Page 14 - 8.2016 Voices

JOURNEYS

The Face of a Toastmaster
—David Johnson

by Brinn Hemmingson, ACG, CL

Chances are, if you giving presentations and moderating a weekly call
have attended District 7 with people from a number of departments in various
conferences recently or offices. The calls that were supposed to be 30-minute
any number of commu- check-ins were lasting an hour and, according to
nity/Toastmaster events David, weren’t very productive.
in Portland, Oregon, you
have seen David Johnson. David’s boss recommended some training, and
Amongst us Toastmasters out of this crisis came a new opportunity. After some
he is well known—with research and talking with co-workers, he decided to
good reason. visit a Toastmasters club in January 2009. He enjoyed
the speeches and even participated in Table Topics.
He has held the following positions: What impressed him
Columbia Center Toastmasters (newly renamed most was the level of
Moser Community Toastmasters) feedback—and not
just for the speakers!
• VP Education for 1 year There was someone
listening to the words,
• VP Public Relations for 2 or 3 years aTable Topics evalu-

• Sergeant at Arms for 1 year ator, and people
who evaluated
• President for 1 year the evaluators!
David soon joined that club, and is still a member
• Secretary for 1 year to this day. Initially known as Columbia Center
Toastmasters; now it’s called Moser Community
Fortunate 500 Toastmasters.
David applied some of the skills he learned from
• VP Education for 1 year these meetings to the work meetings he moderated.
He ensured people had an agenda with estimated
• VP Membership current times for each section. This also helped in planning
and delivering training sessions to employees. David
District Offices said, “I knew I was succeeding when a coworker
complimented me on how I handled my conference
• Area Governor 52 2014 - 2015 calls. I realized I had become more confident and
capable.”
• Division D Director 2015 - 2016

• Division D Director 2016 – 2017
David said, “My boss ran into a meeting room

where I was moderating a call.
He was gesticulating wildly
to wrap up the conference
call. That was my first hint
that I needed to improve my
leadership skills.”

David had transferred into
the product management
department at his job, hoping
to redirect his career from tech-
nical support towards research
and development. He had
doubts about the position, what was expected, and
how to be successful. Some of the duties included

14 Volume 3 Issue 2 - AUGUST 2016