by Jesse Ford DTM District Director
For over 100 years, our great Toastmasters organization has been developing leaders and speakers. The number of lives impacted grows daily with new people being introduced all the time. It’s exciting to think where we might be in the next 100 years, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. To be honest, in the last few years the organization has had to shift a lot and evolve. What am I talking about? Well, COVID of course.
Before COVID, yes there were online clubs and meetings, but COVID made EVERYONE have two choices: 1. Change and adapt or 2. Forgo the program and other events like contests, training and more. The fact that this was all only two years after the rollout of Pathways seemed like it could not have been worse timing, but that is not the end of the story.
COVID and other things are under control and now five years later the world is somewhat back to a new normal. The price of eggs might be higher and there flexibility of doing some events online, but one thing was really missing when the world went into the Zoomer-verse. SPEECH CONTESTS. Yes, although they continued during COVID, the fact is the thrill of competition in front of a live, in-person audience was something many contestants and audiences really missed. Now the other bad news. Don’t get me wrong—we did well with online contests, and after four years, we can all say they were as good as we could expect. However, the challenge now is transitioning back to in-person contests with a lot of new leadership, some of whom have never even seen an in-person contest.
Enter February Outstanding Member of the Month, Jodie Sanders, DTM, Past District Director, and leader extraordinaire. Jodie stepped up and volunteered to be the Toastmaster at the first in-person Area contest in District 25 in almost five years. What was extraordinary is how she did so and although the current district leaders all tried to get the scripts and other things ready (as expected), there were still things to straighten out. Jodie Sanders while being the Toastmaster at this area contest was a huge success. She made the event exciting; she knew how to improvise and adapt, and best of all she was willing and shared some helpful tips and insights after to help make the scripts better for the next team. And did I mention she also told everyone when somebody in District asks, “your answer should always be YES!” Thank you, Jodie Sanders and congratulations. Your willingness to serve D25 in the past and your continued support of leaders today helps everyone GROW! Thank you for all your support!
