2014年4月總會長的分享

2014年6月總會長的分享

Joyful Journey Jun, 2014

Joy Tsai 總會長六月之分享

How does it feel our District Achieved President Distinguished District under your term as District Governor?

Ans:

I fell great, excited and honored by having such a great team. To become President Distinguished is a result from one year’s hard efforts of the whole team. Finally, we made it to the top. It was a greater achievement than I expected. Since trio always monitored closely of our district’s performance through the Headquarters’ dashboard, it was no surprise to me. We knew we would make it in May, 2014.

Here I would like to attribute our success to the efforts of LGET Eric Liang and LGM Caroline Kiang. Both of them achieved Excellence in Education award and Excellence in Marketing award. Also our 11 great Division Governors who had led their team so well. We had 6 President Distinguished Divisions & 5 Select Distinguished Divisions:

Div A	Edward Chen	President Distinguished Division
Div C	Sterling Hsiao	President Distinguished Division
Div D	Roger Huang	President Distinguished Division
Div H	Lawrence Huang	President Distinguished Division
Div I	Game Liao	President Distinguished Division
Div K	Peyton Kim	President Distinguished Division
Div E	Emily Chan	Select Distinguished Division
Div F	魏江松	Select Distinguished Division
Div G	Kevin Ho	Select Distinguished Division
Div J	Sunny Liao	Select Distinguished Division
Div L	Lina Yang	Select Distinguished Division

Further more, I’d like to take this opportunity to show my deepest appreciations to our 2013-14 team: club presidents, Area Governors, Division Governors, District Public Relation Office-Jennifer Huang, District Secretary- Teresa Chang, District Treasurer Irene Tsai and Deputy District Treasurer Andy Chang, all of Chairs of committees and their committee members. Again, my special thanks go to my greatest partners LGET Eric and LGM Caroline. Thanks a zillion for supporting and accompanying me all the way.

I was acting as an orchestra symphony conductor. Our team members played each role so well to make the symphony beautifully and harmoniously. Without everyone’s efforts, I couldn’t make it alone.

The President Distinguished district award D67 2013-14, what we had been worked so hard for!

The first gathering of 2013-14 D67 trio, PRO, District Secretary, District Treasurer and Division Governors in June 2013.

D67 2013-14 District Installation ceremony conducted by International President George Yen and Past District Governor Jorie Wu in June, 2013.

Welcome party for International President George Yen in September 2013!

Tell us about the moment when you received President Distinguished District from International President George Yen during 83rd International Convention Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. How did you fell?

Ans:

Last year when I was in Cincinnati, USA, the 82nd international convention, International President John Lau presented the Excellence in Education award to me and he said: “Please keep up the good work!”.I promised him: “Yes, we will.”: This August, when I was receiving the big award from our International President George Yen, he gave me a warm hug with a big smile without saying anything. I was so happy that we didn’t let him down. Also, what a relief! Now I can take a break. No need to “ Keep up the good work.”

Eighty members from Taiwan accompanied trio to receive the President Distinguished district award from International President George. What a great honor and great moment for all of us! Thank you, guys! We made Taiwan famous and impressive in the global stage.

D67 Trio received awards from International President George Yen in Aug 2014.

D67 trio had been honored in the global stage again!

Our Past Council Governor Harry Fong got the highest honor Citation award from Toastmasters International for his continuous great contributions to our district.

What kind of leadership you used when you served as District Governor?

Ans:

“Service leadership”. The purpose of this kind of leadership is to make people around you better persons. It was stated clearly in the 1^st page of Toastmasters International District Leadership Handbook. “Members are the heart and foundation of Toastmasters International. Each service level is in support of the members.” In my mind, as District Governor, I was there to serve D67 3,400 members’ needs and provided them a safe, fun and positive environment to learn and grow.

Can you give us the details of how you practiced your “Service Leadership”? How did you make it work?

Ans:

Toastmasters leaders are volunteers. We can’t fire anyone if they don’t do their jobs well. Our members and leaders want to be motivated. Nobody can force them to do anything. We can lead well only by winning our followers’ hearts. In my opinion, if you can lead Toastmasters well, you can be a great leader any where.

First of all, I stick to Toastmasters International core values: Respect, Integrity, Service and Excellent. By respecting our members and leaders, doing the right things with the right ways, providing them great services, eventually, we will be excellent.

Like delivering a speech, we had better use our senses to touch audience’s hearts. With my leadership, I use my whole body to do the job well. Following is the details how I made it worked.

Eyes: Vision. To see. To set the goal. See the forests and the trees. To know members’ and leaders’ needs. Help them to achieve their goals.

Ears: Listening & brainstorming :I have time for you. I am here for you. I really want to see who you are. Let’s brainstorm to make things better because two heads are always better than one.

Mouth: to recognize members and leaders. Encourage, inspire, support and recognize them by kind and positive words.

