This year, D57 has split Toastmaster Leadership Institute (TLI) into two regional events: South and North. TLI (South) was held on Saturday, January 12th at California State University East Bay. TLI (North) will be on January 26, 2019, at Santa Rosa Junior College.
What Happened? A lot.
Registration, breakfast buffet and networking
Toastmasters volunteers arrived early to set-up registration tables, classrooms, and signage at D57’s first TLI of 2019. By 8 AM D57 officers, dignitaries, club officers, and club members started their ascent into the Hayward hills to Cal State East Bay’s campus. During an upscale buffet breakfast well over 225 – a record attendance –Toastmasters networked prior to TLI opening ceremonies in the Valley Business & Technology Center auditorium.
Opening Event and Keynote Speaker
TLI Dean Dennis Neary welcomed attendees to an almost filled hall and introduced D57 Director Diane Pleuss who gave an inspirational overview of Toastmasters and the day’s events. Following Diane was Program Growth Director Bett Bollhoefer that led the group in a dynamic exercise on how to conduct a successful open house encouraging audience members to participate.
D57 District Director Diane Pleuss and Club Growth Director Bett Bollhoefer
TLI South’s keynoter is a nationally acclaimed speaker and fellow Toastmaster, Ted Ma. Ma gave an engaging speech on leadership highlighting exampleship, empowerment, and appreciation. His talk was very interactive and spiced up with humor about Toastmaster acronym alphabet soup (CC, CL, ACB, ACL, HPL, DTM…).
Ted Ma and a selection of his dynamic slide presentation
Breakout Sessions
Classrooms were at capacity. Not only the traditional officer training (president, sergeant-at-arms, vice president roles, treasurer, and secretary), but also all the others including Leadership Toolbox, Heartfelt and Authentic Speaking, and Succession Planning, amongst others.
Pathways Panel
Led by District Pathways Ambassador Stani Peycheva, a panel of Toastmasters (Arunavaa Mukhergee, Brandan Tong, and Janice Fairfield) answered questions on stage before the entire TLI attendees on their Pathways experiences from the moderator and several audience members. Stani proudly noted that D57 has the highest percentage of Pathway levels completed globally.
Pathways Panel: Stani Peycheva, Arunavaa Mukhergee, Brandan Tong, and Janice Fairfield
One TLI Complete, Another on the Way
TLI (South) ended with a fantastic celebratory event where all the presenters, volunteers, room monitors were called up on stage for recognition, including the addition of Toastmaster Triple-Crown awards. There were over 30 presenters/trainers, nearly 20 Triple-Crown award recipients, and countless volunteers. The event was a success due to the guidance of TLI dean Dennis Neary and his leadership team:
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End of event recognition of presenters, volunteers, and others
D57 leadership expects to repeat this EPIC event in a few weeks at TLI (North). For those that couldn’t make TLI (South), the Santa Rosa event has over 100 registrants and a full slate of breakout sessions.
