Select Distinguished
A thank you to you all for your hard work and dedication during the past 11 months.
This has meant that the district has already 77 Distinguished clubs, thus becoming a Select Distinguished district for club quality this year. With a month still to go we may become Presidents Distinguished or even Smedley Distinguished if another 16 clubs reach distinguished status or higher by the end of June. Presently, we are the district ranked first in Europe for the percentage of distinguished clubs and 6th in the world. If your club has still to become a distinguished and are wondering if it is worth it, I can relate my own personal experience as an Immediate Past President. I still remember the delight I had when opening a envelope from TMI with a Distinguished ribbon recognition which is now sewn onto the club banner as memento of the year.
This reflects well on the district 91 members who have successfully been doing speeches and then recording the speech completion in BaseCamp and their club officers completing the record keeping by recording their members’ progress in both BaseCamp and Club Central.
To the end of May as a district 721 members have achieved 1,121 Pathway Level awards. Eighty-four members have won a Triple crown so far this year again a testament to individual members’ hard work.
The Pathways team lead by Massimo Guadagnino are still looking to help clubs become distinguished this year by working with club officers to check data and if necessary, help them to “cleanse” data in preparation for the new year starting 1st July, helping clubs to start the new year in the best shape they can be.
The Year to Come
Since the District Council meeting during the District Conference, I have had the opportunity of speaking with Steve Vear who will be next year’s Program Quality Director. His plans for the year ahead are very exciting. These include continuing some of this year’s initiatives and others are brand new and very exciting! I look forward to him announcing them shortly and I know Steve is keen to share his ideas with you and to continue to serve clubs helping them with their continuous improvement as members take on new personal development challenges, such as doing their first HPL (High Performance Leadership) project or working on a new Pathway level and tackling projects they had not previously done similar to me when I gave my first ever 20 minute prepared speech as part of my third level 5 Pathway.
Whatever your aims are for the year ahead I hope that you exceed them and please remember happiness brings success; not the other way round!
Signing Off
Being the District 91 Program Quality Director this year, has been a great learning opportunity for me and I would encourage others who are thinking about taking on a leadership role in Toastmasters to grab the opportunity to develop your own leadership skills. Finally, I’d like to thank the others in my PQD team this year, Massimo Guadagnino, Jacqui Hogan, Rick Cooper, Julie Chapman, Nikita Parks, Nadya, Janet Alkema, Ken Essien and finally our Chief Judge Chris Walker.
I look forward to supporting you and your clubs next year as your District Director, with Steve Vear as PQD, Mo Dawodu as Club Growth Director, Valerija Slavina as Finance Manager, Nikita Parks as PR manager and Aayushi Jain as Administration manager.
Diane Richardson,
Program Quality Director, 2022-2023