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A Retrospective

District: 41

Sep/2013 – Vol 3

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

1 Editorial – Umesh Agashe,

CC, ALB – Page 2

2 District GovernorsMessage – Page 3

3 Interview of VenkataRamana Dittakavi - Page 6

4 Sunil Khunteta - Oration2013 - Page 8

5 Oration 2013 - Learn fromLeaders – Page 10

6 Spread the event – Page12

7 Why Attend a Conference?– Page 14

8 Tools & Technology – Page17

9 Know Your Divisions –Page 18

10 Contributors – Page 20

TOASTMASTERS INTERNATIONAL

NEWSLETTER

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Umesh Agashe, CC, ALBEditor–Newsletter,2013-14Toastmasters InternationalDistrict 41

If you would like tocontribute in e –Newsletter, or havesuggestions forimprovements, pleaseprovide your insights bywriting atd41enewsletter@gmail.com

Editorial

Umesh Agashe, CC, ALBOration 2013 is one of the best organized events of District 41. We talked toleaders who pushed the envelope, did brilliant planning, & focused onexecution. Idea is to spread their learning’s among Toastmasters & at thesame time think about what we could have done differently, a retrospectionwhich is so essential for continuous learning, & continuous growth.

You may be playing some roles in organizing events at your club, area,division or district. You would gain some insights, some learning’s from ourfellow Toastmasters who presented us Oration 2013. Do you want to knowmore about role of Conference Chair? Read interview of Venkata RamanaDittakavi, CC, ALB. & an article by Sunil Khuteta, ACS, ALS. Do you want toknow more about challenges in specific areas like Travel & Accommodation,Registrations? Read an article by Jahnavi Chintakunta. If you want to knowmore about creating intriguing memento of your event, read an interview ofSita Ravinatula, DTM. And more ever if you have further queries, write tothem, get connected with them.

Many people ask this question “Toastmasters is all about communication,then why the tag line of Toastmasters says “Where Leaders Are Made”?Please read this e – Newsletter & you would learn why tag line is aboutleadership development. Remember, as a leader you can have brilliantideas, but if you can’t get them across, your ideas won’t get you anywhere.

Retrospection is an important process not only for grand events; we cantake some efforts on self retrospection to get maximum benefits fromToastmasters. After every meeting we can spend some time thinking aboutor writing down learning’s from the meeting, mistakes we committed, whatwe could have done differently to ensure that we are improving ourselves asa speaker after every single meeting.

One change we brought while producing this e – Newsletter is to includepeople from various divisions as editor. You need not only contribute bywriting an article, but can participate in determining theme, content &sources for content for e - Newsletter. This time since focus is on Oration2013, Hyderabad, so we have Sita Ravinatula, DTM, & Jahnavi Chintakuntawho brought in their expertise & contributed in e – Newsletter. We wouldcontinue this process & next time we are going to focus on Puri, would youlike to contribute?

Keep communicatingUmesh Agashe, CC, ALBEditor, Newsletter, District-41

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Prasad Sovani, DTM,District Governor 2013-14,District 41, ToastmastersInternational.

He is a communicationevangelist. By professionhe is a corporate trainerand has successfullytrained many students totheir satisfaction in India,Singapore, & Brazil.

You may write to him atprasad.sovani@gmail.com

Dear friends,

We are back from another exciting convention in Cincinnati. It was great tosoak in the success of our district. We were cheered the most when thename of India was called by Mark Brown (Who was compering the event)during the Opening Ceremony. I think the reason for that was also theIndian diaspora besides the few of us who had gone from India!

We went on stage proudly to collect the awards won by our district. IPLGMRitu collected the award for ‘Excellence in Marketing’, IPDG Vinay collectedthe award for President’s Distinguished District, while I collected the awardfor ‘Excellence in Education and Training’ as LGET for the last year and wethought of all the members of District 41, since this would not have beenpossible without all of you.

We were just recipients on your behalf! We would like to thank the efforts ofthe members who delivered their speeches in respective clubs, completedown awards, added members, formed more clubs, made clubs distinguishedthroughout the year!

We also have to thank First DG Punita for setting many things right! We arejust following some of the great things she did! We missed her presence inCincinnati!

We had training for trios in which we had great sharing of ideas across theworld. We had a ready plan for future vision for the next 5-years for ourdistrict and that was highlighted by the trainers and in fact I was invited toaddress the gathering about our future vision.

We had time for networking when people praised the entire membership ofDistrict 41 and we also had a special gathering of Region 13 where we bidfarewell to retiring ID DTM Balraj Arunasalam.

The board briefing took place on Wednesday in which they announcedvarious new measures. One important announcement was this:

“Clubs chartered after 1st Sept can be eligible to earn DCP goal no. 9through training by a district representative. And charted submission fulfillsrequirement for on-time club officer’s list & on-time dues payment.”

