Update on District Officer Training
Yesterday's District Officer Training, and first ever Division J get together went really well - well done to the organisers!
I thought I would summarise some key messages that I picked up that might help us in Division J.
District Training
- Your Role within the District - Supporting the District's Mission of enhancing the performance of clubs and extending the network of clubs.
- Skills Audit - Find out who in your area has the skills and the enthusiasm for different jobs - and sign them up to do things!
- Creating Great Clubs - Focus on education, having great role models and a strong committee. All clubs should aim to be distinguished - all you need for 5 DCP points is good administration and 1CL!
- Measuring Success - The key measure is the distinguished area programme, monitoring can be done through Rory's fabulous reports on D71 and the management information you need on trends in the past comes from Rory too - reports on the way to you soon.
- Building our Clubs - 100% of the people at the training said that Toastmasters had a positive affect on their lives. So we owe it to other people to share Toastmasters with them, by encouraging them to join or clubs and by setting up new clubs. I know that some of our areas already have plans to set up a new club - Do we think we could get a new club in each of our areas?
- Plan for successful PR - We have on average 40% churn and our target is to grow by 8% so in order to to grow we need to be constantly getting new members. We need to be constantly promoting, and Hilary is setting up a district wide PR group. Is anyone up for being Division J's PR representative?
Key Dates - There is a really useful laminate of all the key dates throughout the year - if you weren't there yesterday, I have one for you. Note that your first job is before you start officially! Make sure all the clubs in your area have submitted officer lists by June 30th, otherwise you're down 1 DCP point from the start! Each area has at least 1 club that has not submitted officer lists yet.
Liven up your training - A simple, yet powerful COT exercise - get everyone who is doing a particular role to show themselves, then get everyone who has ever played that role to show themselves. Straight away, people know who their peers are and where the experience is.
Financial Support - Note there is funding to support pre-charter clubs and struggling clubs - make sure you make use of the resources available to you! Make sure that new clubs have done their 'application to organise' so they get their 20 manuals.
Glasgow Conference 11 November '11 - Free beer and men in kilts - something for everyone! http://flourish2011.co.uk/
Global Branding - Look out for the new brand on August the 17th. We will need to update websites and club banners over time.
Reformation - Analysis underway to work out how we could convert District 71 into 2 Districts - proposals to be presented at the next conference
How you can benefit from your role - Just say yes, and see what you can achieve!
Division Breakout
Division Vision - I shared the vision I have in mind for Division J - feedback would be very welcome!
To build and support a strong division team that builds club growth, membership growth and club strength.
To run division events with well run contests and workshops that draw people together from across the division.
To support and encourage youth involvement and learning.
Key Dates
- Division Contest - 22nd October. We are thinking somewhere along the M4 corridor might be a good place to hold it. Ray is going to check out some venues.
- Area 46 COT = 13th August, Contest 8th October
- Area 4 COT = 5th July
- All other dates, please feed them through.
Meetings : We were happy to stick with the 1st Saturday of each month @ 9am
Prospective / Pre-Charter Clubs : 22 has Dragon's Tongue, 42 has Ferndown, 46 has Marlborough (Merlin's Mound) - what other opportunities do we have?
Encouraging Young People - we got started on opportunites to engage young people - Young Enterprise, Speak Out, Princes Trust. We will keep focussed on that throughout the year
I hope that gives everyone who wasn't there a flavour of the event. Any feedback, just let me know!
Jean Gamester
Incoming Division J Governor