Welcome Toastmasters in Austin!
As you know, July 1st starts the new year for Toastmasters.
Your district officers have an exciting lineup of programs and incentives to help you and your clubs earn recognition for all your hard work.
For individuals:
Toastmaster of the Year… this is a district-wide competition promoted by Toastmasters International. It allows members to keep track of all the activities and awards they earn over the year and be recognized at the club, area, division and district level.
Toastmaster of the Quarter… so far this is only for clubs in Division K. It follows the same criteria as Toastmaster of the Year but on a quarterly basis so you don’t have to wait until the end.
Contests… this fall, the district sponsored contests are the Tall Tales and Evaluations contests.
For clubs:
Jack Rabbit Dash… this incentive is to get clubs going sooner than later. We often wait until the last minute to earn our Distinguished Club points. Now you have a reason to get them done ASAP. The club level ends on September 3rd.
All the specifics of these competitions are outlined on our resources page. Additional resources have been added as well.
Some folks have asked why these programs.
The Toastmaster of the Year and Quarter competitions are to recognize all the Toastmasters who really make the program prosper but don’t want to compete in a contest. Did you attend most of your meetings, finish 5 speeches, mentor 2 new members or start a new club? We want to recognize you for those accomplishments.
The reason the Tall Tales contest was chosen this season rather than the Humorous Speech contest was for several reasons. One, we’ve done Humorous for several years in a row now and some folks feel like the winners are already pretty much a given. This could serve as a good enough mix up to encourage new people to participate. AND Tall Tales usually need to be funny to win so our humor experts will be able to feature their skills as well.
The Jack Rabbit Dash is, as I said, to encourage clubs to start well. Getting all your officers trained and dues in on time weigh heavily into the competition. Awards that were completed last year and turned in finally now that the new year has started are emphasized less. Fortunately, this competition is hands free… our district statistician will keep track and let you know how you did.
[EDIT: Division J is participating in the TMOTQ competition too.]
[EDIT: All of Austin is now participating in the TMOTQ competition.]
