Page 12 - July 2020

PJ’s PERSPECTIVE

Numbers Don’t Tell the Whole Story

PJ Kleffner, DTM - District Director

Five hundred twenty-five final results from last year, but we know that
thousand six hundred minutes Covid-19 didn’t do us any favors. We know our

Five hundred twenty-five numbers will be “down”, we just don’t know by
thousand moments so dear how much. However, these numbers won’t tell
Five hundred twenty-five the whole story.

thousand six hundred minutes Our numbers will show that we lost some
How do you measure, measure a ground last year, but they won’t show the
year? incredible amount of energy and spirit that

our dedicated members displayed to overcome
If you have seen the movie RENT, you now have obstacles so they could continue on their
that song stuck in your head – sorry. Toastmasters journeys. We learned to do
You may have noticed from my previous everything online–weekly meetings, pay dues

Voices! columns, that I am a bit of a numbers remotely, elect officers, and submit a record-
guy. Some of my family members even say I am breaking number of educational awards. District
a nerd, which I take as a compliment. Math was 7 members submitted over 40 Distinguished
always my favorite class, and I definitely wasn’t Toastmaster awards last year, which is more than

that student in algebra who kept asking, “When double what we normally see in a year.
am I ever going to use this when I grow up?” I Last month I had the pleasure of joining a
spent my entire career working for companies webinar to hear our Toastmasters International
that made test and measurement equipment. Our President, Deepak Menon. He told us how he

customers measured everything from how fast a was a “numbers guy” during his early years in
nuclear explosion happens to how much voltage leadership with Toastmasters. He was obsessed
you get from a heart defibrillator. Numbers, with looking at the dashboard and daily reports
numbers, numbers. to see how his District was doing. Driven by the

Here we are, already thirty thousand two numbers, his District finished first in the world.
hundred and forty minutes into our new Eventually, he realized there was something
Toastmasters year, or about three weeks to more important than the numbers, and that
most of you. As I write this, we don’t have the was the “member experience.” As leaders, we are

12 ONE COMMUNITY