With a less rigorous pace than in the fall, I conducted formal spring visits with all of my Area clubs between January 10 and March 11. Within 24 hours of each visit, I submitted all of my Area Director's Club Visit Reports through District Central on the Toastmasters International website.
It was wonderful to see how my clubs have grown and improved over the course of the year. For example, one that has struggled with membership for years experienced a revival. A flurry of new members arrived and became highly engaged, which reignited the club spirit. Another club was early with everything - holding contests, renewing dues, achieving awards, and so on. Their stellar level of achievement seemed to attract even more members to them. Yet another club could consistently be counted on to fill the volunteer roster and the seats for District events, which is much appreciated. Their efforts were also rewarded with a boom in club commitment and membership.
Although it is important to recognized these successes, we cannot forget that every club has its challenges from time to time. Some struggle with membership, relationship conflicts, running efficient meetings, motivating members to achieve awards, and a host of other possibilities. Nevertheless, I find that clubs with leaders who take accountability for quality are always able to overcome the challenges. When a club has leaders and members who genuinely care and are willing to improve the situation, it can weather any storm.
The Spring Area Contests
Thankfully, the spring Area contests are complete with a bit less difficulty than last time around. The contests for four Areas (20, 21, 22, 23) took place in a combined event on Saturday, March 9. This time we executed the Table Topics and International Speech contests, which are a bit more efficient to run than the fall contests (Evaluation and Humorous Speech). Hence, timing was less problematic. Nevertheless, there were some delays with ballot counting and awards that caused us to finish 20-30 minutes over.
My neighboring Area Director took on most of the heavy lifting as the Contest Chair this time around. He did an excellent job preparing, recruiting, and communicating. Meanwhile, I was able to focus mostly on recruiting. Once again, my clubs cooperated and brought numerous volunteers to the event, which we all greatly appreciate. It's worth restating an observation that I made earlier in the year. That is, having an engaged team makes all the difference in making these events either an insurmountable burden or realistic challenge to overcome. This time, we had more people participating at a high level and the contest preparations went smoothly.
On a side note, there was an odd case that occurred during the competition. A contest functionary made an error that disrupted a contestant's speech. As both an attentive and resolution-minded individual, I quickly sprang into action to confer with the Chief Judge on a course of action. Then, I facilitated passing this message to the Contest Master, functionaries, and contestants. Thus, within a few seconds, the incident was resolved and the contest could proceed. Remember what I've always said: an Area Director needs to be prepared for anything.
My neighboring Area Director took on most of the heavy lifting as the Contest Chair this time around. He did an excellent job preparing, recruiting, and communicating. Meanwhile, I was able to focus mostly on recruiting. Once again, my clubs cooperated and brought numerous volunteers to the event, which we all greatly appreciate. It's worth restating an observation that I made earlier in the year. That is, having an engaged team makes all the difference in making these events either an insurmountable burden or realistic challenge to overcome. This time, we had more people participating at a high level and the contest preparations went smoothly.
On a side note, there was an odd case that occurred during the competition. A contest functionary made an error that disrupted a contestant's speech. As both an attentive and resolution-minded individual, I quickly sprang into action to confer with the Chief Judge on a course of action. Then, I facilitated passing this message to the Contest Master, functionaries, and contestants. Thus, within a few seconds, the incident was resolved and the contest could proceed. Remember what I've always said: an Area Director needs to be prepared for anything.
The March Area Newsletter
With 5 of 6 club visits completed, we headed into March with these topics highlighted in my monthly newsletter:
- Area Contests: I provided full event details regarding the combined Area contests. I asked each club to nominate one member who can be a judge with the goal of achieving fair representation among the clubs. I also made an open invitation for volunteers in other roles and encouraged all members to attend.
- Club Contests: I reminded all clubs to send me notification of their winners.
- Division Contests: I provided a reminder and basic event details for the Division contests.
- New Club Demo Meetings: I provided demo meeting event details for a club which was seeking charter members. I invited interested parties to contact me if they'd like to support the club and to share the details with anyone who might be a potential member.
- Dues Renewal: I reminded everyone that the time has come for dues renewal and encouraged club leaders to set an early deadline, such as March 15, rather than to wait until the moments just before the April 1 deadline.
- TLI Attendance: I congratulated the clubs on their excellent TLI attendance (83% or 35/42 possible officers). I noted that this represents a commitment to preparing officers to serve members and participating in the broader Toastmasters community.