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Perfect Fit- a great idea and the result...

This year the Mapcon Team had the courage to do some things a little differently- amongst them the raffles that are traditionally part of almost every conference.  The problem I have with raffles is that they take up so much of the very precious time on the programme.  However, they are a lot of fun and a great way to build up the fun of the conference. 

The Mapcon Team decided on a different format for the raffle and we arrived to find a tombola stall full of interesting prizes and gifts, including an Ipod!  At each of the breaks Toastmasters and friends reacted to the ringing bell and rushed to buy tickets to see what they could win at the tombola stall.

Sadly I did not win the Ipod, but one of the prizes that Craig and I won was a picture frame- and one that perfectly fits the photograph that I received through the post recently of myself and our International President Jana Barnhill!

So, a fitting photograph for me to put into a picture frame that I won at a Toastmasters Conference.

Well done on the Great idea, MapCon Team and thank you for the prefect prize!

MapCon- MiniCon 2008 at One-on-One Events, Umhlanga, Durban

As I said during my opening address at MapCon, it was really special for me to be able to go back to Durban for MiniCon this year, as I grew up just down the road from the venue where the conference was held. 

I knew it was going to be a good conference when I heard several of the conference team talking in urgent whispers about the fact that they had run out of seating for all the delegates, despite having more seats than the number of bookings required. 

I’m not going to list all that happened at the conference- Jacque de Villiers did a great job of that in last week’s On A Point.  I just want to say that attending a conference in the position of district Governor feels somewhat different from any other conference- one’s awareness of what is going on and one’s own actions and presentations is just different, and a little more stressful.  On the other hand, having the chance to meet and talk to so many Toastmasters members reinforces for me how amaizing our organisation is, and how priviledged I feel to be in the position I am. 

Thank you, district 74, for making MapCon such an incredible experience for me!  Hope to see you all at the Conference in the Gardens on 15 and 16 May 2009, in Cape Town for this year’s MaxiCon!

Update

Wow, over a month since my last post- that’s really bad since I was posting at least once a week up till then.  So, I’m going to try and give you a brief overview of some of the tasks I’ve been busy with and then start again…  

Since returning from the Toastmasters International Convention, my time has been taken up with preparations for the District Executive and Council Meetings that took place at MapCon in Durban this past weekend.  It’s been quite a learning curve for me and I suspect our district Parliamentarian is only now beginning to recover from the flurry of e-mails and calls that I sent his way over the past few weeks- thanks, Vic!  

Apart from the meeting preparations, there were also the preparations around the awarding of the john Whiffen Helping Hand and Van Blerk Memorial Trophy that needed my attention.  The nominations for these awards needed to be gathered and then communicated to the District Executive (Area and Division Governors and Cabinet) whose task it is to decide on the recipient.  We had a good number of very worthy nominees this year and I don’t think it was an easy task to decide on the recipients.  Well done to all those who were recognized by their Clubs and fellow members as being deserving of a nomination.  

And then finally I have been busy ensuring that we are up to date with all our reporting requirements to Toastmasters International.  Finally, the year end audit is complete and can be submitted to WHQ for their consideration.  What a relief! The Audit Team have been working really hard to ensure all is up to date and correct so we can move forward from here.  

So that is the type of thing that has been keeping me busy recently.  Now, with MapCon over, I will try and write a little about my feelings about the conference and the next stage of tasks, as we begin to draw near to the end of the first half of the Toastmasters year- yes, already!  Can you believe it?

Toastmasters Convention Day 07- Saturday, 16th August

What can I say- the World Championship of Public Speaking!  What a contest!  

10 speakers, 10 world class speeches- all aiming for the highest accolade that a Toastmaster can aspire to as a speaker.  It was evident that each speaker had put tremendous time and effort into getting their speech just right- and remember, I had had the privilege of hearing two of the speeches already, so know how much work had gone into some of the speeches at least! 

I’m just glad I wasn’t judging, though Craig was, and he said it was one of the toughest things he has had to do.  I felt there were 6 out of the 10 speeches that could have emerged as the winner- but only one can.

