these Toastmasters are too busy doing Toastmasterly things, like TED Talks, or travelling to far-away lands to get photographed with their Toastmaster magazines.

So, you’re stuck with me, which isn’t such a bad thing. Who better to convince you to go to the conference than someone who’s prepared to tell you what nobody else will?

Let’s start with the Evaluation Contest, in which one courageous speaker gives a speech and then waits for ten contestants to tear it to pieces (I mean analyse it thoroughly and thoughtfully) and provide constructive feedback.

Under these circumstances you’d think first prize would go to the speaker for their bravery. Not the case. Another set of evaluators (called ‘the judges’) evaluate the evaluators evaluating and decide on ‘BEST EVALUATOR’. Besides being a terrifying tongue twister, it begs the ultimate evaluators’ question, ‘Who judges the judges?’

Next up are the Workshops, not to be confused with pawnshops, which is where I ended up in order to buy the ticket (cost of living crisis and all that).

Workshops are divided into two main categories, EDUCATIONAL and INSPIRATIONAL, below some excellent examples:

EDUCATIONAL

  • Using Storytelling to do your Tax Returns
  • Learning When to SHUT UP (reserved for advanced Toastmasters)
  • Overcoming Procrastination (usually postponed)

INSPIRATIONAL

  • If You Can’t Convince Them, Confuse Them.
  • When One Door Closes, Pick The Lock
  • Why Toastmasters make good lovers (always oversubscribed with a massive waiting list)

Then there’s the Keynote Speaker, who usually features as the headliner of the event. Now, in most conferences around the world, the keynote speaker is a smashing success! An outstanding communicator! A worthy conference headliner!

But this is Toastmasters.

And what the keynote speaker does not realize is that their world-renown-speech is being scrutinized, analysed and evaluated by every single Toastmaster attending. We can’t help ourselves, it’s part of our DNA! In fact, I would argue the keynote speech should be followed by an evaluation, if only to make the speech even better? Just my opinion.

This leads to the most important event of the conference, The International Speech Contest, which alone is worth the family silverware I had to pawn.

This is the Superbowl of Speakers! The Cricket Cup of Communicators! The Olympics for Orators! And like in the Olympics, these outstanding speakers have faced huge hurdles to get to this point: CLUB, AREA and DIVISION levels. They now face the DISTRICT, which is not so much a hurdle but more like a POLE VAULT, the stakes are so high!

Because of all the years you would want to reach the World Championships, this is the one to do it, as the event will be taking place in beautiful Nassau! Imagine! A beach combo of sizzling sun, sea, sand, sex, speeches and speakers!

But we’re not there yet, and while the more Toastmasterly folk from D91 will be saying, ‘May the best speaker win’, I’m cheering,  ‘May my club member win!’

Finally, there’s the Gala Dinner. An opportunity to relax with fellow Toastmasters while enjoying a delicate meal and drinking responsibly. Ha, ha! Wishful drinking. More like skipping the meal and hitting the booze for a decadent-debauched-downright-degenerate-all-nighter!

If you think this is some kind of joke, it’s not. This year the conference title is ‘Inspiring Futures’ and the gala dinner is sure to inspire all kinds of shenanigans and  over the top fun! Not to mention the perfect opportunity to practice what you learned in the Lover’s Workshop:

Why do Toastmasters make good lovers? They practice body language, know about pace and rhythm and get to the point.

I won’t go into any more detail, because as every Toastmaster worth their speech knows,

‘What happens in the Toastmasters Gala stays in the Toastmaster Gala’.

See ya there!

Sonia Aste is an engineer, writer and comedian. She’s a Toastmaster and member at Riverside Communicators Club.
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