Page 16 - Voices-2021-05

FROM THE DESK

We Gotter Done! Next Challenge!

Eldred Brown, DTM - Program Quality Director

WOW! It’s done! The first-ever online District was really going on.
7 Conference is now in the past, and it was a This allowed our

success! A big shout-out to Lyle Schellenberg audience to see
and his team of volunteer leaders for putting quite the chaotic
the whole event together and making it the scene during the ten
extravaganza it was! What were some of the minutes or so before

leadership lessons I learned from the event? the International
Speech Contest on
Strong leadership helps. Saturday as contest staff
Our conference chair had many years of were all “running around”

leadership experience under his belt, but he barking out orders to get all
had never chaired a committee responsible for the pieces in place at the
planning a big event. He knew how to lead a last minute. Yes, even
team, but he wanted the experience of planning the best planned

a huge event so he could “cross that off his bucket contests have these moments, but we could have
list.” People with such initiative and drive as Lyle shielded you from a lot of that if I insisted on
consistently showed may not know at first what greater accuracy in our published start time.
they’re getting themselves into and will stumble
a few times to start, but they learn quickly. Give Communicate, communicate, communicate!

them the opportunity and the direction, and On Friday evening, the half-hour before
they will thrive. The experience will also help Jana’s speech was supposed to be a time for
them become better-rounded leaders, which is networking and conversation. Our Zoom team

why so many long-time Toastmasters stay in was not aware of that because I failed to ensure
Toastmasters. There’s always a new opportunity that that detail was communicated to them.
to grow. Mea culpa! (We fixed that on Saturday morning,
though.)

Trust, but verify. The conference didn’t run perfectly—we
We had a few discrepancies between had a few hiccups—but it was amazing to watch
published and actual start times that led some how well it did work. Fortunately, the hiccups
people to become quite confused about what of running an online conference (for the first

16 ONE COMMUNITY