leadership – Page 3 – Toastmasters District 83

3 Reasons to Join Toastmasters

We all have our reasons for going to our first Toastmasters meeting. Usually, they are some variation of “my boss made me come” or “I want to become a better speaker.” However, those statements don’t explain the benefits of Toastmasters.

Here are 3 reasons to join Toastmasters:

Reason 1: To boost self-esteem. Toastmasters is a friendly environment, which makes it the perfect place to overcome your fear of public speaking and become a confident leader.

Reason 2: Toastmasters rewards milestones and helps you set personal and professional goals. Recognition is earned after your first 5 speeches, after certain leadership roles are completed, and that’s just the beginning. You also get satisfaction from knowing you play an important role in your club.

Reason 3: To meet different people, network, and be part of a community. You’ll make lifelong friends in Toastmasters.

From Challenge to Opportunity: A Rebrand Gives a Club New Life

In every challenge there is something to be learned and if you can make it out to the other side there are rewards to reap. Rockland Toastmasters is an example of that.

Rockland Toastmasters of Rockland County NY was founded in 2010. At that time it was called Nyack Toastmasters, after the small town the club met in. Throughout the years as the club changed and evolved, the constant was the location, a local library, a favorite to those who walked through the doors as it boasted year round views of the Hudson River and it’s charm reflected the villages vibe of art and community. In 2016, after much thought and consideration, it was decided the club would be changing locations.

Rockland Toastmasters’ officers at training.

As Toastmasters is a non profit organization, members pay a minimal yearly fee to cover costs and take pride in volunteering their time as officers and filling other various roles within their chapter to ensure the success of their club and personal progression in public speaking. Yearly fees are used for a variety of things- materials for marketing, resources for members, contests, and open houses are typical and needed to make clubs feel well resourced. In the case of Nyack Toastmasters, starting in 2015, these fees were going solely to paying rent for the bi-monthly meetings. With only a small bank account balance, soon it became apparent that the fee was no longer maintainable.

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Secrets to a Successful Toastmaster Year

How was your last Toastmasters year? Were you able to achieve the goals you set for yourself?

Let me give you some tips and tricks I used to achieve and exceed my goals which made a difference in my past year as a Toastmaster and gave me the opportunity to be one of the 6 speakers in the New York Spring Conference 2017 (Page 20).

- Write down your goals and set dates to achieve them. Would we ever submit assignments if our teachers didn’t give us deadlines? Turn your inner critic to an inner coach and use the inner critic to guide you to keep to your promises to yourself.

- Have a mentor/coach. It always helps to have a coach/mentor to guide you. All successful people constantly learn.

- Visit other clubs and have maximum face time outside your club – get to know people and network with them in Toastmasters settings. The more doors you knock give you a better chance of having more doors being opened for you. Your potential is too big to be confined to your club alone.

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Teamwork Makes Great Toastmasters

It’s been said that timing in life is everything. When I first joined Hunterdon Speak Easy Toastmasters club in 2009, I was more interested in networking than public speaking. I soon discovered that I was surrounded by some incredibly talented and high performing people. Our club officers at the time included such well-known names as Pam Winter, Cyndi Wilson and Andrew Smith, all of whom were soon to become Distinguished Toastmasters and hold D83 executive leadership positions. This Toastmasters Dream Team eventually served as my collective mentors and soon invited me to become a club officer as well.

I found that I really enjoyed public speaking and competing in speech contests. After a few years, I had completed my CC and all Advanced Communication awards. Janice Buffalow lived nearby and was a frequent visitor to our club. She encouraged me to work the Toastmasters Leadership track, serve as an Area Director and pursue my DTM.

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Club Spotlight: What Exit?

Club: What Exit? (5124091)

Charter Date: September 20, 2016

Recent Awards: For 2016-2017, What Exit? achieved a rare thing for a brand new club, we became a Select Distinguished Club in less than a year of being chartered!

Club members in their own words:

“Swathi (Karamcheti) and I founded the club because we realized that as involved as we both were, we didn’t share a club and we thought that was a shame. Very soon, our club, meeting on Saturday afternoons, was drawing people from Bergen County to Monmouth County and we knew were were onto something.”-Susan Chrusciel

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Toastmasters Leadership Institute Training: District Officer Training (Part 2)

The afternoon session featured District officer training. Janice invited officers to “consider taking on High Performance Leadership (HPL) projects for your role for this year.” She reviewed the structure of the District, how it is comprised of nine Divisions and 36 Areas and that clubs belong to Areas. There are four Areas in each Division and that District 83 is part of Region 9 in Toastmasters International.

She discussed expectations and that we hope to become a Distinguished District with Distinguished Clubs, Areas, and Divisions. Focus on members.

She added that the group will be working on their Division Success Plans this afternoon and that incentives at end of year are awarded at the Hail and Farewell event.

Our Region (9) will be one of the last to begin the Pathways program. We will be notified six months before it will roll out for Ambassadors and Guides. Ambassadors will work with Guides who will work with Clubs. The District still needs Ambassadors and Guides.

Manny began discussing Club officer training, held twice a year. In the summer, officers should ask, “What can I learn from this experience this year?”

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Toastmasters Leadership Institute kicks off Summer Officer Training (Part 1)

TLI took place on Saturday, June 24, 2017 in Cedar Knolls, NJ. Our District Trio comprised of District Director Janice Buffalow, DTM; Program Quality Director Manny Reyes, ACG, ALB; and Club Growth Director Lynda Starr, DTM, welcomed us. Our leaders provided a series of presentations with general information of interest to Club Officers in the morning prior to the breakout sessions for each of the seven club officer positions.

Janice discussed the importance of Club Success Plans and the Moments of Truth educational module.

Manny informed us that the contests at the District

conference are Tall Tales and Table Topics this fall. He encouraged participation in the contests.

“We need to communicate better and start now. It’s about you being better than you were before,” he remarked. “If you want something you have to work for it.”

Perpetual Progress is the theme for the conference, which will take place November 18 at the DoubleTree by Hilton in Somerset, NJ, the location of the District’s previous two conferences.

Manny introduced Emilia Volyand, DTM, who will serve as District Chief Judge for 2017-2018. Emilia stated, “It starts with serving as an evaluator at the club level. If you pick the right judges, they will pick the right winners.” She will train people to be judges in August. “It is challenging to judge without judges’ training,” she concluded.

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