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THOUGHTS FROM THE SIDELINE
Thanksgiving Memories
Eldred Brown, DTM, IPDD
During this holiday season, I want to reflect
on some of the Toastmasters experiences
for which I have reason to be thankful. I am
reusing a story from my time on the Trio as
the then Program Quality Director, which I
think does the job rather well.
We got this
It’s never easy to bury a parent, no matter
how long they’ve lived. I had to take some
time away from all my other responsibilities
to do just that after my mother died of
COVID-19 in mid-November (2020). As
soon as I heard the news from my aunt, I
emailed my three committee chairs, Leanna
Lindquist, Gwendolyn Avington, and Lyle
Schellenberg, to let them know. I reassured
them that I trust them totally to do the work
assigned to them, but it was still reassuring
to me to read Leanna’s reply, “We got this.
Take whatever time you need.” That’s what
20 ONE COMMUNITY
I wanted and needed to hear.
One of my goals as your Program Quality
Director was to appoint the right people to
lead the committees under my watch, give
them the training and direction they need,
and let them do their thing. I want to be
active in helping them with their work, but
I don’t want to control them. For me, being
able to trust the leaders on my team is of
the utmost importance. Knowing that they
have the resources to successfully do their
work while I’m away and unable to help is a
measure of success I value highly. I have the
right people in the right leadership roles.
Let’s start with Leanna and the work
she did planning and coordinating all our
presenters for TLI. There were a couple
of little things I wanted to include in our
TLI, but my mom’s passing disrupted my
participation in Leanna’s planning so that
we ended up not implementing the little