In addition to this, it was heartening to know that the WHQ has appointed acommittee for college based clubs and we may expect some reforms in thefunctioning of college based clubs.

Similarly the titles that we use may change in future for real-worldapplicability. E.g. Lieutenant Governor for Marketing may become MarketingHead or SAA may become Logistics Manager. (These are just probablenames that came to my head when I heard this)

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The organization has reached 14350 clubs in 122 countries now. We have grown by 9.7% outside ofAmericas, while the Americas (North & South) grew by 1.8%.

Another major announcement that may simplify your functioning as leaders was this:

There will be a portal called “The Meeting Room” set up soon, where you can expect to have variousforums for your discussions. E.g. there will be a forum for all members, a separate one for only clubpresidents, another one for Dist officers, and a separate one for DGs etc. You can post your questions andseek answers on this. (Jan 2014 is the expected month for roll-out).

Did you complain about some officer not working? Well, that is set to change! There will be competenciesdefined for each club and district office role. There will be brief and simple measures to evaluateperformance of our leaders. There will be greater role accountability and evaluation for each role as aleader.

You can watch the recorded board briefing by clicking here

Then we had Speech contest Semi finals. Our Champion Avinash Agarwal did extremely well and we felthe should have won! He bagged podium finish in the end and got a trophy for being Second Runner-Up inthe semi-finals. We are proud of you Avinash!

We had to interview about 20 candidates for elections and all of them were looking forward to us since wehad 173 clubs and a good percentage of proxies. Yes friends, we either strongly believe in democracy (orwe were forced by the persistent e-mails by District Secretary Venkata- ) and we were in the top 10districts in the world with 90+% proxies. I would like to thank the efforts of DS Venkata and Division andArea Governors for managing this. (A district in Australia had 100% proxies! So we can aim for that thenext year!)

I noticed also how the others value democracy. Two incidents worth sharing: I visited Greece on my wayand trained Toastmasters there. They asked whether they can issue me proxies. They said that since theycould not afford to travel, they at least could participate in the democratic process by way of proxies.

The second incident happened on the day of elections. A lady checked out of our hotel at the same time asus and offered us a lift to the convention centre. She dropped us and went to park. We asked her if weshould hold a seat in the front for her to watch World Championship of Public Speaking and she said, “No,the contest is not so important, the business meeting is. I stayed back an extra day just for voting!” Shespent about 150 $ just for voting at the elections and she had proxies for only 3 clubs! That is the belief inthe values and strength of democracy! Can we learn a lesson out of this? Can we have 90% proxies at thetime of our District Council?

The elections went off smoothly and our beloved PDG Deepak Menon emerged victorious as theInternational Director for Region 13. We will see the Indian flag on stage when the board briefing happensnext year.

I am not sure if someone shared this with you so far. I have observed one thing over the last 3 years. Thequality of semi finals is far better that that of finals. Each semi-finalist has to prepare 2 speeches whichare substantially different from each other. So, a contestant may prepare A and B and let’s say, in hismind, A is better than B. The contestants typically use A for Semi finals since they will be out of thecontest if they use B and the others use A. So all of them end up using their best speech for the semi-finals. You can watch recorded semi-finals on the web by purchasing the rights to watch it for a tinyamount.

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I learnt that Delhi, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Pune had live streaming of the Finals. Did you enjoythat? Presiyan Vasilev emerged champion and I was fortunate to witness his speech in the semi-finals. Hewas too good!

There are some valuable lessons from the way the event was managed and I shall share those with ourconference chairs in future as well as anyone who is interested in knowing.We were reassured during the training by other district leaders who were keen to learn from us that thepractices and processes that we are building are good for the long term success of our movement. CheersDistrict 41! Let’s have a big party in Puri!

You all must be blocking tickets for our semi-annual conference in Puri in November 2013.I shall share an article with you on why I always love attending the conferences.

Meanwhile, it is time for Area contests now and I wish all the contestants and the contest role player’sgood luck! All the best!

-Prasad SovaniDistrict Governor 2013-14District 41

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Venkata Ramana Dittakavi,CC, ALB, Conference Chair,Oration 2013

You can learn more fromhim, you may write to himat dittakavivr@yahoo.com

Oration 2013 – A Retrospective

Venkata Ramana Dittakavi, CC, ALBQ: Oration 2013 is one of the best events District 41 has organisedtill date. Today, after 3 months when you look back at Oration 2013,what things come in your mind?A: I am very glad that I was a part of it! Looking back, my feeling issatisfaction mixed with relief as it is over! It was the dream of everyToastmasters in Hyderabad, to host the District conference here. I waslucky to be part of this event, in a sense even leading it. All those wonderfultense moments in the team reviews and discussions flash through my mind.It was a great team work.

