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Hello, Toastmasters of The North

Well, the beginning of a new Toastmasters year!

In 2009-10, all Areas in the north achieved Distinguished and the Division ended up Select Distinguished – an excellent result.

Thanks go to 2009/10 Area Governors Justyn Phillips in 5, Narelle Langfield in 18, Ian Hindmarsh in 29 and Jim McNickle in 32, together with their clubs and NDiv Toastmasters for the result, which has, of course, also contributed to the District achieving Distinguished.

This year, we will be aiming for all Areas and the Division to be President's Distinguished!

Welcome to our 2010/11 Area Governors – Justyn Phillips (serving his second term) in Area 5, Stephen Beale from Narrabri Club in 18, Janet Dyson of Nambucca Valley (and Coffs Harbour) in 29 and Michele Hartrick from Muswellbrook in 32.

We have already discussed the Division's broader goal of expansion announced last year, to double the number of clubs north of Newcastle so at least one new Division, and possibly two, could be established where the one is now. Not only would this reduce the "tyranny of distance" it would offer the opportunity of higher leadership roles to many more members in our neck of the woods.

This may take a couple of years but I am confident it can be done!

The specific growth goal in 2010/11 is for the chartering of at least one new club in each Area.

This year I will be focusing also on trying to at least double the number of clubs in the Division achieving Distinguished or better. At last report, a third of our clubs had achieved Distinguished or better in 2009/10. Another third achieved enough DCP goals to be Distinguished or better but fell short of the membership requirement.

Membership building and retention will, therefore, be something to concentrate on, as it always is.

Another major focus for the year will be on educational presentations. Many more of these need to be presented within our clubs to encourage more members to set and achieve goals. A reasonable number of educational achievements were recorded in last year, but many more would be better.

This year we will continue to work with our weaker clubs to build them back to charter strength. We will also be looking at how we can support clubs in the 10 to 19 member range to help them grow stronger.

It has to be said that most of our low member clubs have one thing in common – a strong will and potential to pull themselves out of their troughs.

Mainstream Club Leadership Training has now concluded in the Division but if anyone would still like to try and attend a session, please contact me.

Clubs are now busy conducting their Table Topic and Humorous Speech contests in preparation for the upcoming Area and Division contests (see coming events).

I encourage members to enter competitions for a still greater learning experience. And good luck to all!

Organisationally, the first District Executive meeting for the year was held on July 25 and our Area Governors are currently conducting their first official club visits for the current Toastmasters year.

I wish all Toastmasters in the North a very productive year – educational, enjoyable and full of personal and club achievement and growth.

If anyone ever has any queries, don't hesitate to ask. Visit our Team Page for contact detail or email me directly – NDiv@d70toastmasters.org.

Bob Kirchner DTM
Northern Division Governor