Influence? ...so it seems. Luck? ...maybe that too.

This focuses on how others perceive me. Yes, I've been around for quite some time now. I joined Toastmasters in 1996, and for some reason, became Diamond's President around my second month in. Times were unique, but because I came for the Jaycees, the concept of leadership was not new to me. Plus the charter President of Diamond Toastmasters was my co-Jaycee, so he probably saw me in aciton back at Q.C. Capitol.

Among all likely members of Diamond, I seemed to be the one most capable and willing to handle the reins after all the problems the past President and CHarter President got into. Other more seasoned members wanted to steer clear of this issue - as said Charter President was a control-freak. Well... yes. But he was more focused on wanting Diamond to stay on it's social scale as a premiere Toastmasters club, meeting in the Makati Sports Center. Diamond had some luminaries as members - but being such, they too did ont take kindly to being told what and what not to do.

I was not privy to that, the Charter President saw me as a better leader than the just recently resigned President. I was unaffected by the politics and mess that just happened, so reluctant as I was - being just a new member, I agreed with the promise that others had my back. Right place, right time? Who knows, but it happened.

Despite my unfamiliarty with the organization, I got to recruit 10 new members - let that sink in. Evan now, when I type it, I am at awe. But this too was a strkoe of luck. SGS was looking for a club and since they heard that Makati Sports had a club meeting there, they wrote to the Presdient, which happened ot be me at that time. Coincidence and Luck? Even I would call it that. But it did happen. I even got recognized by TI and District for it - no big deal to me. I was too busy making sure the club was running.

Because of this, I stopped a club from dying and even got around to make it a Distinguished Club (whatever that meant back then).

I guess because of this, I got the role of Area Governor handed to me by Division Governor Dulce, who saw me work on Diamond. I just focused on being able to learn about the other clubs in my area, and offered to help them however I can. Guess what? I then got to be an Area Governor at Large, before eventually becoming a Division Governor.

HOw'd this happen? Influnece? Luck, maybe? Or did people see that I was really willing to help in any way I can? Sometimes I think it was a combination of 'all the above'.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Division N Director (part 3) House cleaning, and Community building

Image
Honestly, I didn't mean for this to go three parts (editor's note: it went to four) - it's just that there were a lot to process. Guess it helped that it was most recent, and had a lot of pictures. Moving on... Given our early successes, you'd think that this Toastmasters year would be one great one. In a sense, it was... after all, we were also celebrating the Centenial celebration of Toastmasters, so there was a vibe of making sure we would commemorate the Centenial. But before that happened, we needed to converge in Cebu to be part of the District's turnover ceremonies. Since Jot Chiongbian was based in Cebu, the turnover naturally happened to be organized there. Advantage here was that plane fare and hotel accomodations were covered by the District - me being part of the District Committee (as all Division Directors are). We basically had a two day celebration - arrival day until dinner, and breakfast the next day. We were not just going on a vacation though ...
Read more

Division N Director (part 1) Out from the Left Field

Image
If you know me, or if you've read previous articles about this, or if you even listened to my talks in the past about becoming the Division N Director, you'd know that this was unplanned for me. I simply had my sights in being the next Hall of Learners Advanced Toastmasters President - after all, I did psend almost the entire Toastmasters year being the club's Vice Presidnet for Education - helping led it to becoming President's Distinguished on it's first year. Aside from that, I was focused on being active in both Divisions H and B, though more on H. Still, when B needed help, I pitched it. Thus it was as I was driving to BGC that Tisha Timbang called me. I was busy check in on our food stall in McKinley Hill, enroute to fetching Barbie in her new work at Roshe. And the first thing Tisha says is may papakiusap siya sa akin, and maybe I should sit down. Her style for shedding some humor before she releases her request. I told her I was sitting (as I was driving),...
Read more

Back in Toastmasters

Image
My official reason for returning in Toastmasters was this... in the past, when Toastmaster friends would ask me if and when I would return, I would be non-commital. I had several reasons, but the main one I stuck to was, I'd focus on family first -and help get my kids through college. By this time, during the pandemic, both Bryce and Bernice did not just graduate - they had found jobs too! The pandemic just forced them, like everyone else, to work from home. Set things up that they could work and communicate remotely. Suddenly, Zoom was the paltform to learn and use by everyone who wanted to keep in touch. No one could go out of their homes, as it was considered a health risk. COVID 19 was no laughing matter - some people who got it, never recovered. But what was perplexing was that others who seemingly got it did not even show signs of getting sick. Unfortunately, this still made them carriers. I bring this up because this was the type of environment I found myself in. We were...
Read more