My Division N Journey
Expect the unexpected, for it is often in the twists and turns of life that we discover the most.
How did I end up being the Division N Director for TY year 2024-2025? How indeed...?
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I happen to be the current Division N Director for Toastmasters International, District 75 (the Philippines). So how did this happen? If you asked me maybe 18 months ago, I would tell you that the only Leadership aspirations I had was to be the Incoming President of the Hall of Learners Advanced Toastmasters. After all, I was then the Vice President for Education (a.k.a. the VPEd, a.k.a. the number two position for any Toastmasters club... and normally the next in line to be the club President.
So where did my becoming the Division N Director come about?
It was a typical day for me. Noting extraordinary - no prelude to what would happen in a few moments. I was driving in South Super Hi-way, on the way from Cavite to BGC. I would normally be doing this on a near daily basis to fetch Barbie from her workplace. I was - as it would usually be the case, be listening to music of the 80's, my go to era for music hits I prefer (actually, I cover the 70's to 80's, maybe a bit of 90's as well - these hits definitely outscore the current top hits of this current era... hands down.
Anyway, as I was driving, my phone rings. No problem, the phone is connected tothe blutooth speakers of the car, so I can converse while keeping my eys on the road. The indicator tells me it is a call from Tisha Timbang, A Toastmaster friend. So... I press the buton to accept the call.
Hi Tisha, wassup? (I'd like to think that we're close enough to excuse being more casual when speaking with each other). Tisha goes, "Butch, hihingi sana ako nang tulong sa iyo." In my mind it most porbably is to tackle a GE role for a club meeting. So I say. "Okay, what is it?"
Then the unexpected... as she says "I would like you to sit down before I tell you." I inform her that I am sitting down, as I'm currently driving while conversing with her. But what is this? It's definitely not a GE role favor then. A brief pause, then she tells me... "I want you to be the Next Division N Director."
Backtrack a bit. He last time I was a Division Governor (which was how we called Direcotrs back then, was 1999-2000. More than two decades ago. I've rested on those laurels often enough when people ask me my Toastmasters background. It was, after all the highest role I took back then. So much so taht when others ask me if I was interested to take on a Division Director's role, my usual response would be 'been there, done that', followed up with 'give others a chance'. I did really think that therre would always be others being groomed for such, and I would rather help in the background these days.
That kind of helping in the background led me to be nominated as Toastmaster of the Year for Divisions B and H in one term - the current one. It's not because I did superhuman things, I just helped where I could. Simple as that. BTW, those nominations themselves was a surprise.
Anyway, I naturally asked why me? Is there on one else?, and Tisha explains that Division N (the Taguig clubs, as it turns out - yes, at this time, I was unsure what constituted Division N becasue it was never on my mind.) was still a young Division - going on it's fifth year. So it was still unable to cultivate new sets fo officers. Plus the supposed people being groomed for the position back out for personal reasons. This left Division N with no candidate to present in the nominations, and no candidate to interview by the Quality committee (a committee that I was a part of just last year, btw). Interviews were over, and still no cnadidate - so to say the least, it was crisis mode for N's leadership.
Tisha asked me maybe out of desperation because she had to look outside of N for a viable candidate. Now why me? I don't know. Her come on was that I would not have difficulty with the club visits because I would just be limited to BGC - with a straggler or two, but nealry 95% of the clubs were at BGC.
I said okay, I'd help - even when Tisha asked me to think it over. I have this nasty habit of wanting to help where I could, and this was one whole Division in trouble - even if their membership did not know it yet. Those who knew me asked an all important question. "What did Barbie (my wife) say?" A question I could not answer yet because I said yes without letting her know.
Tisha and Troy the current and outgoing Division N Director took Barbie and me to dinner, where Tisha officially borrowed me from Barbie :D and that was how I got to be Director candidate for Division N. Tisha asked if i could go to the Davao Discon, but unfortunately, that was an expense I did not consider - both for plane ticket and hotel accomodations purposes, I simply did not plan for it - how could I, this just fell on my lap.
Things started happening. The Distict Run-offs were being done in Ortigas, and it was there that I met Jot Chiongbian, the next District Director. He saw me and gratefully welcomed me to the 'team' Score one for the welcoming committee. Others who had heard the news would either text me or apprach me to ask if what they heard was true. Me stepping into the Division Director's role for N was a surprise to everyone. I received congratulations and comments that N was in good hands. Was my reputatoin that good? Can I live up to the legend of my background? :D I hope so.
b1YkabXhNOKABTTuuKQeLaj5Nmzv9EI6wFgY2hOyS6KZK48uy2tMobClMxTvzHhEjWlOxgYNP-ltSqNp2nopwRsnov7QXU__X1cBdL_1Pp_r9b8Tbp_bub-VJ6w8T_xt7Q0EcZI242XVzlM7oOJxK-hHbUXqCZPN-g/s2048/10.png" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; ">
Anyway, my Induction came and I officially became the Division N Director.
I must say, I looked great in a double-breasted black suit - thanks to Shein, my new wardrobe source (simply because the had my size), and I got to meet a lot of my Division N colleagues. You see, this was another challenge I had. Any formal wardrobe I had was... well, tight, and mostly barongs. So I had to update my formal wear, starting with this one. I even rememebr telling Tisha I had no formal wear that fit. I was exagerating of course, I probably had one or two that fit.
