It takes a (rather large) village to run a District, especially one that covers as many square miles as District 57. To serve 2500+ members and the 127 clubs they belong to, in cities that range from the SF East Bay all the way up the coast to the Oregon border, the District relies on a village of volunteers who help each other help YOU.
If you are ready to expand your horizons, your network, and your Toastmasters leadership and communication education, please consider volunteering to serve in the following chair positions, OR, volunteer to serve on their committees.
What’s in it for you? You will meet a lot of people who are as hungry for knowledge and the chance to stretch themselves in a new role as you are. Volunteering at the District level provides you more opportunities to give speeches for the speech manual, and do projects for leadership award credit, so you will earn your educational awards faster. Just like in your club, you’ll learn by doing with the guidance of more experienced Toastmasters. You’ll meet a lot of nice people, too!
Open positions as of July 27, 2013:
Positions – Table of Contents
Click a shortcut below to read a job description for that chair position.
- Area and Division Governor Training Chair
- Club Coach Chair
- Club Extension Chair
- Conference Chair(s) – Fall
- Conference Chair(s) – Spring
- District Awards Chair
- District Budget Guru
- District Chief Judge
- District Contest Chair
- District DCP Chair
- District Mentor
- District Parliamentarian
- District Sargent At Arms
- District Youth Leadership Chair
- High Performance Leadership Chair
- Nominating Committee Chair
- Outstanding Toastmaster Member (OATM) Chair
- Speechcraft Chair
- Toastmasters Leadership Institute Deans
- Train the Trainer Chair
- Under PRO (Public Relations Officer)
Position Descriptions
Area and Division Governor Training Chair
This chair coordinates and provides the training of all Area and Division Governors soon after they are elected or appointed, including:
- Recruiting a team and selecting a central location for the training.
- Notifying all new officers in PDF form of District Officers Handbook before the training
- Assisting the District Governor in ordering handbooks on the district’s budget for the training.
- Creating and printing desired handouts.
- Maintaining records of those who attended, and following up with those officers who were not able to attend the main training so they may attend a make-up session.
- Assisting with ongoing AG and DG training as needed by the DG.
- Working with the Nominating Chair on the team that interviews and recommending to the Division Governor possible future District team members.
Club Coach Chair
This chair works with the LGM to facilitate all coaching positions within the district, and is responsible for:
- Evaluating qualifications for being a club coach.
- Providing training for all club coaches and potential coaches.
- Mentoring club coaches as needed.
Club Extension Chair
This chair coordinates the start of new clubs, and is responsible for:
- Developing a Club Charter Team (aka: demo team) to fulfill all roles at a charter demonstration.
- Facilitating the chartering of new clubs by working with the sponsors to review the chartering forms for completion.
- Coordinating with potential club internal champion, and bringing agenda and all materials necessary for the Charter meeting.
- Soliciting and collecting TM magazines to use at these meetings.
Conference Chair(s) – Fall Conference
This chair is responsible for the Fall Conference, to be held in November of the current Toastmasters year, including:
- Creating the theme and ensuring it is consistent throughout all educational content and advertising.
- Locating a facility to host the conference.
- Obtaining, developing, and training a team of conference sub-chair positions, to organize, develop, create, plan, and execute a superior Fall Conference experience for our members.
- Coordinating a keynote speaker.
- Advertising the conference appropriately, to ensure that as many Toastmasters, (friends and family are also welcome) attend this event.
- Supervising the Conference Education Chair in selecting appropriate and worthwhile trainings for the conference.
Conference Chair(s) – Spring Conference
This chair is responsible for the Spring Conference, to be held in May of the current Toastmasters year, including:
- Creating the theme and ensuring it is consistent throughout all educational content and advertising.
- Locating a facility to host the conference.
- Obtaining, developing, and training a team of conference sub-chair positions, to organize, develop, create, plan, and execute a superior Spring Conference experience for our members.
- Coordinating a keynote speaker.
- Advertising the conference appropriately, to ensure that as many Toastmasters, (friends and family are also welcome) attend this event.
- Supervising the Conference Education Chair in selecting appropriate and worthwhile trainings for the conference.