Q: Please tell us how you started with the burgeoning tasks oforganizing such a big event.A: Frankly, I was not there from the beginning except for a few initialmeetings. I had to suddenly step in, into the role of Conference Chairhardly one and a half months before the event.

By the time I had to take charge, things were already moving in the rightdirection and everyone was geared up for the moment. I had my own ideasas to how the event should be from the beginning. At the same time, I waswell aware that my ideas should not clash with the teams, as they hadalready been working for more than 8 months. Somehow it all worked outvery well.

Q: Which were the top priorities while organising Oration 2013?A: Finances, Registrations and the Venue. For any event, obviously theseare the high priorities. We had the best of the convention centres in theAsia in Novotel HICC. After considering many other venues, the team hadzeroed on to this lovely venue, though it was a bit costly.

From the beginning, we were targeting for a number of more than 500registrations, and the final figure was 536. This was the largest attendedso far for any conference in District 82 or District 41. Finally, we too hadsome tense moments in finances, but, thanks to the fantastic efforts by ourspeech craft team, Sponsorship team and the registration team, we hostedthe event without any trouble, except few tense moments.

Q: Please share top three challenges you & your team encounteredwhile organising the event.A: For us, priorities and challenges were the same. As I already said,finances, registrations and the venue.

From the beginning, we were clear in our minds that we had to provide aworld class event at a very reasonable and affordable price. So, startedwith the early bird offer of registration at Rs.2500/- per head and areasonable increment at regular intervals and also ensured the delegatehad options of budget and premium facilities in accommodation too. Thisensured us in getting the targeted figure of 500+ registrations.

We had 50% registrations from outside Hyderabad and the remaininglocals.

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At one point we were struggling in matching revenues and the expenses. Then we re-looked at our budgetand for feasible cut downs. There we found one important area, which we could think of cutting it down alot. That’s the fun-night party for the delegates on the 2nd day. Originally, it was planned to host it atthe same venue, Novotel HICC. During the review meetings, the team thought why we shouldn’t work onthe option of moving out the fun-night outside the main venue, if we could save reasonably good amount.Then search parties went round the city and surprisingly, our team could locate just within the samecampus another venue, which is within 5 minutes walking distance. Then one of our toastmasters with hercontacts managed to convince a vendor to arrange the fun-night for half of the cost of what we wouldhave paid to the Novotel for this one single event. This eased out the pressure on our finances.

So with a bit of luck and a lot of planning, we met the challenges.

Q: Which things you did best?A: Co-ordinating with my team and the District Leadership. When you have total confidence and belief inanyone, it will surely be reciprocated. I believe in this very strongly and it was proved with this event.

Q: Which things could have been improved? Or which things could have been done in adifferent way?A: Well, as I came into the picture in the last minute, nothing much to say about the planning andorganising. It was just execution only. With the help of the committed team, we could be able to pull off agreat event.

One thing, may be, we could further cut down the costs and save some more funds and lessen the burdenof registration cost further to the individual toastmaster member.

Another one is release of the event DVD, which we have not released yet and we are still struggling withthat work. We should have planned it earlier.

Q: What advice, suggestions, you would like to provide to future event managers? Whatprecautions an event manager should take while managing a large scale event.A: Finances are very important. Just spend only to the extent of finances. Don’t anticipate funds to comeand commit expenditure. Ensure you get all the finances / amounts before real execution starts fromevery source and avoid waiting for the finances till the last minute hoping day in and day out, that theywould come today or tomorrow and have sleepless nights.

Irrespective of your brilliant planning sudden changes would always surpirse you and better be preparedfor that. Have regular review meetings and make changes to the plan wherever necessary immediately.Have backup plans for everything.

Q: Thanks for sharing your experience & talking with us. Last but not the least, your wish listfrom forthcoming event in Puri.?A: Thank you for giving me the opportunity to share my experience of Oration 2013 and also your goodwords that it was one of the best events.

When a stalwart like JP is leading the event, I am sure it would be a great success. I had an opportunity,to interact and discuss with him for preparing for the Puri event. His financial planning is great. His richexperience behind and seen many such conferences as DG of a District in Gulf in the past, he can pull theevent with ease and I am looking forward to it.

One wish may be, being a non-oriya, I may wish to have some good oriyan food, oriyan cultural programand oriyan hospitality. I would love to visit some places in Odisha, like Konark Temple etc. as I amplanning to attend the event along with my wife.

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Sunil Khunteta ACS, ALS isworking as a Director, atOracle Corporation for theGlobal Product Supportbusiness. He is Asst. LGETfor this year and an activeToastmaster.

He opened the highestnumber of clubs (10) everopened in his division in2011- 12, highest number ofeducational awards.

