International Director/3rd VP Election Results

Regina Litman · Guest

Hi,

Every year after the International Convention, the two most frequently
asked questions are usually (1) Who won (and came in 2nd and 3rd) the
speech contest (which I have only recently learned is not called the
"Toastmasters International Speech Contest" but is instead called
something like "The World Championship of Public Speaking")? and (2) Who
won the various International Director and 3rd Vice President Elections?

I have been meaning all week to go through my paperwork and come up with
the answer to #2, since it hasn't been asked or answered yet in this
newsgroup. In some past years, some participants here were actively
involved in running for such elections or intensely supporting someone
else who was running. This year, this was not the case, and with an
active participant in the speech contest, the first question mentioned
above clearly dominated the discussions here.

In fact, Toastmasters International's own web site showed the contest
results right away, but the election winners were not posted until
today. The 2006-2007 Executive Committee & Board of Directors can be
viewed at:

http://www.toastmasters.org/artisan/detail.asp?CategoryID=2&SubCategoryID=45&ArticleID=221&Page=1

Winners of contested races (all are DTMs; I think this may be a
requirement to serve):

Third Vice President - Gary Schmidt
Region II - Lauren Kelly
Region IV - Cliff Heinsch
Region V - Dietmar Wagenknecht
Region VII - Val Albert
Districts not assigned to a region - George Yen

Others in new positions:

International President - Johnny Uy
Senior Vice President - Chris Ford
Second Vice President - Jana Barnhill (who I learned is multitalented
enough to have come in 2nd place in the "World Championship of Public
Speaking" once upon a time)
Immediate Past President - Dilip Abayasekara
Region I - Suezy Proctor
Region III - John Moffitt
Region IV - Martha Tinker
Region VI - Gary Mull
Region VIII - Margaret Wan

Some comments on the first International Election I was able to observe
firsthand:

1. I've been aware that in all the past years in which I was paying
attention, as was the case this year, Region VII had two candidates.
Therefore, I assumed that every year, every region has two candidates.
This was hardly the case, as five regional candidates were unopposed.

2. There were three candidates for the director representing districts
not assigned to a region.

3. Gary Schmidt and George Yen ran quite visible campaigns, with
supporters wearing shirts and carrying various trinkets throughout the
events leading up to and during the Friday morning Annual Meeting.
Margaret Wan and Suezy Proctor also had a lot of visible supporters
despite running unopposed. In fact, all of my conference handouts are
now stored in a Margaret Wan souvenier plastic bag. Perhaps they had
opponents who dropped out or were concerned that there would be a
nomination from the floor.

4. None of the races were very close. I don't have the figures close at
hand, but I recall that Dietmar Wagenknecht in particular far
outdistanced his opponent.

5. I really blew it by not going to the candidate sessions on Thursday
night. As the person responsible for my club's two votes, I should not
have relied on the booklet with the candidate information, a reception
after the opening session on Wednesday night, and the two-minute
speeches on Friday morning.

6. The Annual Meeting on Friday morning was the only event during the
whole Conference that ran past its scheduled time and impacted the
starting times of the following events (two concurrent luncheons,
neither of which I signed up to attend). Since some District and
Regional Conferences I've attended have had some serious time management
problems, this adherence to schedule (aided by a lot of slack time built
in) was one of several positive impressions I took away from the
International Convention.

If I think of anything else, I'll follow-up with it here.

--
Please note my correct email address:

rslitman [at-sign] infionline [dot] net

betsy_in_va · Guest

p c · Guest

What do International directors and VPs do? Is this a part time job or
full time? What kind of commitment do they have to put in? What do they
get in return?

rich.hopkins@gmail.com · Guest

I know in the case of Region I, we had two candidates running at the
Region Conference. If both candidates had received a certain percentage
of votes, both would have been campaigning at the conference. However
the winner at the Region conference won by a large enough margin that
only she was eligible for consideration at the big conference.

I suspect the reason we hold votes for ID's and VP's even unopposed is
similar to why we vote members into the club - just in case we ever
need to vote them OUT.

PC - in terms of what they get out of it: The same thing volunteers in
any other organization get out of it, from scouts to church to rotary
ad nauseum - satisfaction of a job well done, experience for the
future, publicity/notoriety, and a credit on their resume.

Rich Hopkins - ATM-G
www.richhopkins.net

betsy_in_va wrote:

Rick · Guest

rich.hopkins@gmail.com wrote:

betsy_in_va · Guest

John Fleming, DTM · Guest

On 2 Sep 2006 04:43:20 -0700, while chained to a desk in the
scriptorium, "betsy_in_va" <b7760@keogan.com> wrote:

Joy · Guest

"betsy_in_va" <b7760@keogan.com> wrote in message
news:1157197399.984702.27810@m73g2000cwd.googlegroups.com...

