Page 10 - Voices Decemper 2015
P. 10

FROM THE DESK

The Gift That Keeps on Giving

 by Erik Bergman, DTM, Club Growth Director

                                        Think back to when    about the fellow members I can help along the
                                        you first became a    way, just as so many Toastmasters encouraged,
                                        Toastmaster. Maybe    advised and coaxed me on my path. Where once
                                        you were an eager     I had not been ready to receive the gift, I became
                                        recruit, pumped up    ready to share it with any member who needed it.
and ready to take the world by storm. Or maybe                Whatever path you took to get to Toastmasters,
you were a reluctant Toastmaster like I was, who              I hope you consider your membership and your
joined under pressure because your boss said                  participation as a gift — to yourself and to others.
                                 that he wanted you in the    For me, Toastmasters has truly become a gift that
                                 company Toastmasters         keeps on giving.
                                 club.
                                                                                                    New Clubs Set to
                                 I’ll admit that I viewed my                                        Charter! We have great
                                 first meeting as a chore                                           news out of Portland
                                 rather than an opportunity.                                        this month. We expect
                                 At least I was smart enough                                        corporate clubs at
                                 to change my attitude                                              WebMD and CBRE to
                                 quickly once I saw what
                                 the program could do for     charter before year’s
                                 me. Once I got into the      end! The two clubs will
                                 groove of giving a speech    bring extra strength
                                 every month, my progress     and energy for Division
made me feel great. Soon I knew that I had been               F, the Downtown
handed a gift that seemed to grow more valuable               Division.
the more I stretched my comfort zone.
                                                              Many thanks to the employees at both WebMD
Since then I’ve been able to hone my skills and               and CBRE who will soon be charter members.
speak out on issues that matter to me. Both within            Thank you also to Toastmasters Katherine
my company and beyond in my volunteer work,                   Stevens, ACS, ALB, who has mentored and
Toastmasters has helped raise my public profile.              nurtured the WebMD club to the charter strength
It also made me a far stronger leader, although I             of 20 members. For CBRE, cheers go to the
hadn’t even considered that benefit when I first              husband-and-wife team of Cleon Cox, DTM, and
joined.                                                       Gloria Cox, and club mentors Jeff Isom, ACS,
                                                              ALB, and Eldred Brown, ACG, ALB, who will
My eight years in Toastmasters have taken me                  ensure the club gets off to a strong start.
places I never imagined — including the front of
the room at business meetings and center stage                If you work for a company that needs a
at alumni events. For someone who was painfully               Toastmasters club, or simply know of a company
shy as a kid, that feels remarkable. Standing up              that could use one, tell me about it in an email
to speak before a crowd is now a cause for excite-            to cgd@d7toastmasters.org. Starting new clubs is
ment rather than panic.                                       how we spread the gift of Toastmasters to more
                                                              people in more places.
Yet the longer I’ve been in Toastmasters, the more
I understand that it is not about me. It is really

10 Volume 2 Issue 5 - DECEMBER 2015
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