All his areas were President'sdistinguished a uniqueachievement in the entiredistrict 41.

He was awarded the DivisionGovernor of the year lastyear – 2012

You may write to him atsunil.khunteta@gmail.com

My experience from Planning toImplementation as Program Chair inOration 2013.

Sunil Khunteta ACS, ALS

Last year, after completing my term as a Division F governor I had givenmultiple reasons to myself for not taking up any roles in the district. Irelaxed for a few months and then the conference chair Mubeen tempted meto say a YES to take up the role of Program Chair for Oration. And he wassuccessful!

I remember the first thing I did was to clarify with him on the scope of allthe activities and the expectation from me – the “planner” & “manager” inme started organizing, planning and defining almost immediately.

Very soon, I realized that our work was finally to culminate into the grandshow on those 3 days. The end result of all the hard work would be thegrand show on the stage that everyone in the core team had starteddreaming. I would be responsible for what people finally hear and see on thestage during those 3 days. I was excited, nervous, sensitive about it andalso confident with a “can do” attitude with all the support we had.

Quite a task, and more importantly a lot of it was so much of “creativework” all of which cannot be “controlled” and “managed” but it must ratherbe “encourage”, “led” and “guided”. I realized that since I had startedalmost about 4 – 5 months my immediate tasks were to have a broad levelplan of the program and to work on getting the best speakers possible. Theother tasks were

To start defining micro level details of the full day agendaTo get the back-stage preparation to support everything thathappens on-stageTo get different teams & people in sync with the overall plan so thatoverall harmony is well set.To finalize speakers, MCs, back-up speakers, backup MCs, contestmasters, event coordinators & sequence.

The conference chair had put in a Google form in place and I was receivingproposals with names and profile of speakers. I started organizing it in amanner that would be simple; fact based and would remove all biasness.

With the help of different people, I kept on trying the well known & nationallevel speakers and was checking on their availability & willingness. I had tokeep in mind budget all the time.

There was yet other decision we had to take – whether to have parallelsessions or no parallel session. LGET, District Governor & we had a fewround of discussions to finalize and to take some of these decisions.

I knew that I may have even disappointed some of the speakers who werekeen to get this opportunity but it was critically important that finally how

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the on-stage show would come up and all my efforts were only towards ensuring that the people who weretravelling from different places of our district and outside were in no way disappointed with the program.And it became easier to take even the tough decisions.

For a month, I worked alone and skipped a few core team meetings / conference team meetings; I thoughtit would be just fine because my real role was in a way limited one. But I started getting feedback – thanksto the openness of different people from the team that highlighted and reminded the need of people toknow what’s happening and to keep the communication very open. I felt that I could have done a muchbetter by keeping everyone well informed. It was a good learning for me. I started sending out mail onstatus updates on work completed and that was pending; that helped people.

I had kept a number of items open and pending for decisions in the hope of fine tuning further. It takes abit of courage to keep a few things open & hanging that way but I kept them open intentionally with hopesof getting even better speakers. I realized that it made some people a little nervous but I was confidentinside.

As the dates started coming closer, I started closing them and it really helped in reducing the pressures.

Amongst many other inputs and overall guidance I had received a very good input from DG Vinay and LGETPrasad about converting each small part into a sub event and to make people responsible for just that subevent. For example Flag march is one sub event and a couple of people could just take care of that one subevent. Using this idea extensively we formed a wonderful team and people found it easier to take charge ofthe small section. Divide and conquer your challenges & Problems!

One other thing that helped was use of Google Drive and Drop box. We had shared the master plan sheetwith access to everyone. Specific TO DO lists were there for individuals and responsible team members. Formany tasks we had two people responsible and taking care. In case, we had any last minute exigencies westill had one more person who would have known everything. We did not centralize tasks and haddistributed them as much as we could – although it increased a little bit of coordination but it proved fruitfuland worth.

Similarly, we had 3 pairs of MCs ready, even if anyone was not available, we could have still managed iteasily. I think such detailed planning helped us being proactive.

Finally, the conference went off smooth, all the events and programs were liked and happened on time. Thefeedback was good and encouraging. All the teams had worked hard and I was especially proud of theProgram team consisting of all the MCs and the back-stage, logistics team members helping us to ensureon-stage performance went off well. With the huge support from the people and of course, god a grandshow was finally achieved to the satisfaction of the conference chair and the district team. I was happy! Ofcourse, the credit goes to the great team work of each and every individual who worked with me on this.

One other thing that helped was use ofGoogle Drive and Drop box. We had sharedthe master plan sheet with access toeveryone. Specific TO DO lists were there forindividuals and responsible team members.

