District Director

Recognising Excellence in 2022 – 2023

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On 30th July this year, we hosted your District’s Hall of Fame over a social event on London’s Southbank. The full list of those individuals and clubs recognised at this event can be found here.

For several years, we’ve recognised individual clubs with the ‘Club Excellence’ award; a recognition that goes beyond the dashboards. Clubs are recognised for some of the more intangible elements that show success aside from membership and training numbers. Examples here are contributions of members beyond the club such as in leadership positions, conducting wider Toastmasters education programs and the overall ‘feeling’ someone gets if they visit such a club.

Why not visit one of the clubs listed and discover the magic?

We also recognise clubs who have suffered a little but bounced back over the course of a Toastmasters program year with the Phoenix Award.

Due to the nature of our organisation, we celebrate milestones and length of service largely through education achievements. For example, to become a Distinguished Toastmaster (DTM), individuals must complete several projects and leadership service over a period which make it quite a milestone when achieved. I know this year’s team have a renewed emphasis on length of member service and anniversaries.

Reflecting on my own Toastmasters career journey, I got stuck in very early on simply due to a combination of my own curiosity and others opening doors for me. As a result, I wanted to pay this forward by recognising new members who had dived straight in and added value outside of their club in their first 12-18 months of membership.

After the May elections, many individuals start to wind down. This year, we felt compelled to recognise a District Officer who kicked it up a gear in the final stretch with the District Mission Award. This year, to the best of my knowledge, was the first time District 91 issued the Communication and Leadership Award. This award recognises someone who has made significant impact in a community under these categories and need not be a Toastmasters member.
Spreading the footprint of what we do is a collective responsibility. Two members were handpicked by our Public Relations Manager for their consistency of effort. A key function or mission of the district is to ‘build new clubs’ and as we stepped out of the pandemic 6 new clubs (all corporate!) were recognised with the Pioneer Award. This is testament to the fact that companies see the value of our program for their employees.

Every now and then we get asked if there are criteria for the main awards i.e., Toastmaster of the Year, Division Director of the Year and Area Director of the Year. The simple answer is – yes! There are checklists that act as a guide for these and often it is quite clear at some point in the year who the recipient will be. In some cases, the deciding factor may be because of something an individual has contributed (often quietly) to the cause or overall mission.

In my deliverance speech at the May Hall of Fame, I referred to the fact that I searched high and low for the checklist for the District Director’s Award. This one is understandably quite subjective, and you can find out why here.

I didn’t get off Scot free, though. There’s a certain type of speech known as a roast in which the subject matter is often someone leaving a role. When it became clear that this was about to happen, I was incredibly nervous however couldn’t help but choke up at the affection that came through not one but four roasts! One was delivered by immediate past District Public Relations Manager, Chris Arning and can be watched back here.

I once again thank the 2022-2023 District Leadership Team for their service, commitment, secret scheming to put this on, and for their friendship – a lovely byproduct of working intensively in a team for 12-15 months.

As ever, thank to event photographer Chris Bovell from Blaqpix for capturing special moments. You can view the photos here Password: Limin

Rupa Datta
Immediate Past District Director 2023-24

District Director Newsletter – October 2023

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October thoughts from District Director, Diane Richardson

Dear members, 

We are now a quarter way through our Toastmasters’ year, and let us congratulate ourselves for the achievements our clubs have made so far this year. I am delighted that many of our clubs have been successful in recruiting new members and in registering Pathways education awards.

We held our first District Council meeting where our Club Presidents and Vice Presidents of Education voted with our District Executive Committee for all Area, Division and District contests to take place as hybrid events this year. I have already attended two very well organised and managed club contests with new members stepping up and entering their contest often with enormous success. This is especially pleasing as it shows that new members feel comfortable enough in many clubs to take what many outside Toastmasters perceive as being a huge risk or challenge. This speaks highly to how many clubs have a welcoming, open, and friendly atmosphere which encourages people both to join and then take part in club meetings and contests.

