At last, the fall Area contests are complete! The last few weeks have involved tons of planning and recruiting for everyone, especially the Area Director team in our Division.
The contests for four Areas (20, 21, 22, 23) took place in a combined event on Saturday, October 13. My primary responsibility was to plan the afternoon session, where Area 20 and 21 would each complete their Evaluation and Humorous Speech contests. That adds up to four total contests with two test speakers (for the Evaluation contests) and over 20 competitors. On top of that, we needed a minimum of five judges per contest, timers, ballot counters, sergeant at arms, and other event support. As you can see, the number of people and hours rapidly add up.
I am especially grateful to the Contest Chair and Chief Judge, both of which completed High Performance Leadership (HPL) projects as part of their duties, for their efforts. Let's note that they weren't merely coordinating a single contest. This was actually four contests crammed into a single three-hour period. That's quite a bit more work than they may have taken on within a contest at the club level. Similarly, the Division and District contests look small in comparison. Combining multiple Area contests into a single day-long event is a daunting task. Thankfully, relying on dedicated members to do the heavy lifting during the contest allowed me to focus more on recruiting volunteers and marketing the event. On the day itself, I also served as the photographer.
Nevertheless, recruiting was the hardest part. It turns out that very few people who aren't competing are willing to commit to a half day or full day of volunteer work. Further, some people might be active inside their own clubs, but don't get involved in the broader Toastmasters community, which has events scheduled almost every Saturday of the year.
For my part, I feel I did well with recruiting. I was able to find a willing Contest Chair, Contest Master, and Chief Judge. Often, these roles fall to the Area Director, who ends up having to do just about all of the contest logistics alone. Beyond that, my Area clubs offered volunteers. Almost all of them had two members competing in the contests as well.
This was a rare case where my efforts as an Area Director were tangible. By far, my clubs had the most volunteers and visitors in attendance. I attribute that primarily to the fact that I keep everyone informed and am in regular contact with club leaders. The fact that we are on good terms and that I also share information more broadly online helps as well.
That said, it still wasn't enough and we were working down to the last minute (including the day of the event) to fill all of our volunteer roles. For instance, getting a balanced set of judges between the clubs or finding enough judges without potential conflicts of interest was difficult. Similarly, finding enough people to have duplicate or backup roles (such as timers, ballot counters, and sergeant at arms) couldn't entirely be accomplished in advance. We had to call upon our neighbors in Division C to fill out the roster. Further, our District Director visited and donated food and refreshments for the contest.
Toastmasters is a volunteer organization and all of these events require the efforts of large numbers of people. I've learned it's a reality that some things cannot be planned for in advance. People will drop out last minute or without notification. People will show up last minute or without having made a prior commitment to serve.
Being an Area Director means being ready for anything. Hosting successful events does require a strong knowledge of what needs to be done and the motivation to plan ahead. Yet, there is a high degree of flexibility required as well, which may be even more important. Things happen on the day of the event, but if you're accepting of that reality, they always seem to fall into place. You must also be prepared to call upon your fellow leaders in times of need.