District 106

Newsletter

February 2023

From the Desk of the District Director

January was the month of returning to serving the District and its club members. Finally, we could assess our situation at the district level and finalize the District Success Plan. We have a high possibility of finishing as a distinguished district. We prepared an action plan for the remaining six months. A presentation was made to Division Directors; we collected feedback, incorporated it into the DSP plan, and uploaded it to the TI website. It was an excellent opportunity for us to attend midyear training and present our action plan in regions 4 & 5.

According to the plan, we contacted clubs to help them gain new visitors and memberships using Meetup. Unfortunately, only 16 clubs expressed an interest. All 16 clubs are on Meetup.org (an online platform where shared interests can lead to memberships in Toastmasters).

Clubs are reporting that they are meeting in person. Lino Lakes Toastmasters meets at Lino Lake City Hall. Information can be found here: https://linolakes.toastmastersclubs.org/

We tried to reinstate clubs disbanded during the COVID-19 pandemic era and communicated with their members; some replied, but they still need a better time to return. We tried our best to serve our clubs and their members.

It's good to see Division Directors beginning to conduct Division Council Meetings followed by dinner. It was impressive that Division and Area Directors were participating and discussing action plans, speech contests, and other challenges.

Our Audit Committee started and finished the round one audit and is ready to submit it to WHQ. Thank you, Jared Akerman (Audit Committee Chair) and team.

We had good meetings with two prospective corporate clubs. So let's keep our fingers crossed that we will add them as new clubs.

We are in full swing on finishing round two of officer training and beginning the spring speech contests. All dates are available in D106 calendar https://d106tm.org/calendar/.

The D106 Annual Spring Conference will be held on May 12th and 13th in Duluth, MN. Radisson Hotel booking is open, so please reserve your room at a discounted rate and let us have a great spring conference. Click here for more information.

Quarterly DEC (District Executive Council) meetings took place on Feb 4, 2023, followed by DOT (District Officer Training) led by the Region Advisor to help and equip District Officers to finish their year strong.

At midyear training, we (the trio) were trained by WHQ (20 hours). After that, it was about finishing our year successfully and serving clubs to achieve excellence. We are now fully equipped and ready to help. Please respond to our request, and we will make this district distinguished.

Yours in Service,

Gopu Shrestha, DTM,

District 106 Director

From the Desk of the Program Quality Director

Two hundred ninety-six District 106 club officers have completed round two of club officer training as of February 02, 2023. Forty-two clubs have trained four or more officers so far. Twenty-eight additional clubs still have the opportunity to gain a DCP point by training four or more officers. The remaining District 106 officer training sessions are on Thursday, February 09, at 6 pm CST, Wednesday, February 15, at 6 pm CST, and Tuesday, February 28, at 6 pm CST.

Our Toastmasters Leadership Institute (TLI) will be held on Saturday, February 18, at 9 am CST. Our TLI is a can't-miss event! The all-star lineup includes Past International President Lark Doley speaking about "Prospective Member Engagement." Varun Pari will demonstrate the Yoodli software application. All paid members now have access for free. Sarah Bateman will present "Building an Experience from the Stage," and Denise Sundquist will present "Link me In!" In addition, our superb officer training team will give some of their best round two material. Pass the word! This will be a very informative event!

Please mark your calendars now and plan to join us in Duluth on May 12 and 13th for our District 106 Annual Conference. Region 4 TI Board member Kimberly Myers will be attending.

We need volunteers. Please reach out to either conference co-chair:

• Sue Scholz toastmastersue@aol.com
• IPDD Kimberlee Redington DTM tmkimberleedtm@gmail.com

We will be at the Radisson Hotel in Duluth. Room registration is open and available via links on the District 106 calendar.

Are you a competent and confident videographer? I'm looking for one or two videographers to capture our Spring Conference in Duluth. If you or someone you know have videography skills, please call me at 559-972-6888 or contact me by email at tm.ed.aylward@gmail.com

Spring Speech Contest will begin soon. The District finals will be hybrid. The Table Topics and Tall Tales contests will be held on May 12, and the Evaluation and International contests will be on May 13. I'm looking for a Division Director to volunteer to have a hybrid Division contest. Experienced Zoom hosts are also needed for the May 12th and 13th contests. This will be a fantastic experience, and our District has excellent speech contestants!

