Name: Thomas Somers
Position: Webmaster
Club(s): Old Bridge Toastmasters, Jim Friend Toastmasters, and ACES
Other positions: Past District Governor
How long have you been in Toastmasters? 13 Years
What are your plans for the district? Maintain the district’s website to help promote district events and continue to develop the website so that it can be transferred to a future webmaster.
Name: Lynda Starr, DTM
Position: Club Growth Director
Club(s): Dining to Speak
Other positions: I have held all club roles, except for treasurer. Currently Vice President for Membership for Dining to Speak. I am a former District 83 Public Relations Officer, newsletter co-editor, Division Governor, and Area Governor.
How long have you been in Toastmasters? 10 years
What are your plans for the district/area/division?
As club growth director, my goal is for District 83 to be President’s Distinguished. I believe in aiming for the stars and you may hit the moon. I plan to work closely with the other district officers and all members to grow District 83 and to retain existing members and clubs in order to share the benefits Toastmasters membership offers.
The District 83 Hail and Farewell takes place on Saturday, July 22, 2017 from 11am-2pm at Thatcher McGhee’s Irish Pub and Eatery in Fairfield, NJ, and is organized by Margarita Estrada. The event is sold out. Thank you to all who are making this event a success.
Attendees will have an opportunity to “roast” Immediate Past District Director Paula Markert, DTM, enjoy a delicious brunch, listen to great speeches, welcome our new District officers and say thank you to last year’s officers. Division directors will receive the awards and recognition items earned by individuals, clubs, areas and divisions last year so they can pass them along to the recipients.
I attended one of these events when I first served as a District Officer. I found that it was good opportunity to meet other people from around the District. Some of the attendees decided to “roast” the Past District Governor, reminiscing about hilarious events that not everyone may have known about. I learned that some of the participants decided to deliver a speech from their Advanced Communication manual Special Occasion Speeches. Others delivered heartfelt words toward a speech in the Competent Communication manual.
Continue reading “Hail and Fairwell: Saying Goodbye and Hello”
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.
Continue reading “From Club member to District Officer (Part 2)”
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.
Continue reading “From Club Member to District Officer (Part 1)”