District Awards Chair
This chair is responsible for recognizing all educational achievements in the District, and for keeping lists updated for those being recognized at every district event. This greatly assists the district leaders to give credit to all members as deserved. This chairship can be done from your home computer.
District Budget Guru
This chair assists the current District Trio with creating and presenting the District budget to Toastmasters International. NOTE: you must have previously served as a District Governor to serve in this position.
District Chief Judge
This chair is responsible for:
- Providing training to all potential or actual judges of speech contests from the Area level through the District level.
- Sending AG/DGs contest a PDF copy of the current Toastmasters International Contest Rulebook.
- Selecting a location for and providing a Judges Training Workshop in the first quarter of the term.
- Keeping the current list of available judges current, and submits updates to the district website and notifies all AGs and DGs.
- Selecting a team of 14 judges (two from each division) for each District contest and ensures they review the online Judges Training during the year they serve.
- Briefing the judges before each District contest and ensuring they have the necessary paperwork.
- Overseeing the collection and counting of ballots and reporting the contest results to the Contest chair or Toastmaster.
- Working with the District Contest Chair to ensure the district contests run smoothly.
- Finding their replacement to ensure consistency in this position from year-to-year.
District Contest Chair
This chair works to ensure the Fall and Spring Speech Contests are held within the guidelines set by Toastmasters International, and is responsible for:
- Working with the District team to provide contest packets and awards for all area and division contests as well as the District Contest(s).
- Keeping the Fall and Spring Conference Chairs, as well as the appropriate Program Chairs, apprised of ongoing updates.
- Planning a Contest Training for the AGs and DGs at the July or August DECM.
- Selecting and training a Toastmaster (master of ceremonies) for the actual district contests, and providing them with the appropriate contest scripts at least two weeks before the district contest.
- Working with the District Chief Judge to ensure all contest rules are followed.
- Gathering all the Division Contest(s) winners’ biography and certificate of eligibility from the Division Governors, and confirming with Toastmasters International that all contestants are eligible to compete in the District contests.
- Providing the list of names for the District Contest agenda in time for printing.
District DCP Chair
This chair focuses on the DCP reports monthly and works with the AGs, DGs, and the rest of the District team to improve the number of distinguished clubs in the district. Toastmasters International has recently evolved the requirements for Distinguished areas, divisions and districts to being more in line with the DCP program and the number of clubs who are distinguished.
District Mentor
Mentoring is a key experience for any club, and this chair explores and promotes the concept of mentorship at the club level. Our team of mentors should be able to provide that experience with sincerity, competence, and grace. Responsibilities include:
- Training and effectively equipping new Mentors to help newly sponsored clubs.
- Assisting in developing great coaches for our struggling clubs.
- Working with the HPL Chair to develop an HPL Guidance Team that practices effective mentorship.
District Parliamentarian
This chair acts as an advisory to the District team for any motions requiring a vote and any other parliamentary procedures. This person also presents a training that will be made available electronically to the rest of the District.
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District Sergeant at Arms
Manages the on-site logistics of all District events, such as DECM, awards events, and the District Conference. Includes catering management, room setup/breakdown, audio-visual setup/breakdown, and other duties as assigned. You must be able to lift at least 25 pounds. This position requires the help of at least two assistants to ensure adequate coverage of all events.
District Youth Leadership Chair
This chair is a consultation position. Any questions any member might have regarding the youth leadership program can be directed to this chair.
Responsible for:
- Providing training during the year on how to conduct a youth leadership program.
- Developing a new leader in the district to assume this position the following year.
High Performance Leadership Chair
This chair is responsible for:
- Serving as a resource for those leaders who are preparing for or executing their HPL Project.
- Assisting in reviewing potential HPL projects and providing advice related to the project.
- Coordinating training at least once per year, for any Toastmaster who will be embarking on their HPL project.
Nominating Committee Chair
This chair heads the nominating committee of three to five persons to discover, tap into, and nurture our future leaders.
Responsible for:
- Coordinating with the AD/DG Training Chair for training in identifying potential leaders when making club visits.
- Coordinating and conducting the interviews of all potential candidates for any district position.
- Presenting recommendations to the District Trio.
