David Fetterman Gives The Real Zenith of District One's Conference

Fellow Toastmasters (and all other dedicated readers of the Westside Toastmasters blog), This Saturday was the District One Spring conference, and I’d just like to share some of the highlights of the experience. The conference basically had three purposes: to elect the district officers for next year; to recognize various achievements during the last year; and to host the Tall Tales and International Contests.

The elections were largely uncontested. Sandy Dunning, DTM, will be our District Governor next year. She is a remarkable woman who embodies the Toastmasters spirit; frankly, I am surprised that she hasn’t sought the District Governor job before. This year, she was Lieutenant Governor of Education and Training (LGET), the 2nd-ranking position in the District. She has been a Toastmaster since 1988 – the year, perhaps coincidentally, that her husband Bob Dunning served as District Governor. There was a battle for the LGET post between Giovanna Dottore, DTM, a veteran Toastmaster who chairs the Speakers Bureau, and Ron Edwards, who served as Lieutenant Governor of Marketing this year.

Both candidates addressed the assemblage briefly but enthusiastically. Giovanna, the “Lean Queen,” ran on the platform, “Dimmi chi pratichi, e ti dirò chi sei.” While only a few people of Italian descent might possibly have understood her, she concluded by saying “I’ll make you an offer you can’t refuse,” and I personally believed her. Ron’s campaign theme was, “If I were you, I’d vote for me.” Giovanna won convincingly, although Ron made a respectable showing. Three candidates faced off for Lieutenant Governor of Marketing. Joan Lewis, DTM, won on the promise of using technology to make the district’s marketing efforts more effective.

As a techie geek myself, I’m certainly looking forward to seeing what plans Joan has for leading District One into the future. The only other contested office was for the governorship of Division B, which is the division that Westside Toastmasters happens to be in. Chiuhing Casey, previously B4 Area Governor, defeated Johnny Truong. When the eight new members of the District Steering Committee stood at the front of the room, I suddenly realized – they were ALL WOMEN! This is not necessarily a bad thing…it was just a little startling, considering that Toastmasters didn’t even ADMIT women until 1973.

Nearly everyone in the room of 300 attendees was asked at some point to stand up and receive thunderous applause for one achievement or another. Even I got to stand up - for volunteering on the conference organizing committee. Plus, I got a small bag of candy in appreciation for my tireless efforts. I would have preferred a discounted rate on admission to the conference, but I’m not going to complain.

But the real zenith of the conference was when they recognized the new crop of Distinguished Toastmasters (DTMs). All the DTMs in attendance (and there were quite a few, including our very own Ed Coffey) lined up at the back of the meeting room, and every new DTM got a hug from every person who had already achieved that monumental goal. After watching the “hug line,” I felt that my commitment to becoming a DTM someday was tripled, if not quadrupled.

Both speech contests featured excellent speakers, but Division D swept the top prizes. D’Andre Lampkin of D4’s Ethical Elite won the Tall Tales competition with “The Grammarian,” and Sherwood Jones of D3’s Grand Communicators won the International showdown. Our own Robert Mackenzie served as Toastmaster for the first contest, or as he put it, “the short male hosting the Tall Tales.” Newly elected LGET Giovanna Dottore hosted the International contest, but after her vivace campaign speech, her voice was running on empty and she kept her remarks brief.

The conference lasted over 10 hours, and I could certainly go on describing it, but I believe the red light went on for this article long ago. I’ll just close by saying I had a great time, and I’m glad I went.

David Fetterman VPE