A Message from our District Director
Annette Krause, DTM
Volunteer Spotlight
We appreciate our volunteers!!
Wanda Hatton, ACS, ALB
Image Masters Division D, Area 3
Each newsletter will include a
spotlight on one of our District 15
Toastmasters for their volunteer
commitments. Let us know who
you want to see in the next
volunteer spotlight by sending an
email to dd@district15speaks.org.
Wanda Hatton has over 10 years as a Toastmaster and recently completed the criteria for DTM. Over the years Wanda has served our club as President, Vice President Membership, Secretary, Vice President Education (some positions more than once). Since I joined Image Masters in February 2015, I’ve known Wanda to be energetic, passionate about our club and member success, generous with praise and encouragement, and willing to support the club with her time, energy and resources. She is dependable and trustworthy. She champions mentoring new members and personally mentors several of our new members. She displays genuine interest in our members and guests and at the end of each meeting you will find Wanda at the back of the room speaking with guests as they leave, giving them information as well as visiting with new members providing information or answering questions. These are intentional actions that all of our club officers engage in because these are the goals we instituted in our 2018-2019 club success plan and continued in our 2019-2020 plan.
Wanda is often among the first to give her support to club projects whether it be a membership drive or programs such as Speechcraft, which our club is planning to conduct with a company in Lehi, UT in April, or a Youth Leadership Program. In 2018 and 2019 our club sponsored a Youth Leadership program for homeschool students in the vicinity of our club. Although Wanda was not the coordinator and did not receive any credit for her support, she assisted with the program by attending sessions and giving evaluations or development points to the students.
In 2019, Wanda led the efforts in the first-time-ever District Fall Event hosted by Division D. Wanda did an exceptional job of securing a fantastic venue, negotiating very good prices for the food and event location, and tirelessly contacting toastmasters regarding attending the event. Wanda consistently brings honor and praise to our club through her commitment and service. She has served as an Area Director (2018-2019) and a Club Sponsor or Coach along with another club member Lauren Steinbrecher (2018 – 2019). Wanda is a Toastmaster through and through and she gives her support in word and deed.
– Sarra I.
Wanda has been a member of our club for ten years. She loves to contact those who contact us through meetups and encourage them to attend our meetings. Wanda loves to encourage members to come back if they haven’t attended for a while. She contacts her mentees every week to ask what role they will fill at the meeting this week and encourages them to attend every meeting they can. Wanda enjoys being VP of Membership and she is right for that position.
– Karen B.
New Ways to Use Toastmasters Online!
Authored by Nancy Denniston, ALB, ACG, EC (Effective Coaching)
As much as many may not like online meetings and the Brady Bunch effect, it can greatly enhance your Toastmasters experience if used creatively. Many of you have found several ways to do this. I just wanted to share a few experiences which have expanded my personal growth and perspective on life.
Travel the world with Toastmasters Online: Did you know you can ask to be a guest at an online Toastmasters meeting any where in the world? Go to Toastmasters International website and select “Find a Club”. Type in the location you want to visit. Then look for the “O” in the grey box, which indicates “Online Attendance Accepted”! You can also find such clubs on Easy Speak or Facebook. It’s so fun to meet new Toastmasters, learn about their culture and stories, and, who knows? When we can travel again you may have people you can visit!
Hone your foreign language skills: with my trying to learn conversational Japanese for years, finding a bilingual Japanese-English Toastmasters club has been a godsend. It meets twice a month out of Washington D.C. I especially love this group because they encourage practicing your “Second Language”: Japanese attendees (some online from Japan) practice their English; English speakers exercise their listening and speaking in Japanese. One speech is given by someone in Japanese, the 2 nd one in English, as are the evaluations. Table Topics questions can be answered in either language. They have two ah counter/grammarians—yes, Japanese has its own filler words! such as “eto” or “unnn” while the usual suspects are counted for English. This experience has helped my personal growth and self-confidence.
Connection and mutual support between clubs: This past year has demonstrated to me the potential and power of online Toastmasters meetings to connect clubs to each other in our district, or between districts. Invite one club to join another club in your area, division, district. You may say “Wow, is that how you do that?” “Is that the order you present the agenda? We haven’t tried that!” “Where did you get that online voting tool? That feedback tool?, those background colors?” Share successful methods for membership growth, marketing. Immeasurable benefits of sharing! Our club had a similar reaction when we joined meetings with another district’s club, a Denver club from District 26.
Recently, I was an officiator at another district’s Division speech contest to provide an “independent” perspective. When you learn to appreciate the differing cultural perspectives by travelling Toastmasters’ online, or become more competent at a language, or experience mutual support with other clubs, your leadership and communication skills, personal growth and growth of your club can expand exponentially.
Calling all Future Club Coaches and Club Mentors!!!
Authored by Club Growth Director Trevor Nelson, DTM
Are you interested in pursuing your DTM (Distinguished Toastmaster) award?! Are you interested in helping other Clubs succeed?! Are you so passionate and excited about Toastmasters that you’re just ready to dive in and help well you can?!
GOOD NEWS…becoming a Club Coach or Club Mentor can be the answer to ALL of these questions! The 4th requirement for a DTM award is to serve successfully as a Club Coach or Mentor, therefore I wanted to ensure the District club members know the difference and can prepare for whichever may fit their personal goals.