Outstanding Toastmaster Member (OATM) Chair
This chair promotes, advertises, and advises about the OATM award to the district membership, including:
- Conducting a training session about the OATM award at a district function and providing a video of this training to the District so it can be posted to YouTube and viewed by members and clubs.
- Developing a team of three volunteers who review award applications and confirming details, then informing the LGET of awardees, so pins and certificates can be made available for presentations.
- Presenting awards to honorees at district functions.
- Keeping track of awardees for inclusion in the Fall and Spring Conference programs.
Speechcraft Chair
This chair oversees the training, coaching, and promotion of the Speechcraft program throughout District 57 to its clubs to help them build membership, train new members in groups, and spread the word about Toastmasters to non-members, including:
- Championing and promoting the concept of Speechcraft events for their role in providing members experience teaching and training, converting guests to members and thus strengthening clubs in the process.
- Presenting Speechcraft training sessions at TLIs, District Conferences, and DECMs to educate others about the benefits of Speechcraft.
- Educating would-be Speechcraft leaders about the different Speechcraft formats (eight-week, six-week, and four-week), and being a resource for material created by TI and other members both inside and outside of the District.
materials available online from TI and created by individuals. - Certifying trainers to lead Speechcraft events for their home clubs and other clubs in need. Build a list of trained Speechcraft leaders.
- Acknowledging and celebrating successful Speechcraft events in the District to spotlight achievement and its results.
- Developing and training their successor for the following year.
Toastmasters Leadership Institute Deans
This Dean (or Co-deans) works with the LGET to plan and execute Toastmasters Leadership Institute (TLI) twice a year as per TI guidelines, including:
- Upholding and developing high quality training sessions with core curricula (District sponsored Club Officer Training) and electives.
- Ensuring that all club officer training sessions uphold the Toastmasters International (TI) requirements.
- Creating electives that focus on skills that are specifically valuable to Toastmasters, and are not the same as educational sessions held at District Conferences.
- Recruiting, training, and managing qualified trainers.
- Helping organize “Train the Trainer” sessions at least once per year (in concert with the Train the Trainer chair) and requesting all TLI trainers attend this Train the Trainer session.
- Reviewing trainers’ presentations before TLI for consistency and appropriateness.
- Recruiting a team of functional area managers and staff to handle registration, promotion, room management, catering, facilities, and evaluation.
This chair position is also responsible for working with Division Governors to ensure the quality of “make-up” officer training, to ensure that it is consistent and in accordance with directives from Toastmasters International WHQ.
Train the Trainer Chair
This chair is responsible for creating programs for contest training, club and membership building, training officer trainers and conference presenters, as well as training the Train the Trainer events, to perpetuate District growth.
The purpose of Train the Trainer events is to teach participants how to focus on their session’s essence. Participants try to identify what information could be helpful for an audience to understand the subject. Next they will prioritize the list from most to least important. Next they will learn the reality of time. The scheduled time is not the amount of presenting time. Each will practice shaping the final allowable speaking time with the most important information to meet their intended purposes.
Along the way through the session, members will be shown how to incorporate PowerPoint, props, handouts, audience participation, and web site referrals. Foremost in the process is for each to have FUN and provide Fun and effective sessions. I would love for you to be a part of process.
The point of the Train the Trainer chairship and program is to build an extended network of experienced and qualified presenters and trainers.
Under PRO (Public Relations Officer)
- District Web Team Lead: Responsible for the design, care, and feeding of the District 57 website, and for coordinating the team of volunteers who make calendar and other content updates.
- Social Media Team Lead: Responsible for curating photos, announcements, and other content on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
- Constant Contact Team Lead: Responsible for creating and sending out timely email updates to District 57 club members, and for keeping the email lists updated.
- Google+Team Leader: Responsible for coordinating the Google Hangouts tool that we use to remote-broadcast meetings and training sessions that would otherwise require persons who live in the upper reaches of the District to travel three+ hours to attend District-sponsored meetings.
- District Advertising Team Lead: Organizes/promotes advertising in local media throughout the district.
- District AV person: Responsible for taking pictures at district events, and soliciting pictures of persons achieving any award for the D57 “Wall of Fame,” can also be the individual who assists with connecting all AV-type needs for district functions.
