District Administration

Program Quality Newsletter – October 2023

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By the time you will be reading this article, we will be well into contest season as clubs around our District are taking part in the Humorous Speech and Table Topics Contests. Contests offer us an important variation to our club agenda – one of the runners up in the International Speech Contest recently reflected that the only way to really improve is to compete and to stand alongside other contestants to learn from them and to strive to do better.

It is true that this is one of the ways that we can improve – but the truth is that Toastmasters is a personal journey. Some people join to develop public speaking skills, some join to develop leadership skills, some join to try and win contests, and sometimes people just join for a new social network.

I want to tell you about my personal trainer Joe. Joe is a really capable and confident guy in the gym environment. He is at home around the gym, he knows how every machine and bit of equipment works. He works with clients like me all the time and helps them achieve their goals. But Joe decided that he wanted to become a better speaker. Not just because he had listened to me ‘talk up Toastmasters’ in many of my sessions with him, and not just because he was getting married soon but because he wanted to improve.

When Joe visited the club, he would soon join, he was met with warmth, encouragement and soon saw for himself what the Toastmasters program could offer him. We recently had a conversation about how the Pathways program has supported him and how it feels genuine excitement about planning his next speech. Joe is also competitive and does not mind the odd bit of recognition and has said he wants to achieve a Triple Crown.

Why did I tell you about Joe?

It is because just using one member as an example, he visited because a Toastmaster member encouraged him to try it. He joined because of the quality of experience that his club offered him, and he enrolled on Pathways and discovered what a fantastic journey it really can be.

Have a think about who you can encourage to visit your club, how you can contribute to the quality of your club – and do check whether you or members of your club has correctly enrolled on Pathways – 800 of our members are still missing out!

For those club or district officers that are responsible for putting on contests this time of year, first of all thank you for your efforts in this important area, but please don’t forget to check the latest edition of the speech contest rulebook to ensure we don’t have any problems along the way.

If you do have any questions about contests – please do not hesitate to get into contact!

Best of luck to all contestants and I look forward to seeing the Area winners at a Division contest soon!

Steve Vear DTM

Program Quality Director

Thanks Toastmasters! 2023 Edition.

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Thanks Toastmasters

You may have seen on Social Media channels the return of our “Thanks Toastmasters” membership building campaign after I underpinned our district website and made coding improvements. Many thanks to our past PR Manager Susan Rayner without whose help I’d still be scratching my head. The fulcrum for our campaign is our Club Finder which lives at the web address included on the adverts: https://d91toastmasters.org.uk/find. I’ve also included the club finder here for you to try out. Clubs have been categorised according to the day of the week on which they meet and whether they meet online or have hybrid meetings. 

Please check that your club information is correct and shown as you would like it to be. Please update the details at TI Club Central if needed and then let me know so that I can update them here. If your club is missing, it is either because it has restricted membership (this applies to many of our corporate clubs), or because it has no email address on record, and enquiries on our website cannot be forwarded to you. 

      Our back catalogue of “Thanks Toastmasters” adverts is in the Digital Templates page of our website. We are using them on our district external PR channels and we would encourage you to use them too. We will be augmenting them with new material and suggest you bookmark the page in your browser and check for updates occasionally. Our first features Toastmaster Tom Bailey. Please read his article in this newsletter.

      Choose a Start-up Mentality

      In my past career, I sold Digital Analytics solutions. It’s true that high profile brands think nothing of spending six figure amounts on Digital Analytics every year. None the less, it came as a surprise to me just how few companies would engage with us, with our under 5000 members and modest budget of a fraction of the cost of one postage stamp per member, looking for a better solution. Customer Relationship Management vendors not engaging? It’s their business to create engagement! There was evidently a learning point to tease out.

      I estimated Toastmasters International’s global revenues based on our membership subscriptions and joining fees. I was very surprised to find that if TI globally were a UK Educational charity, it would not even rank within the top 300. I estimated that we would fall about 306th, just ahead of centuries old Queens College, Cambridge, and just behind 15 years old Help for Heroes. Our District 91 represents just 1.5% of TI’s total. 

      I invite you to perceive our district differently: not as a well established 100 years old institution, but as a new start-up that has just got going. Our diminutive stature compared to other educational charities suggests that our potential for growth is enormous. Let’s all take personal responsibility for getting our message across: that Toastmasters delivers on its promise of life enhancing benefits.
       

      Thanks Toastmasters! 

      Best wishes, 

      Nikita Parks, PR Manager 2023-24

      Everybody Counts

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      Everybody Counts - Meet Finance Manager Valerija Slavina

      Hello members,

      Val here, your District Finance Manager. I am excited to finally be able to let you get to know me a little bit more.

      I call 3 countries my home (Belarus, Lithuania, UK), I speak 4 languages (Russian, English, French and Italian) and have countless interests. I am a former swimmer who dreamt to be an actress but ended up being a marketing professional and sustainability project manager.

      I have been in Toastmasters since 2019 and took on roles of a President, VPE, VP PR on the club level, Area Director on the district level and the table topics district finalist on the speaking level. I am a member of a corporate club – Moody’s Europe and a community club – London Olympians.

