1 P age 2017-2018 District 26 District Officers Monthly Conference Call Minutes July 25, 2017 (Action Items/Suggestions Appear in Red) Roll Call. The meeting began at 7:00 with roll call. Participants: See attached roster. Focus on the Future. Rhea had the opportunity to visit Toastmasters International while vacationing in California this week. It s anticipated that the current Headquarters building will be vacated by 7/31/2018. TMI has purchased one of four large buildings owned by CMH2 which is located at Inverness near the Denver Tech Center. The site is the new location of TMI Headquarters and should be open for business by the first part of 8/2018 with a skeleton crew. Many states vied for the privilege. What s Happening in the District. The following status reports were presented: Trio Reports Summary Marcia Wood, Quality Program Director. Club-level contests. The season begins in August. Marcia emailed all District Leaders to inform them that District 26 will allow clubs to send two contestants to an Area Contest IF the area has four or fewer clubs in good standing eight weeks prior to the contest. Club Officer Training. August is the final month for club officers training. Area and Division Directors are encouraged to check the District 26 Calendar and coordinate training dates for their respective areas and select the venue, trainers, the Timer and the Toastmaster. Please submit your training dates to Marcia as soon as they ve been arranged. Rhea reminded us that the District s goal is to have OVER 50% of all club officers trained by the 8/31 deadline. Area Contests. The contests will begin in September. The Toastmasters International Dashboard and The Districts 26 Contacts page provide information on each Area club s eligibility for sending two contestants. Twenty of the 40 Area clubs have reserved Area Contests dates on the calendar. Please submit your contests dates to Marcia as soon as they ve been established. Flying High at Elitch s. IPDP Darryle Brown, Rhea and Marcia invite all leaders to join them for a roller coaster ride at Elitch Gardens on 8/4 at about noon. All-day tickets are $29.99. Pictures will be posted on our Facebook page. More details to follow. 1
2 P age Mark Kreketer, Club Growth Director. He stressed his appreciation to Marcia for helping him transition into his new role. They participated in his second or third club charter celebration on 7/24. He also thanked the Extension and Retention Coordinators for their assistance with his transition. Division Reports Summary Carolyn Conover, Denver Division Held first Division Council meeting this week One Area Contest is scheduled for 9/27 A handful of club visits have been made Coordinating Club Officer Training for downtown clubs in August Area Directors to communicate with at risk clubs May Tran, Eastern Division Officer Training on 8/6 at 1:00 p.m., Medical Center of the Rockies, Loveland (MCR) Tentative Additional Officer Training on 8/23 or 8/24 E4/E5 Area Contests tentatively scheduled for 10/7 at 8:00 p.m. at MCR E6/E7 Area Contests tentatively scheduled for afternoon of 10/7 at 1:00 p.m. at Boulder Library All Area Directors have started visiting their respective clubs Laria Lovec, Foothills Division (written report) Area Directors have been visiting their respective clubs Area F2 has three officer trainings planned Areas F1 and F2 are planning on having joint contests and are looking for judges Club coaches are being sought for clubs in numerous areas Howard Levine, Metro Division. Twenty-six club officers have been trained The next club officers training is scheduled for 8/20 District Club officers may attend any club officer training M2/M3 Area Contests scheduled for 9/23, Contest Chair selected M4/M5 Area Contests sccheduled for 9/28 All Directors have been trained Area Directors have contacted their respective clubs and started club visits-all should be completed by 8/30 One club is evaluating whether to continue as a cub Janice Haldi, Northern Division Director/all Areas are in the process of establishing goals to coincide with District goals for the year-anticipate completion in mid-august N3/N4 Area Contest scheduled for 9/22 2
3 P age Director plans to connect with Area Directors by phone next week Director travelling to Casper this weekend in search of candidate for N2 Area Director Victoria Cox, Southern Division Division consists of 23 clubs and two clubs were realigned Director met with Area Directors on 7/1 to discuss what s expected/needed over the next six months Deborah Horowitz selected as Contest Director to train Area Directors and other club members on how to organize contests Club contests scheduled for 8/12 at local library in the Division Inducted two new clubs and visited three others TLI held on 7/8 with 93 in attendance, many from outside Division 10 clubs have four or more officers trained Club Officer Training scheduled for 7/27 at 21C Library Director is organizing City of Pueblo Toastmasters Informational Session at the Pueblo Library for about 15 corporations in the area immediately following the Area S6 officer training on 8/26 All four Area Contests and the Division Contests on are the calendar Joy Carol Davidson, Urban Division U1/U2 Area Contests scheduled for 9/17 at Arapahoe Library U3/U4 Area Contests scheduled for 9/22 at Ann Schutz Campus Division Contest scheduled for 9/30 at Ann Schutz Campus Club Officer Training scheduled for 8/24 at Greenwood Village City Hall Area Directors have started visiting their respective clubs Director is attending Defenders of Speech Meeting on 7/27 followed by an event on Buckley Air Force Base to promote Toastmasters Real People Real Talk is the newest club in Area U1 Chair Reports Summary Cynthia Cunningham, Administration Manager. Meeting with Jennifer Costello to obtain all electronic files and flash drives which will finalize the transition of the new Admin Manager. Requested all monthly reports that have not yet been submitted be provided to her post haste. Katrina Johnson, Finance Manager (written report) Rolled out Concur the week of 7/17 If you received the email and are eligible for reimbursement, follow instructions in the Set Up email to set up your profile Include a map from Google Map Quest with the start and finish address along with the actual roundtrip mileage 3