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Jahnavi Chintakunta is VP- Education of InfosysHyderabad ToastmastersClub. She talked to leadersof Oration 2013 wholooked afterEntertainment,Accommodation, Traveland Registrations.

You may write to her atjahnavi.c07@gmail.com

Learn from Leaders

Entertainment, Accommodation,Travel & Registrations

Entertainment: PNP Dixith Kumar is working in TCS. He is

Area Governor of area F1, & a President of Secunderabad ToastmastersClub. He (along with Rohit Swain) was a Committee Chair (Lead) forEntertainment.

According to him the best experience in Oration 2013 was the momentwhen the entertainment team finished performing on the inaugural dayand immediately a standing ovation arrived in the form of a tide from the500 audience. I would call it an experience of a life time. It’s the best thingthat can happen to any artist.

And he suggests to anyone taking up lead role in organizing entertainmentevents is to always pick the right team.

Accommodation: Ravi Teja Marrapu is currently working asa Senior Consultant at ADP, & serving as VP-PR at ADP HyderabadToastmasters Club. He along with Sowmya Chakilam (Committee Chairs(Leads) - Accommodation) looked after accommodation in Oration - 2013.

When we asked him to share his best experience in Oration 2013 he saidthat " I got to know members from Calcutta, Pune, Delhi etc., this helped alot in my increase of how these clubs work and what they did to scale up intheir educational goals, Contests preparations, PR activities etc., Moreimportantly it helped me in increasing my Event Management skills,Negotiations skills and Time management skills"

He provided below suggestion for anyone taking up lead role in planning &organizing accommodations for grand events.

"The only suggestion is to have a much more sophisticated and detaileddatabase of all the people who have opted for accommodation, this willhelp in reconciliations, planning and organizing. The Area governors shouldact as SPOCS for all data related requests of people attending theconference; this will help giving the organizers a proper direction inhandling any escalations."

Travel: Mukesh Maguluru along with his team managed the toughtask of Travel. He said despite having multiple pickup and drop points(there were one too many by the end of the conference ), and not-so-great travel options from hotel to the city (like autos etc), we were able tostick to the budget with a great feedback from guests. This didn't happenjust because of the team who worked day and night, there wereToastmasters who helped us by providing us their vehicles and few

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Toastmasters (who are not a part of this team) went beyond their level of comfort and received guests fromvarious pickup points in the city. We would like to thank everyone who supported us and all the guests whoco-operated with us in making this experience a much more special one.

Suggestions for anyone taking up role of Committee Chairs (Leads) - Travel in futurePlanning ahead of time is the key. Ideally, the transportation team should work in tandem withregistration and accommodation team right after (or even before) the curtains are raised for theevent.Contingency planning – despite the best laid plans, there will be last-minute changes to the plan,more so in transportation. There will be guests who plan to attend the event at the last minute (forgood reasons), there will be changes or additions to itineraries and there will be those inevitabledelays caused by Airlines and trains.Build a strong and large team – Please check the distance between venue, accommodation and funevent (if it’s at a different place) and plan for shuttles during the days of the event. Especially for funevent – if it’s at a different place and if there are lot of guests who have to be dropped after theevent, this needs additional planning.Draw a line – Enunciate the expectations of your role and your team’s role well ahead of the event.Guests might request additional services like local sightseeing or pickup from/drop to a certain placeyou haven’t planned for etc. While facilitating seamless transportation to guests tops the priority,please try to draw a line beyond which it will be tough to address the requests, if possible; this willensure peace for everyone.

Registrations: Sugandh Rakha ACB, ALS is a Data Scientist at Microsoft.com and works on the

Bing.com Search Engine. He worked as Registration Chair, Oration 2013.

His best memories of Oration 2013: I think the best memories were from the call center we used to runfrom my home. A dozen of Toastmasters would come together and occupy difference corners of my home.We used to call club leaders, & people whose payments were due; The result was that we had the largestnumber of attendees for a District 41 conference till date. Additionally, after the event was over, wediscovered that the accounts were perfect. Every penny was accounted for.

His advice to future Leaders:

Stay on top of everything. Try to remember all names and there details. Especially if it’s anexception case. Or at least keep this info handy with you at all times. Anyone can call you at anytime.Try to know well in advance, what kind of reporting is expected from you at the end of the event. Sothat you can keep the data available from day 1.Make a Transfer policy that is flexible for genuine people and act as deterrent to others. Maybesomething like a transfer fee.Use online payment gateway. It will cost 2-3% but it saves you a lot of headache. Registrations areusually on for 6 months. Constantly working on it for that long gets frustrating. So please find wayson easing your burden.

Playing the lead role in a grand event likeOration helped me in increasing my EventManagement skills, Negotiations skills and Timemanagement skills.