Regina Litman · Guest

One thing that still mystifies me is why the Regional Directors (the
name I keep using by mistake to refer to International Directors, which
is the name, in singuar form, that I keep using by mistake to refer to
the International President) are elected by the whole world and not just
by the people in that particular region. I had hoped to glean some of
this by finally attending a Toastmasters International Convention, but
if anything, I'm even more convinced that this is a function that should
be brought to the Regional level, to be voted upon at the Regional
Conference in June.

Here are reasons I favor doing this, at least for the International
Directors that represent actual regions:

1. To not have the people attending the International Convention
bombarded with so many candidates at one time, with just a short time to
get to know them.

2. To have issues important to a particular Region become a campaign
issue that will attract Regional voters who are interested in this
particular item, instead of having them voted upon largely by people who
may not know so much about Regional issues.

3. To allow people who can't travel the distance to the International
Convention most years to have a better chance to actually vote.

4. To give one more incentive for attending the Regional Conferences.
(Yes, I know that the elections may be another incentive for attending
the International Convention, but there are going to be more people,
incentive or not, who just can't come to International for various
reasons, especially price, that there are ones who just can't come to
Regional.)

5. Here's one that may actually be a reason some people may continue to
OPPOSE giving the elections to the regions - To make the directors
realize even more that they serve the region (whether this is their
purpose or not - perhaps the whole idea is to keep them from having
regional concerns while serving).

For the Directors representing the part of the world not put into
Regions, there would have to be another way to elect them. Perhaps this
could be done at the International Convention, BUT ONLY ALLOWING PEOPLE
FROM THESE DISTRICTS TO VOTE IN THIS ELECTION.

If anyone has any historical information as to why things are done this
way, please post it here. Thanks.

rich.hopkins@gmail.com wrote:

Susan Niven CSP DTM PID · Guest

Regina put forward some very good points with respect to the election of
International Directors. If, in fact, the ID's "represented" their Region,
those points would be right on point.

However the Board of Directors - the 18 IDs and the 5 Officers - do not
"represent" any particular geographic part of the organization. They work
FOR the entire organization.

The only reason that ID's are recruited from the 8 Regions and the Districts
Not Assigned to Regions, is to ensure that the Board includes individuals
from as many different parts of the geography touched by TI, as possible.
When they are discussing and debating and ultimately deciding on policy and
program issues, it is important that they are aware of as many different
issues as possible.

With respect to the part of the ID's job that involves coaching and
supporting DGs and visiting District Conferences, those tasks are assigned
based on the Region from which the ID springs ... simply because of cost. It
is less expensive to have someone making those visits as close as possible
to his/her own home base.

By the way ... both of the preceding 2 paragraphs could be re-written with
respect to Division Governors within Districts. They, too, are elected by
the entire District Council for the same reason ... they are part of the
District Leadership Team, not leaders of autonomous teams within their
Division. And also, similarly, they are assigned to support the Area
Governors who are geographically closest to their own home base.

That said, given the growth pattern of the organization over the past few
years, it is - IMRHO - long past time to increase the number of IDs from
Districts not Assigned to Regions. That is where the growth is ... and
"DNATR" covers a LOT of geography! The 2 IDs elected from that base cannot
possibly know enough about the myriad issues that impact all of those
Districts, and all of those countries. And it sure seems to me that the
organization needs to be sure it has all that info, because - as above -
that is where the growth is.

Cheers,
Susan.

Susan Black (formerly Niven), DTM PID
Toastmasters International Director 1998-2000
Former TM & Lifelong Advocate
Langley BC Canada

Rick · Guest

betsy_in_va wrote:

betsy_in_va · Guest

Maybe I'm too idealistic but it seems to me that this is an area where
TLI could shine, especially if we are serious about selling
toastmasters as a place for leadership training.

Maybe the IDs (or even professional trainers) could visit each district
and give classes on successful ways to manage people. If they are
already doing this at the DG or higher level, it needs to filter down
so that everyone who goes to executive meetings learns more functional
ways to get things accomplished.

So far, my observation is that the toastmasters method is to put people
in stressful situations until their dysfunctional behaviors run amok,
and then we are apparently supposed to magically realize a better way
to handle things. I don't see people improving, in fact I see everyone
getting worse and worse (and that includes myself). The people with
oversized egos get out of control, the game players start pulling crap,
the quitters say "to hell with this" and walk, etc.

Of course, I'm new and this is only week #9. Maybe it gets better by
the end of the year. But I think there are better ways to learn
leadership skills.

John Sleigh · Guest

Betsy wrote:

betsy_in_va · Guest

Rick · Guest

betsy_in_va wrote: