We love to talk. That’s undeniable. That’s the reason we’re here in the first place. Thank God that we have the voice to express what we feel and help deliver our ideas right before everybody in this hall. But the hypothetical question is, what if, the time comes, when we lose that voice?
Will we be able to stop delivering our speeches? Will that hinder us from expressing ourselves? Will our Toastmasters life become lifeless?
A pleasant morning to all of you, my fellow Toastmasters and friends! Today marks as [technically] my last day as president of this beloved club. And I should say this presidency is one of the fruitful years of my life. Let me tell you why.
The Beginning
In my inaugural speech, I was vocal about my advocacy to help our members realize their purpose of joining this club. My motto – pressure is a privilege. Pressure, as absolutely different from stress, is a positive thing, because with it, one’s potentials can be generated. That is why, I had come up to my term’s theme as “Branding Camanava with Excellence.”
Maya Angelou, an American author and poet, said “I’ve learned that people forget what you said, people forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” A lot of us have forgotten my being a tormented torpe, and only a few could still remember how I impersonated the great Wilson Lee, but on my case, I could never forget how some people boosted my confidence when they pushed me to join contests. I would like to make that unforgettable feeling of being inspired be felt by all the members of this club.
The Struggle
Admittedly, we struggled when it comes to membership and retention. What started out as 23, has slowly gone down. Some members had to pursue their other dreams, thus, they opted to leave the club. I felt sorry that the club strength our immediate Past President Cameron left wasn’t maintained. I felt I did something that made them leave, or I failed to do something to make them stay. I also thought that there’s something in me as a leader that made our guests decide not to sign up with us.
We want to grow as a club but I realized, we can attract new members and retain existing ones, not by focusing on membership strategies alone, but by nurturing the core of the organization. We need to address the main reason people join the club. Why are we all here?
That is why we had to tailor-fit our approach to each member. We had to help each of us realize our quest for self-improvement. Our group mentoring program, so far, helped us realize that goal. Unaware of the other effect, that also made each of our members feel the comfort with each other, making everybody in this club gel with everybody else that easily, giving that feeling that we are not just a club, but a whole family.
Our closeness is evident in our meetings. We could poke fun with each other without being offensive. We could even get to the point of sharing our secrets. And that created the ionic bond which makes us difficult to leave this club, thus, we were able to retain more members.
The Triumph
To date, our club has completed the distinguished club program with 10 points. To date, we have reached 20 members. To date, we are waiting for the official announcement of Toastmasters International that we are one of the President’s Distinguished Clubs in the entire world, the highest award a club can get. We achieved those goals not because we primarily aimed for them, not because we treat this club as an inverted pyramid institution that only aims for more members and members and members, but because we aimed for quality. We aimed for high quality. We aimed for excellence. And with excellence, everything else that we aimed after followed.
During the term, we had discovered brimming potentials of some members. Camanava continued to produce champion speakers with a new list of names – there is Nice who placed runner-up in the area contest for evaluation. We have Marion, who’s only barely six months with the club, but placed runner-up both in humorous and international prepared speech categories in this year’s speech contest. Karen and Matt continued to wave the banner of the club by emerging as Area champions in the impromptu speech and humorous speech categories, respectively, and runners-up in the Division speech contest. Shall we give them a round of applause please?
To our non-Toastmasters guests, let these champions be your inspiration. They didn’t get those trophies in just a snap of a finger. Our club meetings serve as these individuals’ practice arena in order for them to better themselves as speakers. Excellence is not made overnight. With constant mentoring, with constant practice, delivering of speeches, listening to evaluations, and practicing again, they have emerged as champions. In connection with that, I would also like to thank these people who have wholeheartedly shared their time and knowledge in making us improve as speakers and as a club – our General Evaluators. You have made us see our blind spots. You have motivated us to do better. You have helped us. With that, I thank you.
Acknowledgments
Of course, I can’t survive a whole darn year of presidency without the enormous help of my co-officers. Cameron, our immediate past president, thank you for constantly reminding me to set my choleric personality aside and learn to delegate tasks. Jacques, thank you for your brilliant suggestions and for heading our special events which made them extra colorful. Frances, thank you for ensuring that everything is in order in every meeting and for being our club Ate. Jean, you played a huge role when it comes to renewals. You even got to the point of shelling out your personal finances to temporarily fund for some members. Nicee, thank you for trying to sell Camanava to potential members, radiating that ever-amiable personality of being a princess to everybody. Noel, I know you spent a lot of money for the text blast. You are my ever reliable shock absorber. Thank you. To Karen, my right-hand, and my successor. We produced 4 competent communicators, 2 advanced communicators and 2 competent leaders because of your assistance. And of course, Zaldy, my mentor, and our area governor, I thank you for the constant reminders of my responsibilities for the club, for making me aware that my personality and attitude have to change for the good to become a better leader, for putting my feet back on the ground. Ladies and gentlemen, these individuals deserve your thunderous applause.
Most importantly, I would like to thank all the members of this club. You are the reason, we, officers persevere to make our meetings interesting. We couldn’t afford to lose you. Without getting to the midst of my hyperbole, a threat that you will not renew pains me so much. You have been dear to me and I would like to thank you, for choosing Camanava, among hundreds of other clubs in this metropolis. Every meeting makes us work on to give you a valid reason that you made the right choice of signing up with the club. Thank you!
What’s More?
Now that the core of the club has been well-established, we have decided to bring this out of Toastmasters and share what we’ve learned from our manuals. Camanava Brunch Toastmasters Club will leave a mark to our community by starting to do community outreach project next week by sharing inspiring and entertaining stories to those less-fortunate, sick and abandoned kids in an orphanage. It is our purpose of sharing our talents and skills to these kids and make them feel even a bit of fun that we have been constantly sharing with in our every meeting.
The Security
Fellow Toastmasters and friends, these highlights and milestones make me realize that sooner or later, if we would lose our voices, we don’t need to worry because we have already left an imprint to other Toastmasters, and we will be leaving another imprint to the children outside of Toastmasters. Because I believe that our voices are infectious and they multiply. As what Barry Manilow said in his song, “It takes just one voice and everyone will sing.” That one becomes two, then two become four and before we know it, we have influenced and touched other peoples’ lives in one way or another, and that we teach them that it’s not paying back that will make them better individuals, but it is in paying forward where they can generate more voices.
On this note, as the outgoing club president, I bequeath my responsibilities to Karen as the incoming president. Support her the way you supported me, not only because she is way nicer than I am, but because like me, she also has a lot of plans for our club. Fellow Camanavans, my name is Eduardo R. Catayoc III, your humble president. It has been a pressure to be at this position for a year, for leading the club in branding it with excellence, but you know what, it has been more of a pleasure for me to have served you.
(To be delivered before my club later this morning. Good luck to me)
