D53 Leadership Team News and Letters
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 July - August 2006: A Letter from DG John Lynch, DTM
Team 53 is Planning to “Lead with Vision”!
It is with great pride that Team53, your Senior Administrative team is prepared to serve you, the member. This year will be “the year of the member”…in our goals and vision. We plan to “Lead with Vision” along with our members as we achieve personal success as communicators and leaders. As we reach for our goals, we will deliver the highest quality officer training, quality educational programs while focusing on membership retention and growth.
Will Ryan, our Lt. Governor - Education and Training, will focus on quality educational programs and training events that have contributed to the success of so many of our members throughout the years. His passion and focus for the Toastmasters Program combined with the new leadership program materials will make for an exciting new year.
Karin von Kaenel, our Lt. Governor – Marketing, will have a critical focus on club membership, encouraging members to continue to experience the benefits of our program while attracting new members and clubs. She will work in concert with Will to ensure that all members have the opportunity to experience the enthusiasm for Toastmasters that comes with participating, learning and growing as individuals and collectively.
I, as your District Governor, have a vision that will see more members in our District reach their personal goals, contribute to healthy club environments and become active participants in the success of our District as a whole. I am so excited to begin this journey with so many of you that have taken all of the basic principals that our District is built on and make them the foundation of your clubs. Our theme for this year is to “Lead with Vision” and my vision is the following:
- Every club has two members achieve their Competent Communicator designation;
- Every club has one member that achieves their Advanced Communicator designation;
- Every club has one member that achieves a Competent Leader, Advanced Leader or a Distinguished Toastmaster designation;
- Every club increases membership by a net of 5 new members or ends the year at the recognized minimum membership of 20; and
- At least 5 club officers are trained in both the summer and winter sessions.
To encourage our members to achieve their goals we will “Reward” those clubs that achieve the “Distinguished Club Program” by April 30, 2007 with $50 in Toastmasters’ Store Credit with detail to be posted on the District website. To encourage our club officers to obtain the best training that our District has to offer so that every member will have the best educational environment possible we will be presenting any club that has 5 or more officers attend TLI on August 5th with their choice of the “Basic Communication and Leadership” manual or the new Basic Leadership manual or a $5.00 discount coupon for the Fall 2006 Conference for the officers in attendance.
As we “Lead with Vision” let us all grow through this leadership journey and remember that in the “year of the member” we all can reach our goals.
LEAD WITH VISION
John Lynch, DTM
District 53 Governor 2006-07
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 July - August 2006: A Letter from LGET Will Ryan, DTM
As we begin our year together, and get used to our new leadership positions, it’s time to build club success plans. Given our theme, Lead with Vision, we’re suggesting that you establish a shared vision with the officers of your club. But, how will you know if we’re doing a good job?
The Distinguished Club Program (DCP) is a distillation of 80+ years Toastmasters’ experience and is our proven set of metrics. It tells us how well we’re doing as club leaders. Of course, education and leadership awards are major components of your club’s score card. Clubs achieve the coveted Distinguished status when they complete 5 of the 10 DCP goals. Just think, that is only 50%! When we were in school, that was a failing grade. I’m not saying it’s easy; however, with appropriate focus, achieving Distinguished is very doable. There are four education and two leadership goals in the program and my job this year is to support you in both areas.
Clubs have 70 to 100 speaking slots per year (depending on how often and how long the club meets). Each speaking slot is precious. For a club with 20 members, that’s only three to four speaking slots per member per year. When a club fails to use all speaking slots, it is clearly loosing opportunities for members to move toward achieving their educational goals. Some clubs require speakers to take responsibility for the slots they’ve reserved and to call on a backup speaker if they’re unable to use their speaking reservation. For this to work, backup speakers need to be ready to use a slot with one to two day’s notice. If every speaking slot is utilized, achieving Distinguished is significantly enhanced along with the affirmation that you’ve done a great job for your club members.
