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HIDDEN TREASURE



            TI Zone “A” Conference

            Portland, Oregon, January 18-19, 1952


            by Harvey Schowe, DTM - District 7 Historian






         Sixty four years ago Portland hosted the             Festival and Portland
     Toastmasters International Zone “A” Educational          Oratorio Chorus. He
     Conference.  George Reed, International                  was invited to sing at the Chicago Conference.
     President, announced in the April 1951                   A March 1952 Toastmasters Magazine article
     Toastmasters Magazine that the Convention and            mentioned that 400 club members attended
     Educational Bureau planned three advanced                this successful conference. Toastmasters
     educational conferences. They would be held              International Officers held a mid-year board
     at widely separated locations. Ralph Smedley             meeting and participated in the educational
     further elaborated on this idea in a June 1951           sessions. Conference programs were at the club
     paper titled “Zone Conferences in Review”.               level and provided members opportunities to
     The three zone educational conferences were              share ideas. An article summed up the confer-
     planned to provide an alternative to the high            ence, “A Conference Which Really Conferred”.
     cost of travel to the International Conference.          Ralph Smedley’s last visit to Portland, Oregon
     Attendance at zone conferences was higher than           was at this conference.  He sent Carl Hasenkamp
     at the international conferences.                        a February 25, 1952 letter praising him for the
         October 25, 1951, Wilbur M. Smith,                   excellent work organizing the conference.  In
     Administrative Associate for Toastmasters                addition, Smedley sent him the autographed
     International, announced a mid-year board                book, “The Voice of the Speaker”.
     meeting and International Zone Conference to
     be held at the Multnomah Hotel in Portland,
     Oregon on January 18 and 19, 1952.  District 7
     officers and club members formed publicity,
     housing, meeting, banquet, hospitality, entertain-
     ment, registration, and finance committees. Carl
     Hasenkamp, Past District 7 Governor, served as
     the Special Session Leader, or President’s Banquet
     Chairman. Harry LaDou, past member of Salem
     Toastmasters Club #138, Past District 5 Governor
     and International Director, presented a seminar
     on club’s responsibility in the International
     Structure. Salem Club #138 members made
     presentations on Robert’s Rules of Order while
     Portland Toastmasters club #31 members
     demonstrated hand gestures. A Tillamook club
     member made a special presentation at the
     evening dinner meeting. Chalmar Blair, second
     District 7 Governor and Portland Toastmasters
     Club # 31 member, provided a seminar on
     Effective Speech in Personnel Relations. Tenor
     Walter J. Miesen, High Dawn Toastmasters club
     #730, sang during the conference. Miesen was a
     choir director, organist and sang solo at Portland
     Symphony Orchestra, Hood River Music




      VOLUME 3 ISSUE 7  JANUARY, 2017                                                                        33
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