Category: TI Updates

Preparing for Changes to Pathways!

Posted on | by Norm Thibodeau

Pathways Changes – How to Prepare

Fellow Toastmasters,

Long requested and awaited changes to Pathways, the Toastmasters education program, are coming in 2024!  This is great news.  However, there will be a transition period where some patience will be needed.  

Per a recent advisory from the Toastmasters International Education team, Pathways BaseCamp managers (typically the club VPE) have been requested to ensure that all Pathways level completion requests and the associated award requests in Club Central be in sync and up to date by December 15, 2023.  If any level completions or awards are submitted after that or the 2 systems are not in sync, there may be impacts to the DCP credit for member level completion awards.

All members should prepare for these changes as follows.

  1. Submit completion approval requests for any Pathways levels already completed by Monday, December 11.
  2. For any paths completed after December 11, hold off on submitting the completion request until we are informed that it is OK to do so.
  3. Each member should check to make sure their Pathways completions and awards are in sync. Learn how in this short video prepared by Toastmasters International.  Inform your VPE of any discrepancies found immediately.
  4. You can continue to work on your path projects — just don’t submit any new approval requests during the transition period.

More news about the improvements to the Pathways education system will be announced as it becomes available.

Sincerely,
Norm Thibodeau, DTM
District Administrative Manager, 2023-2024

Want to learn more?  Here are a few references:

Proxy Assignment

Posted on | by Andrew Watt, DTM

There are several steps to casting votes at the Annual Business Meeting. It is your role to ensure the completion of Step 1 by August 11 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT)/Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) -4:

Step 1: Assign Proxy for your Club

Hold a Business Meeting: The club should meet to discuss the international candidates and to choose a proxyholder.

To learn and understand the roles, attributes, and responsibilities of International Officers and Directors, please review the leadership roles. Learn more about the International Officer and Director Candidates.
Your club’s proxyholder must be able to attend the Annual Business Meeting, either online or onsite, on August 18, at 7 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT)/Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) -4.
The Club President or Secretary designates the proxyholder through the Toastmasters International website.

  • A proxyholder must be designated, even if the Club President or Secretary is assigning the proxy to themself.
  • Only one person may carry the votes for your club.
  • Once your club has chosen the proxyholder, follow the instructions below:
  • Log into www.toastmasters.org with your member ID/email and password.
  • Scroll to the Annual Business Meeting section on My Home (directly below the My Education and Achievements section).
  • Click on “Club Proxy & Voting Instructions.”
  • If you are an officer in multiple clubs, select the club(s) for which you are assigning the proxy.
  • Click on the Start button next to “Designate Proxyholder.”
  • Select from the three options for designating a proxyholder: A member of the club, the 2023-2024 District Director, or another active Toastmaster.
  • Follow the prompts to complete the process. To submit your proxyholder designation, enter your name into the Signature box, click the checkbox, and press “Confirm proxyholder.”
  • If your club wants to use the option to provide instructions to the proxyholder, click on Go to “Designate Voting Instructions”. Voting instructions can also be provided at a later time from “Club Proxy & Voting Instructions.”
  • Once your club’s proxy is assigned, please advise the proxyholder they will receive a communication on how to complete Step 2: Credentials. Credentials/the acceptance period starts on August 12.

If your club is the home to the Club Growth Director, or Program Quality Director, or another District officer who will be attending the meeting, consider assigning the proxy to them so they get the practice at exercising that responsibility.

If the officers in your club have changed, please notify World Headquarters immediately by going to the Club Officer Assignment section of Club Central on the Toastmasters International website. You can also email the changes to clubofficers@toastmasters.org or call the Club Quality and Member Support Department at +1 720-439-5050.

For questions or additional information, please email proxyinfo@toastmasters.org or visit the Annual Business Meeting page of the Toastmasters International website.

Please plan to attend the Annual Business Meeting, either onsite or online, on Friday, August 18, at 7 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT)/Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) -4. Please note, due to legal requirements, there will be no 24-hour voting period. Voting for each election will be opened, closed, and tallied before proceeding to the ballot for the next election, so be sure to attend from the start.

District Officer Training Dates

Posted on | by Andrew Watt, DTM

August 25, 2023

Just like Club Officers, your District Officers (senior team, Division Directors and Area Directors) go to training as well! The following is the calendar and brief descriptions of each training that the District Officers are expected to participate in over the next several weeks.

The District Officer Training dates for the 2023-2024 program year have been announced:

Link to event: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85988949476?pwd=eDFHSDRROGdOWWppUURKOEtNN2E1UT09

What’s in these educational sessions?

