District 106

Newsletter

December 2022

From the Desk of the District Director

Toastmasters,

December is the month we declare our 2022-23 program year “halfway done."During this 6-month journey, we all learned a lot, especially our District Officers, Area directors, Division Directors, Administration team, and coaches. I hope we all learned much in the last 6 months and will continue learning.

While reviewing the educational awards, I see that 42% of members haven’t submitted their awards, followed by 18% who only submitted Level 1.

This report shows that our members are still not familiar with Pathways, or their level 1

Pathways still need to be approved. If you are the club Vice President of Education, Club President, or Secretary, please log into Base Camp and accept any members' Pathways projects awaiting approval. This way, members can move to the next level and achieve their educational goals.

The club report shows that 76% of clubs (77 among 101) achieved at least one or more goals. Two clubs, #2140 Sunrisers Club and # 2748 Anoka Toastmasters Club, are close to attaining distinguished status. Congratulations! Readership Toastmasters has five goals, and Lino Lakes Toastmasters already has four goals with their membership goals within reach. The following clubs are also on a path to achieving distinguished status:

• Facility Improvement Masters
• FOCUS Toastmasters
• Tartan Club
• King Boreas
• Power Speakers Toastmasters Club
• Talk Masters
• Tik Talkers Toastmasters Club
• Sunrisers Club
• Allianz Club

These clubs have gained membership and need little effort to add 1-2 members and submit 2-4 education awards by December 31, 2022. Here are a few tips you can achieve quickly.

1. Training COT 2nd round.

2. Schedule members to speak who are close to finishing levels 1-2 or even 3.

3. Inspire them to earn a triple crown after submission of 3 education awards.

November is the month for the club visits for Round 1. Our Area Directors should have visited your clubs, and they have submitted their reports. The club presidents will get a report; please look at the Area Directors' recommendations. If there are any concerns or need to rebuild membership in your clubs, please reach out to your Area Director and contact them via https://d106tm.org/directory/.

We are organizing a Holiday Party on Saturday, December 17, 2022, 5:30 PM – 8:30 PM at Roseville Skating Center, 2661 Civic Center Drive, Saint Paul, MN 55113. Click here to register for the District 106 Holiday Party.

We would love to see you there and celebrate the 2022 holidays together!

Warm regards,

Gopu Shrestha

District 106 Director

From the Desk of the Program Quality Director

Toastmasters are in the news! What enjoyable, intriguing activities have you been engaged in recently? White Bear Toastmasters member Seth Baetzold had planned to swim the English Channel. Unfortunately, the weather failed to cooperate, so Seth swam 24 miles along the St. Croix river for 11 hours! Click here to check out the news story on his marathon swim attempt.

The spirit of Toastmasters is a spirit of service. At least two District 106 members ran for elective office: Training Director Matt Villella for Thunder Bay, Ontario, City Council, and Area Director Jason Ruffalo for Minnesota State Senate. Doubtless, there are others, so please share your story! I appreciate your commitment to serving others!

We are speaking of commitment to serving others. Our team of volunteers conducting club officer training has been hard at creating and delivering content for round 2 of club officer training. Visit the District 106 Calendar. Click here to register for a training session.

Feedback from the first session was positive and even contained thought-provoking suggestions for improvement. Seventy D106 clubs trained four or more officers during round 1. All 70 should plan to train four or more officers in round 2 to snag that easily distinguished club program point on behalf of Toastmasters members! Position your club to be recognized for member distinction!

Enjoy your holiday season! Let’s emerge strong and committed to finishing this Toastmasters program year stronger than ever!

Best Regards,

Ed Aylward

District 106

Program Quality Director

From the Desk of the Club Growth Director

December brings renewed interest to Toastmasters.

This past week District 106 has had two Demo meetings for corporate clubs and more to schedule. It is exciting to host a meeting with guests who have never attended a Toastmasters meeting. For these Demo meetings, I recruit a team who fill each role and demonstrate how fun our meetings can be. Let me know if you would like to help with a Demo meeting.

 As new clubs get started, Yves Prevost assigns (2) Mentors and (2) Sponsors to help each club in the growth process of chartering. Being a club Sponsor/Mentor is a pathway to earning a DTM- Distinguished Toastmaster Award. I want to give the first opportunity to toastmasters who haven’t made a DTM.

To volunteer to work with one of these new clubs, reach out to Yves Prevost or me. A club Sponsor/Mentor must plan to attend 90% of the club’s meetings guiding quality meetings and support in Pathways so they can be successful. 

I am challenging each Division to build one new club and become a distinguished Division. District 106 has room to grow. Let’s share this toastmaster opportunity with neighbors, friends, family, companies, and communities. Meet with one another and learn where a good place to start a club would be. This is an excellent opportunity to work together and learn about building a club.

You can start looking for potential leads and select a meeting time in your Division or area that is a different day and time than current meetings. Clubs to consider building would be corporate clubs, community clubs, or advanced clubs. We have six months to build a more robust district, clubs, and community. So let’s do a reset by sharing Toastmasters with others in our community and making time to speak up in our local club. Together we can achieve distinguished one speech and guest at a time.

Katy Hursh

District 106

Club Growth Director

From the Desk of the Public Relations Manager

Happy Holidays 2022! 

Greetings from the Office of the District PRM [Bob, Margie, Johnny, and Ashok]. Hope you all are doing well.

Further to the message I posted last month regarding your Club Websites, I want to reiterate how important your club website is to help prospective members to connect with your club, and you want to put your Club’s best efforts and make it easy for someone to visit. Especially this time of the year, prospective members are looking for Toastmasters' help as part of their new year goal-setting process. Is your club ready for it? Don’t worry about the technical skills! We are here to help with any guidance or assign a resource if needed to guide you through the process.

Here are some things to consider while you are working on updating your Club Website:

• Is the home page engaging and current? Photos of people in your club doing things, like a“gallery view” of your club meeting online, help prospective members connect with your club.
• Is the meeting information correct, including when and where, including special directions or how to get login information?
• Can the prospect email a club member who can respond within 24-48 hours?
• Are there at least a few engaging profiles with pictures in your public members' section?
• Are visuals and messaging in alignment with the Toastmasters International brand manual?
• Check out more information on website templates by clicking here.
• For any guidance or help regarding Club Website (FTH), please reach out to us by sending an email to: prm@d106tm.org.

Looking forward to seeing your wonderful websites!

District 106 Social channel presence by the Numbers:

Facebook: 402 Twitter: 167 LinkedIn: 169 Instagram: 264 YouTube: 129 TikTok: 6

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok for exciting

updates, inspiration and more.

If you have any comments, questions, concerns, or feedback, please don't hesitate to reach out.

Together we keep the Toastmasters brand strong!

PRM team (Johnny, Bob, Margie, and Ashok)

Ashok Sunkavalli

2022-2023 D106 Public Relations Manager

ashoksunkavalli@gmail.com

cell (319) 431-2415

From the Desk of the Youth Leadership Chair

Happy holidays! As you think about gifts this season, consider giving the gift of your time in the new year with a Youth Leadership Project - YLP. What better gift than giving the gift of confidence, communication, and leadership?

Let me know if you would like to participate in this wonderful program. First, you will be as happy as Ebenezer Scrooge, the protagonist of Charles Dickens' 1843 novella "A Christmas Carol," after being visited by three ghosts. Then, when you finish the program with your chosen youth, you will be giddy and clicking your heels, knowing you did something good and genuinely beneficial. 

Daniel Grundtner

District 106

Youth Leadership Chair '22-'23