Page 24 - August 2020 Voices

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Reflections on a Pathways DTM

Paul Fanning, DTM

I awoke that morning, not realizing that my life another Distinguished Toastmaster award

would begin to change, the familiar would begin (DTM) as (quite frankly) I believed that the
to wane, leading to the ultimate resounding award as we knew it would be gone and a “new”
crash and the uncomfortable and unfamiliar titled award would be introduced. Obviously, I
would ascend. I set my laptop into motion to was mistaken on several counts, yet was a seer

read the myriad of emails awaiting response, into the morphed award it became.
deletion or putting off, and there it was: “Alas, I applied for and was granted my Pathways
Babylon” was my response to the announcement DTM award on July 2, 2020. What follows are my
by Toastmasters International (TI) on the rollout reflections on earning a Pathways DTM and my

for District 7 Pathways—fateful words heralding insights, recommendations, and the differences
the end (a thousand years of civilization being between the legacy and Pathways DTMs I have
stripped away) or so I felt. My apologies to Henry now earned.
Wadsworth Longfellow—but there I thought, Perhaps the first and foremost insight about

“Listen, my children, and you shall hear, of the the process is the difference in the delivery of
midnight cry of Toastmasters so dear. On the the education program and the levels/paths
eighteenth of September, in two ought 18 . . .” achievement in Pathways. We can now forget
I was unprepared for that announcement entirely as of July 1, 2020 any of the “Legacy”

even though I knew it would be coming. We did CC, CL and advanced awards progression and
not have all the Pathways Guides appointed! We structure. No one is going to pry from your
were unsure as to what the program entailed. I fingers any of the awards earned prior to that
envisioned the crumbling away of the bastions date, but they cannot be applied to the Pathways

of the “legacy” program ruins, leaving behind DTM. Let us just say we have been dealing with
piles of rubble and the scattered remains of fallen apples (Legacy awards) and oranges (Pathways
club members. My sigh could have been heard awards). Think “Paths” now and be prepared for
around the world. similar concepts perhaps remastered or renamed

While I am often confused for a stick-in- within the Pathways education awards program.
the-mud old dinosaur, I rapidly embraced the If you wish to earn a DTM in Pathways, I
new program and enrolled in my two Paths. highly recommend that you download your own
I did not set myself the goal of achieving yet copy of the Distinguished Toastmaster (DTM)

24 ONE COMMUNITY