Manny Reyes – Toastmasters District 83

Module “Realizing Your Purpose” (Part 2)

On July 29, our District 83 started a four part series with aim to connect Toastmasters in District 83 and work on a personal success plan conducive to reaching One Level Up in the current 2017 – 2018 Toastmasters Year. These educational training modules are more than a check the box form. They are a blueprint, a road map, to help as many members as possible understand the current Toastmasters Communication and Leadership Track. In these modules, members brainstorm with other members on the best ways to set the course that will build the basics for arriving at whatever educational award or project achievement the individual member intends. During these sessions, attendees will learn firsthand from the experience and best practices of other members, who have found solutions to problems many of us encounter in our own journey.

Part 1 was about creating a Success Plan. During that training, we covered selecting and planning on SMART Goals, Distinguished Club Strategies, and tracking these goals. We had a session that covered beyond the Competent Communicator manual and an in-depth review, explaining the scope and objectives, of each one of the 15 advanced manuals. We also reviewed the leadership track and all the projects needed to achieve DTM.

Part 2, “Realizing Your Purpose” is going to be about how experience and Distinguished Toastmasters have navigated through the Communication and Leadership Tracks to achieve the ultimate Toastmaster Award. Before we get to that, let me start with Google’s definition of the word purpose: “the reason for which something is done or created or for which something exists”.

As Toastmasters, we all have a purpose for attending meetings and staying active. What brought you to join this organization may be completely different from what motivated me, but what is common to all of us is that we have an expectation of getting somewhere and that destination point is expected to be better and closer to where we want or wish to be in either our careers, skills, or personal growth.

In D83-P2 Module, we are going to learn from the personal experience of our Division A Director Narendra Pondugula, DTM. He will explain the way he laid out an action plan to reach the coveted Distinguished Toastmaster award in can be record time.

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How Many Distinguished Club Points Do You Have?

DCP? Those letters may sound familiar. If you have been a Toastmaster for a while, you probably have been monitoring Your Distinguished Club Program or DCP. In any case, let me remind you how it works and what goals all clubs strive to achieve within a Toastmaster year.

How Does It Work?

The Distinguished Club Program is an annual program, running from July 1 through June 30. The program consists of 10 goals for your club to obtain, using the Club Success Plan. To help keep track of your progress toward these goals throughout the year, updated reports are posted daily on the Toastmasters International website.

At year-end, the number of goals the club achieved is calculated. Based on the goals met and whether or not the qualifying requirements have been met, the club may be recognized as a Distinguished, Select Distinguished, or President’s Distinguished Club.

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The Results of Officer Training Round 1: Is Your Team Fully Trained?

Between June 24 and August 31, District 83 conducted seventeen Officer Trainings. In total, approximately 640 officers out of 1,148, or around 56% of officers, have been trained in Round 1 for the current Toastmaster year.

Now, that total may be off. The total is based on all clubs having seven officers, but that is not necessarily true. Some clubs do not have seven officers. This could be good news because our results may be even greater than what I have presented at this time. On the other hand, when I say approximately 640 officers were trained, it is possible that some of our officers have been trained out of our District and the data has not been passed to our District yet or that some forms were not completed in a way that allows our district to identify club and officer’s position.

Officer Training is a determining factor in achieving your club success plan and meeting all your goals in the Distinguished Club Program. With that said, this is the time to review your club’s current Officer Training status. Please go to Toastmasters International Club Performance Reports for District 83 and check on the records for your club. If you find that you have not received all your officer’s trained numbers, please email me to identify who is missing in your club and then research to give your club the credit.

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Meet the District Officers: Manny Reyes

Name: Manuel A. Reyes, ACG, ALB

Position: Program Quality Director

Club(s): Impact 21, What Exit?, Brunswick Advanced, and Brunswick Toastmasters

Other positions: At the club level, I have been Club President, VP of Education, VP Public Relations, Secretary, and Sergeant-at-Arms . I have also served as Area 42 Director 2015 – 2016 and Division D Director 2016 – 2017.

