District Leadership 2019-20

Dear members,

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By Arnaud Sartre

On my monthly message, I would normally share the many achievements of our members and how they relate to our goals, but today is different.

Many of you are directly impacted by the current coronavirus outbreak, I understand the challenge. Many of you are helping the country fight the ongoing health crisis, I thank you. Many of you face life-changing personal and professional circumstances, I stand by you.

Our Toastmasters Clubs have always provided a safe environment to develop communication and leadership skills. They continue today. For the past couple of weeks, I have witnessed tremendous resilience across our District and I want to thank you.

I thank you for moving our Club meetings online, I thank you for designing online speaking contests at close to no notice and provide a fantastic experience for all our members, I thank you for stepping up and leading your communities in a time of crisis.

Over the comings weeks, I urge you to look after yourselves and your loved ones. Reach out to your members and friends and invite them to your next Club meeting, for some this will be the only contact they may have that day. We can and we will make a difference in our communities.

Despite these challenges, we continue to run our scheduled Division contests (now in an online format), and I encourage you to attend the next events – check our District calendar for more details. Looking ahead to early May, we will also hold a 2-day online District conference, get your ticket on our conference website!

I look forward to e-meeting many more of you over the coming weeks and months,

Stay safe,

It is okay, to not be okay …

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By Andy Hammond

When we say that “we live in challenging times”, it evokes a range of different emotional responses.

Many people will remain stoic and make the best of their situation. There will be those who see the challenges as an exciting opportunity. However, some, particularly those who find even the smallest change to their routines distressing, will be experiencing a complete nightmare which is totally debilitating.

Our fellow Toastmasters members will be experiencing a range of emotions too. While moving to online club meetings does present opportunities to practise new skills that will be valuable in our lives outside Toastmasters, not every member will feel the same. For some it is a daunting prospect. For others they simply don’t have access to the necessary technology to join in. Our excitement and enthusiasm may make them feel excluded.

We have all experienced the wonderful support that our fellow members provide, and now is the time to ensure that we continue that support to all our members. If you have members in your club who are struggling, make the time to give them a call and listen to their concerns. Let them know that while they may be physically isolated they are not forgotten. And if you are feeling uncertain or worried, do reach out to your fellow members for support.

On a practical level, your Club Officers are having to manage new challenges with online meetings and possibly reluctance of members to renew. Please continue to support your club. Area Directors still need to complete their club visit reports, but now on the basis of online meetings. Please help them to fulfil their roles. Your Area and Division Directors are also having to organise online contests for the first time. Understand if there are problems and be patient. Offer to take on roles to help. And join in with the events to ensure a large audience for the contestants.

Our core value of respect must encompass compassion and empathy. Do all you can to support every member in the way that best meets their needs, and seek the support you need from your fellow members.

Andy Hammond DTM
Immediate Past District Director

Stepping up to opportunities

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By Florian Bay

Who would have expected a month ago that Toastmasters would move online as entire cities and countries are locked down, I certainly didn’t!

Challenging times like the ones we are in can provide many opportunities but also require creativity and thinking outside of the box. I am genuinely impressed at the speed at which nearly all clubs in District 91 moved their meetings online. To all of you that spearheaded this gargantuan effort, THANK YOU! I am so proud of you for stepping up to meet a challenge that nobody could have predicted even a few weeks ago.

Coincidentally, stepping up to opportunities is my main message to you all in my video message. Back when it was filmed, I never expected that online meetings and dealing with unknown unknowns would be one of the opportunities that we could step up to.

What impressed me the most in the past few weeks is how quickly challenges like timekeeping during a virtual meeting and how-to set-up online contests were sorted out. Every challenge provides new opportunities and every problem has solutions. I know that many of you are curious to find out ways to retain our membership in the current times and here are some ideas for you to consider:

  • Liaise with your venue to see if they’ll refund your room hire costs.
  • Reduce your membership fees slightly if your club won’t be paying room hire costs.
  • Have open conversations with your members and get to know their circumstances.
  • Highlight the new opportunities that online meetings bring.
  • If people are unconvinced by switching online, ask them to attend meetings to see for themselves.

So far being District Director during a pandemic has been an interesting experience for me and one that’s teaching me a lot of things. All of my Toastmasters journey in leadership taught me a lot of things. As the end of the Toastmasters year draw near, start to plan for your next moves and consider stepping up to leadership. Fancy learning how to sell? Then become a VP of Membership! Want to have a crack at leading a team and a group? Become a club President! Want to deliver training and coordinate activities on a larger scale? Consider becoming Area Director!

We’re well on our way

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Over the past months, we have seen a steady growth in the number of educational awards being submitted, and I am thrilled that we have now over 1,000 educational awards this Toastmasters year across our District! This is a tremendous achievement and shows many of you are progressing with your goals.  Congratulations!

More than 2/3 of educational awards have been awarded under the Pathways programme, which shows more and more of you are engaging with our education programme. To put it into perspective, this is over 15% more awards than this time last year! Congratulations again!

Don’t forget to check with your VPE that you progress is fully accounted for, and all your achievements recorded in Basecamp are formally recognised. Let’s aim high and why not reach that coveted 1 educational award per member this year?

For anyone still completing educational awards under the Traditional programme, I would like to remind you that all traditional awards must be submitted by 30th June 2020 in order to be recognised by World Headquarters.

Many Clubs have already started the next round of Contest, check out the latest rulebook for any question, and I look forward to seeing you on stage in London at our annual conference on 1-3 May!

Expand your speaking opportunities

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Do you want to speak beyond your club, do you want to deliver a speech to a new audience. Then why not join in the mock conferences at London Metropolitan University (Holloway Road campus).

The purpose of the mock conference is to create an opportunity for students to practice simultaneous interpreting in an almost real scenario.

They will cover different topics and are looking for speakers who are interested in delivering approx. 10 minutes of presentations.

They have 4 mock conferences on Mondays and run two sessions each time:

  1. From 12.00-14.00 with interventions in English, Spanish, French, Arabic and Japanese
  2. From 15.00 = 17.00 with interventions in English, Italian, Chinese and Polish

General topics are:

  1. Monday 24th February 2020 – Looking to the future: the UK’s relationship in Europe – bilateral relationships with European countries now and beyond Brexit
  2. Monday 9th March 2020  – Mock conference of the European Works Council meeting for a company operating in the automotive industry
  3. Monday 23rd March 2020 – The development and impact of ITC (Information and Communications Technology) and social media on our daily business and personal lives.
  4. Monday 20th April 2020 – Let’s talk business, changing the way we shop, new strategies to develop e-commerce, reinventing the high street shopping experience

If you are available and willing to contribute on any of the dates, please contact Ewa Jasinska-Davidson info@ewajasinska.com.