How big should a Toasmaster award be ?

Some years a ago I organized a Toastmasters Division Level International Speech Contest in KLuang. The participation was good and I decided to give every participant something to take home to remember the occasion by.



A few days later, I received an email. One of the participants wrote and I quote " How can you give a pencil box as a prize to a winner of a Toastmasters Speech competition ? You are being disrespectful to an international organization." Incidentally this participant was not placed in the top three positions. Each of the top three positions receive a trophy and a certificate . All other participants , including Timers ,Tally counters etc received a pencil box each from me that day.


So what is enough as a token of appreciation ? How big should a Toastmasters award be ?

I have been instrumental in forming a few clubs throughout the 28 years as a Toastmasters member. When a new club is being formed , the treasurer usually do not have money to buy expensive trophies . I have seen a club in Johor Bahru that gave ,winners and participants a like , "just" a certificates all these years. Yet I have seen many of these "past" winners carefully framed up their certificates and hung them proudly in the most conspicuous place in their offices.

So, how big or expensive a Toastmasters award should be, before the recipient feel proud to receive it ?

In the last Toastmasters convention in Medan, the organisers felt a need to reward past leaders with big plagues, the kind that you have to hold with two hands to keep it steady. I met one such recipient in the airport on the way home. I expected him to hand carry his award because it was fragile. I asked " hey, you checked in your award ? you do not worry that it get damaged in the luggage compartment?

He relplied " I left it in the hotel. It was too difficult to carry."

The District must have spent a lot of money to get such an pague to his hands. What would have made him treasure this plague and at least take it home ?

I have no answer, If you have , please record your comments here.

Your ability to use the internet greatly affects your performance as a leader.

There’s little doubt that the Internet has elvolved into an important part of our lives – providing instant communication capabilities and an almost bottomless source of valuable, up-to-date information on just about any topic.

In the recent general election, Malaysian saw how Opposition parties successfully used the internet to bypass the the mainstream media and reached the masses.

Toastmasters International has recently improved their web pages to include a lot of information and made communication with headquaters possible online.

The internet is indeed a powerful communication tool.

Yet , I still find some Toastmasters members, ironical to their enthusiastic quest to be better communicators, snub and shun the use of internet as an effective means of communication. In their mind , internet is only for the younger generations, for the computer savvy, and not for the serious guys. Anyone above 40 years old is not using the compouter, so they claimed. They give themselves a thousand and one reasons to feel good for being a computer illiterate.

Do'nt get me wrong. The purpose of this article is not to get you to start using the internet. The fact that you are reading my blog, you are already using the internet. So there is no need to preach to the converted. My intention is to share with you my experiences of using the internet in Toastmasters.

During this second term as Division Governor I have a effectively used the internet to communicate with a large group of members, some of whom are not too enthusiastic about using the internet at the begining.

1. Web page

I published a Division web page where I

• list all Division activities under the heading Division Calender. This calender of activities is continuously and promptly updated, so members are kept informed what is going on in the Division
• published thousand of photos on our activities ( they say pictues tell a thousand stories, it is true ! )
• set up a " stop press section " to publish what is most recent, be it annoucements, past events etc
• gave every club a link to their respective web pages, thereby giving them more exposure to publicise their club or to attract new members to their club.
  

2.Google group

• This is actually an interactive web page where I allow members announce forthcoming activities, express their views on certain topics etc without help from the web master. Yes anyone can read and writye on this page as long as they have been accetped as a member of the group.
• This is also where we accumulate the email contacts for all the members without the risks of spam mails.
• This is also how we stem out looped spam mails created by members. In the past when the announcements were made by emails, any alterations ,comments etc made by any members will triger a long string of "mails when he user chose attached past emails". Sometimes the emails were soo many that one lost track of which was the latest. On the orther hand when an annoucement is made on the group, everybody read the latest from there. There is no loger need for looped emails.
• I used googles group, there is also a host of other like the yahoo group etc

3. Skype

This is a free video conferencing program available from the web and I used it to communicate with specific group of Toastmasters on a regular basis .

There are several distinct advantages when using these programs

I classifed telephones, handphones, SMS etc as intrusive communication tool. They always ring at the wrong time and demand you to attend to them immediately.

When we use skype ,

• we know who is on line and messages is instant,
• larger file tranfer is possible
• we can choose vedio mode where we can see each other
• groups can be created in skype to allow group conference calls. I used this feature to dicuss with sub-commitees of certain groups of toastmasters on specific subjects. These web meeting can be scheduled, adhoc and on demand , as long as you can get the people on line.
• this mode of communication saves time, and above all its free.

In the past , certain District officers asked me to give them a missed call so that they can call be back. By doing so, they thought they have taken away the burden of the cost of the call and I will be encouraged to call them more readily. If these officers are on line in skype at specific time.... there is no need to do this. And they can actually shedule conference meetings to be at top of things all the time.