  • Area Director Expectations: The role of Area Director is that of visitor, coach and guide to the officers of four to six clubs in a geographical area. For some Area Directors in District 53, this can be five clubs in the same city. For others, it can be widely spread clubs more than two hours apart. In this session, you’ll learn what’s expected of Area Directors in District 53, and how to create a successful experience for yourself and for the officers of the clubs in your care.
  • Effective Area Council Meetings: The Area Director has a team of people to help them coordinate the work of clubs when they work together — the President and the three Vice Presidents of each club are voting members of the Area Council, which decides local matters of importance to those clubs. How can you get them working together where it matters?
  • Effective Division Council Meetings: The Division Director is a “coach of coaches,” lending support and guidance to the Area Directors that make up their division. How can you lead effective meetings for this group, and how can you work together to bring clubs to success, together?
  • Building Successful Teams: If an Area Director or Division Director did everything they were supposed to by themselves… they’d be exhausted. An Area or Division Director needs a team, and as a Toastmaster you have to know how to build a successful team to achieve your objectives.
  • Successful Club Visits: Twice a year, a District officer is required to visit a club and to report on its conformity with the Toastmasters brand, its successes, and its opportunities for growth. This officer is usually the club’s Area Director, who files a written report on the Toastmasters.org website (under District Central) by the end of November and the end of May. We’ll talk about how to conduct yourself during this visit, and what kinds of things you should be alert to, and report on, to your District’s other officers.
  • Coaching Clubs to Enhanced Quality: Many clubs don’t just want to be clubs; they want to be distinguished clubs, or select distinguished clubs, or even president’s distinguished clubs. We’ll talk in this session about the strategies for achieving that goal.
  • Establishing and Supporting New Clubs: The District Mission is “We build new clubs and support all clubs in achieving excellence.” Creating — chartering — new clubs is the first part of our mission. We’ll learn how that goal is accomplished in this session, and what each officer can do to support this mission-critical goal.
  • Organizing Speech Contests: In order to be a champion, a speaker in the International Contest or one of the other Toastmasters contest cycles (Humorous, Table Topics, Tall Tales, and Evaluation) has to advance from a club contest to an Area Contest, a Division Contest, and a District Contest. In this session, we’ll learn how to create a fun and exciting Speech Contest experience for contestants and functionaries alike.
  • Thriving in the District Recognition Program: Just as clubs have the metrics of the Distinguished Club Program (DCP), District officers have their own metrics for success to be designated as a Distinguished, Select Distinguished, President’s Distinguished, or Smedley Distinguished Area, Division or District. We’ll talk about what those metrics are, why we’re aiming for them, and what we can do on a personal level to help the District achieve these goals locally and regionally, for our own success and the success of others.

•••

If you’d like to be an Area Director, contact the District Director, District-director elect or your Division Director. If you’d like to attend one of these sessions as an observer and for your own learning, you’ll need permission from a member of the senior team (District Director, Program Quality Director, or Club Growth Director).

Delays on Toastmasters Website

Posted on | by Web Master

World Headquarters advises us that the www.toastmasters.org website will be down for the following periods of time, due to extended testing:

  • May 5 – May 17: You will not be able to submit education awards through Club Central. You can submit awards by submitting to the email address educationprogram@toastmasters.org up to May 17. No awards can be submitted for any reason between May 18 and May 22. World Headquarters believes that processing should resume on May 23.
  • May 5 – May 22: The Toastmasters Online Store is unavailable and product orders cannot be accepted; this includes DTM awards and print paths. Path purchases will not be available either, nor can membership applications be processed. Membership application processing resumes on May 23.
  • May 18-May 22: All services that require login to the website will be unavailable: this includes District Central, Club Central, your Profile, your Base Camp, and the Speechcraft Gateway. Please download any resources you need before May 18.
  • May 21-May 22: The enter Toastmasters.org website will be down, with a maintenance page indicating a temporary closure for anyone who visits the website.

Club Advisory

During the period from May 18 to May 23, each club’s Addendum of Standard Club Options — the part of your club’s constitution that includes your dues structure, inactive member fees, meeting times and places, and additional officers beyond the traditional seven — will undergo an update. On May 23, this form will then be blank, with new options. Accordingly:

  • Please gather the data for your club before May 18. Any club officer can do this.
  • After May 23, re-input the data, or
  • hold a business meeting of your club to renew this information.

TI Website login access is unavailable May 4 – May 8, 2022

Posted on | by Web Master

Website login access is unavailable; any information/documents you wish to access that require logging in will not be accessible.

This includes District Central, Club Central, Base Camp, and the Speechcraft Gateway. Access will be restored on May 9. Here are some specific items to consider downloading/saving prior to temporarily losing access on May 4:

  • Reports in support of the District Council meeting and credential process—District Membership Report, District Club Officer Report, and District Council Report
  • Leads and prospective club contacts
  • Club Officer Training (COT) and Area Director Club Visit Reports (ADCVR)

TI Store Unavailable April 5 – May 8, 2022

Posted on | by Web Master

Toastmasters Online Store is unavailable and product orders cannot be accepted; this includes DTM awards and print paths.

Please submit District supply orders prior to April 5, especially if the items are needed for an upcoming District Conference. Any orders submitted after this date will be held and processed beginning May 9, when normal order functionality resumes.