Hands: Instant responses through tons of e-mails, Lines, fb, phone calls.

Feet: visiting clubs. Gathering members and leaders for trainings, meetings. Visiting clubs’ anniversaries. Walk the talk. Talk the walk.

Brian, having rational thinking.

6.1.

Prioritize: for better time management also for better resources allocation.

6.2.

Know rules and principles of Toastmasters International. Be familiar with every rule of Speech contests, judges rules. Read the manuals, handbooks. So, I can show members the exactly right way to be great communicators and leaders.

6.3.

Holding more Division Governors’ meetings to reach consensus.

6.4.

Holding transition meeting to pass down this term leaders’ precious experiences to the next term leaders. Make sure the following year will be successful too.

Heart : Most importantly- to touch members’ hearts. Love them before they love me. Show my appreciations to members and leaders. To respect them first, so I earn their respect and trust. Only trust can make us a strong bond and strong team. This is so called building affinity which was emphasized by District coaching experts: Jorie, Harry and Edward.

Let the members and leaders take their ownership. It’s their goals, not my goals. If the clubs are doing well, we don’t have to do anything but to applaud for them. If the clubs are struggling, then, we should put more efforts and resources to help them. Area Governors are in the front line, they play the most important leading roles in Toastmasters.

The least but not the last, being joyful. Not that hahaha, then, nothing happened. We need to help members with self-learning and self-growth. Toastmastering is a life long learning journey. When we deliver a great speech, we feel good about ourselves. When we become better leaders, we feel joyful because we achieve something and we help others to achieve their goals. That’s why we always say, “We give more, gain more”. The paradox in Toastmastering.

I live through it and I firmly believe its magic power of service leadership. Toastmasters is a practicing field. Indeed, it is as George Yen said. I had been through one of the most joyful journey in my life. By creating the affinity, in the end, lucky me, I got many life long friends which matters most to me.

D67 Mid year training in January 2014.

Tell us about 83rd International Convention.

Ans:

This is the fourth times of my experiences of International convention. There are so many things different about 83^rd International Convention. To some points, to me, the educational contents are much easier than the past three years. I don't know whether it's because of my personal growth in TMs, or because I am more familiar with the whole system now.

I enjoyed seeing International President George Yen hosted every session so successfully and smoothly. He is our forever role model.

I love two great trainers: Douglas Kruger from South Africa and the Accredited speaker winner: Happy Pants Barbara. They are so good at delivering their messages in such clear and humorous ways. Another trainer Rory Vaden came to Taiwan before. With his young age, his performance is truly remarkable But, I'm too old to take his advice- take the stairs. I prefer elevator or escalator to lift me up.

For the keynote speaker-Robin Sieger, I like his style. Yet, as an English teacher, I feel that many members whose native language is not English might find he spoke too fast and with a different pronunciation. Not easy to be understood for the first timers. Also, in his speech, 6 points are too much. Sometimes, the contents were not very organized. It made people hard to follow.

D67 International speech contest representative Josh Mayers did a fantastic job in the semi-final, yet, he didn’t make it to the final. I love the champion speech made by Dananjaya Hettiarachchi of Sri Lanka: "I can see something in you, but I don't know what it is. Let's stay together longer to figure it out." The theme and message repeated three times which is very touching and clear.

Three years ago, in the final speech contest, contestants were still having big gestures, with too many actings. For these two years, the situation had been improved much better. The contestants were more natural. They were speakers, not actors. To me, it is a big improvement in TMs speech contest. Now they are more emphasized on the content, value. Hopefully our speeches can be more applicable to daily life, to work place.

Of course, I enjoyed being in the Hall of the Fame most. I like the way Toastmasters International recognized the leaders who had achieved distinguished. Also, I like the way they recognized the top 3 speakers. Recognition plays such an important role in conventions which we hadn’t done well in our conference yet. Hope our conference can be improved in this part in the near future.

It is the first time in Asia, it is also the first time they had shows - drum playing, dancing on the stage. In the northern America, they had never done that.

I didn’t like the way they prepared the “dine and dance” session. To dine at 9:00 p.m. is too late. Further more, too much crowded. So many people couldn't find any seats, even a place to stand. Everyone had to line up so long to get one plate of food. I felt like we are refugees. It was a terrible experience. I would rather being seated and waited on. Like we had in the past 3 years.

I love the social part most. We had over 80 members from Taiwan to join this big event. It was so exciting for everyone. To know more of our members as well as foreign friends.

Overall speaking, it's a much relaxing convention to me. I was there for receiving the President Distinguished district award. Intellectually, it seemed less stimulated compared to the last three times.

Some photos of 2014 International convention

Tell us how you had been introduced to Toastmasters.