Division Speech Contest dates are on the District calendar in April. Area Contests are beginning to be posted in March. They are best conducted if Areas pair up. Finding contest officials should go smoothly if the two Areas cooperate and don't choose the same date as other areas. Help each other!

Congratulations to the many District 106 Toastmasters who are busily

completing levels and paths of their education program! Ribbons are being mailed to recognize your accomplishments! I will submit one or two

additional awards to help one of your clubs to gain DCP points. Don't wait! Get your speeches done and present those awards! I'd love to celebrate as many Distinguished Toastmasters awards as possible for this program year!

The calendar is busy, but we're up to the challenge as District 106

finishes the Toastmasters Program Year strong!

Best Regards,

Ed Aylward

District 106

Program Quality Director

From the Desk of the Club Growth Director

Celebrating in Las Vegas

The Trio went to Las Vegas from January 30th - 31st for Mid-year training. We were in training from 8 am- 9 pm on the first day and 8 am-5 pm on the second day. Whew! Twenty hours of training. Compared to COT, this was exhausting. Still, it was worth it. We made many connections and learned ways to help our District become even stronger. I enjoyed it!

Gopu, Ed, and I went to dinner one evening with Toastmaster Jessica Parker. She took us to Morimoto, a high-class Japanese restaurant. We had a five-course meal of hors d'oeuvres. It was so fancy that the waiter lit our dessert on fire. Poof! Fortunately, it was intentional, and no one had their eyebrows singed. We continued the dinner celebrating the District's achievements. Staying in a warmer climate for a few days was pleasant, too.

Yes, District 106 is in the lead, folks. We have a few corporate clubs in the wing that have a good chance of being chartered before the year ends. Several of our low-member clubs have regained status with new members. We only have six clubs that are below eight members. That means we need only 12 new members to reach our goal. If you are only in one club, consider joining one of these clubs to help them gain membership. 

From February 1 to March 31, the membership building program TALK-UP TOASTMASTERS takes place. Add three new, dual, or reinstated members with a join date between February 1 and March 31, and you'll receive a special Talk up Toastmasters ribbon to display on your club's banner. In addition, qualifying clubs can earn a special discount code for 10% off their next club order. (The discount code expires six months from the date of issue and is not valid with any other offer.)

Applications and payments for members with a join date between February 1 and March 31 must be received at World Headquarters or online by March 31. In addition, transfer and charter members do not count towards Talk Up Toastmasters credit.

The winning clubs will be revealed online within a few weeks of the submission deadline. Winning clubs should allow up to 10 business days to receive their award if they are located in the United States and up to 21 business days if they are outside of the United States.

I will also give out pins to club treasurers who had eight members renew in the first quarter and again before March 31. 

Let's make our District distinguished. In August, the International Conference is in the Bahamas. If our District achieves Distinguished, we will all walk across the stage. They call it the Hall of Fame. Several districts accomplish this every year. This year it's our turn, and I want you with me. 

I encourage you to keep showing up. Add spice to your meetings by drawing roles from a hat, a backward meeting, or bringing food. Keep giving speeches, earning education awards, and inviting guests to join your club. 

Toastmasters is an opportunity to become your best and help others be their best. Together we can be distinguished. 

Katy Hursh

District 106

Club Growth Director

From the Desk of the Public Relations Manager

Fellow Toastmasters and VP-PRs! Greetings from the Office of the District PRM team (Bob, Margie, Johnny, and Ashok). I hope you all are doing well. It's hard to believe that there are only five months left in this Toastmasters year 2022-2023. I hope you had a great start in February, the shortest month of the year.

Let's finish our Toastmasters year 2022-23 strong by achieving our Distinguished Club and District status. To help our clubs reach this goal, the District PRM team is hosting a special PR Practical Workshop on February 22 from 6:00 to 7:00 pm. I highly recommend that all VPPRs register and attend the workshop. Click on this link to register. Learn the basics of creating club newsletters, developing club websites using Free Toast Host, and increasing awareness of your club through social media.

We are getting close to the end of the current term; I'd like to ask fellow Toastmasters to serve in one of the following district officer roles: District 106 Public Relations Manager, Chief Web Editor, Newsletter Editor-in-Chief, and Social Media enthusiast for 2023-2024. Training and support are provided for all of these critical positions. Please don't hesitate to reach out to me. My experience serving District 106 has been fun and rewarding. The knowledge you gain here is tremendous, and it can be translated to your career growth. Trust me; this is a great opportunity!

