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All clubs have a staff of club officers. These are elected once or twice
a year, depending on whether the club meets weekly or every other week (or
monthly, etc.). Clubs that meet weekly usually elect for six month terms.
Elections usually take place in May for the term July 1 to June 30 and,
where applicable, in May for the term July 1 to December 30 and in November
for the term January 1 to June 30.
Club offices (and their rank within the club) are as follows:
- President - chairs
meetings and supervises all other officers
- Vice President
Education - schedules meeting assignments and works with members to
see that their needs are met
- Vice President
Membership - runs club membership drive and also works to keep members
satisfied and happy
- Vice President
Public Relations - makes sure club meeting listings appear in the
media, puts posters up, etc.
- Secretary - sends
correspondence on behalf of the club, keeps club records and minutes
- Treasurer - handles
financial affairs, such as dues and purchases
- Sergeant of Arms -
sets meeting room up, puts stuff away, greets guests, etc.
Club offices are open to ANY member. There is no reason why a new member
cannot run for President without serving in any other club office.
You can serve as Area Governor, Division Governor, District Secretary,
District Treasurer, District Public Relations Officer, District Lieutenant
Governor Marketing, District Lieutenant Governor Education and Training,
District Governor, International Director, International Vice-President, or
International President. To explain what all these mean, you need to know
more about each level.
Clubs are grouped into Areas of three to eight Clubs. Each Area has its
own Area Governor, a member of one of the clubs appointed by the District
Governor to serve the Area. Area Governors are usually, but not always,
members of a club in the Area they are responsible for.
Areas have Area Speech Contests several times a year, with winners from
the Club levels going on to the Area Contest. The winner of the Area
Contest goes on to the Division.
Areas also share Area goals, determined by formulas set at World
Headquarters, such as "x number of clubs at 20 members in
strength" and "x number of CTM's in the various clubs." If
an Area meets or exceeds all its goals, its Area Governor is recognized for
hard work motivating the clubs.
Areas are grouped into Divisions. Divisions may be as small as one Area
in size (rarely) or have five, six, or more Areas. Each Division has its
own Division Governor. Division Governors are usually members of clubs
within their Division and are elected once a year at the Annual District
Business Meeting. The Division Governor works with his Area Governors to
motivate the clubs to high membership and to have good, effective
educational programs.
Divisions have Division Speech Contests several times a year, with
winners from the Areas coming together to compete. The Division winners go
on to the District level.
Divisions have Division goals, just as Areas do. A good Division Governor
will work with his clubs and Areas to increase membership and educational
effort.
Districts in some cases are equivalent to "states" and in
other cases are smaller or larger. If you think of a District as "the
state organization" you won't be too far off. Districts are comprised
of several Divisions. Districts are the main level of organization outside
the Club; Areas and Divisions are _sub-units_ of the District.
California
has several Districts because there are so many clubs there. North Carolina, on
the other hand, is a single District. England
and Scotland and Ireland are one District all together, and Australia and New Zealand comprise several
Districts. Smaller countries with only a few clubs each are Unincorporated
clubs which report directly to World Headquarters instead of to Districts.
Each District has its own set of officers, most of whom are elected at
the District Spring Conference (or Fall Conference in the Southern
Hemisphere). The officers include: District Secretary, District Treasurer,
District Public Relations Officer, District Lieutenant Governor Marketing,
District Lieutenant Governor Education and Training, and District Governor.
The last three are always elected and the first three are elected or appointed
depending on local preference. If they are appointed in your District, it's
the newly elected District Governor who does the appointing.
And yes, Districts have their own District-wide goals. The various
District officers work with the clubs, Areas, and Divisions to build
membership, start new clubs, promote the earning of CTM's and ATM's, and so
forth.
Districts have speech contests several times a year, as the Division
winners come together at the District Conferences to compete for the
District crowns.
