Page 11 - 2018 December

TRANSCENDING YOUR COMFORT ZONE

The Gift of Toastmasters

John Rodke, DTM - District Director

The skills we work hard at developing to see her strengths as a leader and employ her
occasionally surprise us. On Saturday, my friend talents to bring success to her organization.
Sarah asked: “Hey you are a major leader in With enthusiastic acclaim, Program

that Toastmasters organization, right?” Caught Quality Director Emilie Taylor and Education
off guard, I answered yes, and quickly realized Coordinator Kathleen Tully, have been providing
Table Topics was in session. Sarah had recently skill specific online training to our members.
become the Executive Director of a non-profit Thank you for those who have attended these

and was seeking some guidance on how to dynamic sessions. Will you learn from the next
proceed forward. Through an exchange of deep one?
and leading Table Topics type questions and Now is a great time to see the potential
answers, we were able to form a picture of the leaders within your club and mentor them to

current state of her organization, the current take on your role next year. A great way to get
challenges, what resources it has to work with, them started is to attend Officer Training at the
and how Sarah wants to go about supporting District and Division levels.
and leading this group of caring people. The We realize membership is a common struggle

biggest takeaway was that she needed to quickly for many of our clubs. Do you know that you
establish and maintain strong relationships with can have online members? One method is for
key people, actively listen to what they needed, them to attend remotely through Zoom. This
and establish a plan with them to create success. is a video conferencing program. If your club is

Does this sound familiar to you as a interested in trying this out, we have opened up
Toastmaster? I hope so. Our program is about the use of two of the District’s Zoom accounts
establishing relationships with one another, for this purpose. Ask your Area Directors for
listening carefully during evaluations, giving details. You can have members join your club

constructive feedback, building effective teams, from anywhere in the world or locally, if weather
and gathering consensus with formulating or mobility is an issue.
plans for success. Every meeting role and officer I encourage you to use your hard-earned
position, from the Club through the District, is Toastmaster gifts this holiday season to liven

designed to give you the opportunity to develop up your gatherings, encourage a friend to step
these skills into gifts. We can provide these out of their comfort zone and into their growth
gifts to our friends and networks to help them zone by following your example.
improve too. What an honor it was to coach Sarah

VOICES! |DECEMBER 2018 11