The SETSI TMC Presidency

Just like any beginning, everything looked hope-filled. What we did not consider was that the world was starting to slowly, gingerly open up. Establishments were now trying to bring a reluctant work force back to their establishments. Vaccines were strating to be available, and people were starting to feel relieved that the worse was over. Or was it? Resurgences of cases after coming about having some freedom forced the government ot rethink opening up again. But one thing was clear... it was just a matter of time before people needed to get back to working. The world needed to restart tehir economies. This meant getting busy once again, away from home - albeit reluctantly.

Many were still grieving. I lost my mom before COVID officially became a pandemic, a friend much earlier in what seemed a freak accident - but I wonder if both were somehow COVID related. But more so died during the lockdown, until vaccines started coming in, and even when there was the start of one being available, it simply seemed suspicious, and quality was questionable.

As I said, change was happening. People were beggining to find time to work again - outside of their homes. How did this affect club membership? For starters, the need for work meant people had to hustle again - even if the risk of COVID contagion was still high, at least there were vaccines, and hospitals had better knowledge - and less deaths, when treating patients. I would even posit that because of this start of opening the economy, people had less spare time again. Joining Toastmasters became a second priority.

Even my club decided to go hybrid in our turnover. In an environment where many still met online, ours was one of the first to dare to go face-to-face (a.k.a. F2F), and have an equally smooth hybrid set-up. It was a success as well, and we were willing to share what we did in a technical capacity to have such a meeting happen without a hitch. I'd thank SETSI itself for lending us their room and equipment, as well as TM Spike for jumping in and ensuring the technical set up was running smoothly - oh, and he even took pictures (like this last one on display).

Jazz Encarnacion, the current District Director stayed online, due to other responsibilities, while Past District Director Anne Danga showed up to give her inspirational talk. We did hold it, after all, in Marikina - with little worry of traffic still, so it wasn't too much of a hassle to get people to happen. Besides, 'SETSI&F TMC' was officially Marikina-based, so we needed to get more members located locally to get the club working in a F2F environment.

Division H Director Joyce also attended online - understandable since she's normally based in Dubai, while Past Division M Director Renier was there to give us a proper send-off and fare well. Of my Excom, two disappeared in the middle of the term, three were multiple members of other coubs, so I could not say their were focused on SETSI&F - it was mostly just Spike and me working - with Janice and JJ jumping in when they were needed. We also had some falling out from other members. Some felt the need to move on due to an increased amount of work, others were just placements to achieve the needed 20 members status - but did not promise to stay. Others were simply just too busy with work.

Spike and I talked to members to deliver speeches, and submit their Pathways completion for SETSI, while I continued recruiting others into the fold, or convinced others not to drop our yet.

This was when I got to attend Jazz's DisCon: Back to Manila, as SETSI's President, Evantually asked my kids to rejoin (Bryce was inactive in Malave around this time) and join, I convinced Bernice to give Toastmasters a try - she was also my 20th member. So finally the club got recognized for achieveing 9 our of 10 goals - good enough to merit a President's Distinguished CLub recognition. The first as a comebacking Toastmaster, the second as I was also given that recognition for Infinity Toastmasters all those years past.

I passed the batton of Presidentcy to Toastmaster Spike, and got ready to relax. That was when I got the message for Director Joyce.

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