October 2022                             View as a Webpage in Your Browser

Thank you to all who have renewed with their clubs and/or joined new clubs. We are a wonderfully vibrant community because of you and the energy and dedication that you show at each and every meeting is inspirational.  

As you will read below, we have an exciting lineup of workshops, events and contests ahead of us. I am particularly excited about our upcoming keynote speaker, Lark Doley, on November 19 whose presentation is modelled on Simon Sinek’s “Start With Why”. Her ideas will be instrumental in growing our membership. And if you missed Matt Kinsey’s (Toastmasters International President, 2022/23) presentation earlier this year on “Prospect to Guest to Member”, it is well worth a read and can be found here. 

October is known as Open House month (Open House Resources), but Open Houses can be held anytime throughout the year, and is a great opportunity to visit clubs other than your own. To see a listing, please visit our Events Calendar under the News & Events tab of the D60 website https://www.toastmasters60.com, and be amazed by the creativity that abounds in District 60.

As always, if you have any ideas or suggestions on what you would like to see in this newsletter, please do not hesitate to contact me at "dd@toastmasters60.com". I look forward to hearing from you!

Andrew 

Andrew Mertens

D60 District Director

Table of Contents:

1. Personal growth and developing skills for career advancement

2. District news

3. Celebration, Congratulations and Thank you!

4. Club Officer Information

1. Personal growth and developing skills for career advancement:

a) Workshop Design Training:

Many of us have developed skills and gained knowledge we believe would be beneficial to others. To help you bring to life your insights and wisdom and how best to share them with the rest of the world, the D60 Workshop Bureau has partnered with two distinguished facilitators from Speaking From Experience Advanced Toastmasters (SFEAT) to bring you two independent and exciting workshop training events featuring two distinct styles and two different approaches. Below are the registration links:

1. Create a Winning Workshop: Facilitator - Dawn Frail, DTM: One 3-hour workshop - Saturday, October 29, 2022, 9:30am to 12:30pm, Virtual Meeting on Zoom. To register for Dawn's workshop, please click here.
2. Create Your Toastmasters Workshop Part 1 Design: Facilitator - Roman Smolak, DTM: First in a series of 3 workshops 2 hours each - Saturdays November 12, 2022, December 3, 2022 & January 14, 2023 (all 10am to 12pm). To register for Roman’s Workshop 1 on November 12, please click here.

b) Personal Growth:

There is only one way to get full value from your recently-renewed Toastmasters membership, and that is to engage enthusiastically with the Toastmasters education program, Pathways. If you are one of our 276 new members and you have not yet enrolled in Pathways, please speak to your club’s VP Education and ask them to help you get started.

2. District News:

a). Start With Why!

We are excited to announce that our special keynote speaker for our TLI/COT event on Saturday, November 19 at 9:30am is Distinguished Toastmaster Lark Doley, who served as Toastmasters International President from 2018 to 2019.

Using Simon Sinek’s principles of “Start With Why” (Simon is an internationally recognized speaker and author of five books), Lark will explore the “why” behind our membership in Toastmasters and present to us vocabulary, ideas and strategies that will lead to deeper connections, more creative innovation and inspired achievements within our clubs and our lives. 

This presentation is open to all. To find out more and to register, please click here. Please note that an option exists within the registration process to only sign-up for this presentation.

b) Contests are back 😊 

After a hiatus of six years and four years respectively, the Table Topics and Evaluation contests are back!

Join as a contestant (there are no speech prerequisites for Table Topics and Evaluation contests, other than being a paid-up member of a club in good standing), help out as an official (check out the Speech Contests menu item under the Resources tab on the District 60 (D60) website - https://www.toastmasters60.com), or simply enjoy and support your fellow club members as they have fun inspiring each other as they hone their skills in competition.

Clubs can hold any type of contest i.e. online, hybrid, or in-person. Area contests will be online only, and Division & District contests are currently scheduled to be hybrid. For a calendar of events, check out the homepage of the D60 website.

There is one important criterion change to be aware of for the International Speech contest: having completed six speeches from the CC (Competent Communication) manual will no longer qualify you to compete. Instead, you must either have achieved the first two levels (Level 1 & 2) of any Path, or earned a DTM.  

c) Coaches Wanted!

Are you working toward your DTM? Do you find yourself in a situation where you need to help a struggling team to get “back on track”? Consider being a Club Coach! Not only will you receive credit toward your DTM, you will develop valuable lifelong skills that are easily transferable to work and personal experiences. You will learn and do the following:

• Build rapport with club officers and members
• Instil enthusiasm, camaraderie, and structure within the club
• Assess the club environment and recommend best practices for success
• Work with club officers to develop a Club Success Plan
• Motivate the club to strive for Distinguished Club Program (DCP) recognition

To qualify as a Club Coach, a member in good standing must meet the following requirements: 

• Completed at least two levels in your Path in Pathways or have achieved an ACB or ALB in the Traditional Program.
• Completed the Club Coach Program Module in Pathways before beginning an appointment; to access the module, please go to the Tutorials and Resources tab in Base Camp. The module should be the 7th subitem on the left sidebar.
• Signed a Club Coach Agreement (along with a Club Officer and a member of the Trio).
• Not be a member of the club you coach, or have been a member of that club in the previous six months. 
• Served as a club officer for at least a one-year term (or two six-month terms). 
• Not currently coaching another club

More information may be found at the Toastmasters International Club Coach program.

District 60 is preparing training for Club Coaching - watch for more news on the District 60 website and social media platforms. 

3. Celebration, Congratulations and Thank you!

a) Congratulations to the following 35 clubs who achieved 7 of 7 officers trained in round 1 of club officer training – thank you!

b) A big thank you to Ved Singal who has accepted the role of Club Extension Chair!

c) Another big thank you to Carrie Webster who has taken on the role of Conference Chair!

4. Club Officer Information:

a) Key Activities For … 

Please check out the top right-hand corner just below the menu tabs on the District 60 website for important reminders of key activities for the month 🡪 https://www.toastmasters60.com 

b) Club Officer Training (COT) – Round 2

Our first session of Round 2 Club Officer Training is on Saturday, November 19. This training will not be a repeat of Round 1. It will be ultra-relevant and will be focused by role and club type i.e. community/corporate.  

While there will be subsequent catch-up sessions, we would like as many of our club officers as possible to attend the November 19 training (there will not be another opportunity to interact with Lark Doley, and the subsequent sessions will not offer community/corporate-specific sessions). To register, please click here. 

Building the District’s social media team

Ever wonder what makes a great social media campaign? A clue is in the name: social. There’s a great opportunity to join our social media team and learn to create compelling copy, design and monitor the success of campaigns. Interested in helping? Email prm@toastmasters60.com

District 60 Leaders

Andrew Mertens, DTM

District 60 Director

DD@toastmasters60.com