District 106 social channel presence by the numbers:

Facebook: 405 Twitter: 168 LinkedIn: 180 Instagram: 267 YouTube: 133 TikTok: 9

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok for exciting updates, inspiration, and more.

If you have any comments, questions, concerns, or feedback, please don't hesitate to reach out.

Together we keep the Toastmasters brand strong!

PRM team (Johnny, Bob, Margie, and Ashok)

Ashok Sunkavalli

2022-2023 D106 Public Relations Manager

ashoksunkavalli@gmail.com

cell (319) 431-2415

Applying for a Free Canva Pro Account

(U.S. clubs only)

Toastmasters International and Canva have joined to offer members of Toastmasters (U.S. clubs only)to share a Canva Pro account. Canva Pro allows you to produce great slide presentations, flyers, newsletters, and much more with an extensive library of templates, designs, images, and the capability to upload logos, fonts, and color palettes. In addition, Canva features a social media tool that gets your club seen. Post and engage on Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Twitter.

You will need to download a 501c3 document to get started. You can click here to learn how to download this document and follow the guidelines to get your free Canva Pro account.

Regards,

PRM team

Toastmaster of the Year 2022-23 Guidelines

Every Toastmaster club will vote and select one of their members to be their Toastmaster of the Year (TMOY)for the 2022-23 Toastmasters Year.

The TMOY tends to be someone who:

• Goes above and beyond to support and market their club
• Attends meetings regularly
• Reaches out to greet guests and welcome them
• Mentors a new member
• Helps understand and promote Pathways
• Competes or helps in speech contests
• May serve in a role within the District
• Leads by example
• Volunteers when roles need to be filled in meetings

Click here for the TMOY form for Outstanding Toastmaster Guidelines. Your club may have its criteria.

The TMOY form and the attached information are then given to the club’s Area Director, who will choose an Area TMOY. Next, the Area Director recognizes the chosen Area TMOY at a club meeting. The Area TMOY is then submitted to the Division Director, who will choose a Division TMOY from all Area TMOY submissions. Finally, the selected Division TMOY candidates are forwarded to the District for the highest level of

recognition.

Here are the steps: 

1. Chose a member for the Club TMOY
2. Fill out this form to submit to your Area Director for the Area TMOY by June 1
3. The Area Directors choose a TMOY and submit info to the Division Director by June 15.
4. The Division Directors choose a Division TMOY and submit it to the District Director by June 25.
5. District Director (Gopu Shrethsa) and TMOY Chair Jackie Flaherty select District 106 TMOY.

Submission dates for 2022-23 TMOY

• June 1: Club selects a TMOY, and Club President (or another officer) forwards it to their Area Director.
• June 15: Area Director selects Area TMOY & forwards it to Division Director and TMOY chair.
• June 25: Area Director notifies the Area TMOY recipient.
• June 25: Division Directors forward nominations to the District Director and the TMOY Chair.
• Division and District TMOY awards are announced at the Summer 2023 Toastmasters Leadership(TLI).

Submitted by

Jackie Flaherty

District 106 TMOY Chair 2023

Finding Membership

Fellow Toastmasters,

The twenty clubs in Division D added 49 new members July-January. Six clubs have received a distinguished club program (DCP) point for adding new members—Sunrisers, Speakeasy, Whole Wheat, and Crosstown Talkers. Two clubs have received DCP points for adding eight new members—Allianz and Pillsbury. I asked these clubs for their secrets. Of course, I expected to hear about open houses and Speechcraft since they have always been the go-to approaches. But instead, I was amazed at the breadth of response and the detail of the plans. Joanne Boche of Whole Wheat says, "follow up" with inquiries and guests. Eugene Banks points out that Whole Wheat has a good location and start time for working people. A club has to be convenient for people. Whole Wheat makes strong points. In my club roles, three new members joined out of the back-and-forth of emailing visitors and prospective guests. Callan Korpi of Allianz sent a detailed plan with various activities for each month of the year.   Here is what Callan says: "We are a corporate club, which allows us avenues for growth that some clubs may not have access to, and our success this year could only have happened with the success of the year before. The things that have contributed to our success are as follows:

A.    Member Drive

1. At the beginning of 2022 (before I was elected VPPR), many of our Toastmasters members volunteered to give a Member Drive speech to the many different areas of the company during their team meetings. This was wildly successful. So much so that we did not do one this year for fear of having too many members!
2. We faced the excellent problem of considering adding additional meetings, lengthening meetings, or potentially splitting into two clubs.
3. This year, we decided to go without due to the success of the following.

