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

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 

 

Spring Conference Contest Winners

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

Real Benefits from a Virtual World

By Anthony Garvey, Shilling Speakers & D91 International Speech Champion 2023

Online Clubs in District 91

Do you think the majority of Toastmasters clubs in District 91 are online only, face-to-face or hybrid clubs?  The answer may surprise you.

38% of clubs in our District are hybrid clubs, just 30% have fully returned to face-to-face meetings, while 16% of our clubs are online only.  If you are wondering where the other percentages have gone, 11% of our clubs alternate between face-to-face and online and 5% switch between online and hybrid. I am Anthony Garvey, the recently crowned D91 International Speech Contest winner. Let me tell you my story:

It was a freezing Winter’s night.  I faced a 30-minute drive on icy roads to sit in a village hall with minimal heating for our Toastmasters meeting. Brrr! Later, I would have to navigate my way back safely, knowing my two kids would be fast asleep by the time I arrived home.

Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE Toastmasters.  But I wondered if there was a way to get to meetings without risking life and limb, while staying warm AND being around to tuck my kids in at night.

District contests as we know from our recent conference are now hybrid and with practice, you can win the contests if you compete online – I am living proof! And there are other benefits too.  While my fellow competitors were biting their nails nervously in the Barbican in London, I took time out in Tralee in the Republic of Ireland to nip down and make a refreshing cup of tea!  Try doing that at a live contest!

I began to visit online Toastmasters clubs – there are lots of them – and in just ten weeks, I had visited clubs in every continent in the world!  I was impressed by the warmth with which I was greeted at the meetings and by how much I was learning. As most of my work is now conducted online, I was also noticing an improvement in my communication skills, thanks to the tips and advice I was picking up on my journey of discovery.

Because of the time difference and scheduling Toastmaster meetings around work and family commitments, I began to narrow my search back down to the UK and Ireland, where there are 350 clubs. Some meet in person, others meet online and there are hybrid clubs too.  The variety is staggering. Let me tell you a little about just four of the clubs.

Melting Pot Toastmasters was originally set up as a corporate club in 2018 for employees of the businesses within Milton Park, a 250-acre mixed use business and technology park in Oxfordshire.  The club currently has 16 members and was originally chartered as an in-person club but has moved to online only.  Melting Pot Toastmasters meet every other Tuesday on Zoom, at 1200 GMT for one hour.

“We run a few joint meetings with other clubs in Abingdon and Didcot, to give our members an opportunity to socialise face-to-face, now that the pandemic has eased somewhat,” said Andrew Graner, the club’s VPPR, who carries out his club duties while working from California in the US.  “Whether you need help delivering a best man speech, preparing for an interview or developing your management skills, our club will help you along the way, plus you will also be able to meet an amazing group of people who share similar ambitions and challenges.”

Experience French Toastmasters also started as a physical club in London in September 2012 and moved to meet online in March 2020 during the pandemic. Their meetings are on the 1st, 3rd, and 5th Mondays of the month at 1845 GMT/BST.

This is a Bilingual French and English club,  they alternate between English and French language meetings and are open to people speaking both languages. An unusual trait is that the Toastmaster speaks the opposite language during their meetings, so you can experience and practice both French and English every time you attend an Experience French Toastmasters meeting. The club meetings are currently hybrid, at the London campus of Dauphine University near Angel.

“We have members based in the US, Greece, Cameroon, France, and the UK in our club,” said Club Mentor and Immediate Past President, Annelise Lepage.  “Hybrid meetings offer our members the flexibility to visit us in person or connect with us online, depending on their circumstances.”

Unlike clubs which have experimented with online and hybrid formats due to the pandemic restrictions, Firebirds was originally founded as a global advanced online club at a time when there were hardly any online options.

“We meet every Sunday and alternate between morning and evening meetings to allow for time zone differences. We currently have members in Australia, New Zealand, Nigeria, France, Germany, Ireland, UK, Canada, USA, Spain, Argentina, India and have guests from many other countries,” said club member Andrew P Bennett, twice a District champion.  “I enjoy the global feel of the club. It is truly Toastmasters ‘International’ and several members have won contests and undertaken roles in Districts around the world.”

Bennett said he was thrilled to see some clubs returning to in-person meetings, as he knows that for many, that is an important part of their club identity.

“Online clubs provide a different sort of experience. There is the possibility for Toastmasters who live a long way from an in-person meeting to join us or those whose working lives make in person attendance at a meeting difficult. From my perspective , with some mobility difficulties, it is helpful to be able to attend online.”

Eventually I whittled my shortlist of clubs down to just one and I joined Shilling Speakers.

Shilling Speakers has 28 members from 9 different countries, with three TEDx speakers and 7 Distinguished Toastmasters (the highest level a Toastmaster can reach), but the club is open to speakers at all levels. We also have 8 members who are completely new to Toastmasters.  We meet on the 2nd and 4th Wednesday of the month at 1930 GMT.

