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September 24, 2022 District Executive Committee Minutes

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District 65 Executive Committee Minutes
September 24th, 2022, 9:00am

District 65 Council Meeting called to Order at 9:00 am by Kate Olsen, DTM, PDG District Director. Kate read the District mission, which is, “We build new clubs and support all clubs in achieving excellence.”

Credential Report– Linda Lathrop, DTM, PDG, PDD.  Eligible clubs (in good standing) have 2 votes (President and VP Education have one vote each). Only one is required to vote and either the President or VP Education can carry both votes, maximum of 2 votes. No proxies can be assigned to other club members. We have 66 clubs eligible to vote for a total of 132 votes. Quorum is 1/3 of total votes which is 44. We have 62 eligible presidents and VPEs registered to vote. District Officers have 1 vote each. If they are club president or VPE can carry maximum of 3 votes. We have 16 district officers registered. We have Quorum!

Practice Vote- Emily Olsen- Nemeth, DTM explained the rules of the voting and sent out a practice vote to eligible members.

Consent Explanation– Bill Kirby, DTM, Parliamentarian
The following items are considered “consent items” which means they don’t require a vote, they are accepted by a motion and a second to be received unanimous consent. The items include: Approval of Agenda, Approval of Annual Business Meeting Minutes from April, Approval of appointed District leaders, Audit Committee Report, 3rd and 4th Quarter 2021-2022 Finance Report, Profit and Loss. Moved by Brion Keller, and seconded by Debra Bullard.

Review and Approval D65 Budget 2022-2023– Lisa Garczynski, CC
Lisa reviewed proposed budget and went over the narratives. Budget was sent to the members to review before this meeting. Motion to accept budget report as presented was moved by Keith Flint and seconded by Sam Mehta. Vote was launched to voting members to approve budget.

Results of Voting:
Do you approve the 2022-2023 budget?
Yes- 87 votes (99%)
No- 1 vote (1%)

District Leader Reports:

District Leadership Committee- Brenda W. Billups. DTM, IPDD
The District is looking for new leaders, more members, and more officers. Please look at the website to see more information about what leaders are needed in the upcoming year. Step up, be the leader that you can be.

Public Relations Manager– Keith Flint, DL5

So far this year we are averaging a 40% open rate on our monthly newsletter.  If you are not reading the newsletter each month, I encourage you to do so.  It comes right to your inbox, first thing in the morning, on the first of the month.  You get the dates for upcoming events and also learn about your fellow Clubs in the “Division Showcase” section.  If you would like your Club featured, so you can show the District what is unique about your Club and what your Club does well, please contact your Division Director.

For those Clubs that have a website through FreeToastHost or EZSpeak, please make sure that your Club’s meeting information and contact information is up to date.  That is the Club meeting day, time, and location, whether that be physical, virtual, or hybrid.  Also, for that link on the website that says, “Contact Us,” make sure a few people in your Club are set up to receive those communications, so that a potential guest gets a response within 24 hours.

Anyone that is on Facebook – I encourage you to join the District 65 members group.  This is a closed group just for the members of District 65, and it’s a great way to advertise what’s going on in your Club.  If you’re looking for people to attend an Open House, if you’re looking for guest speakers, or if you’re having an interesting theme meeting, then the Facebook group is a great place to advertise that.

Lastly, I will be looking to start having “Member Moments,” where members give a brief testimonial or short interview about how Toastmasters has positively impacted them, either personally or professionally.  These will be posted on current and future District social media pages.  If you have anyone in mind, or if you yourself are interested, please email [email protected].

Club Growth Director– Betty Brewer Johnson

I am excited. Right now, our membership is low, but I have great news. We have a couple new clubs in the pipeline to either be reinstated or to come on board. But more importantly, I have been working with our struggling clubs that really have a desire to succeed. Last year, our District Director said that Members Matter. And members do matter. And as we work together as members, we can build our district and make it phenomenal. Kate says this year we should be appreciating each other. So as we combine those 2 concepts, we can have a dynamic organization this year and we can actually grow our club to be distinguished. I know people say all the time, “why do you talk about being distinguished?” Because being distinguished is what brings people to our clubs and it makes our club more attractive to other members. But we need that momentum. We need to open up our clubs to diverse groups of people. We need to expand our thought process. We need to be innovative. We need to reach out to people who we think would benefit from the club and people we wouldn’t think would benefit, but just to give them an opportunity to see what they can receive or gain from being a member of district 65. Our District is resilient. We have weathered a lot of storms. We have been as high as 200 clubs and now we are as low as 66 and the number is dwindling. The good news is we can rebuild and be stronger. I just need us to work together and stay focused and to be excited about the growth. Thank you.

Program Quality Director– Sam Otto, DTM

We had the highest number of officers trained in region 9, compared to the other Districts in the Peer Call, 93 % of our clubs had 4 or more officers trained (61 of 66 base clubs). The second session of District Club Officer Training is scheduled on Saturday, November 5th from 9am to noon OR Tuesday November 8th from 6pm to 9pm

VPE, President and Secretary will also have a Pathways representative in their break session to answer questions regarding pathways   We have a floater for the other sessions that can be summoned. Please save the dates for additional training sessions: “How to make your club vibrant and successful”, Tuesday, October 4th, 6:30 to 7:30, “Judging a speech contest”, Tuesday, December 6th, 6:30 to 7:30 both presented by Sam Mehta. Lastly, The Area, Division and District Contests are scheduled and can be found on the District Website. If you have any questions, Please email me at [email protected].

District Director– Kate Olsen, DTM, PDG

Good morning District 65. Thank you for attending this important District Council Meeting.

District 65 started the program year with 66 paid clubs and a total of 75 clubs. 71 clubs submitted their club officer lists before June 30, 2022, which means they were submitted on time. Thank you to the Club Presidents and Division Directors who worked together on this project.

District 65 was the first District in region 9 to appoint all 17 Area Directors. We still have all our Area Directors! Please show your appreciation when they visit your club. Several districts never found their Area Directors and have received resignations already.

District 65 ranked 21 /127 in the world statistically for designating their club proxies for the Annual Business Meeting in Nashville. WHQ does keep statistics on this, and it is great to see us ranking well when we work together.

At the International Convention, we were informed the DCP would be changed for this year and the net gain for a club under 20 members in now 3 members instead of 5. I hope this excites clubs to set their goals to become distinguished.

Last year, we spent $5850 last year on Digital Marketing. The results though hard to measure was in our opinion considered dismal. Since we have less money this year, we thought that focusing on our own website was a better investment.

61 clubs have 4 or more officers trained.  Congratulations to Toasted Sage, Pinnacle and Good Morning Syracuse who had all 7 officers trained.

We continue to have a strong Pathways Committee this year serving our District. Watch for the dates of their presentations. If you need help, please reach out.

In closing, I want to thank everyone who helped make this meeting possible. Our Parliamentarian: Bill Kirby, DTM Our Timers: Alberta Latimer Hunt, Keenan Glover Zoom hosts: Aleks Nikolic, Jean Hunter and Emily Nemeth

Please continue to show appreciation as we move forward this program year.

Announcements – Next District Council Meeting is April 29th at 9am.

There is no new business.

Meeting Adjourned.

WHERE LEADERS ARE MADE