District Director Report for August 2018 newsletter.
Greetings fellow District 112 members,
District 112 planning
In the last weekend of July your senior officer team, That is the Top Table and Division Directors, met at Waipuna Hotel for a planning meeting and further training.
The planning segment related to the development of our District budget and District Success Plan (DSP), the goals of which align with our budget; both of these formal documents are required to be completed and voted on by the online (virtual) District council and lodged with World Headquarters by the 30th September 2018. Completing this mammoth task relies on each of our club Presidents and VP’s of Education fulfilling their fiduciary responsibility by actively voting at our first online (virtual) Council meeting that will take place on the afternoon of Saturday 29th September. Please, please put this date in your diary now as the consequences of a quorum not being attained are not desirable. Instructions of how this meeting will take place will be circulated well in advance.
Awards presentation – On the afternoon of Sunday 9th September from 1:00 – 3:00pm, all Toastmasters are warmly invited to Conference Rooms 2 & 3 of the Waipuna Hotel; there will be an awards presentation which relates to achievements in the 2017-18 Toastmasters year. This meeting will also act as an informal opportunity for any questions to be asked relating to our District budget that will be published well in advance. This opportunity is taking place with a view to minimal questions requiring clarification at the virtual council meeting on the 29th September .
Our training segment of the July weekend was focused on team bonding and further enhancement of structured networking was also in order with a view to establishing a firm guideline for Divisions to move forward with their own individual goals cemented.
Rydges Hotel – One of my personal goals for this year is for our District Officers to experience and share the value of empathy amongst our clubs and membership at large. Taking this value to the extreme I booked the Senior Officer team into the “Dining in the Dark” experience at Rydges Hotel in Central Auckland on the Saturday evening. For myself, being totally blind, this was an entertaining experience. I was incredibly proud of the team taking instruction from blind and visually impaired table attendants and putting their heart and soul into this experience. Let’s just say a “New light” has been realised with step one of the empathetic process being achieved. Note, I had one piece of advice for the team before the dinner and that was…. “Don’t wear white….”
CHICAGO – Your District Trio, Programme Quality Director Neil Stichbury, Club Growth Director Sharon Kerr-Phillips and I will be out of NZ from the 15 – 28th August to attend our International Trio training in advance of the 87th International Convention in Chicago.
We will be spending a great deal of time interviewing the International Director and Vice President candidates in order to make an educated decision on whom the votes not already specified by D112 Clubs should be directed too.
I would like to take the time to personally thank those club Presidents and secretaries who have already assigned their proxies to us as your District representatives and encourage those still needing to do so to take just a minute, as it is a quick process, to tick the boxes, type your name and click on confirm. Your votes do count.
We will also be supporting Peter McDermot in the next level of the International Speech Semi-finals and, all going well, the World Championship of Public Speaking contests.
During the absence of the Trio, Our Public Relations Manager Rob Wightman will be the first point of contact for any queries. Neil, Sharon and I expect to have intermittent access to email so will respond to queries when we are able.
Rob can be contacted at: d112prm@toastmasters.org.nz
Thank you for taking the time to read my “heavy” report at this time. I look forward to giving you an overview of training and the International Convention in my September report.
Take care and keep warm.
Toastfully yours
Toni Sharp QSM DTM
District director – District 112
021 1147 254