I know that several Area and Division Directors are planning their contests either for later this month or in November, which gives everyone a wonderful opportunity to network and to support their club members as they strive to reach the next level of the Humorous Speech and Table Topics contests.

Your District team has also submitted and received approval from Toastmasters International HQ, our District Success Plan, budget, marketing, and communications plans. This is a major milestone. It means our District can become a distinguished district at the end of the year once again.

I am pleased that Steve has been running the District Officer Training over the course of the summer as Programme Quality Director. 95% of our Area and Division Directors attended training. It was especially interesting that the last-minute training which Steve organised, attracted District Officers from District 95 (Germany and Scandinavia), and allowed us to exchange ideas, to learn from them and for them to learn from us. This highlights the importance of encouraging members and Club Officers to visit other clubs to network and increase the speed of their personal development as members learn to speak in front of new audiences or share best practices between clubs.

It is also pleasing that Mo, our Club Growth Director, has had successes in this first quarter, with two new clubs, Sustainable Speakers and Medidata EMEA, chartering. Several clubs that had been suspended have now become clubs in good standing again. I know that Mo has a strong pipeline of club leads and prospects and is asking for your help with demonstration meetings for potential new clubs and as mentors for recently chartered clubs.

I hope that you enjoy the contest season currently underway.

Best regards

Diane

Convention News

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Annual Convention Hall of Fame

Districts 71 & 91 were both celebrated at the Hall of Fame at the Annual Convention in Nassau. Elizabeth Jordan and Diane Richardson each received the “District Program Quality Award” for achieving Smedley Distinguished status for numbers of distinguished clubs and Rupa Datta received the “District Club Strength Award” for strengthening average club size by 14.4%.

 

District Trio at Annual Business Meeting
District Trio at Annual Business Meeting

Last month was the Annual Toastmasters International Convention. During the convention there was the Annual Business Meeting. During this meeting various announcements were made. I think it is worth sharing a few key points with you as you may have missed them elsewhere. The news was mixed but based on the data it has, the International Board is confident that we have turned the corner and the organisation will start to grow again.

Unfortunately, the reduced costs during the pandemic were insufficient to cover the reduced income from membership, which is why the subscription increases couldn’t be postponed any longer.

In District 91 we have a higher percentage of clubs meeting in person clubs than the worldwide average. Worldwide 60% of clubs are still holding hybrid meetings, 20% in-person and 20% online.

The higher-than-average number of clubs meeting in person has helped us grow our membership in the past year as globally in-person clubs recruited an average of eight new members and online clubs five new members. The average club size grew from 17.2 members per club to 21.2 around the world last year.

The number of paid clubs world-wide fell by 3.2% last year, although there are encouraging signs of progress. This year 47 districts chartered 68 new clubs in July, compared to 28 clubs in July 2022. Whilst we didn’t charter a new club in July, we charted a new club in August. Many congratulations to the sponsors of Sustainable Speakers in Area B9.

A new customer service team has been recruited to extend the contact hours to as near 24/7 as possible and to improve service levels at TMI HQ. The location will be revealed after the team have been trained. This will help clubs receive a quicker response from Toastmasters International and the District team obtain answers on your behalf if we can’t answer them ourselves.

District 91 is part of region 10 which covers the whole of Europe and parts of North Africa. Currently there are nine regions in the North American continent and five in the rest of the world. Following the huge growth of Toastmaster clubs in India, Africa, and Asia, to ensure that each region has fewer than 15% of clubs, from 1st July 2024 the regions will be split seven in North America and seven for the rest of the world.

 

District 91 member David Henson delivering an educational session at the Toastmasters International Convention
District 91 member David Henson delivering an educational session at the Toastmasters International Convention

Reformation of District 71 and 91 Postponed

At our District Council meetings in May 2023 both Districts 71 and 91 agreed that the District Directors should write to the International Board of Directors to request that a joint reformation committee should be established to examine the possibility of establishing a third district in the UK & Ireland.