Ans:

My ex-colleague Grace Hsu introduced me to TMs 15 years ago. I went to a club twice but didn’t get any phone call after the meeting. So, I went abroad for study. Then, 2006 when everything was settled, I asked Grace to introduce one TM club to me. That is my home club- New Century Bilingual TC. Not only my mentors Grace Hsu and Robert Lee had been very kind and helpful to me, members in NCBTC are all my good friends. They support me all the way. That was the reason I can stay here and being junior members’ mentors. As I stay longer in Toastmasters, I made more good friends over Taiwan.

Is there a Toastmasters related achievement you are proud of?

Ans:

I joined TMs 8 years. In the leadership track, I served as club president, Area Governor, Division Governor, CEO of 2010 Spring Conference, LGM, LGET. I always got the President Distinguished award in each leading level, except being LGM. I didn’t build up a good team at that time. The failure made me even stronger to learn how to build up a great team later.

For the communication track: Till now, I got 2 DTMs. Every four years, I achieved one DTM. That means I delivered at least 10 speeches per year. I did for my clubs’ educational awards, also for my personal growth.

What would you like to say to someone who is hesitating to join Toastmasters?

Ans:

I’d like to know what are the reasons make him or her being hesitating. Everybody has different concerns. Maybe stage fright? Maybe time pressure from work or family? I’ll tell them: “ I see something in you, but I don’t know what it is. Let’s stay together longer to figure it out.”

By giving them good examples of my campus students’ rapid growth in 3-6 months, I’d like to introduce TMs to those who have the stage fright. We are learning by doing, learning by observing. Only when they have more stage time, the better speakers they naturally will become. Then, confidence will follow. Not only learning how to be a confident speaker, they will learn how to be a great team player. All of these qualities are required if we want to establish ourselves a good career.

In Taiwan’s university, the more esteemed universities are much easier to recruit more new members to their campus clubs. Those smart kids know what Toastmasters International can benefit them tremendously.

This phenomenon is also shown in District 85 and 89 Mainland China. Their members had already seen and valued TMs so much. They are blooming so quickly into over 300 clubs in less than 5 years. Their members are young, well educated and very ambitious. Lots of members are bagging their districts’ leaders to help them to set up new clubs in their cities. They are not blooming, they are exploding.

I talked to D89 members when I was in their 2014 Spring conference in May. I observed 95% of the attendees are at the age of 20-30. I asked them why do you spend NT$4,000 registration fees and big amount of transportation fares to join this conference? Why did you join TMs? Their answers are always so simple and clear: “I want to outshine others. If I don’t work harder, how can I get a better career than others? Toastmasters International is a great place for me to be distinguished from others.” It’s much cheaper than Carnage courses, isn’t it?” They are very practical and they know what they need. Then, they would grasp the great opportunity to learn and grow in Toastmasters.

I will let our guests know these successful stories and what TMs can benefit them. And ask them: “Why not join this great non-profit educational organization to make the best out of it for yourself?”
　

Photo of D89 2014 Spring convention. D67 DG Joy Tsai as one of the panelists.

After the year as District Governor, what is the next?

Ans:

In club level, I am serving as president of Taichung Advanced TC, PRVP of Lantern TC and Deputy EVP of New Century Bilingual TC.

In district level, I am serving as Chair of Past District Governor committee. Also I am serving as one of the trainers in the Leadership Enhancement committee.

This year, as IPDG, I have the obligations to help DG Eric and his team to become Distinguished district again. In my last year’s inaugural speech, I promised : “ My goal is to make our district Distinguished district three years in a row.” It’s not only my short term goal to become distinguished. We have to deepen our district leaders’ visions and make them stand up tall and proud. Most importantly, we need new leaders who love to serve, enjoy serving and learn from serving. That is our aiming goal of Leadership Enhancement committee which was led by Past District Governors: Jorie Wu in my term, and now by Harry Fong. By providing better leadership training courses, our district will become better and better when years passing by.

10.

What do you do for a living?

Ans:

I am a full-time English teacher in the National Taichung University of Technology and Science. I love teaching very much, especially, I love my students. They are great kids, so eager to learn. I had been in the private sectors as well as in the academic field. I also had over 30 years of administrational experiences which made my District Governor job much easier.

In addition to that, I wrote four English text books. Also I had four English teaching English programs on China TV station and the Internet. You can see my English teaching at any time, any where.

11.

What do you do when you aren't working on a Toastmasters project?

Ans:

I love reading, singing, dancing and traveling. I love to be with my family. I enjoy having fancy meals with my family and friends. I love to explore new things, new areas physically and mentally. I am a curious person who loves to learn new things everyday. I am a life long learner. If I stop learning, I die.

Also, as my name, I love to share with people “joy”. So, my motto of life is “Master myself, help others.” The thing makes me feel happy most is when I see people around me growing joyfully. So, a profession as college English teacher really suits me well. Also, this is the main reason why I will stay in Toastmasters forever!