It's Winter TLI Time

It’s time again to plan and attend club officer trainings. The next full Toastmasters Leadership Institute (TLI) session occurs December 8 and more sessions will occur in January, 2013 (please see District 25’s online calendar for details). Meanwhile, your district leaders want to draw your attention to two key points:

1. Club officers must still attend in-person TLI sessions despite a new online training module.

Toastmasters International recently announced the addition of club officer training to the Toastmasters Learning Connection, its online training service. The new module will help incoming officers prepare for their roles, addressing each officer’s responsibilities and how officers should collaborate. While perhaps useful, the new club officer e-learning program does NOT replace face-to-face trainings. The requirement for attending those types of trainings remains; the new program is only a supplement to existing TLI programs. TI may someday allow online training (with a waiver of in-person training) for officers of clubs in districts with far-flung geographic areas that cross international borders or seas. But that possible change hasn’t happened yet; it may never apply to D25, where club officers anywhere can attend in-person trainings easily from their choice of multiple convenient locations.

2. Club officers must not skip the winter TLIs.

You must have at least four officers trained during each set of district-sponsored TLIs for your club to earn a Distinguished Club Program (DCP) point. This is true no matter how: 

·        Often your club meets

·        Many officers attended summer TLIs

·        Well your officers know their jobs.

Again, the DCP point for club officer trainings is earned only if your club has at least four officers attend both sets of TLIs. This requirement exists because attending officer trainings is essential to a club’s success. Most clubs operate with six-month officer terms, so a new set of officers must be trained in the second half of each Toastmasters year. So, if your club has already earned a Super 7 ribbon this year, go ahead and get another. If your club came up short of seven trained during the summer TLIs, please help the club make an improvement this time. Remember that training even one more officer can make a difference in your club’s results.

In conclusion, you know that sending your club officers to TLIs is the right thing to do, so as they’ve said famously at Nike, “Just Do It!”

Dean Lampman, MBA, DTM

Lt. Governor, Education and Training, District 25