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Sita Ravinatula, DTM,Souvenir Chair, Oration 2013

You may write to her atsita.ravinutala@gmail.com

Spread the event

Sita Ravinatula, DTM, Souvenir ChairQ: Responsibility for bringing out Souvenir for a grand event. Whatwas the first reaction? How did you plan for a Souvenir whichwould act as a reminder, memento of Oration 2013?A: Responsibility for bringing out the souvenir was really exciting and a bitscary (second reaction). Once I took the responsibility, first point was toput a plan of action together. I like to work backwards so I did my bit,looked at my work and personal schedule and set the project deadline. Asyou mentioned the souvenir is one thing which every toastmaster getsduring the conference, a memento to read through, reflect and commentupon too, which means the team working on it needs to be extra careful inensuring the quality.

One thing I wanted to ensure was to see that maximum divisions, clubsand Toastmasters from District 41 contributing to the souvenir. We formeda team and started the ‘best article’ contest at division and individualcategories. Knowing toastmasters to be people who love to write andspeak, we had expected a lot of entries in both sections. While we did getgood number of entries, I know that we could have done a lot better inthat section.

We had a panel of judges who evaluated the articles on set of parametersand the winner’s articles were published in the contest section of thesouvenir.

We did have general section too and were able to keep the souvenirinformative and entertaining without being content heavy.

Q: What three points one should keep in mind while organizing ateam & deciding content for souvenir?A: I think below three points should be kept in mind while organizing ateam & deciding content.

Have designated members to collect content, review and edit, anddesign. This will ensure you have more ideas and quality reviews.While collecting the content is time consuming, reviewing andediting needs more focus.State expectations clearly to the team members. If roles aredefined during the formation of the team, it will also help membersunderstand the time commitment required from their end and theycan plan their schedule better.Set aside quality time to work with the designer team. Have clarityon the kind of paper and print you want to look at. This helps thedesigners come up with the right options for creating the layout anduse of images and font.

Q: Souvenir for Oration 2013 carried more white space; it appearedeasy for reading with intriguing content. What three things oneshould consider while designing souvenir?A: Design is an art & subjective. But we tried to follow few guidelines

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Have a set theme for the souvenir layout. This sets the tone for the newsletter. The theme can bein terms of the color combinations or the way the stories/articles are laid out. For example, thesouvenir from resonance 2012 (Calcutta) had the theme of MCs taking you through the souvenir.Try to have articles from TMs other than the host city. This seems to happen as it is easy to dofollow-up with fellow TMs in the club/city. You know the people, so you can just ask them to sharesomething. This can also happen in cases where the team might not have received many articlesdespite follow-ups. Just try to get more people involved.Pictures speak louder than words, yes, but if you use too many of them and without context, thenewsletter will look very congested and sore to the eye. Use the colours that are easy on eye.

Q: What challenges you & your team encountered while bringing out souvenir with quality & ontime?A: Well, creating the souvenir was definitely a great learning experience, helping us learn lot of crisismanagement, teaming (love this part) and of course completing the project on time. The key challengeswere:

Time management – given the busy schedules with us trying to do multiple things, no matterhow much time you give, you still have requests for extensions.Participation – encouraging Toastmasters to submit their material was difficult. While mostwanted to participate, many could not make the submission within the deadline for the contest andcould not participate in the contest.

Q: What learning’s you would like to pass on to others, to further leaders?A:

Always have a back-up plan: No matter, how well planned/organized you started, towards theend you end up having to manage schedule conflicts of self and team members at work/personalfront.Stick to deadlines: Have a set number of reminders that you would want to send out beforecollecting the content submissions. Editing takes a lot of time and you should respect the timeeditors have to spend on reviewing the articles and designers need to put in quality time to set thelayout.Be there with the team: Work with team all the way through, connect frequently. Plan the layoutand the theme well; coordinate the content to have a smooth flow. Be involved at each level.

Pictures speak louder than words, yes, but if youuse too many of them and without context, thenewsletter will look very congested and sore tothe eye.

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Why Attend a Conference?

Prasad Sovani, DTM

I have been attending almost all the conferences since 1996, in both my fraternities – Rotary as well as inToastmasters. It is beneficial in many ways for me. I can count at least a hundred benefits that one canget.

Here’s a summary of the top 10 benefits that one can get out of a conference:

C.O.N.F.E.R.E.N.C.E.

C= Connect with CamaraderieO= Organizational SkillsN= New PlacesF= Friendship across BordersE= Educational SessionsR= RecreationE= Effective LeadershipN= New IdeasC= ContestsE= Energy Boosters

C= Connect with CamaraderieI saw something 2 days ago. 2 boys were playing with the cables put on the ground by Electricity Boardfor installation. The cables were not connected & the kids were playing on the super thick cables, eventouching the ends of the cables-simply because, they were not connected. Yet, when connected, we darenot touch the loose ends of wires however small they might be. This is the power of connection!

