The 2011-2012 Term Is Not Over Yet!

By Wes Hoover, DTM, 2011-2012 Founder's District Governor

All I can say is…wow !! What a great Fall Conference we had! My sincere gratitude and appreciation goes out to the Conference co-chair’s Dan Cossack and Jeanne Cassidy for their hard work and dedication in organizing an enjoyable event for us all.

Has it really been a year already? Time really does fly when one is given the opportunity to interact and work with fantastic people such as I have. But the 2011-2012 term is not over yet! We are at the last stretch and need your support.

As I stated during the business meeting, we still have some challenges ahead of us as we close out the current term. In our drive to being a Distinguished District, our main focus needs to be on members, both those that have left for various reasons and new members.

When we factor in new clubs and clubs that need to submit their dues, we will still be short of the membership goal that Toastmasters International has set for us. How short you ask? Close to 700 members.

While, the number seems daunting, last year at this time Founder’s District was ranked at 42^nd (out of 86) and yet went on to becoming Distinguished and ranked 13^th in the world. Currently we are ranked 33^rd and on our way to being a Distinguished district.

When we look at it from a club level, 700 members average out to about three members per club. Now, that’s achievable!

What can your club do to gain three members?

•  Contact past members and encourage them to come back
•  Have an Open House and invite as many guests as you can
• Follow up on your guests

Remember the Make your Club G8 incentive!

When you sign up eight new members, your club will receive a set of timing lights or the equivalent from Founder’s District.

We have only seven weeks left to demonstrate our “Spirit of Success,” to show our resolve in tackling the challenges as they come. It is the determination and pride of our members as we move forward that make Founder’s District so great. Those qualities, my friends, make us unstoppable!

Share your Successes

Is your club successful in bringing in new members? How are you able to renew past members? Tell us what’s working for you so we can share our best practices with clubs that may be struggling to help them bring up their membership numbers.

Founder’s District, to be the BEST and nothing less!

Founder’s District Spring Conference

Celebrate the Spirit of Success at Founder’s District Spring Conference on 4-5 May, 2012!

Join us as we recognize your achievements and learn effective ways to build stronger clubs at a special reception on Friday evening.

How to Register
To register for an unforgettable experience, visit the website at www.foundersdistrict.org/conference-information.

About the Event
On Saturday, Lance Miller, 2005 World Champion of Public Speaking, will be our keynote speaker and workshop leader. In his keynote presentation, "Losing My Way to the World Championship," Lance will address how he got the most out of being in Toastmasters. He will walk us through many of the lessons learned by pushing himself and making mistakes in Toastmasters and how this lead to his success in both winning the World Championship of Public Speaking as well as success outside of Toastmasters.

Afterwards, Lance will address practical steps to finding speaking messages within you that are connected to you and what you believe in. You will learn practical steps that anyone can use to discover inspirational and motivational messages hidden within all of us.

The highlight of the conference will include the International Speech and Table Topics competitions with the top competitors in the District. Complete the celebration and Spirit of Success at our District Business meeting and festive luncheon.

See you all there!

Remembering Will Tolles

By Lou Ann Frederick, DTM PDG

It is with sadness that we share the news of a death of one of our long time Toastmasters. Distinguished Toastmaster, Willard Tolles passed away on March 6, 2012. He would have celebrated 84 years young this year. Will was a member of clubs in the Huntington Beach area for over 60 years. His contributions and awards were numerous but his most famous and endearing role was as the District Photographer for many years; he served for at least two decades. While doing that, he spent a great deal of his personal time organizing photos in albums before “going digital”. His desire was for us all to have these special memories recorded. We only caught him as the subject of the picture in rare instances. Will was quite clever and wrote witty ditties on the spot in meetings and he could deliver an entire speech evaluation in a poetic rhyme. Some of us tragically recall after one conference when Will left the Santa Ana hotel alone in his car to be attacked just up the street by a gang where he was seriously injured. Fate and his faith intervened and he recovered.

Will played tennis into his 70’s, he was a retired aerospace engineer, and he never missed a family reunion in the Midwest. He was an important part of his church and a fantastic role model for everyone. He will be greatly missed. Our heartfelt sympathy to his wife, Lois and his children.

History in the Making
By Wes Hoover, DTM, District Governor

“We are the prisoners of history. Or are we?” - Robert Penn Warren

My fellow Toastmasters, history can show us how great achievements started or where mistakes were made. Though we can learn many things from studying the past, sometimes this holds us back. My philosophy is, rather than studying history, I prefer to make it.

We are now entering into the home stretch, the final dash to close out what can be a successful year. In doing so, we can make history by leading Founder’s District to Distinguished status for a second straight year. An achievement, that to my knowledge, has not been done before.

But, we have our work cut out for us. Our main challenge as we close out the year is membership. As I mentioned, history p rojects us to come up short on several key goals set for us by Toastmasters International. Which is why I choose to focus on creating history . Thanks to all of you and your dedicated efforts we are moving ahead, and building momentum, and I know that we can overcome this challenge.

To help us reach our membership goal, we will have a new incentive program titled “Make your Club GR8.”

~Starting March 1 through May 31, 2012, any club that signs up eight new members will receive a set of Timing Lights from the District. Achieve this goal and celebr8!

So what does this all mean? Simply stated, Founder’s District is strong this year. And, by each of us doing our best, Founder’s District can become President’s Distinguished…Let's MAKE HISTORY!