District Officer Reports for 2023 Annual Business Meeting
District Director Report
We spent $3000 on the District 65 Website revamping it for a modern and updated look. We are paying a company to do the updates and keep it on their server.
We did not pay for the Digital Marketing this year as the results from last year were found to be poor for our district.
We have been communicating with the Club Presidents to encourage clubs to hold membership building events.
We have Incentives for Open Houses and materials for clubs who ask for them.
We are providing ribbons for all new members who join our district this year via mailing to the club when they inform us of new members.
Ribbons for educational awards are being mailed to the club for presentation to their members as well as DTM and Triple Crown.
We decided to ask for nominations from our membership for the Core Values Coin. We received 65 nominations and we needed to order more coins from the TI Store. The names will be announced at the Award ceremony.
Though we have lost 12 clubs this year with no clubs chartered, we are maintaining the membership this program year. We have a base of 2207 and at the time that this report was written, we have about 250 members left to meet that base.
District 65 has been though a rough 3 years and we are beginning to move forward in a very positive manner. I am hopeful for the future of our district .
Program Quality Director Report
Club Officer Training, 2/3 of our clubs qualify had four or more club officers trained during both sessions.
Session 1: 78.9%
Session 2: 72.3%
Active Clubs: 92.98%
Low Clubs: 37.5%
Ineligible: 50%
Suspended: 0%
I want to thank you all the presenters for making a difference in our district.
Workshops held:
Pathways to DTM, Pathways Committee
How to make your club vibrant and successful, Sam Mehta, DTM, PDG
Pathways Podcast Panel, Pathways Committee
Conduct Quality Speech Contest, Sam Mehta, DTM, PDG
Club Coach Training, Patricia O’Reilly, DTM, RA
Judging a speech contest, Sam Mehta, DTM, PDG
Zoom training for contest, Aleks Nikolic
Free Toast Host System Administrators, Gloria Gibbon, DTM
Free Toast Host Club Officers, Gloria Gibbon, DTM
Calling all Bloggers, Pathways Committee
Pathways from start to finish, Pathways Committee
Club Officer workshop, Bill Kirby, DTM
Conference Keynote Presentations:
- Diana Robertson, Lights, Camera, Action: Mastering On-Camera Presenting.
- Friday, April 28 at 4:30 PM EST
- Kristy Tyson, Triumph Through Trials.
- Saturday, April 29 at 9:20 AM EST
- Ted Corcoran, DTM, PIP,How to write a speech in ten minutes.
- Saturday, April 29 at 10:00 AM EST
- Jeff Sobel, DTM, ID, How to Talk up Toastmasters.
- Saturday, April 29 at 11:00 AM EST
- Varun Puri, Where the future of AI + public speaking is heading.
- Saturday, April 29 at 3:45 PM EST
Team Transitioning and Collaboration Workshop, Presented by the Pathways Committee
Club Officer Training for Session 1 scheduled
Saturday June 10, 2023
9:00am – 12:00pm
Tuesday June 13, 2023
6:00pm – 9:00pm
In preparation for these COTs we held a Club Officer Election Workshop.
After I attended so many COT’s outside our district to see what we could improve on I wrote a list to share with our newly elected PQD. Why not make our COT’s like a mini conference, lets bring in a Keynote speaker like Pat Johnson, DTM, PIP.
To start our district off on the right tract our outgoing Regional Advisor offered to present on club coaching. We have many clubs that qualify, and we have many experienced members that qualify to be club coaches. By having this training early, it gives us newly elected CGD more time to connect them together make a difference.
Club Coach Training, Patricia O’Reilly, DTM, RA
More details to come regarding the COT, as our newly elected trio works together to further enhance out education program.
Club Growth Director Report
We have a base of 71 clubs and currently have 60 paid clubs.
Six clubs were suspended in the fall of 2022.
Six Clubs are expected to become suspended effective April 2023.
We reinstated one club, P.O.W.E.R.
No clubs are expected to be chartered this program year.
Public Relations Manager Report
This year, the Public Relations manager focused on internal communication to the District. This was mainly accomplished with the monthly District newsletter. The newsletter contained commentary from District leaders, Pathways tips and tricks, and notifications of upcoming District events like trainings and the speech contests. Notice of these events was given at least one month prior to the event. An additional notice containing the Zoom link was sent out one week in advance of District events.
This program year we’ve had a 42% open rate on email communications, up from 38% last year.
We also restored the District website this year with the help of an outside contractor. You can once again go to the website to find out more about District leadership, check out the calendar of upcoming events, and read about what took place at recent District-level business meetings. There is plenty of room to add more features and expand on the revamped website.
Public Relations fell short in raising awareness of Toastmasters to potential guests and new members. District 65’s current social media presence right now consists of a closed Facebook group for members only and a District Facebook page visible to anyone. We do not currently have pages on LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, or any other social media platform. There was hesitancy to expand out social media presence after lackluster results from a digital marketing campaign that Toastmasters International did on behalf of the District last year, at a significant monetary cost.
The Public Relations Manager also fell short this year in working with Club Vice Presidents of Public Relations to publicize their Clubs and spread the word about Toastmasters.
Immediate Past District Director Report
Greetings District 65 Toastmasters,
I have served the District to the best of my ability
July,2022, I did attend the first 2 Quad meetings. I was there to offer my support and advised that I understood my role and I was going to follow those rules. My role is to support and if asked do what I could.
As the Past District Director I helped to plan and host the Yearly Leadership Event held October 15, 2022 on zoom. At that event we awarded the following awards for 2021-2022:
President, Select & Distinguished Clubs
District Pride
Phoenix
Club Mentors & Coaches
Distinguished Toastmasters
Triple Crown Achievers
Area Director of the Year
Division Director of the Year
Toastmaster of the Year
Special Educator Award
Zoom Team
Service Awards
At the beginning of the year I was asked by the District Director to Chair the District Leadership Committee. I formed a committee of five Toastmasters one from each division. They served from December 1, 2022 to March 17, 2023 and a report was submitted to the District Director on March 15, 2023.
I have supported the trainings, DEC meetings ,Area Contests and Division Contests. When asked I did assist some Area Directors and Division Directors. When available I did attend meetings of many clubs.
This has been a very interesting year. I have learned more about the operations of Toastmasters International and enjoyed it all. Most important is if you don’t know ask. If you want to learn more get involved, taking the step into Leadership.