What is the District Council?
Sometimes called the DC, the District Council is comprised of the following members of District 65:
- All DEC members (see below)
- All club Presidents
- All club Vice Presidents Education
District 65 holds two District Council meetings each year, one in the fall and one in the spring at the District Conference. These are often listed in the conference agendas as Business Meetings. These meetings are used to consider and vote on items such as approving budgets, electing district officers, changing district procedures and bylaws, re-aligning clubs, and other district business.
Any Toastmaster may attend a District Council meeting. However, only the voting members of the District Council (listed above) may make motions, discuss motions, vote, and transact other business. At times, non-DC members may be asked to deliver reports of some kind and these Toastmasters will be notified in advance of the need for them to speak.
What is the District Executive Committee?
Often referred to as the DEC (pronounced like “deck”,) the District Executive Committee is comprised of all District 65 officers:
- All Area Directors
- All Division Directors
- Public Relations Manager
- Administration Manager
- Finance Manager
- Club Growth Director
- Program Quality Director
- District Director
- Immediate Past District Director
Committee chairs such as those of the Audit Committee, District Leadership Committee, Conference Committee, etc, are not members of the DEC unless they are also district officers. Apart from these leadership roles, only individuals who are invited by the district director and have specific business before the committee may attend district executive committee meetings. In order to conduct business at these meetings, a quorum is required. A quorum is established when a majority of district executive committee members attend the meeting.
The district executive committee reviews and approves the District Success Plan; approves the budget and oversees the financial operation of the district; recommends the assignment of clubs to areas and divisions; reviews recommendations and reports of district committees, including those of the audit committee; and performs any duties assigned by the district council.
Assignment of the Floor
To seek regular recognition by the chair, a member shall raise their hand by use of the raise hand feature of the meeting platform. The tech team will ask via private chat for what purpose the member wishes to speak and the speaking order will be determined by the team. Members wishing to speak on a motion must type their names and positions in the chat box and indicate whether they wish to speak in favor of or against amotion.
Debate Or Discussion On Any Item
Debate or discussion on any item on the agenda shall be limited to a maximum of ten minutes. No voting member shall speak more than once on the same question or longer than one minute. Debate may be extended at the discretion of the Chair to allow additional discussion, if fairness so requires. This limitation does not apply to points of order.
Non-voting members shall not be recognized.
All interactions must be respectful in nature and use language becoming Toastmasters and this forum.
Any violation written or verbal shall receive an immediate verbal warning from the chair.
A second violation will see the offender removed from the meeting.
How is Voting Handled?
Voting is conducted through the use of the raise the hand feature in the virtual voting platform (such as election runner), unless another means of voting prior to the conduct of business has been identified.
The chair will declare the result. The counting of the hands if necessary will be done by the tech team.
Technical Requirement and Malfunctions
Each attendee is responsible for their electronic connection and technology; no action shall be invalidated on the grounds that the loss, or poor quality, of an attendee’s individual connection prevented him or her from participating in the meeting or training.
Forced disconnections. The chair may cause or direct the disconnection or muting of an attendee’s connection if it is causing undue interference with the meeting.
Recordings
Attendees shall not record any session or workshop
District Executive and District Council meetings may be recorded at the request of the District Adminitration Manager for the sole purpose of creating the meeting minutes. Any such recording is prohibited to be posted and must be deleted once the written minutes are complete.
Attendance
All members of the District Council are expected to attend District Council meetings.
All members of the District Executive Committee are expected to attend District Executive Committee meetings.
If you are unbale to attend, let your Area Director, Division Director, or the District Director know.
Do not just not show up.
Etiquette
District Council and District Executive Committee meetings are professional meetings. Please keep your video on at all times unless asked to turn it off. Please keep your audio muted unless you are speaking. Please dress professionally.