It is, but that's the price you pay for:
- having enough
offices to fill that a lot of people get the opportunity to serve, and
- having enough
officers on the spot to help out clubs that have problems (e.g. low
membership).
Let's look at a made-up example to illustrate the organization:
Joe belongs to the Wide Valley Toastmasters Club (club 19521).
The Wide Valley Toastmasters club belongs to Area 4, Central Division,
District 95.
Area 4 is the city of Wide
Valley with four clubs.
The Central Division is Areas 4, 5, and 6, comprising the mid-state area.
District 95 is the eastern half of the state.
Area 4 has an Area Governor who works with the Wide Valley
club and the other three clubs in the Area.
The Central Division has a Division Governor who works with all 12 clubs in
his Division and with the three Area Governors under her.
District 95 has five Divisions and its own set of officers.
Joe goes to various speech contests in his Area, Division, and District and
once a year represents his club at the Spring Conference to elect new
officers and vote on other District policy matters.
If you want to be an Area Governor, show up at a lot of events outside
your club and get to know the people around your District. Work hard within
your club. Eventually, you'll be considered for appointment as an Area
Governor. It doesn't hurt to ask the people who are running for District
Governor to consider appointing you. If you want to be a Division Governor
or other District Officer, you've usually got to run for the office. Each
club in a District gets two votes and the clubs that have representatives
at the Spring Conference vote and decide who'll serve for the next year.
Terms always run July 1 to June 30, by the way, so elections are usually
held in April or May.
Another good way to get to be a District officer is to volunteer to help
a District committee. You don't get DTM credit for helping a committee or
serving as a District committee chair, but you get *known* and that's
usually all it takes to get asked to serve the next time around.
Technically, none -- just Toastmasters International. The Districts *do*
get together for *Regional* Conferences in June of each year, but the
Regions are not formally constituted bodies. They're just groupings of
eight or so Districts. Each Region is entitled to representation on the
Board of Directors of Toastmasters International in the form of two International
Directors who serve two-year terms, with one being elected each year, but
it is the world body that elects these officers, not the Regions
themselves. The main requirement for representing a Region is that you have
residency and membership in a club in that Region. Once you are elected,
however, you serve the world, not just the clubs of your Region.
At the Regional Conferences, you also find speech contests, with the
various District winners squaring off. Only one contestant goes on to the
World level; the humorous speaking and evaluation contests stop at the
Regional level, leaving the International Speech Contest contestants to
decide the World Championship of Public Speaking each August at the World
Convention.
Regions do not have regional goals. They're not organized bodies.
The World Convention takes place each August in a North American city.
The main feature of the Conference, other than presentation of awards for
effort during the preceding year, is the Annual Business Meeting, at which
International officers are elected and policies are made and changed.
The clubs have the voting strength at the world level, with two votes
each. Districts often wind up voting the proxies for clubs which don't make
it to the Annual Business Meeting each August.
There are a dozen elections to be held each August: eight (or nine, if
it's the year to elect the director from Overseas) International Directors,
three Vice Presidents, and one President. As there are eight Regions (with
two Directors each) and one amalgamated Overseas area (with one Director)
sending Directors to the world board, necessarily there are seventeen
Directors, serving two-year terms each. There is an International President
and three International Vice-Presidents who serve over the whole kit and
kaboodle. They serve one year each.
Yes and no. Any proposals they wish to see adopted that constitute
actual changes to the constitution and bylaws of the organization require a
vote by the assembled clubs, with each club having two votes. As above, the
District officers gather proxies from any clubs that aren't going to be at
the annual business meeting in August.
If you serve as a club officer, you earn credit toward a CL. If you
serve as a District officer, you earn credit toward an AL. Service on the International
level doesn't earn you anything in particular because you've usually
already earned everything there is to earn by that point.
But, more importantly, you get tremendous leadership experience. With
everyone a volunteer and no club HAVING to do what its District officers
suggest, you have to develop powerful persuasive abilities to guide the
clubs and members in the right direction.
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