Labor of Love Open House

A Labor of Love

Afterburners Open House Meeting on August 30, 2016, was a grand success!  In fact, we earned a Golden Gavel ribbon for the great number of members present, many special guests, no changes to the agenda, and we began and ended on time!  PLUS......we had a special array of FOOD!  Toastmasters meetings don't get any better than that!

To our delight, special guests Veronica Sites (left), District 25 Representative, and International Director David McCallister (center) pushed the greatness of our meeting off the charts!  They are pictured above with President Setma Maddox (right).   Additionally, Afterburners is the home club to three Area Directors — Area 11 Director, Holly Trinh; Area 13 Director, Aileen Hummel; and Area 24 Director, Kim Story — all present at our Open House.

To add to the excitement, our best speaker was Verlin Yoder (right) delivering his 2nd speech from the Competent Communication manual.  Verlin cleverly relayed his SMART goals using the analogy of entering the "Hotten than Hell" bike race of 100 miles in Wichita Falls.  He is pictured here with Best Evaluator Jim Hummel, and winner of Table Topics Antoinette Silas.

Our efforts paid off too as we garnered a couple of new members in the process!  All told, we can agree that being a Toastmaster is truly a Labor of Love.  You may view more photos here.

Two more club goals reached in August

We added two new Competent Communicators in the month of August — achieving goal #1 on our Club Success Plan! Congratulations to Joyce King and Nick Colón, who finished their CCs on the 17th and 31st, respectively. It won't be long until we have two more, as several other members are close to finishing their manuals.

Also in August, Pat Quick applied for her Distinguished Toastmaster award, accomplishing Goal #6 (an additional Leadership award). Congratulations to our immediate past president, who has actually been distinguished for quite some time, as far as we're concerned.

How close are you to your CC, CL or advanced award? Look at your manuals! Bring them to the meetings! Talk to your mentor. Let Benson, the VP Education, know what you want to accomplish by filling out the Member Survey on the Members Area home page of the website. Remember that you can update your goals here at any time.

By the end of the year, we want to be neck-deep in alphabet soup!

Distinguished Club Program Update - EXCITING!!!!

Our superb Secretary, Steven Timmons, submitted dues renewals for those members who have paid so far. When he received confirmation of those dues renewals from Toastmasters International, it marked a very important occasion for Afterburners.

WE ARE OFFICIALLY A DISTRICT 25 DISTINGUISHED CLUB.

We have now reached five of the ten goals set forth by Toastmasters International to measure how well we are meeting the needs of our members. Here's the summary:

Goal #1: Two Competent Communicators. Joyce King & Nick Colón have accomplished this, and we're very proud of them!

Goal #5: One Competent Leader, Advanced Leader Bronze, Advanced Leader Silver, or Distinguished Toastmaster. Tammy completed her CL manual on July 27.

Goal #6: One more CL, AL-B, AL-S or DTM. Patricia Quick submitted all the completed requirements to attain Distinguished Toastmaster in August 2010. What a momentous achievement!

Goal #7: Four new members: Since July 1, we have added Juan & Marla Tovar, Ryan Gallagher, and John Bacon. They will bring fresh ideas and energy to Afterburners!

Goal #9: Minimum four officers trained July & December. All seven of your club officers attended district training in July, so we have a half-point to our credit on this goal.

Goal #10: One membership dues renewal and one club officer list. We now know we have achieved this, which puts us at 5.5 points for the year.

If we did NOTHING else for the rest of the Toastmaster year, we would still be Distinguished, but of course, Afterburners is not known for resting on its laurels. Our sights are set on being Presidents Distinguished, which requires a minimum of NINE of those goals, and we have a tradition of meeting all TEN goals.

I know we'll get there!

Distinguished Club Program Progress Report

Each year, Toastmasters clubs around the world strive to achieve Distinguished status by meeting criteria set forth by Toastmasters International. These criteria measure how well a club is meeting the educational and leadership development needs of its members, and include the following:

1. Two Competent Communicators (completing the 10 speeches in the CC manual)

2. Two more Competent Communicators

3. One Advanced Communicator Bronze (ACB), Advanced Communicator Silver (ACS), or Advanced Communicator Gold (ACG)

4. One more ACB, ACS, or ACG

5. One Competent Leader (CL), Advanced Leader Bronze (ALB) or Distinguished Toastmaster (DTM)

6. One more CL, ALB or DTM

7. Four new members

8. Four more new members

9. Minimum of four officers trained during each of two training periods

10. One membership dues renewal report and one club officer list submitted on time.

Clubs meeting five of these goals attain Distinguished Club status; clubs reaching 7 goals are recognized as Select Distinguished; clubs that achieve 9 of 10 are lauded as Presidents Distinguished Clubs.

Afterburners Club takes great and proper pride in achieving ALL TEN of these goals each year, and the sooner the better! Here's how we're doing since July 1 when the Toastmasters year began:

Goal #5, One CL, ALB or DTM: Tammy Bailey finished a CL manual on July 27.

Goal #7, Four new members: Ryan Gallagher, John Bacon, and Juan & Marla Tovar.

Goal #9, Minimum of four officers trained: All 7 of Afterburners officers were trained during this training period, so we will have another Super 7 ribbon to add to our banner! This must be done twice, so it counts as a half point.

We have 2.5 points toward our goal of 10, and the achievements keep accruing for the loud & proud Afterburners! Look for more updates as we advance toward Presidents Distinguished yet again!