On 14th August, Distinguished Toastmaster Matt Kinsey (International President) and Dan Rex (CEO) wrote to the current and past trios of both Districts to inform us that a decision to reform both Districts had been postponed to March 2024 at the earliest as neither district had reached its expected club growth target of 200 clubs for D71 or 170 for D91.

Membership Renewals

A quick reminder that it’s renewal time during September. Despite the subscription increase, the cost of Toastmasters membership is still fantastic value for money. For $10 a month which is a lot less than many people spend on coffee each week in cafés. It is also great value for money compared to short term public speaking courses which can often cost a lot more. Toastmasters has the added advantage that continued membership offers continuous training, so you develop the equivalent of Public Speaking muscle memory, and great friendships.

Diane Richardson
District Director, 2023-2024

District Director: Thoughts on our late Queen

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Rupa Datta on how she was inspired by Queen Elizabeth II

I write this month’s piece (originally written for the September newsletter) in a rather pensive mood.

Like the vast majority of you, I’ve only known of HM the late Queen Elizabeth as our Head of State, a woman in leadership and someone whose life was devoted to service from a young age. I’m sure as time passes there will be more reflections and parallels and for someone who was present in different ways for different people, there will be different takeaways.

Last month, at the Toastmasters International convention in Nashville, I had the honour to carry the flag of the United Kingdom during the opening ceremony. It’s hard to describe the thoughts that went through my head when the decisions for allocations of flags were being made and what it was to participate in such an event that really demonstrated the diversity of our organisation.

Given the events of the last two weeks, the whole event feels much more poignant right now.

As we near the time where we are decide on renewing our continued commitment to Toastmasters, our clubs and our personal growth, I can’t help but draw some parallels:

  • Service

The third of our Core Values. We associate 70 years of her reign as a lifetime dedicated to service as she pledged in her speech on her 21st birthday in 1947. In many ways, she was unprepared to take on the role when she did yet did so with grace throughout her reign.

At Toastmasters, we have opportunities to serve everywhere and a safe space to fail from time to time as we are students of leadership and communication. There are opportunities available right now for you to contribute in your own way. This could be within your club or beyond. Just reach out and ask the question – rupa@d91toastmasters.org.uk How can I serve?

  • Lifelong learning

As above, our late Queen spent a lifetime learning her role probably had many mentors throughout her time, and no doubt became a mentor and counsel to others along the way. We may never again see the depth and breadth of experience that one person attained in one leadership position.

I’ve been fortunate enough to have met some incredible Toastmasters who have been with the organisation for decades (I was 2 when one of my mentors and guides joined the organisation!) You may have read it before, and I seem to be reading it a lot at the moment as someone I met last month is posting this quote by the first female to join Toastmasters and a past International President, Helen Blanchard:

‘If you get out of Toastmasters all there is to get out of Toastmasters, you’ll never leave Toastmasters.’

  • Stability

Change is a constant fact of life. We witnessed during the pandemic the extent to which our Toastmasters community was a source of stability for many our our members. As one era ends, and we enter another, for some of us knowing that we have that club meeting to attend every week with a supportive group of people can be an important anchor.

Having the option to renew every 6 months, also gives us the opportunity to review our goals and growth – it’s ok if it may be time to explore a different club or even ‘go beyond your club’.

I have different goals to when I joined Toastmasters in February 2016. Some of what we are witnessing this month, we have never seen before and may never see in our again in our lifetime – the formalities and different types of speeches. Different roles in Toastmasters give you that too – I reflect again having chaired a formal business meeting for District Leaders earlier this month and will be chairing another one for our District and Club Leaders at the end of the month.

I hope you continue your membership with us…and contribute some small steps to help our community grow to 5000 by the end of this Toastmasters year.

“It’s worth remembering that it is often the small steps, not the giant leaps, that bring about the most lasting change.”

HM Queen Elizabeth II

Rupa Datta

District 91 Director, 2022-23