My Toastmasters Experience

TM year 2025-26 was supposed to be a light year for me. Having just fulfilled my role as Division N Director,I was feeling a bit of FOMO as I finally ended my term. No more Division Council and Distric Council to worry about. I also ended my term as HOLA president, so I was in for a very simple term of nat having any role in the District and Division. Let others take care of the leadership, roles for a change. Okay, so I was asked to stay on as Sgt at Arms at HOLA - no big deal I also made sure I had less clubs to be a member of... from three, to just one. That was until I got a call from Remy (newly minted District Director, at that time and got asked about joining her Extended Leadership Team as Ethics COmmittee Chair (later reffered to as District Disciplinarian). So at least I got a few freebies from that role - namely a free DisCon and hotel room accomodation. But as I was about to learn, a few other roles crept up on me. Thus making me busy - specially during the DisCon. I fe...

Day 3 meant everyone was getting ready to watch the International Prepared Speech Contest. But before that happened, the organizers opted to have a discussion forum - all about the issues and concerns that all Toastmasters wanted to talk about - and we so happen to have the chance to discuss it in front of everyone from District 75 - on stage. But not just air out any complaints - but also share possible ideas to maximize our membership. I was asked to participate, and I knew this was important, so I had said yes a month ago. I was invited by Distinguished Toastmaster Reiner Dungca, and he was looking for a balance of viewpoint - mine would be the viewpoint of the seasoned (a.k.a. older) Toastmaster. With me was Past District Director Jazz Encarnacion - a good friend, International Director Hani Nur Zaihanira , and lastly... Kenley Go ( for the Millenial crowd - and according to him, the diversity representative as well (he isn't btw - it was just a joke). Our moderator was Mar...

THe idea of this thing was started in the Cebu DisCon. In the welcome dinner of the night before DisCon 2025 started, we had a little Karaoke session where each table would have a representative sing to the crowd. I was chosen to do this, so when I went to the front with a live guitarist to be my accompaniment (it was a simple set-up), I chose to sing Misty,by Nat King Cole. Despite my slight faux pas where I opted to go low when I realized singin the higher note was too hard for my relaxed manner, it turned out all right. Governor Noli Manlapaz later approached me and suggested that the next year - when the next DisCon will be held in Pampanga, with by then District Director Remy at the helm, we (meaning the two of us, plus other Toastmaster singers, will have an evening of serenading everyone.He approached me with this idea, and I automatically said yes to the idea. Since then, whenever we had a chance to sing - like in the Tamaraw TMC tunrover that same year, we sang... both with ...

It stands to reason that every large organization must have some kind of Ethics Committee... with someone as the District's Chief Disciplinarian. It's not a well publicized committee too... after all, if you are called by said committee, I can imagine that it can be worrisome to said individual wondering why they are being called by the committee head. On the otehr side of the coin you'd want to know that there is a person whom you can talk to should you want to - or need to discuss sensitive matters that may tarnish the image and name of Tostmasters.

This actually happened as part of my rsponsibilities as Division N Director - yet was not spcific to Division N in particular.... but to the District's future. So I separate it here. Otherwise, this could easily be a Division N - part 5 entry... but it isn't. It deserves a spearate entry. I will tread lightly with this entry. You see, what we discussed, who said what, who sided where... all these may need be kept in confidence. Yet I must point out a few things, being how important this activity was - and for what purose. Simply put, Toastmasters International noticed how several Districts were floundering. Whether it was because of bad economies in the U.S. under a Trump Presidnecy (or despite it), or other global activities weakening economies, the global membership was weakening. We could probably point to the increas of membership fees from $45 to $60. It may not sound much to others, but to other parts of the globe (like us) we also need to tackle exchange rate issues (a...

Focusing on the Division... I did say we were trying to build a community. For our members to realize that there is life in Toatmasters beyond their respective clubs. This meant that with every club visit, we aould invite other members to club hop - experience how other clubs did their meetings, maybe laern from these as well. I would always say that one role of eahc Area Director - who would visit clubs under them, would be to help the clubs where they needed it... but to also see aht other clubs did well, and share the practice. However, it would still be great for members to experience this first hand, and not just as a suggestion by their Area Director. Learning would happen faster too - and yes, they could help out in sharing the meeting roles - specially the technical evaluations (Ah-counter, Timer, Grammarain). We started getting some traction here when we would see some clubs visiting other clubs - more so as invited evaluators. For example, the Club President of ING showed ...