Page 5 - 2016 September Voices!

Toastmaster of the Year
Phyllis Harmon Puts Her Whole Self In

by Erik Bergman, DTM

Phyllis Harmon can’t say she wasn’t warned. • She serves as Public Relations Manager for

When she joined Toastmasters in 2008, people District 7, where she seeks new ways to tell the

cautioned her it could take over success stories of members and

her life. clubs districtwide.

They were right: “It has taken • She is learning how to

over,” she says. As proof, to catch create podcasts to extend the

up with her for this interview was Toastmasters message to new audi-

a matter of finding a gap in her ences beyond current members.

schedule between other Saturday • Her dream is to create a D7

morning Toastmasters events. Over TV series to portray the life and

a cup of coffee and a muffin at a achievements of Toastmasters

Lake Oswego café, she took time to members, and a District 7 blog,

share why she is so deeply involved and. . .well, you get the idea.

in leadership and Celebration of Communiation and Almost none of these activi-

communications Leadership 8/2016 ties is based on skills she built

training. during her career in the healthcare

Ask her how industry, from which she retired in 2012 (and

much time she when Toastmasters began to take over her

dedicates to her life). Rather, she learned these skills through

hobby, and she practice in what she calls “the Toastmasters

just smiles. Let’s laboratory.” She says, “I want to know what

guess that for I’m getting into

most people it before I jump
would be a full- TLI Winter 2016 Triple Crown Recipient in.” And when

time job, and she jumps in, she

then some. Why does she invest so much in makes a splash.

an unpaid, volunteer activity? In a word, joy. Feeling the

She says, “I get joy out of watching people joy of helping

grow from bud to full bloom and knowing I others achieve

played a part.” their goals keeps

That love of Toastmasters, and her service Division I (High Desert) Club Officer Training her involved as a
to countless members, earned Harmon the Winter 2013
member of seven

District 7 2015-16 Toastmaster of the Year clubs and an

Award at the Celebration of Communication officer in several. Better raise that to eight clubs: She

and Leadership in August. This adds to a is helping to pioneer one of the first on-line clubs,

résumé that already includes Distinguished Great White North Online Toastmasters. Members

Toastmaster and past District Governor, from countries including the U.S., Canada, England

among other achievements. The list of her and Bangladesh have already joined as it nears

current and planned Toastmasters activities the 20 members needed to charter. The club is

is honor-worthy: already holding face-to-face online meetings,

• She’s into year three as the founder, which she notes is a great way to learn to use the

editor and publisher of Voices!. latest videoconferencing technology.

• She co-hosts a monthly TV interview Harmon joined Toastmasters literally for career

show in Salem, “Culturama,” which airs on cable survival: She was told she needed to become a

access in the mid-Willamette Valley. better communicator or lose her job. How she

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