Page 12 - July 2020
P. 12

PJ’s PERSPECTIVE









                                                Numbers Don’t Tell the Whole Story






                                                                                          PJ Kleffner, DTM - District Director









           Five hundred twenty-five                          final results from last year, but we know that
           thousand six hundred minutes                      Covid-19 didn’t do us any favors. We know our

           Five hundred twenty-five                          numbers will be “down”, we just don’t know by
           thousand moments so dear                          how much. However, these numbers won’t tell
           Five hundred twenty-five                          the whole story.

           thousand six hundred minutes                          Our numbers will show that we lost some
           How do you measure, measure a                     ground last year, but they won’t show the
           year?                                             incredible amount of energy and spirit that

                                                             our dedicated members displayed to overcome
      If you have seen the movie RENT, you now have  obstacles so they could continue on their
      that song stuck in your head – sorry.                  Toastmasters journeys. We learned to do
          You may have noticed from my previous  everything online–weekly meetings, pay dues

      Voices! columns, that I am a bit of a numbers  remotely, elect officers, and submit a record-
      guy. Some of my family members even say I am  breaking number of educational awards. District
      a nerd, which I take as a compliment. Math was  7 members submitted over 40 Distinguished
      always my favorite class, and I definitely wasn’t  Toastmaster awards last year, which is more than

      that student in algebra who kept asking, “When  double what we normally see in a year.
      am I ever going to use this when I grow up?” I             Last month I had the pleasure of joining a
      spent my entire career working for companies  webinar to hear our Toastmasters International
      that made test and measurement equipment. Our  President, Deepak Menon. He told us how he

      customers measured everything from how fast a  was a “numbers guy” during his early years in
      nuclear explosion happens to how much voltage  leadership with Toastmasters. He was obsessed
      you get from a heart defibrillator. Numbers,  with looking at the dashboard and daily reports
      numbers, numbers.                                      to see how his District was doing. Driven by the

          Here we are, already thirty thousand two  numbers, his District finished first in the world.
      hundred and forty minutes into our new  Eventually, he realized there was something
      Toastmasters year, or about three weeks to  more important than the numbers, and that
      most of you. As I write this, we don’t have the  was the “member experience.” As leaders, we are




       12     ONE COMMUNITY
   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17