      When I am not working, making projections and calculations, or spending hours in the gym, you can find me improving my focus and patience at a Kung-Fu class. I am passionate about fashion and make sure to show it off when I am out enjoying a newly opened restaurant in London or attending the latest art exhibition dedicated to impressionists. Outside of Toastmasters I volunteer in a local school every week teaching disadvantaged kids English and Maths.

      You might say that is the reason I got the role of the Finance Manager – I love numbers (and I am so good at sticking to a budget when I have no money). But I am equally driven by challenges. We are facing a year of uncertainty with the increased supplier costs, VAT added to the UK goods, and membership fees up. And it is rather hard to say what the future holds. But with the ongoing support from the members, encouragement from the District Leadership Team I am honoured to help navigate through financial hurdles and solve the puzzles.

      I am looking forward to getting to know as many of you as possible. If you want to find out more about the District finance, do calculations together, expand your network, etc. Please reach out. And who knows, maybe by the end of the year life will put me face-to-face with someone so influential that I can still fulfil my dream of becoming an actress (keep it a secret).

      But for now, Welcome to the Finance Department, where everybody counts!

      Valerija Slavina

      Finance Manager 2023-24

      P.S. Some of you have asked about VAT being added to Toastmasters’ joining fees. I am clarifying the situation with both Toastmasters and a British Accountant, as we have received conflicting information about when and to what it should be applied. When we know more, we will inform all clubs by email.

      The Laughing Toastmaster – Mind the Mind

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      Mind the Mind - Sonia Aste

      Join the Conversation. It’s Mental!

      The 10th of October brings Mental Health Awareness Day, and boy do we need it! Just last week a friend of mine called shouting, ‘Meta (aka Facebook) is an evil plan to RULE THE WORLD by Mark Zuckerberg!!’ I’m thinking … Meta? Everyone knows it’s X (aka Twitter) by Elon Musk!

      People are going crazy! Oh sorry – I shouldn’t say that, it’s not politically correct. Instead, I’ll use the word LOCA, (crazy in Spanish), that’s OK, isn’t it? Cause of the song? ‘Living la vida loca’? Such a great song about mental health! Thanks Ricky Martin, you made it cool to be crazy!

      I should know. I’ve suffered from depression, which in case you’re wondering is like going on a terrible date. You’re exhausted, can’t wait for it to end but you’re expected to say, ‘Everything’s great’!

      Today one in every four people will suffer from mental illness at some point in their lives (WHO study). That means in every game of LUDO, one player will be affected. And no, we depressives don’t always play BLUE. 

      Statistics have never been higher. Not long ago it was one in every ten people. At least back then I felt unique and extra special! Now everybody is jumping on the mental band wagon and the remote working isn’t helping. You hear things like:

      ‘Oh, I have desk-phobia! I’m afraid to sit at my desk!’ – that’s not a condition … you just hate your job like the rest of us.

      ‘I can’t get out of bed. I have climate emergency anxiety! No, it’s not. You just stayed up Netflixing until 4am!

      Listen up people! Get your mental health together! Resources are limited and some of us were here first! And for goodness’ sake don’t say, ‘Well, we’re all a little bit mental.’ That’s like telling someone who’s bankrupt, ‘Well, we all have cash problems sometimes.’

      They say relaxion techniques help, which is why I took a course called ‘Mindfulness: Creating Inner Peace.’ The only peace I’m getting is if they can help me clear my credit card debt … the course was £150!

      Debt collectors aside, MINDLFULLNESS consists of staring into the horizon chanting stuff for hours. That’s all well and good, but what if you have a bladder that’s the size of a walnut? I ended up chanting, ‘I need the toilet, I need the toilet.’

      Don’t get me wrong, these techniques help, but there’s something to be said for munching through a jumbo size bag of KETTLE CHIPS (salt & vinegar) until I’m so bloated my face turns into a round, smiling emoji. Plus, it’s a lot cheaper (£2.50).

      For those with a sweet tooth, reliable sources say raw cake dough works a treat. Don’t worry about the sickly aftermath, after all, what truly fulfilled life doesn’t include Pepto-Bismol?

      What does NOT help is what I call the ‘Happiness Brigade.’ People who insist all we have to do is stay POSITIVE to beat mental health. They’ll say things like, ‘You have so many things to be thankful for,’ yes, but your advice is not one of them. You wouldn’t say to someone with a broken leg, ‘Why can’t you make an effort and go skiing, just start with the kid’s slope?’

      It’s time to talk. If you are suffering from mental health issues, come out of the mental health closet and seek help. Don’t wait until it’s so crammed in there you can’t even open the door. By the time I came out there were so many skeletons in there it was like a walk-in graveyard.

      For the remaining three at the Ludo board (those not affected), it’s time to listen, something all Toastmasters learn to do with skill. Organizations like MIND, SHOUT, Mental Health Foundation and humble articles like this one are asking you to please join the conversation. Let’s create a world where we can talk about mental health without stigma and without shame.

      Now it you’ll excuse me I’m off to dance to Ricky Martin, because despite mental health issues, I can still shake my Bon-Bon.

      ——

      Sonia Aste is a Toastmaster who’s living ‘La Vida Loca.’

      More from Sonia on her website, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram