Gift (12/01/2020)

I hope you and your loved ones had a joyful Thanksgiving week. It’s a time that reminds us of our blessings: of people, their friendship and their kindness. Sometimes these blessings are obvious and we can easily recognize them. Sometimes it may be harder to see, like Mother Nature: always there so that we seldom pay attention to her. But for today let’s draw our attention to something else.

In Toastmasters, our blessings began by being introduced to Toastmasters by someone. We then became part of a community that treats us with kindness, allows us to make mistakes and encourages us to learn from them. Additionally, we have met individuals in Toastmasters who offer selfless advice, constructive suggestions with the only interest to see us grow. It fills my heart with gratitude but that is also not what I am highlighting here. And we in Toastmasters have more to be grateful for that may not occur to you.

Every year, the District Leadership Committee, with the help of the extended team identifies individuals to form a Leadership team. Once formed this team commits to serve you. Every communication, every outreach, every event, the district website, PR efforts, various recognition programs, countless hours of preparation with extended teams, all for a singular purpose, to make your experience with Toastmasters count for you. This is a group of people, all of them may not know you personally but they care for you. I know that because they are my team. I am grateful for their selfless service for you and for every member of our district. This is the blessing that I want to bring to light for you.

When my heart fills with gratitude, I want to give back. Perhaps you are thinking the same. What and how you and I can give back to these individuals. Here are three ideas. Commit, Engage, and Connect.

First, Commit to your success. When you succeed in making that little change or quantum leap you wanted to realize with Toastmasters, all of us win. Second, Engage to the extent you can. Attend Great Events if the topic interests you, be a club officer, if you are an officer, make sure you attend training and give your feedback, be a club coach or a club mentor, if you are someone who can energize a struggling club and you rejoice in bringing your success help others, engage as a club consultant, if you want to get a flavor of organizing something big, volunteer for conference organizing committee, visit our district website, visit the d101 Facebook, LinkedIn and Meetup Pages, react, respond, express yourselves. And finally, Connect with your Area Directors, your Division Directors and others in the District Leadership Team, ask for their stories, what motivates them and perhaps you may be inspired to serve next year.

In summary, If you feel grateful for the leadership team and the extended group which serves our district, you can give back, with your commitment to your success, your engagement and connection.

As always, I would love to hear from you, about your stories and your experiments. I hope that you choose to write.

Happy Holidays,

God Bless You.