Toastmasters’ fraternity is huge, with more than 300,000 members across all the continents.We can connect with those friends or at least 500 of them at one conference! Then, you know the powerof this camaraderie!

O= Organizational SkillsThe organizational skills of the organizing committee are tested, so are ours-by simply watching them.You can feel how much time & energy have the committed TMs put in & admire that. At the same time,you can see for yourselves, what all things need to be done in order to repeat this performance in yourhometown!

N= New PlacesI love to travel a lot. I don’t think I’d have gone to Mangalore, Macau or Montevideo if not for suchconferences. (I have indeed attended conferences in these 3 ‘M’ cities!) The conference is a ‘bahaanaa’(excuse) to travel to such exotic places. Anyway, my goal is to travel to 1000 cities in 100 countries in theworld, so I take every opportunity to travel! Usually, I go about 2-3 days before the opening of theconference & explore that city / country. Similarly, I stop over in other cities on my way to a conference /convention. Recently I visited Greece and Turkey on my way to Cincinnati, USA. You can stretch yourmoney by visiting places nearer or on the way. The airlines give you a free stop over and you just have tospend the incremental money on accommodation, local travel and food

F= Friendship across BordersI made many friends in conferences. Melanie from Macau, McIntyre from Massachusetts , Pascale fromPerth, , Ed Tate & 2 other World Champions of Public Speaking, the then International Directors, who wenton to serve as International Officers such as John Lau, George Yen & Mohd Murad in conferences. Evenwithin India, I have made many new friends across different cities by attending conferences. I met Punita,

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Vinay, Deepak, Nagaraja, Bosco, Venkat, Balraj, Ritu, Brillian, Venkata, Ajit, Mario, Girish and all thedistrict leaders at the conferences. I would not have had a chance to meet them elsewhere.

DTM Poh Kim Siong, from Singapore is a Past DG from District 80. His wife Ong Bee Hoon hails fromMalaysia. Guess where did they meet first? Correct,--at the TM conference!Soon friendship developed & later it blossomed in love & he proposed in a conference in Hong Kong andsoon, they got married! Would it have been possible without a conference? No way! (Their society doesnot have arranged match-making).

E= Educational SessionsWe have many sessions at the conference which enlighten us. I met DTM Paisal Sae Lor of Thailand at aconference & am inspired by his speech & try to put into practice what he taught at the educationalsession in a conference.Similarly, I feel glad when some Toastmasters write to me for inspiring them when I conducted someeducational session, several years ago!

R= RecreationWe must enjoy the time we are at a conference & use it positively for recreation. You might get bored bythe day-to-day routine & you may want a break! Use conferences for that purpose & you kill 10 birds in 1stone! We have fun night and we sing songs together in Karaoke sessions. Sometimes we playedantakshari, while sometimes we played ‘Spell Bee’!

E= Effective LeadershipI have been inspired by leaders such as DTM Liew Siow Looi, who devoted 3 years of his life for hisleadership years of District 51. He took leave from his job! Similarly in Rotary, the DG typically spends 3years of his life for a social cause! We can learn from their leadership & benefit!

N= New IdeasYou end up getting some new idea by just attending the conference. I first attended the conference whenI was President of Braddell Heights TMC in Singapore. I got some ideas & implemented those at my club.My club was ranked no. 5 in the world that year. I got 2-3 more ideas for business in subsequentconferences.You may get ideas for business, family, club or society by just attending the conference. I look at it thisway, ‘Just one good idea in a conference of 4 days, is enough for me to say-Paisa Vasool or Moneyrecovered!’

C= ContestsContests are a great educational experience for all. The contestants benefit by participating in it &sharpening their skills as well as by competing with the best from other Divisions. The judges benefit bythe process of judging, in which they have to be very analytical. The contest committee learns byobserving the contestants & judges from close quarters. I know one ball boy who went on to beWimbledon champion. In the same manner, I know some SAAs who went on to be champions. Theaudience is the biggest beneficiary because; one can just sit & enjoy the contest and benefit. You canlaugh & get entertained, or you can take home some message!

E= Energy BoostersAttending Conferences makes you appreciate the champions, the organizers & the District officers, whoput in so much effort. It also inspires you to do better in life. It is a great energy booster & rejuvenatesyou for working after returning.

So, to enjoy these 10 benefits, all you have to do is just ATTEND THE CONFERENCE!If you have not registered yet, DO IT NOW!

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Resonance 2013 @ Puri (22 – 24 November)To register click here

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Nitesh Agarwal, ACB, ALBis working in TSYS as TeamLead & is an Area Governorfor Area E1.

