high-level executives. He inspired us to start asking WHY, WHAT, and HOW when crafting the message. Charley then related this strategy to pitching Toastmasters to prospective organizations – especially corporate businesses.
Up next, Mark Lucas, DTM, PRA inspired us with the top things to focus on in the final 90 days of the year. These include public relations (PR), working the program, and being self-governing. PR should contain targeted information that you want the members to act on. Minimize including too much information in one message for the sake of only sending one email per week – messaging may get lost. Work the program and your district success plan. Minimize efforts that do not support the strategy. Self-govern in times when decisions are made that everyone may not agree with but are necessary. Rosario Delfin, DTM, CGD-100 led Table Topics with insightful questions that prompted idea-sharing across the region for staying focused over the next three months. Lastly, we welcomed two new members, Brad Stauffer, DTM, PDD-1, and Keith Jackson, DTM, PQD-1. We look forward to seeing everyone at our next meeting on April 2, 2023 when we kick off our final 3-part series of the year, “Finish Strong and Pay It Forward.” April’s meeting will focus on Part I: Operations and Planning. Please register on our homepage, www.club407toastmasters.org.
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Congratulations to our Contest Winners!!
It was exciting to be back again and witness a live competition as we held our club's Tall Tales and International speech contest. Our Toastmaster of the evening was Rose, Abbott, DTM, D-52, the contest master was Serena McCullough, DTM, PQD-52, and the chief judge was Christine Brady, DTM, PDD-F. We began with our Tall Tales contest beginning with contestants Charley Patton, DTM, PRA, Richard Snyder, DTM, PID, and Tom Jameson, DTM, PID. We congratulate our winner, Charley Patton, DTM, PRA as the winner of the Tall Tales contest. Charley will be representing our club in the area contest on March 11th. Our next contest was our International Speech contest. Charley Patton, DTM, PRA, and Richard Snyder, DTM, PID, both competed for the chance to represent the club at the area level. The winner was Richard Snyder, DTM, PID We congratulate all the winners and are behind them as they compete in the Area Contest and beyond. The area contest for our club will be held on March 11, 2023 Our next club meeting will be on March 5, 2023. See you all soon
The energy continued as President, Giovanna Dottore, DTM, PDG called the meeting to order and welcomed everyone into the new year. The Toastmaster for the meeting, Richard Snyder, DTM, PID, brought the energy even higher with his enthusiastic words and his new year’s top hat in celebration of all the good things to come in 2023 and beyond.
Our keynote speaker, Toastmasters International President-Elect Morag Mathieson, DTM, joined us virtually from Germany (3:00am local time), and captivated us with her speech, “A Winning Mindset.” She walked us through the process that took her district to number one in the world when she served as District Governor. Morag’s inspiring tips demonstrated an easy way for us to stay focused by remembering ABC backwards – “Conceive it, Believe it, Achieve it.” The meeting continued with a special tradition that Club 407 offers every January – the midpoint of the Toastmasters year. Each district director gets the opportunity to deliver their “state of the district” address followed by questions and suggestions from the group to help these leaders in their quest to be Smedley Distinguished. The reports from District Directors Julie Murphy, DTM, Founders; Janell Carla Williams, DTM, D-1; Joyce Persichilli, DTM, PRA, D-5; Rose Abbott, DTM, D-52; Carolyn Douglas, DTM, D-57; Darren Ng, DTM, D-100, and Iona Rodricks, DTM, D-123 illustrated a heartfelt look at the state of their district success plans and some good ideas were shared to help with new club leads and working through burnout. The meeting ended with members sharing some inspiring success stories and drawing giveaways. We look forward to seeing everyone at our next meeting on Sunday, February 5, 2023. It’s our club speech contest!  We’ve ended 2022 with another excellent speaker and our annual holiday party. The Toastmaster for this special event was our VP-Education and event co-chair, Julie Broady, DTM, IPDD-100.