4 P age Include the math equation within the email as miles x.30 = $$ Enter the hotel amount in Concur not to exceed $125 Attach all receipts, pre-approvals from The Trio and maps to Concur even if the system indicates that it s unnecessary Marieta Ferrington, Public Relations Manager First Toastmasters Networking Events scheduled for 9/21, 5:00-6:30 p.m. at a venue near Coors Field-details on District 26 Calendar Speed networking will be featured bring your business cards A different speaker will be featured at each event Special guest and former District Governor Joyce Feustel will present How to Use Linkedin to Enhance our Face-to-Face Networking The goal of these events is to create a social environment where Club Presidents and VPPRs have the chance to communicate with one another as well as with all District Leaders thereby improving communication between the District and its clubs Events will be open to all Toastmasters and the general public First event will be promoted via Constant Contact, District Social Media Channels and the September Issue of The District Dialogue Trixie Hunter-Merrill, Social Media Chair Focusing on obtaining access to all social media sites to be able to post content and information on them on a regular basis Currently have access to Facebook, Twitter Linkedin and Instagram Working on obtaining access to You Tube Scheduling posts via Buffer.com for Twitter, LI and Facebook. Instagram is direct feed only If you desire to share any videos, images, etc. with D26 to help showcase and promote your club, please send to the Division Director with as much club information as possible. Greg Harris, Webmaster. Not on the call and no written report provided. Alexander Pyle, Technology Lead. Not on the call and no written report provided. Lori High, District Quality Events Chair. Nothing to report. Linda Rhea, District Extension Chair (No written report provided.) Every time Area Directors visit a club and see members of corporations, ask them to help start a new club and let them know what s in it for them Five clubs may charter shortly and five that might charter between October and November 4
5 P age About 15 clubs that are unsure about what they re going to do but Chair is trying to re-instill a great deal of excitement in those clubs Support this effort by attending a Kickoff Demonstration meeting which helps you 1) understand the process of a new club and 2) explain that process to your clubs Colette Smith, District Retention Chair All Area Directors with clubs who qualify for coaches should have received an email the Chair All Division Directors received an email from the Chair with a list of their Area clubs assigned to them, how many clubs qualify for a club coach, and which clubs are already assigned club coaches Busy identifying and clubs who qualify and want club coaches so that club coaches can be assigned Busy identifying Club Coordinators, one of whom has been confirmed for Denver Division Working on building relationships between clubs and club coaches Training Tips. Rhea wants everyone to take a monthly training tip which we think is important to the entire District and present it at the end of the call for 3-5 minutes (time permitting), realizing that there won t be enough of these conference calls for everyone to present a tip. She would like Katrina to speak about Concur at next month s meeting. Many of us have not yet had any expenses to submit for reimbursement but we will be in the coming months and we ll need to know how use Concur to process those reimbursement requests. Closing Remarks. Club Officer Training. Marcia has been proactive in entering the names of all club officers who have been trained into our Officers Training Report. She has a PDF version of the report on our District website. Rhea asks us to take time to go to the website, click on the dropdown menu for Members and select Education/Training. Division Directors should note the report, particularly those officers in your Division that have not yet been trained and then work with Area Directors. The goal is to have an officer training event in every Area of our Division to allow every officer the opportunity to train at a location near them. Reach out to your Area Directors as you look at the report and see if you can work together to get some officer training completed in your area. (45:49) Rhea reminded us that the District s goal is to have OVER 50% of all club officers trained by the 8/31 deadline. This which means with seven officers in each of our 188 clubs, more than 658 of them must be trained to meet out goal. Suggestions for Monthly Reports. Rhea emailed all Division Directors a summary of suggestions of what Area Directors could be reporting on for the monthly conference call and asked them to disseminate that email to their respective Area Directors. Proxies for the International Convention. Everyone who carries a proxy should have received an email from TMI specifying how they can assign their proxy if they are not attending the 5
6 P age convention. Rhea will put out a constant contact message to everyone, especially to those carrying a proxy. The District Director can carry an unlimited number of proxies, so follow the instructions in the TMI email if you want to assign your proxy to Rhea or anyone else. Reimbursement Clarification. We were reminded that before we can be reimbursed, we must have prior written approval from The Trio to do so. The request should include how much the mileage and hotel will cost. If asking for mileage, we must use Map Quest to show the map and the directions so that the starting and ending points are reflected. When you get your directions, we will list the total one-way miles and the Finance Manager will double that mileage for the proper reimbursement. We also need the email from The Trio approving the expense(s). Do not start an expense and then ask for approval after the fact. If you volunteer to make a trip under District Business but do notify The Trio in advance, you District may be unable to reimburse us. The District Officer Report. It was requested that Rhea ask TMI to change the sort order of the report in the following order: District, Division, and Area. Rhea will inquire but thinks the order will remain the same. To access a specific club within the report, press Ctrl F to bring up the Search box and type the club name or number and you will be routed directly to that club. Message from Immediate Past International President. Mike Storkey phoned Immediate Past District Director Darryle Brown to personally congratulate District 26 on achieving Distinguished District. Darryle is looking forward to our District raising the bar over the next year through the help of the high caliber of leadership we bring to the table. He is also excited about achieving Distinguished District or higher next year and offered to help us in any way he can and is only a phone call away if you need anything. August Conference Call. Due to the International Convention being held during the week of next month s conference call, Rhea will email us to let us know on what date the call will take place instead. The meeting adjourned at 8:00 p.m. Respectfully Submitted, Cynthia Cunningham 2017-2018 District 26 Administration Manager Toastmasters International August 10, 2017 6