LaShunda Rundles is our 2009 World Champion, and her speech was entitled “Speak!”.  She is the first female Champ in 22 years, so you can imagine the excitement when the results were announced!

Second was Loghandran Krishnasamy, from Malaysia (DNAR) with a speech entitled “Finding the Rhythm”  and Katherine Morrison was placed third, with “Baby, Don’t Believe Them!” 

The Convention came to a grand finale with the President’s Dinner Dance.  We heard both the outgoing and incoming International Presidents speak, and again I was reminded how important it is for a Leader to have excellent communication skills, which both Chris Ford (outgoing International President) and Janna Barnhill (our new International President) certainly do.  

And so we reached the end of the 77th Toastmasters International Convention.  All I can say is that the experience of attending a Convention like this is not to be missed- the learning, the fun, the networking (both within our own District 74 Team and within the wider Toastmasters family), the opportunity of being part of the changes that our organization is moving towards- a truly amazing experience.  

So, will I go to the 78th International Convention- well, what do you think?

Toastmasters Convention Day 06: Friday, 14th August

Our day started with the Annual General Meeting for Toastmasters International, a meeting that was smoothly and professionally run. It was much like our District Council Meetings at our conferences.  The excitement of the day was when the results for the election of Third Vice President were announced, with a 4 vote difference (approx 5 500 each).  Wow, never underestimate the importance of a single vote!  A motion was brought to the meeting that there should be a recount.  And that took time- about 4 hours in total from the election to the result being available, though we did break for lunch, etc in between… 

The results were finally made public at the start of the Hall of Fame.  Like the Flag Ceremony, the Hall of Fame at the International Convention is bigger and grander than we have in D74 as everyone goes up to be recognised for their achievements and several other Awards are presented to achievers.

I duly went up to receive the Excellence in Education and Training on behalf of District 74, in recognition of our achieving our Educational goals last year.  It’s the second time I’ve been up to receive an award from an International President, as I was there when D74 was recognised as a Distinguished District in 2006/07. I hope to be able to be there again in August next year, as a Distinguished District Governor- and that will happen if we all work together to achieve our personal goals in Communication and Leadership! 

As there were some 80 Districts being recognised at the Hall of Fame, it took about 3 hours to complete, so let’s be grateful that our Hall of Fame is only 45 minutes at each conference! 

Following the Hall of Fame we attended our Regional Annual Meeting- or rather, our non-Regional Meeting, since we are still Districts Not Assigned to Regions.  To continue the humour, this used to be a “Breakfast without breakfast” meeting and is now a “Dinner without dinner” meeting- just don’t ask!  We said good-bye to our outgoing International Director, George Yen, and greeted our incoming ID, Poh Kim Siong.  Our other ID, who has another year to serve of his 2-year term, is Mohammed Murad.  There were a few announcements of people intending on standing for ID and other offices next year, and then it was over.

To end off the day, and just to reassure you that we didn’t work all the time- we went for a great supper with a number of Toastmasters from Calgary, Australia, and 4 of the Past World champion Speakers- Mark Brown, David Brooks, Darren le Croix and Ed Tate.

Toastmasters Convention Day 05: Thursday, 14th August

The Thursday of the Toastmasters International Convention is filled with educational sessions and other exciting events.  There are generally 4 parallel streams of Educationals:

• Communication
• Leadership
• Personal Development
• Club and district Success 

For District Trio’s however, there is another responsibility that needs to be met- interviewing the candidates standing for the Toastmasters International Board of Directors. 

A brief note here- most of us understand the Leadership track that we have within Toastmasters Southern Africa.  We go from being a Club Leader, to an Area Governor, to a Division Governor and from there into the Cabinet (District Governor, Lt Governor Education and Training; Lt Governor Marketing; District Public Relations Officer; District Secretary; District Treasurer and Immediate Past District Governor).  