We have come to the time when the ability to use the internet greatly affects our performance as a leader. If you want to be an effective leader these days, you just have to learn how to use the internet, and don't stop only at emails.

"Emotional Stake" helps membership retention

Have you ever wonder why

1. some of your Toastmasters members are leaving the club ?
2. club attendance is dropping
3. many members are critical about club activities
4. members are not responsive to calls by club administration?

These are tell tale signs that the club is not doing well. And signs like these cannot be taken lightly.

Every Club is different. And there are many reasons that lead a club to this situation. I do not intend to dwell in an effort to give any club a " full medical check up". I just like to highlight one, ie

Have you ever thought of having a "Business Session" in your regular club meeting ?

Experience tells us that, given a voice on how the club is run, members build a sense of belonging , and they stay. They feel that they are part of the family and a part of the work force that build the club.

Club administrators must try to encourage members to build an "Emotional Stake" in the club.

If you look around in the District, you will see many members who remain in Toastmasters for decades. They align themselves with the sucesses and failures of their club. They are critical about the club when there are issues they do not agree, but they cheer the club on when they feel that the club is doing the right thing. You can say they " sink " and "swim" with the club they belong.

Sense of belonging is important in membership retention. I hope club administrators will give this some thought.

Have a Business Session in your regular meeting. Make this your 2008 New Year Resolution.

That ten minutes " Business Session" may be what your club really need.

E T Lee, DTM

Medan 2007 Semi Annual Convention

Horas ! Horas ! Horas !
( Horas is a greeting frequently used by the Batak people of Medan, a word having similar meaning to Aloha used in Hawaii)

It was a great convention , awesome with abundance of Toastmasters magic !

I used to come to Medan more than two decades ago to sell stearic acids derived from Palm Oil. Medan has changed quite a bit since then, to the extend that I no longer know my way round.

On 14th of November, 2007, I arrived at Medan as a "rich man"----I had actually one million Rupiah in my pocket ! Although this is worth only about 370 Malaysian Ringgit (US$ 100) , nontheless the feeling was very good----at least once in my life time , I was a REAL millionaire.

On arrival at the convention centre, we were greeted at the Registration Counter by a group of cheerful Toastmasters wearing the "Ulos"- a local traditional handmade fabric. I considered the registration counter as the most important department when I was the Organizing Chairman for Pansea 97. The Registration Counter is where all the arriving delegates have their FISRT encounter with the organizers. This time at Medan, I felt welcomed and that helped to set my moods for the entire convention. The greetings, bags , name tags, coupons all readied for collection.........and the familar Toastmasters lingo.....it instantly switched my thoughts from tons of unfinished work at the office to the Medan Convention.

The Welcome Dinner impressed me with its rich and colourful cultural performances. Oh yes, the Ulos made the difference. When you wear the Ulos on one side of the shoulder, ie. on the left shoulder or right shoulder, it was supposed to signify whether you were " married" or "not married ". Quit a few of us decided to wear it around our neck. This was not because we were not sure whether we were married or not for the night. The Ulos kept falling off our shoulders, this was just a simple way to keep it in place.

As usual , Toastmasters conventions have a lot of awards. Sometimes way too much and overdone to the extend that the regcognitions of deserving achievers were somewhat diluted. I believe Toastmasters awards should be given to achievers to motivate them to achieve more, and not to commemorate a person or an achievement where no more improvements can be expected. In all, the awards part of the convention bored me. However, this gave me time to catch up with Toastmasters I have not seen for a long time, and to engage in my favorite past time ie. photography.

During this convention I have lost a cannon 55mm camera lens cap, a 85 G portable hard disk, some friends like Bapa Zacharias Adijuwono, whom I will not be able joke with in future conventions ....... and lots and lots of sleep.

Although I have also lost an opportunity to speak at the "educational session" to motivate Toastmasters of district 51 to use upto date but now common internet communication softwares to enhance their Toastmasters experiences, I was able to talk to many who are already using "Skype", "Google talk" , " Blogs", "Groups" and other softwares.

What have I gained ?

Lots of fellowship. Lots of new and invaluable Toastmasters ideas by sharing experiences with fellow delegates . And above all , the opportunity to set aside my emotional constrains and spoke my heart out at the District 51 Executive council meeting about the urgent need to take steps to protect the three key club officers, namely the president, the secretary and the treasure , from legal and financial risks arising from organizing a convention and to bring back the "ummp" to organizing Toastmasters conventions.

This is a convention that will bring back a lot of sweet memories many years to come.

I am ready for the next sologan in Penang " Ho Liau !", although I have to be careful about the intonation or how I should pronouce it. Pronouce it correctly, it means "good" or " very good". If the tone is not correct, it could means " finished".

"Ho Liau" Penang , and Penang "Ho Liau "!

( Ho Liau means " good or best " in Hokkian, a chinese dialact used in Penang)

Pictures I took at the convention: http://picasaweb.google.com/jbetlee/MedanConvention2007#