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Regaining the Wind in My Sails

December 31, 2020

A story of a mid-life transformation as told by Dr. Cynthia Long I lost my best friend on December 30, 2008. He had been battling illness for over 28 years and finally ended the struggle on a gloomy, gray morning. I often tell others: “It’s the journey that is important, not the destination.” But how…

Creating Leaders Through Speech Contests

September 2, 2020

speech contests

By: David Gosnell, DTM, District Chief Judge We are in the middle of the fall contest season, and most Clubs have completed their contests. Area and Division Directors are planning and scheduling their contests. And the four District contests will all be held at the District Conference in May. Whether you’re a Club VPE, an…

How to Use Zoom Breakout Rooms

August 20, 2020

contests

By David Gosnell, DTM Zoom Breakout Rooms In Zoom, the host can create up to 50 breakout rooms for use by different groups of participants. This document describes how these rooms can be used to facilitate Toastmasters speech contests. Zoom has provided general training videos and articles about the basics of breakout rooms, including how…

2020: Achievement Against All Odds

August 17, 2020

DTM awards

By: Robin Riddell, DTM, Public Relations Manager June 1, 2020, marked the sunset of the Toastmasters’ legacy education program. It is a date we have known about for a few years. For those of us who believed achieving Distinguished Toastmaster (DTM) was within our reach, the deadline to achieve this worthwhile goal became our driving…

It’s Contest Season!

August 5, 2020

contests

Happy New Year! By: David Gosnell, DTM Hard to believe, but we’re already a month into this new Toastmasters year! And that means we are already deep into Speech Contest season. District 48 clubs have from July 1 through August 31, 2020 to conduct their speech contests. This fall’s contests are Humorous Speech and…

Building Club Membership: The Rotary Connection

July 18, 2020

By Gale West, DTM In January 2020, Toastmasters International announced that it had formed a strategic alliance with Rotary International. Providing members with more opportunities for personal and professional growth is at the core of the newly formed Rotary/Toastmasters alliance. Toastmasters International encourages members to invite Rotarians to visit a Toastmasters Club meeting, to consider…

Grow Your Club’s Membership: Host a Meetup

July 10, 2020

Meetup, Public Relations

By Gale West, DTM Individuals and groups use Meetup to promote their events, activities, and meetings to people who have similar interests. Meetup is a social networking site that allows you to find and join groups related to your own personal interests. However, instead of just talking about these interests online, Meetup is used to…

It’s All About Social…

June 23, 2020

By: Gina Lovick, DTM, District 48 Social Media Chair IT’S ALL ABOUT SOCIAL… We are about to start a NEW Toastmasters’ year with NEW club officers looking for NEW ways to find NEW members and NEW avenues to retain current members. IT’S ALL ABOUT SOCIAL… Social, but what kind of Social? Fundamentally speaking, in the…

Ultimate Pathways Leverage

May 26, 2020

By: Sean F. Forrester, DTM, Chief Educational Ambassador, District 48 As this will be my final blog post for the Toastmaster year 2019-20, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the wonderful leaders and members with whom I met and interacted this year. While it has been a busy year, it was…

Membership in the Time of COVID-19

May 20, 2020

By: May Ghali, ACG, ALB It’s that time of the year again; time to renew your Toastmasters membership. During the lockdown, it’s more important than ever to stay with Toastmasters. By keeping your regular routine, you maintain a sense of normalcy. You can continue with your speech projects and the meeting roles you enjoy because…

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