The Cendant Mobility Story

Our Region 7 International Director, Rodger Baker came to District 53 on November 4 to make sales calls at companies considering new Toastmasters clubs.  Susan Troupe, Division D Governor, suggested calling on Cendant Mobility in Danbury, CT.  Although not in her Division, she unselfishly setup a meeting since she had relationships with Cendant from her corporate position, also in Danbury. Thus, on Friday, November 4, the following group called on Lynette Wagner, Director of Human Resources at Cendant: ID Rodger Baker, DG Paul Young, LGM Will Ryan, and Div Gov Susan Troupe.

In early December, Lynette tasked Kathleen Didio, a member of her staff, with the responsibility of establishing a Toastmasters chapter at Cendant.  On December 16, Kathleen hosted an internal meeting of employees to assess the commitment to a having a Toastmasters chapter.  The vote of attendees at this meeting was nearly unanimous and Kathleen decided to proceed with scheduling a demo meeting.

On January 24, we held a demo meeting and over 40 Cendant employees attended.  Walter Beveridge, Division A Membership Coordinator enrolled a crack team consisting of:

• Susan Troupe, Div D Governor
• Walter Beveridge, Div A Membership Coordinator
• Anne Swartout, Club Coach and VPM of West-Conn Toastmasters
• Croix Sather, member of West-Conn Toastmasters
• Dave Wheeler, Area A4 Governor
• Kevin Wortman, member of West-Conn Toastmasters
• Bruce Cornwell, President of West-Conn Toastmasters
• Will Ryan, Lt. Governor - Marketing.

LGM Will Ryan, DTM welcomes the Cendant Mobility employees to a demonstration meeting of Toastmasters International.

After presenting a Toastmasters overview, Will Ryan introduced Walter Beveridge (pictured right) who delivered an inspiring speech followed by an evaluation by Dave Wheeler.  Next we broke into three rooms where Susan, Walter and Dave facilitated Table Topics where all attendees who volunteered (nearly all) delivered outstanding impromptu speeches.

We were delighted that 37 employees signed up to be charter members of the Cendant club.  Finally, our leaders met with Kathleen Didio and we've decided to form 2 clubs with one meeting at noon and the other meeting after work. The bottom line is we'll be chartering two clubs at Cendant in February!  This experience was wonderful for all involved and we proved that a well-qualified new club lead can produce awesome results.  Many kudos to all involved. -- Will Ryan, DTM

	Demo Team relaxes before the meeting begins. l to r: Kevin Wortman, Bruce Cornwell, Anne Swartout, and Croix Sather
	Cendant employee answers a Table Topics question
	Susan Troupe facilitates a Table Topics group
	Answering a Table Topic Question
	Answering a Table Topic Question
	Kevin Wortman serves as timer for Table Topics