The festivities kicked off with keynote speaker, Sterling Hawkins, who spoke about chasing discomfort to accomplish our goals, dreams, and inspirations - #NoMatterWhat. In fact, he coined the movement, #nomatterwhat, as a way for people to truly navigate the ups and downs in working towards their goals. When chasing discomfort, we can grow and achieve things we’ve never thought possible. Sterling also connected this approach to Toastmasters as we face the challenges and opportunities ahead - especially for our leaders. Next, Kathy Hughes, DTM, PQD-F, led the singing of "The 12 days of 407 Holiday Cheer." Both in-person and remote participants were broken into groups and given a line from the customized song. After a few minutes of practice, everyone regrouped and sang their respective lines that celebrated each district. CJ Frey, DTM, IPDD-5 then led our Toastmasters Bingo. Rosario Delfin, CGD from District 100, won twice! Jesse Oakley III, DTM, PRA, ID-2, won the online bingo contest. The white elephant gift exchange was led by Christine Brady, DTM, PDD-F. The holiday party concluded with toasts from Jesse Oakley III, DTM, PRA, ID-2, Randie Ellington, DTM, PDD-57, Ray Brooks, DTM, PID, AS and Tom Jameson, DTM, PDG-12. Looking forward to seeing everyone in the new year. Happy Holidays!!  As we began our action-packed meeting, the opening inspiration from Lois Sicking, DTM, PDG-D12 led directly to the theme of our meeting: Part II: Planning for Excellence. The meeting was emceed by our Toastmaster, Janell Carla Williams, DTM, DD-D1 whose engaging energy kept the meeting flowing with excitement.
Our first speaker, Lawrence Cole, DTM gave some professional advice on how to attract more members to Toastmasters. As the Managing Director and North America Head of Amazon’s Global Growth Ads Business, Lawrence described how to use an attraction system to increase membership. Some ideas include: 1. Know where your audience is, 2. Use “look alike” audience posts – by having different people post, it will appeal to a wider variety of audience members, 3. Use / Leverage the Toastmasters brand. What value is there in being a Toastmaster? Have a club page on each social platform and use video messaging. Remember to Involve, Engage, and Invite. Our second speaker was Brenda Maynard, DTM, PDD-D81. She immediately impressed us by sharing that despite uncontrollable challenges, her district achieved Smedley Distinguished during the pandemic. She shared that her strategy starts with the right mindset – breaking things down so they’re understood and seeing challenges from a “what’s possible” perspective. She encouraged the audience to try different approaches, understand the dashboard, think strategy – not just tasks, and share this with the rest of our team. A different direction will always have pushbacks, but the important thing is to communicate your vision, recognize and always get the maximum by thinking strategically. Our last speaker, Ray Brooks, DTM, PID, AS offered insight on how to rise as leaders. First, one needs to understand the qualities which make a leader rise and those that make a leader fall. The characteristics which help one rise include: focus, character, commitment, be a giver, communicator, controversial leader (listen to all ideas) and visionary leader. The failure of leadership has four elements: greed, ego, the evil of money and the “Me” factor. The club will host its first hybrid meeting on November 6th. To join the meeting in person, plan to be at the DoubleTree Hotel in Fullerton, California. Please check back on our home page or calendar page for registration details. We look forward to seeing everyone in November for the final session of the 3-part Excellence Series: “Part III: Recognizing Excellence.”
Do you focus on the past or do you use the opportunities as a catalyst to thrive and grow? Research shows 97% of leaders look to the past and often fail, while only 3% look to pivot and thrive. Roberta related the ideas to leading Toastmasters districts and connecting to member needs.
