Toastmasters International Convention District 37

Quick update about Toastmasters International Fall 2008 Conference – District 37
By Carol Gault
1. The conference was held in Raleigh, NC at the Hilton hotel on Page Rd. with about 190 attendees. The program started Friday evening and ended late Saturday evening.
2. Friday evening was the evaluation contest which was quite a surprise. Of the seven contestants, 3 were eliminated due to talking overtime.
3. Registrations continued on Saturday. It seemed like many only came for parts of the conference.
4. Saturday morning consisted of speakers regarding Toastmasters and introductions of key Toastmaster personnel in District 37 (which is our state NC).
5. In the afternoon there were twelve breakout workshops. Actuality, these workshops were the best part of the conference. They were given in three time slots of four workshops. Therefore, one could only attend three workshops.
6. I attended E tech training by Naomi Takeuchi. She is designing a blog for the district. It was suggest she give the template to each club so they could have there own blog and the format would be consistent to the district’s. Thus, you can see my attempt.
7. I then attended Understanding the Advance Manuals by Peggy Beach. She explained how important it is for one to understand the requirements for each book. She suggested every club purchase a set, so members can view the books before ordering theirs.
8. My last session was with Chuck Blethen. He has taken Speech Craft and made it user friendly. In a way, it should be called: “A Toastmasters Workshop Briefing”. It consists of four meetings for new prospective members to understand what Toastmasters is and what it can do for you. He suggests setting aside one month of regular meetings. Start advertising at least three months in advance. He has all the advertising ready and each lesson format ready for usage. A toastmasters club would conduct their meetings as usual BUT have them geared to teaching prospective members during this four week period. He suggested to charge $20.00 per person. As a suggestions we could set aside the month of February and advertise to all Cardinal Club and Capitol City Club members. Chuck said it is very important to do “Speech Craft” during your regular meeting hours. We would need to contact Chuck to obtain his teaching materials
9. Later that evening we had the Humorous Speech Contest. Then a wonderful formal dress up dinner. There were lots of informal conversations among the formal attire.
10. It was noted that the committee did make a strong point to make newcomers welcome.
11. Our next conference will be held in the spring in Charlotte.
12. If you wish to understand more about the fall conference, contact Carol Gault or add your blog comment to this article. We want to hear from you.