The Year is in Full Swing

Already the Toastmasters year is in full swing. Our clubs' first awards are already posted, new members are arriving and the Area Governors are soon to visit.

I've been elected to serve as President of one of my clubs. In the other, I've been asked to serve as an adviser to the Executive Committee. Between the two clubs, I will be keeping busy.
This first month has flown by. The biggest obstacles to overcome are the Officer Training and the Distinguished Club Plans (DCP). For the training, I attended one session in early June and went to a class, not knowing which position I would be holding. Well, I'm serving in another positions and was told by the TLI Dean that my June attendance would not count unless I attended the sessions for the President; that this year, there was the reminder that this was the technically correct protocol and it would be enforced within the District. So, I went off to another session a couple of weeks ago and earned the proper credit for my club. The other officers are attending their sessions and are getting trained. As of this evening, five our the seven have been trained.

The DCP is always difficult to complete as we seem to have difficulty in knowing, within reasonable certainty, where any particular member is on their progress towards any award. This is more difficult where members may belong to more than one club. We don't have a perfect system, but it revolves around asking our members where they stand and what their goals are for the year. In one club, we feel we can easily reach 7 of the DCP goals, but are shooting for nine. In the second club, we feel five are easily achievable, but are shooting for nine as well.

Now that the plans are in place, I think I will be able to get back to more regular writing here. Wish me luck.