By Chuck Mencke, DTM

One of things that I’ve grown to love about Toastmasters is our commitment to training. I have participated in many volunteer organizations, but none of them focus on training like Toastmasters does. They want their leaders to be successful and are committed to helping them in every way possible. This year, after 2 ½ years away from District leadership I am honored to serve as an Area Director over 4 clubs in the Waco area.

For those of you new to Toastmasters, you might wonder about your District leadership and their training requirements. Just like your club officers, Area Directors and Division Directors go through training twice a year. Our D25 Senior Leadership (Robi Ley – District 25 Director; Jamie Pickering- Program Quality Director; Chris Raneri – Club Growth Director) put in countless hours planning and developing Area and Division Director training.

Previously, training for District Leaders consisted of one 6-8-hour session that was held before we started our official duties July 1. A couple of years ago District 25 leadership training was re-thought and re-vamped. District leaders are now trained at a leadership retreat over a 2-day period.

The training this past June was held in Glen Rose to minimize distractions. Arriving early at the hotel on a Saturday we learned the we had an incredible 16 plus hours of intensive training and team building ahead of us. I was delighted that one of the speakers for the weekend was my good friend from Lubbock, Tracy Thomason. He is one of the 14 Toastmasters International Directors but joined us as a regular member at Robi’s request to share his leadership “gifts” with all of us.

On reflection, this retreat was one of the best experiences I’ve had since joining Toastmasters in 2009! The quality of the training was unsurpassed. Even with the superior training, the camaraderie developed was far more important to me than the training experience I had. For all of you reading this please be assured that all of District 25’s leadership care about every member and every club. We want nothing more than for all to be successful in the 2018-2019 Toastmasters year.

EDITOR’S NOTE:  Do you know who your District Leadership is?  Go and find out by looking on the District website.