As the time comes to look back on my year as President, I am so proud of what the members have achieved, and how well the committee have worked to help them achieve this.
The Committee put together our Club Success Plan with the main aim of demonstrating how we would move from a necessary online environment to one where we started meeting together in a safe, planned way with the support of the members. While this meant that we had to say goodbye to some international members who couldn’t remain with us, I remember the feeling of passion and excitement when we met back again for the first time in this room.
One other goal was to ensure that members had more opportunities to speak, and through agenda adaptation we now see up to five speech opportunities where we used to have just three at each meeting. This has resulted in members being able to progress through pathways quicker and achieve their own speaking and leadership successes.
This work by the Committee and members has meant this year so far, we celebrated:
- 5 Level 1 Awards completed
- 4 Level 2 Awards completed
- 2 Level 3 Awards completed
- 2 Level 4 and 5 awards completed
- 10 new members
- All club officers trained
- Membership renewals on time winning us an Early Bird award and awarded an 80/20 award for retention and membership.
All this means we gained 10 goals met which puts us in place for a Presidents Distinguished award. Achieving the highest recognition for a Toastmasters club reflects the efforts made by everyone involved, so all members can rightly feel proud.
I would also wish to say, “Well done!” to all those who have taken part in competitions – some for the first time. This year we were so pleased as a committee to see an all-female line up of contestants, when in previous years we have found it almost impossible to have a representative gender split.
I was so pleased to see the fantastic successes that have been achieved through PR and telling everyone about our fantastic club, including our very first television interview, and our ever-popular Speech on the Beach.
On a personal note I was able to represent the club at several events this year externally, including giving an after dinner speech to the Rotary Club and judging a schools public speaking competition.
Lastly, and most importantly, many grateful thanks are due to Bill, Lucy, Ellie, Hana, Dave, Alex, Sean, Amy, and Cecily as the Club Committee members for this year. I wouldn’t have been able to undertake what I was able to this year without your support and you helped this club achieve such greatness.
It has been a great honour to serve as President of Worthing Speakers, and I look forward to supporting the incoming Executive as they prepare for the next Toastmasters year.
Toby Wilson
May 2020