Club Coach
Club Coaches have two primary focuses: restoring club quality and rebuilding club membership. In order for a Club to be eligible for a Club Coach, they have 12 or less members in their Club. Successful completion of a Club Coach assignment comes from assisting that Club in reaching Distinguished status. Distinguished status for Clubs comes in two ways: having a net growth of 5 members or a base of 20 members AND reaching at least 5 Distinguished Club Plan goals. A Club Coach is not meant to take over a Club, to replace any Club officers, or to control a Club’s meetings. However, a Club Coach can typically provide an outside perspective to the Club’s environment, meeting structure, member building strategies, etc. A Club Coach has to be approved by the at least the Club President and is submitted for assignment by the District Director or District Club Growth Director. Club Coaches may choose to join the Club they coach after assignment, and many do, but it is not a requirement. However, most Club Coaches attend the majority of the Club’s meetings, as they should full submerged in what the Club is working on to be successful. Club Coach opportunities are widely available and are always needed!
Club Mentor
Club Mentors have a more singular but very expansive focus: to help and advise a NEW club on how to be successful. That being said, Club Mentors are dependent on the District chartering new Clubs, which EVERYONE can be a part of…but may not be as plentiful as Club Coach opportunities! Successful completion of a Club Mentor assignment comes after a Club been successfully chartered for 6 months and written recommendation from a Club Officer of the Mentor’s contributions. During those 6 months, a Club Mentor can have a wide variety of tasks: training Club Officers on their various duties and responsibilities, helping to ensure Club meetings are running smoothly, introducing members to Pathways and all that it has to offer, etc. While a Club may not reach Distinguished status their chartering year, a Club Mentor can definitely be the guiding influence that will lead to engaged members and a successful club for many years to come.
If you’d like more information or would like to work towards being assigned one of these responsibilities, please reach out to District Club Growth Director Trevor Nelson at cgd@district15speaks.org.
A New Tracking Resource for Club Vice President Education
Authored by Area Director D5 Bonny Armstrong
“In many ways, the vice president education holds the most demanding office in a Toastmasters club,” according to the Toastmasters Club Leadership Handbook. It’s true that VPEs have a number of responsibilities, and none is perhaps more important than encouraging and supporting members in their Pathways journey.
In order to keep members motivated to deliver speeches and complete projects, a VPE should know which path each member has selected and where they are in their progress. Club VPEs (and club Presidents and Secretaries) can view member progress in Base Camp. However, this requires access to the Toastmasters International (TI) website and an understanding of how to locate and interpret the members’ progress data.
I have created a simple way for VPEs to keep track of member progress that has these benefits:
- Quickly answer members’ questions about which projects they have completed and what projects are coming up next
- Recognize when members have stalled out in their progress
- Keep track of the Level 3 requirement for being the Toastmaster, Table Topics Master, and an Evaluator at least once
- Help members look ahead to start preparing for the larger Level 4 and 5 projects
- Ensure new members choose the path that will best suit their personal goals
- Can be handed off to incoming VPEs so that they are immediately up-to-date on members’ progress
- Share with mentors to give more purpose into the guidance they offer their protégé(e)s
Link to figures mentioned in the article
My method uses two documents. In the first, each path and all of its requirements are formatted to keep track of projects completed by members. VPEs can simply use a check mark, but I like to record the date for more thorough record keeping (Fig. 1). Included with Level 3, there is a box to note when a member performs the role of Toastmaster, Table Topics Master, and Evaluator. Members must fill these roles at least once to successfully complete Level 3 (but they can fill those roles while still working on Level 1 or 2).
The second document uses the same format and lists all required and elective projects for every path (Fig. 2). This can be used to help new members choose a path or for VPEs and mentors to help members prepare for upcoming projects.
All of this information can be found on the TI website, but I find it more convenient to have it all contained in a folder that I can quickly access and share with members and eventually pass off to our club’s next VPE. If you would like a copy to use for your club, please email me at directord5@divisiond.district15speaks.org.
If Pathways is “the heart of the club experience,” an engaged and proactive Vice President Education can greatly contribute to the vitality and well-being of their club and its members.
Pathways Support
Authored by Steve Piet, DTM
This handout aims to encourage you to adapt Toastmasters Pathways to your needs and to give you some ideas on how to do so. The purpose of being in Toastmasters, and therefore the Pathways Toastmaster education program, is to help you gain, strengthen, and practice the skills that you want for your purposes at your pace in the order that you need them.
Click the Adapt Pathways for You link to the right.
Register for the District 15 Conference, May 15, 2021
http://district15conference.org/index.html
Final Thoughts
We would like to thank Terry Yackley for all her hard work with the newsletter up to now. She put in countless hours to produce great newsletters. Thank you, Terry!!! We are now moving to a more digital newsletter platform that will reside on the District 15 website. The articles going forward will be searchable and there will be archives if you would like to dig through previous newsletters. This is our first newsletter on this platform and we will improve with every iteration. Suggestions are always welcome!
If you have ideas for the newsletter or an idea for an article, please submit it to Maria Cervantes, pqd@district15speaks.org.
Have a Great Toastmasters day!!
-D15 Trio
District Mission
We build new clubs and support all clubs in achieving excellence.
Toastmasters International Core Values
- Integrity
- Respect
- Service
- Excellence
Club Mission
We provide a supportive and positive learning experience in which members are empowered to develop communication and leadership skills, resulting in greater self-confidence and personal growth.
Toastmasters International Envisioned Future
To be the first-choice provider of dynamic, high-value, experiential communication and leadership skills development.
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