With just over 80 hours left, the TLI is rapidly approaching. I've spent the week making a registration push in the days leading up to the event. I set out on social media to post announcements, flyers, details, and humorous images. In addition, I sent a reminder to the leaders of my Area clubs to keep them informed and ask them to encourage their members to attend.
Overall, we are making progress on our online registration numbers, but we won't know the final result until the day before. Of course, people can always show up to participate on the day of the event, too.
Thus far, I have one presentation session to prepare for at the TLI. There is a good chance I'll need to pick up an additional session if other speakers drop between now and Saturday.
Lastly, some eager club leaders have already started asking for speech contest details at various levels. This is a bit premature, since we are in "TLI season" through mid-August. After that, the District focus will turn to "contest season." However, a general guideline was shared with us at the July DEC meeting. That is, clubs should complete their contests by the end of September. This is all I'm able to share with clubs at the moment. Yet, since the club-level contests are fully within the control of individual clubs, it is sufficient information for them to make progress. Meanwhile, the approximate deadlines for Area contests are early November and Division contests are early December. Once the TLI season ends, I will certainly be looking for more details on contest season.