Club Officer Training Results

by Dennis E. Wooldridge, DTM, LGET

Dennis Wooldridge, DTM

Club Officer Training began nearly two months ago with the kickoff at Winter Park's Calvary Assembly Church. The gymnasium was set up with 400 chairs, but it wasn't enough. Many Toastmasters were standing along the back wall, every seat occupied by club officers as the training began with District 84 Sergeant-at-Arms Donna Lazrek leading the assembly in the Pledge of Allegiance. Opening statements by District Governor Jim Miller, Lt Gov Marketing Dee Melvin, District Public Relations Officer Mary Carol Holbert and Lt Gov Education and Training Dennis Wooldridge were met with rousing enthusiasm, and then it was off to training for each of the seven club officer positions.

In addition to the classes for each officer position and several additional classes on electives like Using Pay Pal, The 3 R's of Membership, Website Navigation and more, two major experiments were conducted during the day. Many times, a Toastmaster who serves in the same office for several terms begins to feel there is nothing left to learn. While there is always something new and useful in each class, the resistance to attending club officer training was addressed by offering Advance TLI. If an officer had served in the same position for two full terms and been trained a minimum of twice in that role, they were allowed to attend the Advanced TLI where subjects like Communication with fellow officers and members, Strategies for retention and recruitment, Conflict resolution and Maximizing your Contest were shared and discussed. The consensus was that this is a program the more advanced officer in the District need and we will continue to have the program in January's series of trainings.

The other “experiment” was Lunch and Learns. So often, the information you get in the classes for each officer position are excellent, but there never seems to be time for discussion and networking. That's a comment I've heard since my first TLI. This year we took the lunch hours and divided the officers up into groups, Presidents and VPEs, VPMs and VPPRs, etc., and had open discussion sessions over lunch. No preset agenda, no rules, just open discussion with a facilitator. I was fortunate to unexpectedly facilitate the SAA group. It was by far my favorite part of the day! And I was not alone. All the feedback I got was positive, even those that ask for some fine tuning of the process. We will tweak it a bit for the January series of trainings, but it will be a part of TLI for the foreseeable future.

Jacksonville's Kollege of Knowledge for Divisions A and F was successful with overflowing crowds there as well. Over 200 attendees made for excellent interaction among officers and soon-to-be officers as well. Tallahassee held another TLI for Division H, and there to the attendance was greater than expected. With follow-up Divisional Trainings throughout the month of August we accomplished everything expected by Toastmasters International and more. The District's leadership had set a goal of 85% of our clubs achieving their DCP point for training. We didn't quite make it. But it's pretty hard to be disappointed when we came within 1 percent of our goal. That's right 84% of District 84's clubs have made their DCP point for training. That equals 162 of 193 clubs. Divisions B, F & G have the distinction of having 100% of their club DCP qualified. Now that's getting the year off to the right start! Well done District 84 club officers!!!

Remember we have training in January, beginning in the Orlando area on January 14 th . It's an opportunity to aim higher and get even more of our club officers trained. A club with all 7 officer trained will be more likely to achieve all their goals for the year and end the year President's Distinguished.

Here's the by Divisional breakdown of training:

Summary by Division	Clubs	Officers	Officers Trained	% Off Trained	DCP	% DCP	7 of 7	% 7of 7
Div A	23	161	87	54%	15	65%	1	4%
Div B	26	182	159	87%	26	100%	14	54%
Div C	24	168	112	67%	17	71%	7	29%
Div D	28	196	138	70%	23	82%	5	18%
Div E	22	154	113	73%	19	86%	7	32%
Div F	18	126	103	82%	18	100%	7	39%
Div G	16	112	83	74%	16	100%	4	25%
Div H	22	154	110	71%	20	91%	6	27%

Well done District 84. Now let's put all that knowledge to use and have a record setting year making sure all our club members grow and exceed their own expectations! After all, that's what we're here for.

See you at “Once Upon A Time,” a District 84 Fairy Tale Conference, November 11-13 at the beautiful Daytona Beach Hilton Resort. Registration is open and on line now! Don't wait...or you might turn into a pumpkin!