But there is a whole level of Toastmasters Leadership beyond the District- once you have served as a District Governor, you can stand as an International Director, and become part of the Board of Toastmasters International, whose job is to set the strategic direction and policies for our entire organisation.  

From here, you can choose to stand for the top level of leadership of Toastmasters International: Third Vice President; Second Vice President; Senior Vice President (soon to be known as International President-elect) and finally, International President.  Generally, the last contested position is Third  Vice President- you can imagine how keenly this position is contested! 

As the Board of Directors are fundamental in setting the strategic direction and policies that will affect us, I believe it is important that we (the D74 Trio) vote carefully and with knowledge of the individuals concerned so that we can represent you, as members and Clubs as well as the future Leaders of our district, to the best of our ability.

We finished our last interview shortly before 21:30 in the evening, following the Candidates Showcase (17:00-21:00).  A very long day indeed!

So, while we did not get to go to many of the educational sessions, we did fulfil our duty to you- and I hope time will show that we did so effectively!

Today we were also asked to attend a meeting with World Headquarters staff to discuss the logistics of getting stock and new member kits to us.  This meeting was attended by several Districts with similar challenges to those we face: 2 of the Australian Districts, New Zealand, China, India, and Malaysia, as well as ourselves.  A wide variety of concerns and issues were raised.  I know there have been a few instances when WHQ have not been as effective about meeting our Clubs’ needs as we might wish, but bear in mind that they are 75 people serving the needs of 235 000 members in 11 300 Clubs in some 80 Districts.  I personally feel the staff are doing an incredible job considering the volume of work that they must handle.  Don’t you agree?

Toastmasters Convention Day 04: Wednesday, 13th August

It was up bright and early for the three of us, for an additional training session organised by WHQ.  This training is a first-of-a-kind, where the District Trios from all over the world (including USA and Canada!) were invited.  Quite a logistical marvel- approximately 200 people gathered together in a single room.  The training was pretty much lecture-based (interactive would have been quite a problem!), though we were given several opportunities to work as a group.  

After a quick lunch we dashed off to attend the Board Briefing, to find out the latest on the changes proposed by the Board.  I will be discussing these in more detail in a later article.

Perhaps the most important aspect for us is that the proposed regionalisation of DNAR (yes, that’s us!) is to go ahead and should be voted on at the AGM in August 2009.  

It looks like Toastmasters International is in for an exciting time of change and it is an interesting time to be involved in the leadership of our great organisation!

Following the Board Briefing we attended the Opening Ceremony, including the Flag Ceremony and key-note speaker.  

In our D74 conferences we always have a flag ceremony, in which we introduce the flags of the 9 countries within our District.  At the International Convention the flag ceremony has 94 countries taking part- it is an amazing show!  And, this year I had the honour of carrying the South African flag, with the help of our District competitor Christof Appel.  Craig carried the flag of Zimbabwe (alphabetically the last of the countries to be called!), and Rob carried the flag of Malawi.  However, rest assured, all our countries’ flags were proudly presented and applauded by the audience!

The key note speaker was the first Canadian to reach the top of Mount Everest, some 27 years ago.  Laurie Skreslet told us a gripping tale of successes and horrific incidents as he and the team he was with braved the challenge of Everest.  An appropriate tale for our new International President’s theme, “Toastmasters- the courage to conquer!”

Toastmasters Convention Day 03- Tuesday, 12th August

So, the first two days of the Toastmasters Convention were spent developing our Leadership skills as Officers to serve you.  On the third day, Craig and I attended the free Champion’s Edge Summit, where we spent some time developing our Speaking skills.

For those of you who don’t know,  Champion’s Edge is a group run by several of the past World Champions of Public Speaking, including - David Brooks (1990), Mark Brown (1995), Darren le Croix (2001), and Craig Valentine (1999) with the aim of helping Speakers to sharpen their skills. To find out more, click here.

Not only did we get to hear tips and ideas from each of the World Champions, but we also got to hear them coaching several Speakers, 3 of whom were competing at various levels of the Speech Contests at the Convention.  Amazing stuff!