Remember this quote from that famous philosopher, Yogi Berra. "If you don't know where you are going, you will wind up someplace else." Planning for success is one of the key responsibilities of club officers. It’s clearly a very important element in Leading with Vision. The action steps are simple:
- Create your shared vision for the club
- Share your vision with members
- Build a success plan for your club
- Fully utilize your speaking slots.
As the folks at Nike say, “Just do it!” We’ll be watching the scoreboard for your successes. Good luck creating one of best years ever.
Will Ryan , DTM
Lt. Governor Education and Training (LGET)
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 July - August 2006 : A Letter from LGM Karin von Kaenel, CTM
Fellow Toastmasters,
Happy New Toastmasters Year!
Every year, there are 2 seasons that are ideal for Marketing: July/August and November/December.
Why? Because that is the time when a lot of people think about improving themselves and signing up for more education.
So there is no better time than now to spread the word about your Toastmasters club. Here are three ideas for marketing activities:
- Many newspapers have a community section. The more local events they publish, the better the service they provide to their customers. Therefore, they're more than happy to publish information about your Toastmasters meeting! If you haven't done so yet, call the local library and ask them for a list of the newspapers in the area, complete with contact information. Then call up those newspapers and ask them whether they have a community section and whether they're willing to publish your meetings in there. If they're interested in publishing your information, they will tell you when they want the information (e.g. every Friday before the meeting) and how they want you to provide it to them (e.g. via email).
- Does one of your club's members live in the area and have cable TV? If yes, ask them to see whether there is a local access channel. If there is, ask them to watch that channel. Periodically (e.g. every 30 minutes) they'll show how you can submit information to them. Then send in the information about your Toastmasters meeting.
- If you belong to a company club, have you contacted HR to find out whether there is a list of people who have taken speaking or leadership classes? You probably won't be able to get the list, but you might be able to convince HR to send an email to everybody on the list, making them aware that there is a Toastmasters club where they can practice the skills they've learned in class. Or maybe HR is even willing to send an email to every employee, making them aware that there is a Toastmasters club and it's an opportunity to learn public speaking and leadership skills.
Above are just 3 ideas for marketing. If you want to get more ideas, please visit http://www.district53toastmasters.org/ , then click on the File Cabinet (on the left hand menu) and check out the Marketing Kit. If you have any questions, please ask,
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I hope to see you at the TLI on August 5!
With best wishes for a successful Toastmasters year,
Karin von Kaenel, CTM
Lt. Governor Marketing (LGM)
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 July - August 2006 : A Letter from PRO Ute Brinkmann, DTM
Fellow Toastmasters,
Public Relations is a big subject in Toastmasters. Unfortunately it often gets ignored.
We feel it best when it doesn’t work:
I don’t know …
Nobody told me …
Where are the others?
That’s where Public Relations come in: tell them.
There are two components to Public Relations: Internal and external PR.
Internal: let your own people know what’s going on.
External: tell the world (let out that secret): Toastmasters is here.
Public Relations is every Toastmasters job. However: every club has a VP of Public Relations. Our district has 120+ clubs, that’s 120+ people who put their mind towards internal and external communication. We have a big team.
PR is not that hard:
Check where your club stands on PR, talk to the PR officer from last year.
Then put on your PR hat and look at Toastmasters with new eyes: a wide field of opportunities will open up. Grab one.
Club newsletter, informational emails, club web site, speak up at a club meeting (bring your PR hat J) - for internal PR. And for external PR? How about checking out a local newspaper? Maybe ask at the library about local papers. Often newspapers are looking for entries for their bulletin boards, monthly happenings ... etc. Submitting Toastmaster events to a paper creates a win-win situation. And for company clubs? Not much different. Look for opportunities within the company.
I encourage you:
Discover a new facet of Toastmasters: Public Relations. Make it your PR year, get some insight into this new and exciting subject … and fulfill the mission of Toastmasters:
Enhance club performance and bring Toastmasters to more and more people.
And let me know when you hit some success so we can celebrate.
At your service in the year 2006 – 2007
Ute Brinkmann, DTM
Public Relations Officer (PRO)
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