Fellow Toastmasters of District 65

Overall, the district is doing well and making all forms of efforts to stay on track in achieving the performance goals set by Toastmasters International. We are determined to meet the four critical success factors in membership growth, building of new clubs and completion of educational goals.

The club officers make up training sessions have been completed in the eastern and southern divisions. The central division has scheduled the make up training on February 15 at Xerox, in Webster, NY. All club officers from all the divisions are encouraged to attend this training program, if they were unable to attend previous training sessions. Visit the district web site (http://www.tmdistrict65.org./) for detail information.

Two clubs in the western division have already become distinguished clubs and 10 additional clubs are just one goal short in becoming distinguished. Many more clubs will join this prestigious group of distinguished clubs during the next five months. Congratulations to all the clubs and their leadership in striving for excellence.

Most clubs are able to attract new members and we have over 300 new toastmasters that have joined the district 65 family of clubs. I welcome all of them and wish them success in giving their speeches and encourage them to participate in the clubs Tall Tales and International Speech contests. But don't stop there!

Most of the Area and Division contests dates and places have been selected. Support your club's contest winners by attending in large numbers, the Area and Division Contests. Contest information details are available on district web site.

The district conference is on April 20 and 21 in Syracuse at the Holiday Inn. The bi-annual conference provides the opportunity to attend educational workshops, root for the district speech contestants champions, participate in district council meeting, elect district officers and meet old friend and make new ones. The registration form is available on the district web site.

The 'club membership incentive contest' (cmic) program is quickly approaching its March 31 completion date. The names of the top clubs are updated each week on the district web site. The club with highest percentile of membership increases in each of the four divisions will receive a presentation easel. Make sure that your club finishes at the top of the list.

The first seven months have not been productive in building of new clubs. In addition, six clubs have ceased to function during the first seven months of district operations, due to variety of reasons. We continue to remain focused and optimistic in building new clubs. The demo/kick-of meetings are actively pursued in the eastern division and plans are underway in making other divisions become active in building of new clubs.

The district has achieved over 40% of the educational goals (CC's and AC's) to-date and we are confident that the goals set by TI will be met, due commitment in completion of individual members educational goals.

Attracting membership growth in each of the 87 active clubs, retention of the current roster of 1600+ district-wide membership and expediting the new club building process, will be the focus of the district, over the next five months.

One of the ways to measure an achievement of an individual toastmaster is when he or she receives an education award. One of the ways to measure success of a club is by receiving the distinguished club honor. One of the ways to measure success of the district is by enhancing the performance and extending the network of clubs, thereby offering greater numbers of people the opportunity to benefit from toastmasters program.

Let our collective thoughts translate into encouraging words, resulting in "concrete" (building of new clubs) actions.