After a really worthwhile day, we were joined by Rob and went off to the Regional Speech Contests, to watch Christof compete.

In this contest, the 17 Districts from DNAR are split into 2 different speech contests, to select the 2 people who will represent DNAR at the World Championship.

The Contest in which Christof spoke was a very tough one, with several excellent speakers.  Christof drew to speak first- often a tough thing to do! His speech was “The Plunge”, with which he had won the District Contest in 2006.  He was (unfortunately) edged out of the winning spot by veteran contestant Jock Elliot (District 70, Australia), who has spoken at the DNAR Regional Contest 7 times and gone through to the World Championship 5 of these.

After the DNAR Contest we held the DNAR Social.  Each year, the Districts from DNAR (all those attending the Convention, not just the District Trio!) have a social event where each District has 5 minutes to “showcase” something from their home country, usually a song or skit of some kind.  This year we decided to do the popular Freshly Ground song, “Dooby-doo”, and it went down a storm!  The event is usually “judged” by the Second Vice President of Toastmasters, and this year was no exception, with witty feedback being given by 2nd VP Gary Schmit.  We were awarded a prize for Best Vocal- a pink plastic tiara, which I got to wear, though we were advised to get a better backing band (I had everyone from the audience to sing along in the chorus!).  Still, a lot of fun!

And...

Then off to sleep after a very long, but very productive day!

Toastmasters Convention Day 02-Monday, 11th August

Our second day of training- and a really productive day at that!

As I mentioned a few blogs back, some of the next reporting requirements we have to meet as a District are the submission of the District Success Plan and the District Budget (due 30 September).  Today at training we were given a fair amount of information on how to go about the process of completing both these documents, and then spent 2 hours actually working on the District Success Plan as the District Trio.  I personally found this a very productive session and Rob and Craig appeared to agree.  Of course, there is still a fair amount of work to be done to complete the District Success Plan, and we will try to have this done before our next Cabinet tele-conference on 7 September.

District Treasurer, Keith, will also be working on the District Budget so that can be sent in timeously. 

Following the DNAR training we attended a lunch where we were all recognized for having completed the required training.  A personal thank you from me to both Craig and Rob for their participation and input during the training. 

Oops, I forgot- each year, District 74 hosts a wine tasting for all the DNAR members.  This year we hosted the event on Sunday evening, and borrowed a friend’s hotel room for the evening (thanks Carolyn!).  As always, it was a fun event where we spent time chatting and networking with fellow Toastmasters from across the world.  We even had a visit from one of our Past International Presidents

Toastmasters Convention Day 01-Sunday, 10th August

So here we are, home again after a fantastic and busy 77th Toastmasters International Convention - my last in an official District position.  I thought it might be of interest to let you know, day by day, what happened and what we did while at the Convention.  So, here goes…

Day 01  Sunday 10th August 21, 2008

Today we started the official District Trio Training for all DNAR Districts.  As an explanation, the District Trio is the term used by TI (Toastmasters International) for the District Governor, the Lt Governor Education and Training, and the Lt Governor Marketing (in our case Myself, Craig and Rob respectively).  DNAR stands for “Districts Not Assigned to Regions”, and includes all Districts outside of the USA and Canada- 17 in all. (More on that later!)

Today we had sessions on the following topics:

• Building the District Trio and the impact of different communication styles on the Team.
• Conflict Resolution and crucial conversations to get beyond conflict.
• Planning the transition between one year and the next.
• Breakaways for each portfolio, much as we do at Club and District Officer Training.

I was honoured to be asked to present the Inspiration at the start of the day’s training, by our Senior International Director, George Yen.  Quite intimidating, I may add!

The presenters were members of the staff from World Headquarters (newly appointed Executive Director Dan Rex and  Manager of Volunteer Services Stephanie Demiris), our two International Directors (Senior ID George Yen and Junior ID Mohammad Murad), and our new International President Janna Barnhill- all very competent and lively trainers!

But the training had only just begun…