Next, Region 2 International Director Jesse Oakley III, DTM, PRA shared some important points on building your leadership team through his speech, "Developing Your Bench," and related this to his love of football. Like bench players, we prepare ourselves to be better leaders. On the bench, players prepare for their positions before taking on larger positions on the field. This helps to sustain the team and creates a continuous pipeline of players ready to take the field at any time. This ensures the team can continue being successful when a seasoned player moves on and that there is no downtime. It is the same in Toastmasters. It's important to recognize members who are open to continuing their leadership growth and position them for success. This helps members to develop their desired skills and creates the same pipeline of leadership to sustain the district. To prepare your leaders, Jesse used the acronym of F.E.A.R (Future, Expectations, Assess, and Repeat). Moving into the active listening portion of the meeting, Founder's District Director Julie Murphy, DTM led a Q&A session to generate ideas for "Building Leaders." The meeting concluded with members giving quick shares on recent accomplishments and we welcomed our newest members, from District 57: Carolyn Douglas, DD, Ed Cullen, DTM, PQD and Sally Philbin, DTM, CGD. The 3-part Excellence Series continues in October with Part 2: Planning for Excellence.  Congratulations to our newly elected International Director (2022- 2024) of Region 2 and member of Club 407 Jesse Oakley III, DTM, PRA, ID.
Well done Jesse, we are all proud of you. Lead the way
Once the “Conversation Café” concluded, the focus turned to exploring ideas about serving in leadership beyond the district level. Charley Patton, DTM, PRA spoke about what it was like to serve as a region advisor. Region advisors help district trio members with operations and resolutions. Charley shared insight into the process, experience, travel, opportunity to serve, time commitment and further growth.
Continuing with leadership beyond the district, TK O’Geary, DTM, PID spoke about life as an international director. She shared her powerful story of how she learned to adapt her communication style to effectively communicate with people around the world as a result of both the campaigning process and serving on the board. She highlighted that a key responsibility is creating policies on a global scale, and to properly prepare, a lot of reading and researching takes place. TK noted that one of the most challenging parts of the process is the tremendous amount of preparation that goes into having a successful interview with the district trios. She concluded by saying “[Serving as an international director] is one of the most rewarding things that one can do while serving outside the district.” The meeting ended with a little bit of club business. Division Director Cliff Chang led the club officer installation and three new members joined the club.  It's happy Toastmasters new year and time to get the year set up right. This month's speakers delivered dynamic presentations with helpful insight into preparing to lead your district and tips for success at the International Convention.
The presentation, "Convention, Candidates and Proposals," kicked off with Past Founder's District Director Christine Brady, DTM sharing a variety of tips on navigating the convention - from attire to nourishment to networking and more. One particular area of interest is knowing the type of questions to ask during candidate interviews. Christine offered a handy list of questions to guide District Trios in their conversations and how to schedule their time. International Director Karen Lucas, DTM continued the discussion with a breakdown of the twelve proposals that have been presented for a vote. Click here for FAQs and full text of the amendments. Next up, Past International Director Michael Osur, DTM spoke on the critical strategic elements that need to be set up at the beginning of the year to help minimize the year-end crunch. In his presentation, "Front Load the Year," Michael shared a handout with twelve areas to take into account:
Past District 12 Governor Tom Jameson, DTM led a gem-filled impromptu speaking session where past leaders shared their experience in planning "your first 90 days."  Dubbed the "Club of Luminaries" by Toastmasters International Second Vice President Radhi Spear, DTM, Club 407 ended the Toastmasters year with an inspiring slate of speakers and idea sharing.
Second VP Radhi Spear, DTM shared her thoughts on how to leverage Toastmasters training through her speech, "Toastmasters in Transition." She discussed how taking advantage of learning online communication skills can help you stand out from other speakers. The future is trending toward hybrid and virtual formats. Toastmasters can offer this flexibility. The better we are at this, the more valuable the program is and the more we become the first choice in any medium. As district Trios will be taking a new role on July 1, they often have many questions about finishing the current year and starting a new one. Past District 57 Director Randie Ellington, DTM gave some some great tips in his speech, "Taking the Reins." He suggested remembering Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs when working with teams. Next, the first three things to focus on are 1. onboard your leaders, 2. create a communication plan strategy and 3. work with the outgoing team to transition. Lastly, Randie offered these tips:
Some learnings from impromptu speaking led by Founder's District Director David Hosmer, DTM:
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