Anyway, I had my first taste of how Cebu would feel when I was told that we needed to fly to Mactan for the District Turn-over. Lucky for me and my fellow Division Directors, our accomodations were paid for and our lane ickets ware reimbursible, so off to Cebue I flew. We were charged (to Victory) and returned to our respective Divisions.
Along the way, Tisha, Troyand I were looking for people who would volunteer to be part of the Division Council - and let me say, it wasn't easy at all. For starters, we had a dearth of candidates (so much so that eventually, Troy had to volnteer to be an Area Director for N2. It was also because - as I mentioned earlier, some people they were eyeyeing had other plans (migrating to Canada being just one). I had zero visibility with these candidates, unlike, say Division H, which I was involved with for at least two years.
We eventually got a semblance of a committee. Dedicated Toastmasters in their own way. What else did we need to do? For starters, I needed to get to know my Division. Oh yeah, and I needed the help of my three Area Directors - Jon, Troy and Kitin to get things going. They would be my initial connection to all the clubs - as they too, would need to introduce themselves to teh clubs and offer help.
Yes, about 90% of them were corporate clubs - this gave us some advantages, but equally so challenges. Club Officers Training attendance was one of them. Corporate clubs have a near silo-mentality when it comes to the larger world of Toastmasters. Others can't even be bothered to attend any activity if such fell on a weekend. As difficult as it could be to form a club, it was a lot fasterfor corporate clubs to die down. Change in Management could mean a change in priorities, and suddenly Toastmasters and it's program were no longer a priority. Frustrating, specially when the HR or upper management had a short term focus in forming the club. Some thought this to be just a 6-month program, then miracle of miracles, everyone would be a great speaper. Um.... no. That isn't how the porrgam works - and yet the mistaken presumptions prevailed.
Despite these frustrations, there are some corporate clubs that are role models for othrr clubs to follow. Then there are the struggling to survive ones. If oinly they could get their act together. Mind you it isn't easy if they can't get interest from their company's employees. Any corprate club needs a core group of believers and champions for teh program. It would be a big boost if someone in Management was also a Toastmaster. But the number one important aspect is having interesting and sustaining meetings. If a club stops meeting for even a month, it becomes hard toregain teh momentum.
Then there's the community clubs - Division N has two open and one closed community club. These clubs have a different challenge. - that is, to attract membership from the public. They need to make the needed noise to be seen, and appreciated.
I needed to visit these clubs, get to know them, know their concerns. As Division Director, however, my main role was to make everyone - specially the corporate clubs, be aware, and appreciate the bigger community taht is Division N.
But to make sure we could come up with a community, we started organizing activities that would invite Toastmasters from different clubs (and Divisions) to join us. Our first such activit was a Fun Run.
Next event? We took page from Divisions B amd lately, M, and came up with our very own Rookies Contest. But waait, before the contest, we conducted a Rookies workshop for said contest - seasoned contestatns shared their experince and techniques in preparing for a contest. After all, before the contest came, we needed to let them know what the contests were and how they could prepare of one.
But the fact was, we were also preparing for our actual Area and Division Contests by using the Rookies Contest as a dry run. Our Rookies contest was a resounding success? and we used that momentum to show Toastmasters how much fun it could be to be part of a bigger community.
We also got our clubs exposed to the D75 Centenial celebration of Toastmasters in Makati. It was great to see some of them there - but it was also an event wehre I got to mingle with my co-council members. Enjoying the camaraderie we last felt in Cebu.
Division N even had a Christmas year-end get together, and held it at ING in One Ayala. As you can see, everyone was all smiles. We did not make this activity last too long becasue we recognized the fact that people were still busy with work, and the hectic schedules, and monster traffic concerns of a near Christmas timeframe.
You could say I was starting to feel comfortable as the Division's Director around this time. Yes, I could recognize and remeber some names to the faces :D (a senior problem? maybe). But I could start feeling the community. Granted it was still ab it limited to a few clubs - but we had to start somewhere.
As the picture shows, there's Lhercy, Kitin, Venice form ING, Khazzy form Awesome, and many more.
From here we did other activities like a few Demo meetings with the hope of building or reviving Toastmasters clubs. In this juncture, we needed to come up with a demo team, and we tapped Toastmasterd form different clubs to have a collection of Division N members.
We even asked a new club, anmely the St. Lukes BGC club, to sponsor an Educational talk by Fursey Gotuaco, finalist in the World Championship for Public Speaking. This was a highlty energetic and educational seris of talks organized byu Division L, and we had two talks in Division N. Picture shows District Direct Jot, with St Lukes Club President Doc Rodney Jimenes, Fursey and myself.
Along the way, I got to meet new (and old) friends like the memebrs of CITI Toastmasters, a good number of which happen to be Division L leaders. Jonathan, my counterpart, Karen - whom Tisha asked me to recruit as a possible AD, but she was already part of the L team, and Jon - an old colleague from Accenture. Plus their President, Nancy.
And yes, I even get to become a poster for different activities. I don't mind. Like I said, I'm here to help.
Last , but not the least, our Area and Division Contests - just two weeks apart, I can honeslty say that I had little pressure in the coming days leading tothese contests because my Area Directors were on top th the situation. I'm proud of these Toastmasters.
I shall place my Toastmasters journey in a spearate blog - there, I shall try to capture things a as chronological as I can remember. Yeah, I know... Good luck with that.
No comments:
Post a Comment