The missing years...
Soem time after I became president of Infinity Toastmasters (the corporate club of Fujitsu Toastmasters club), the tragedy that was 9-11 happened. This made the U.S. into a Xenophobic state, seeing security concerns all around. The foreign business partners were suddenly left hanging - including Fujitus Philippines Inc.
Naturally, this meant businesses that were Satesside froze. Unfortunately for Fujitsu, this meant a large chunk of it's business got lost. The company decided to cut their workforce, and one of the unfortunate victims of this cut was of course, Infinity Toastmasters. Part of this move as well was the letting go of a lot of Senior personnel via Early Retirement offers. I was one of those offered. Thus I also found myself suffenly unemployed.
I stopped Toastmasters altogether. I did not have the means to continue paying for membership, and even if Diamond Toastmasters was subsidizing my membership while they could, I still felt uninspired becasue of what I went through.
The otehr reason 0 the one I cling to more, is that I decided to concentrate on helping my kids with their schooling. I became the defacto parent attending the Parent-Teacher meetings. Sure I eventually found other work in Accenture as a Corporate Trainer handling their workshops - which I did for several years... but attending Toastmasters meetings became a low priority for me. It was ny this time that I also felt that traffic was so bad I would rather go home early thatn attend a Toastmasters meeting.
I guess you could say that I also felt that after my becoming the Division Governor, and having led the Infinity Toastmasters to a Presidents Distinguished Club, I felt there was little challenge left for me to stay in the organization. I mean the next step would have been a higher District role, and I simply did not feel the need, nor want, to pursue it.
So I bowed out.
Once in a while, I would get asked to help in my capacity as a good evaluator. Some would ask me to judge, and I would politely decline citing that I was not an active member - and some roles needed a member to be in good standing.
One particular situation was an ivite to join a group of evaluators for a Speechcraft to be help in De La Salle University. I agreed because, a) it was my alama mater, and I wanted to see it again after so long a time, and b) I asked if I could include my son, Bryce to being one of the participants. I felt this could help him as he was near graduation himself.Just as the Speechcraft program helped me back in my Jaycee days, it could help him. The sponsoring club was the Managers For Christ, a club that I had some close ties with from the vantage point of being a past evaluator for their meetings.
I remember one of his first comments about this was he did not know why I dragged him here. I just told him to attend and learn from it - this was a Saturday morning session and he got to attend two sessions before for some reason, the program got stopped due to the otehr students not being able to find time to attend - they were scholars apparently from another school, so I was not privy to the arrangement in getting DLSU to allow these student to use the classroom facilities. All I needed to know was Bryce could attend and learn - that is, until the program was scrapped.
Opprtunity lost... but at least, Bryce got a taste of Toastmasters. Later, he got pulled into Molave Toastmasters by his tita JJ Letargo, while he was working at the Ortigas area. By then I realized through him that the Toastmasters Educational system - now called Pathways, replaced the legacy system I was used to.
I later learned he became a club officer, but he too lost his job when the company he was working with folded up, and he found another job, but was now far from Ortigas. So he eventaully bowed out of the club since his schedule and distance was no longer convenient with Molave's meeting scheules.
It would be several years later until JJ asked me if I wanted to return. I said 'sure', and where do you need me? She suggested Marikina - though not to worry because the club met online *this was pandemic season, and Jazz Encarnacion, another friend was incoming District Director. So I agreed to jump back in, nearly 20 years after I stopped being a Toastmaster.
Naturally, this meant businesses that were Satesside froze. Unfortunately for Fujitsu, this meant a large chunk of it's business got lost. The company decided to cut their workforce, and one of the unfortunate victims of this cut was of course, Infinity Toastmasters. Part of this move as well was the letting go of a lot of Senior personnel via Early Retirement offers. I was one of those offered. Thus I also found myself suffenly unemployed.
I stopped Toastmasters altogether. I did not have the means to continue paying for membership, and even if Diamond Toastmasters was subsidizing my membership while they could, I still felt uninspired becasue of what I went through.
The otehr reason 0 the one I cling to more, is that I decided to concentrate on helping my kids with their schooling. I became the defacto parent attending the Parent-Teacher meetings. Sure I eventually found other work in Accenture as a Corporate Trainer handling their workshops - which I did for several years... but attending Toastmasters meetings became a low priority for me. It was ny this time that I also felt that traffic was so bad I would rather go home early thatn attend a Toastmasters meeting.
I guess you could say that I also felt that after my becoming the Division Governor, and having led the Infinity Toastmasters to a Presidents Distinguished Club, I felt there was little challenge left for me to stay in the organization. I mean the next step would have been a higher District role, and I simply did not feel the need, nor want, to pursue it.
So I bowed out.
One particular situation was an ivite to join a group of evaluators for a Speechcraft to be help in De La Salle University. I agreed because, a) it was my alama mater, and I wanted to see it again after so long a time, and b) I asked if I could include my son, Bryce to being one of the participants. I felt this could help him as he was near graduation himself.Just as the Speechcraft program helped me back in my Jaycee days, it could help him. The sponsoring club was the Managers For Christ, a club that I had some close ties with from the vantage point of being a past evaluator for their meetings.
I remember one of his first comments about this was he did not know why I dragged him here. I just told him to attend and learn from it - this was a Saturday morning session and he got to attend two sessions before for some reason, the program got stopped due to the otehr students not being able to find time to attend - they were scholars apparently from another school, so I was not privy to the arrangement in getting DLSU to allow these student to use the classroom facilities. All I needed to know was Bryce could attend and learn - that is, until the program was scrapped.
I later learned he became a club officer, but he too lost his job when the company he was working with folded up, and he found another job, but was now far from Ortigas. So he eventaully bowed out of the club since his schedule and distance was no longer convenient with Molave's meeting scheules.
It would be several years later until JJ asked me if I wanted to return. I said 'sure', and where do you need me? She suggested Marikina - though not to worry because the club met online *this was pandemic season, and Jazz Encarnacion, another friend was incoming District Director. So I agreed to jump back in, nearly 20 years after I stopped being a Toastmaster.
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