After the break is the text of the speech I delivered to Club 13, on Tuesday, May 29.
Special thanks to Mike, a guest at the meeting who provided me a suggestion to improve the speech which I have incorporated, below.
Of course, the 32 figure I cite is the speech is now 30 29.
T-Minus 32
The great and all-knowing seer of human behaviour, Anonymous, asked a question long ago. It is as relevant today as it was a year ago. It will be as relevant in a year’s time. This question is very relevant for the next 32 days:
If it weren’t for the last minute, would anything get done?
The last time I announced how many days were left in the Toastmasters year, it was in January. At that time, each Club had 150 days left to reach its Distinguished Club Program – DCP – goals, and, we individual Toastmasters, had 150 days to reach our own educational goals. Today, we are 32 days away from June 30, the final day of the Toastmaster year.
I know, already, I am going to polish off some paperwork that day. I might even be caught up on all my email by that fateful Saturday, but it will be a real squeaker.
I expect a good number of VPs Education and VPs Membership will also be working in the last week to figuratively slip that last piece of paperwork in under the wire.
Xuewei, our Toastmaster today and our Club President, stated this is the ninth of 10 speeches towards my next educational achievement.
Each time I have completed a level – Competent Toastmaster, Advanced Toastmaster Bronze, and Advanced Toastmaster Silver – I have completed it in May or June.
The looming year-end deadline always motivated me help Club 13 meet its goals as I worked through each of mine. This year is no different.
I am proud of Club 13’s record over the years I have been a member. If I remember correctly, we have achieved Distinguished Club recognition for six out of the last seven years. In two of those years, Club 13 met 10 out of 10 Distinguished Club goals.
So, those of you who may be nervous about getting your last few speeches done in these last few weeks, you are in good company.
If I can do it, I am confident you can, too. I’m no special shakes.
Here are the magical steps I follow to get my speeches done: I read what the objectives of my remaining speeches are, figure out which speech is the easiest to do yet, see how much time my speech should use, choose a topic – though I often mull this one over for weeks or months – and, I pound out that much text to meet the time requirements and speech objectives.
To me, the most important part of this process is to pound out that first draft. If a job is worth doing, it is worth getting it started to get it done.
Once I have a draft done, I make time to sleep it over, allowing me to mull over and reorganize and improve what I have tapped out. I review and revise my speech through several drafts. I often ask advice of fellow Club 13 members.
It is that simple. It is how I wrote this speech.
Now, my speech today, not only brings me to being one away from reaching my goal, it brings Club 13 to being within one goal of becoming a Distinguished Club this year.
So far this year, Club 13 has already met three of 10 DCP goals:
• Four new members since July 1,
• At least four Club Officers trained last summer and at least four trained in the winter, and
• April and October dues and the Club Officer list submitted on time.
When I polish off my tenth speech, and our VP Education submits the paperwork, Club 13 will have a checkmark beside the one AC – Advanced Communicator – goal.
Club 13 is very close to completing a few more goals:
• One more Competent Communicator to meet the goal of two CCs.
• After that, another two CCs.
• As I mentioned, my AC will meet a DCP goal.
• As well as one more AC.
• Finally, we have three of the four additional new members, so one more new member will mean one more goal met.
If Club 13 meets five of these ten goals, we will achieve Distinguished status. If we meet seven, we will be Select Distinguished. And, if we meet nine of the ten goals, we will be President’s Distinguished.
The DCP is set up for Clubs to plan through the year to work towards education and leadership goals of efficiency and quality.
I know our VP Education has spoken in recent weeks with Club 13 members who are close to their next level of achievement, just as he encouraged me.
What Club 13 will complete and accomplish in the next 32 days matches very much the vision I had at the start of the year.
My vision is still that we Southern Saskatchewan Toastmasters will improve our communication skills and confidently share this with others.
I gave a speech nine months ago, some 240 days ago, in which I shared my vision, a mission statement for making this vision a reality, and the core values I see guiding the mission.
My vision distilled down to a straightforward mission statement:
• Members meet their goals to improve their public speaking skills,
• Members improve their skills beyond just the basics, and
• Members engage others in our communities to join, ensuring sustainable Toastmaster Clubs.
As Division Governor, I have attempted to serve as a conduit between the District and the Toastmaster clubs in Southern Saskatchewan
I believe the Division mission, as I see it, fits neatly to both the Club and District missions:
The mission of the Toastmasters Club is to provide a mutually supportive and positive learning environment in which every member has the opportunity to develop communication and leadership skills….
The mission of the District is to enhance the performance of Clubs and to extend the network of Clubs, offering more people the opportunity to benefit from the Toastmasters educational program.
I still see three core values guiding Toastmasters in Division B:
• Each club works to meet Members’ needs.
• Area Governors and Division Governor serve Club Executive to help meet Member needs.
• Each club will, intently, bring in new blood.
I feel communicating positive expectations to members of a team is a much overlooked key to a team’s success. I have tried this year, and I still do, to communicate my positive expectations.
This is why I made Division B’s Theme this year “Believe and Achieve”.
If one thinks of a year as a relay marathon, we see the finish line ahead of us, and the baton is in our hands as we sprint forward. So, I look forward as we, together, make this last month of the Toastmaster year, the most productive month for Club 13.
I started this speech with a question from the wise seer Anonymous:
If it weren’t for the last minute, would anything get done?
That same seer provided an optimistic answer to the question:
“Nothing makes a person more productive than the last minute.”
