Report from District Training event

Cheryl and I attended the District Training event at the Russell Library last Saturday, Dec. 13.

This training was put on by our District 53 leadership. We heard presentations on promoting our club on the internet, the Competent Leader manual, and the Speechcraft program.

We participated in a Case Study about a struggling TM club. Volunteers from the Springfield club gave us information about the challenges that they have been facing. We then broke into 2 groups to come up with some recommendations. The exercise became an unexpected speaking opportunity for me, as I was chosen to present our recommendations to the whole group.

The District team announced plans for a 2009 Kickoff event on January 17 in Hartford, 2-4 PM. This event will feature 3 speeches from some of the best speakers in the District, followed by evaluations, plus presentations by the leadership team. They are also planning a Pecha Kucha segment. Pecha Kucha is a highly structured, PowerPoint-based speech, requiring 20 slides. Each slide is shown for 20 seconds, for a total speech time of 6:40. This kickoff is open to all Toastmasters, and it should be a lot of fun!