How long have you been in Toastmasters? Since April 01, 2014.

What are your plans for the district/area/division?

The theme for this Toastmaster Year is “New Beginnings”. And I like to think of this theme as the start to great things. In the year ahead, I want to see our members grow in their communications and leadership skills. I want to ask everyone to set a goal to complete a personal milestone, like to move up or add one communication or leadership award. For example, leveling up from CC (Competent Communicator) to ACB (Advance Communication Bronze) and so on.

We all have a new opportunity to reassess where we are today and where we want to be a year from now. As long as everyone keeps sight of where they are headed, we should be on the right track.

For a starting point, let me remind you of Lao Tzu quote. “The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” And if you are on your path today, then take the next step.

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One Level Up- Module 1: Planning for Success

Our District 83 theme for this year is “New Beginnings”. This means a new way of acting to move at a much faster pace, a new vision to take our members to new educational heights exploring our resilience, to acquire new abilities no matter what obstacles or hurdles appears on the way, and find consistent practices to overcome the distractions trying to disrupt our advancement.

For everyone to achieve my challenge to move “one level up” in your educational and/or leadership program, we need to come to the realization that if we don’t plan the year-end outcome, we cannot arrive there. Or as Zig Ziglar used to say, “You can’t hit a target you cannot see, and you cannot see a target you do not have”.

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D83 Introduces One Level Up Webinars

Starting next week, District 83 is going to embark on a new endeavor, which is to answer those impending questions. Sometimes you can’t find the answers to those questions easily, but, because of years of Toastmasters experience, some of our District leaders have the answers to or can at least to point in a way to solve certain types of challenges.

D83 One Level Up webinars are not going to take you from zero to sixty in six seconds flat. Our goal is to help you reach 100 percent of your goals, even if it takes a little more time than driving at maximum speed on the NJ Turnpike. Remember is not how fast you come to a solution, but how robust and permanent your solution is to your club.

The webinars will cover different topics and will be tailored to your needs. They will be a roadmap to what is happening in District 83 at any given time as well as the tasks that your club should be working on, if you have elected to follow the Toastmasters International calendar and are working on meeting the necessary points to become Distinguished, Select Distinguished, or President’s Distinguished.

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From Club member to District Officer (Part 2)

As many people do, I started Toastmasters slowly. I joined one club. I volunteered to give speeches because I wanted to do at least one every month. Then, I was invited to attend an Advanced Club to move faster on my speeches. Ten months into my first year as a member, I finished my first Competent Communicator, often called a CC.

With my CC, I became a full fledged member of the Advanced club. Since I was now officially a member of two clubs, I started to get busy with more speeches and completing the Competent Leadership manual. Before the end of my first year in the organization, I joined a third club to move even faster and found a way to have my spouse join me in my crusade to conquer the space behind the lectern in front of an audience.

To keep up my momentum, I asked my mentor about what I needed to do to become a Distinguished Toastmaster, or DTM. He mentioned that I needed to get an officer role at the District level and recommended I do that soon. As serendipity would have it, this was just a few days before the 2015 Spring Conference. Armed with, not much, but the courage to ask for an opportunity to show my passion, I approached the new elected District Director and volunteered to help the district.

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From Club Member to District Officer (Part 1)

Let me start by borrowing Steve Jobs 2005 Stanford University Commencement line where he says, “you cannot connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward”. With that said, if you had asked me three and a half ago, at the beginning of my Toastmasters journey, if I thought I was going to be serving as a District Officer, my answer surely would have been NO.

When I first join the Toastmasters, I had no idea of the organization’s scope and dimension. As a matter of fact, I was more focus on getting a promotion at my job than I was interested in becoming a good communicator and a leader. I couldn’t imagine what the road ahead had in store for me.

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