He has explored some freetools which we can useToastmasters. In this articlehe has focused on threeAndroid tools which can beused in club meetings.

To know more about tools,or share your information,you may write to him onniteshaga@gmail.com

Use free tools & technology inToastmasters Meetings

Nitesh Agarwal, ACB, ALBIn this technology era, I have always felt Toastmaster could be accessed,managed, promoted and spread much better than it’s being done today.Even though we don’t have official mobile apps from Toastmasters, some ofthe inspired members have given something back to the community whichcan be used to benefit each other. Following are some apps which areavailable for free to download on Android.

Evaluate Me – There were times when for some reason I didn’thave a sheet with me to provide feedback or there were many speakerslined up due to which passing the evaluation slips were not possible andafter the meeting forgot to give one. There may be many more suchsituations, but we have an app for that. This is a great app where you cancommend, suggest or add any additional comments and send it across tothe speaker through an email with a default template as shown on googleplay store. Click here to check it out.

SpeakApp - This is really helpful for members who sign up or askedto play a role at the last moment. It has features for below role players.

Timer - A simple easy to use functionality with predefined timingsjust key in the Speaker Name and you are all set. Save and pull thereport at the end, it shows who is qualified and whose not. If youhave a tablet, you won’t even need the timing cardsAh Counter - Another easy to use functionality, key in the name andkeep clicking on the fillers. Save and pull the report at the end.Table Topics – Gone are the days when you are unable to find atopic, with this on a click it will show you a topic.Word of the day – Very helpful for a grammarian, on a click newword with sound to hear the pronunciation.

It also has Find a Club feature linked to TI website.

You can click here to know more about this app, & to download, install it.

Toastmaster Timer – This is the best timer app there can be,with many predefined timing option you can customize your own time andsave it for next use. Start the time, stop, record, save and pull at the end.

Please click here to know more about this app.

Try to use above apps in your club. Explore many such free tools availablefor conducting Toastmasters meeting, and if you find some great appinform about them to all Toastmasters.

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Know Your Divisions

Division E

Division E is a small but an active division with 12 strong clubs. It also has unique distinction of being thehome division of District 41 Governor, Prasad Sovani.

Division E is lead by Division Governor Chandana Erande, ACG, ALB. Her journey with Toastmastersbegan in Jan 2008. She served as the charter President of TMCP – West in 2010, was the Area Governorin 2011 and was the Registration Chair and Contest Master during Resonance 2011. As a freelance trainerin soft skills specializing in training under-18 year olds, her TMs experience proves invaluable.

As a Division Governor, she aims to explore, exploit and expose the young and talented leaders in thedivision by entrusting the youth with more tasks. Reaching out to reclusive clubs and getting PresidentsDistinguished Division is the goal.

Area Governor E1, Nitesh Agarwal (ACB, ALB): He joined Toastmasters in Dec’11 to get rid of thefear of public speaking. Personally, TMs has helped him a lot to think on the spot and win arguments withhis wife.

Area Governor E2, Beena Mandrekar (ACS, ALB): She is an English Major, works for SymbiosisInstitute of International Business and teaches Business Communication. From being a member shemoved to take on the role as a VP-Ed. From there to President and now Area Governor. She says she feelshumble and glad to serve such a wonderfully omnipresent organization.

Area Governor E3, Jaideep Vasant SOLANKI (ACB, ALB): He currently works as Professor inMarketing and Personality Development in the Sinhagad Institute of Management, Pune. From a corporatejob to academics and aspiring to be a trainer, he owes it all to Toastmasters.

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Spread Share & Propagate

Innovate & Communicate

District – 41Newsletter Contest

Each club can send one or more e - Newsletter designed & distributed betweenJuly to September 2013.You can mail your club’s e – Newsletter with subject “District – 41 NewsletterContest” along with club details to d41enewsletter@gmail.comFinal date for sending your club’s e – Newsletter is 15th Oct 2013Judging Criteria

o Contento Presentationo Number of people from the club contributing in e – Newsletter

o Number of people to whom it is distributed.

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ContributorsUmesh Agashe, CC, ALB

Chief EditorInterview Coordinator (Venkata RamanaDittakavi)Layout, design & production

Sita Ravinatula, DTM

Co – EditorInterview Coordinator (Leaders of Oration 2013)

Jahnavi Chintakunta

Co – EditorInterview Coordinator (Leaders of Oration 2013)

This is a monthly e - Newsletter of District 41 - Toastmasters International. The sole purpose of this e - Newsletter isto share success stories of fellow Toastmasters, activities at district level & spread the brand of Toastmasters. This e –Newsletter is a result of efforts by many contributors. If you would like to contribute in e - Newsletter or have an idea

for content or suggestions for improvement in e - Newsletter, please write to D41eNewsletter@gmail.com