B.     Our Company Home Page – Blue Pages



1. We are fortunate enough to have the support of one of our Employee Leadership Group members. She connected us with our corporate communication contact, who created [a detailed] Promotional Plan.
2. We've already had two articles this year and were even gifted the skills of an employee who writes for the Blue Pages.

• The first was a feature on two of our members, myself on the newer side and one of our experienced and decorated members. Our emphasis on the fun to be had and the leadership and presentation skills to be gained were a big draw for people.
• The second was just issued yesterday, so we have yet to see the full effect, but it is coming at the right time as everyone company-wide is setting their goals for the year.

Another avenue we will explore after the Spring Speech Contest is having a Bring-a-Guest Contest with a small award, such as a gift card for coffee for the person that brings the most guests over a specific time frame.

We've come a long way in the almost two years since I joined, and I am willing to bet that come June 30, we will not only have reached Distinguished but Select Distinguished as well."

Achieving membership goals (twenty or plus-three compared to base) often is the most challenging aspect of becoming a distinguished club. Congratulations to these clubs for their DCP progress. Is membership a challenge for your club? If so, could you model your approach based on the success of Whole Wheat, Allianz, and the other clubs showing success? I learned from asking that success comes to those who have a strategy and put in the effort.

David Rasmussen

Division D Director

https://ddd2023.blogspot.com/

Add some fun to your club meetings!

Over time, many clubs become stale, with members falling into a regular pattern each week. Sometimes it’s a result of the sameness of the room, identical meeting formats, or the absence of enough new members to infuse the club with new energy. So if your club needs to add fun, read on! Adding fun can be as easy as rearranging the room or as interesting as a reverse meeting.

Here are three quick ideas for your club.

1. Draw for roles.

• At your next meeting, when members arrive, all meeting roles are drawn from a bag filled with slips of paper. Use a fill-in-the-blank agenda or a flip chart or whiteboard where you write in the positions chosen from the pack. For example, any member may end up as Toastmaster, speaker, or evaluator. This will require quick thinking and active listening.

2. A reverse meeting.

• You begin with the closing thought, hear speech evaluations before the speeches, and generally reverse the order of your entire session. Shaking up the order of meetings draws longtime members out of complacency and gives a fresh perspective on each segment. Great for April Fools Day.

3. Storytime table topics.

• Could you string all the table topics together to tell a story? The Topics master begins the fun, and all the members continue it as they go. Then, collectively, you say to a report initiated by the Topics master. This requires listening skills, creativity, and quick thinking to complete.

From Craig Harrison DTM. More information at https://www.toastmasters.org/magazine/magazine-issues/2019/sep/infuse-your-club-with-vitamin-c

Greg Scholz

District 106 Club Retention Chair

218.393.2949

toastmastergreg@me.com

Are you working on your DTM?

If you are working towards your DTM, you can get credit for coaching a club!

We need club coaches to assist with club rescue and strengthening. Successful club coaches receive credit towards their DTM for this effort. Let us know that you would like to help by emailing Greg Scholz at toastmastergreg@me.com, and we will pair you with a club that needs help.

With your help, we will have a very successful year!

Greg Scholz

District 106 Club Retention Chair

Listen, Think, and Love

"February is the month with Valentine's and known as the month for love. My mentor, Governor Al Quie, once said, ''Listen, Think, Love.''

I have shared that quote many times since he said those words to me. But I mainly use it for evaluations. We listen to a speech, think about what we heard, then show them love in the form of how they can improve.

In this case, I want you to LISTEN to the Youth in our society, THINK about how they cannot share in Toastmasters, and show them the LOVE by conducting and attending a Youth Leadership Program. 

I am giving a presentation at the D106 TLI on Saturday, February 18. It will be recorded and available for a Toolbox Tuesday feature soon. 

See you there,

Daniel Grundtner

YLP '22-'23 "

Congratulations to Katy Hursh, D106 Club Growth Director

At the recent Mid-year District Officer Training sessions on January 30 and 31 in Las Vegas, our District 106 Club Growth Director Katy Hursh was presented with the "Best Connecting Club Growth Director Award."

Congratulations, Katy, for your excellent service as the District 106 Club Growth Director.