This year I was lucky enough to be elected President of the club, which is a great honour and even though it involves a little extra work, I still manage to get to our meetings.  I’m warm and cosy on freezing cold, Winter evenings and I also get to tuck my kids into bed at night.

So, if you are reading this and you want to improve your communication and leadership skills, or you simply want to try something different, pop along to an online or a hybrid Toastmasters club near you.  There is a great range of clubs both on your doorstep and online and I would encourage you to try a few out before settling on one or two to join.

We would of course love to see you as our guest at Shilling Speakers.

Register for any of our meetings by clicking here: https://bit.ly/ShillingSpeakers

To attend Melting Pot Toastmasters, register here:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/melting-pot-toastmasters-tuesday-lunch-meeting-tickets-394686236157

Should you wish to attend an Experience French Toastmasters meeting, please register via their Meetup group: https://www.meetup.com/experience-french-toastmasters or contact them on https://www.experience-french.org

Drop into Firebirds Collective through their meeting link: http://bit.ly/firebirds-collective or follow them on the Firebirds Collective Facebook page: firebirds.easy-speak.org

Check out the new online search tool on the Toastmasters’ website for the full range of clubs:  https://www.toastmasters.org/resources/online-only-clubs

Anthony Garvey, President, Shilling Speakers & D91 International Speech Champion 2023

D91 Leader Letter January 2023 Program Update

leader speaking to large audience

Program Quality Update

Training, contests, club success and the D91 Conference

We are now just over halfway through the Toastmasters year. It is a good time to review progress against your Distinguished Club profile.

At the District Officer Training this weekend we ran sessions to help Area and Division Directors identify what clubs need to achieve to become Distinguished by the end of June.

While becoming a Distinguished or higher achieving club is important for tracking members’ progress as well as that of the club itself, please also remember to have “high energy” and fun meetings, so that guests want to join, and members want to keep attending.

Training

The Club Officer Training sessions are now under way. A quick reminder that training in D91 is three hours long and includes a session specific to the officer’s specific role. It is important that training records are updated on a regular basis.

Area Directors, please let your Division Directors know as soon as possible who has attended your training and the role they perform at which club(s) as soon as possible so that the records can be updated. Doing this will avoid having to remind people to attend when in fact they have already attended a training.

Please also remind your clubs that if they have all seven club officers trained, they will win a set of club officer pins if this is the first time that they have achieved that goal this Toastmasters year. They can also win a £60 voucher if the club has already had 7 officers trained in the summer round of training.

Area and Division Training events can be found on the D91 Calendar

Contests

Please remember that club contests can be online, in-person or hybrid. Area and Division contests must be hybrid. This was agreed upon at the District Executive meeting in Brighton in September 2022.

Conference

The District 91 conference in May. The location contract is currently being reviewed and a conference update was provided at our District Officer Training over the weekend. Keep your eyes out for confirmation of the conference location very soon!

Diane Richardson

Program Quality Director

Autumn Contests & 2023 D91 Conference News

District Conference 2023

Hello, it’s Diane Richardson here, your Program Quality Director,

I am delighted to say that the District 91 Conference has been booked for the weekend of 6th and 7th May in Central London. I cannot divulge where it is going to be yet, but I think you’ll be excited when you find out. As always it is going to be a smorgasbord of great talks, seminars, and of course the District Contest finals. If you attended last year, you’ll know that this is an event not to be missed!

Whether or not you have attended this conference before, you should know that a tremendous amount of work goes into organising it.

We are still looking for volunteers to help with the conference team. We are looking for a Finance Manager, a PR Manager, and a Sponsorship Manager urgently. Other vital roles such as a Registration manager and IT manager will be needed soon after.

Just a taste of the benefits members of the last conference team gained can be found in these two examples from 2022-2023 Area Director Bonnie Wong and Division Director Rose Nakibirango.

If you are inspired to join the conference team, please contact either Angelie Bharwaney on angeliebharwaney@gmail.com or myself on diane@d91toastmasters.org.uk

Bonnie Wong, D29 Area Director

Rose Nakibirango, Division K Director

Club Officer Training

After a few late entries I am pleased to say that 125 clubs in the District now have 4 or more club officers trained.

However, I would ask every Club President to check that all the correct number of officers trained are shown on the club Dashboard, before the end of October as records cannot be updated after the 31st October and despite the best efforts of everyone occasionally someone is missed.

Pathways Workshop Tips

On Sunday 16th October Massimo Guadagnino, this year’s Pathways Champion and his team will be running a webinar on how to get the most from your Pathway’s journey. The Pathways Champion team have lots of creative ideas and suggestions on how members can gain the most from their Pathways experience. They will also be explaining how you can start your Pathways’ journey within a day or two of joining a club. If you are a new member or a member who has yet to start a Path, then this is a great first step to start your pathways journey. Experienced members will also learn lots of useful tips on how to complete some of their level 4 & 5 projects. To register for the webinar please click on the link below  https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89058848593?pwd=YVRUN2laZ204RGFobkRKZ05oQTAzdz09

Diane Richardson,

Program Quality Director, 2022-2023