By Bett Bollhoefer
We are starting an exciting year at Toastmasters. It is of unparalleled significance, especially for the Vice Presidents of Education (VPEs) throughout the district. [More on this a little later] As Program Quality Director (or the VPE of District 57, so to speak), I am very excited about the upcoming year.
We have three big programs for this big year:
- D57 Master Class series
- Train-the-Trainer
- Vice President of Pathways
D57 Master Class series
We will have an online webinar series called the D57 Master Class series. This series of webinars will cover topics such as:
- How to Use Humor in a speech
- How use story telling
- How to show up on video
- How to use power point
And much more!
All of the content will be available in our new content library.
Webinars of this nature need trainers who present them and train the viewers! If you want to be a trainer, email our Train-the-Trainer Chair Manoj Ramanan at manoj.ramanan@gmail.com
Train-the-Trainer
Have you always wanted to be an excellent trainer? Have you always wanted to teach a TLI session?
Now you have two chances to attend our incredible Train-the-Trainer program this fall. To learn more information keep your eyes open for the emails about these events, coming out soon.
Vice President of Pathways
Now, for the huge significance of this year for Toastmasters…
June 30, 2020 marks the end of Toastmasters’s legacy program. Starting on July 1, 2020, every Toastmasters member, worldwide, must follow the Pathways program. How does that impact us? A lot. It means that in the coming year, we need to have all of our members active in Pathways. We don’t want anyone left behind. Our goal is to have 100% of our members comfortable using Pathways.
Many of your have been asking for training and we heard you. To help us reach this ambitious goal, we are introducing a new Club Officer Role: the Vice President of Pathways (VPP). That’s right, every club can have their very own VPP to help coach and mentor their members to be successful in Pathways. VPPs will help new members log on, take their assessment, navigate through the program, and start on their Ice Breaker.
Because our goal to get 100% of our members successfully using Pathways is so critical this year, we are implementing the following process for filling our VPP roles:
1. Let us know you’re interested by submitting your name and contact information here.
2. To assess your Pathways skill level, you will be required to take Pathways Skills Assessment test. The test will be sent to you via email. Once received, complete the test and return it to us.
3. We will submit the names of qualified participants to their club officers for confirmation of their nomination.
4. The confirmed VPPs will be required to attend a Lunch and Learn session in mid September. The keynote speaker will be a Toastmasters International dignitary and we will also have a brainstorming session.
To help make the whole process more fun, we are going to have a leaderboard to identify the VPP who helps the most people finish the most paths by June 30th. The prizes are huge — 1st place prize is the entrance fees for the 2020 International Convention in Paris.
As I said, I am very excited about the upcoming year!