Toastmasters Leadership Institute

Connor Cunneen

Every summer and winter, Toastmasters District 54 hosts three "Toastmasters Leadership Institutes," or TLIs. These training events generally run from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on a Saturday in July and again in January/February.

Last Saturday, July 25, the TLI "North" took place in Plainfield, Illinois at the Chicago Bridge and Iron Co. It is a beautiful facility, and very well-equipped for training, with projectors in every conference room and in the main cafeteria / meeting room where the main sessions took place.

The keynote speaker for the event was Connor Cunneen, a thoroughly entertaining and motivating speaker. He gave his keynote address entitled "The Gift of GAB: How Goals, Attitude, Behavior can give you a top o' the morning feeling AND help you BEAT the recession." Check out his website at IrishmanSpeaks.com.

After the keynote, there were training sessions for all of the club officer roles: club President, VP Education, VP Membership, VP Public Relations, Secretary, Treasurer, and "Sergeant at Arms" (a name that trips many up: Just think of arms in terms of using your own arms to do physical things, and not in terms of firearms, and you'll get the idea of this job). I am serving as the Secretary of the DeKalb club this year, but I received that training at the (equally excellent) TLI south in Bloomington at State Farm earlier in the month. Instead, I attended Lauran-Bell Harrison's session on "Storytelling for Effective Communication" - using stories to help your presentations communicate powerfully and from the heart. I also provided the training for PR Officers, with a focus on the art of writing a press release. I hope to post more about that another time.

Now it's your turn: Did you attend one of the summer District 54 TLIs, or have you ever attended a Toastmasters Leadership Institute? What are your experiences?

Aloysia Mitchell, District Governor

July 1, 2009 marks the beginning of a new Toastmasters year. I hope you found 2008-2009 to be rewarding and filled with happy memories. By Endurance we Conquered under the leadership of Bob Grenier, DTM, and this year we will Empower People to Prosper!

Toastmasters International is an organization that will help you develop your communication and leadership skills but did you realize it can help you Empower People to Prosper? As you develop your communication and leadership skills you develop the ability to prosper in your workplace, home and community. Many of us join Toastmasters to learn how to become effective communicators. As we join a club and learn more about the organization we discover there is a leadership track. It is in the leadership track that we develop new skills. I encourage you to use these skills not only help yourself but to help others. As we expand the network of Toastmasters Clubs we offer more people the opportunity to gain the benefits of the Toastmasters organization.

In 2009-2010 our District Goal is to charter 10 new clubs this year, have each club be Distinguished and achieve the rank of President's Distinguished District! Sound easy, right? The truth of the matter is that there are several variables that have to be reached for this to be achieved but it is possible. President's Distinguished District is a B.A.G - Big Audacious Goal - but it is one that is within our reach.

In order to achieve this goal, we need to surpass previous educational goals. Historically, the District surpasses the goals set by Toastmasters International. Let us blow it out of the water this year! I am asking all District 54 Toastmasters to achieve at least one Educational or Leadership goal this year even if you have already achieved the status of Distinguished Toastmaster (DTM). I have committed to achieving a Competent Leader and Advanced Communicator-Bronze this year. What is your goal? Send me an e-mail with “TM goal” in the subject line and tell me your goal. I want to celebrate with you when you achieve your goal.

In addition to achieving educational goals, we need the entire District Team to work on building new Toastmasters clubs and adding new members to existing low member clubs. We don't want to lose any clubs this year. Let us empower all clubs so they know they play an important role in our District Success.

I look forward to working with each one of you so we can have a fun, successful year.

Aloysia Mitchell, DTM
District 54 Governor

Northern Illinois Toastmasters District 54 Gets a Blog

Toastmasters District 54 is now blogging. After several years of using primarily old media, such as email, to communicate with one another and with the public, Toastmasters D54 is now blogging.

The advantages of a district blog are many.
(1) It creates a central hub for our communication with members and the public.
(2) Readers can comment, which means that good conversations can happen.
(3) The blog creates a news feed that can appear in a variety of places, including the readers' own news readers, so they can keep up with the district. I am also planning to see about hooking the blog into the District 54 Facebook page and the District 54 website.

What kinds of things would you like to see us talk about on this blog?