My Ten-year Play in Toastmasters   詹德聰

In August 1995, Dennis Chen introduced me to TTC and BTC (Taichung).  Several months later, FYTC (Fengyuan) was established, and I became the elected Charter President.  Since then I attended the three meetings regularly for three more years till NCBTC was established and I was invited to be the club mentor of it.   As we all know, the goals of each person are constantly evolving. Upon joining TMs, like most of the TMs fellows, one of my goals was just to improve my speaking in English through attending Toastmasters. But over time I began to realize my responsibility for facilitating my fellow members in achieving their TMs goals through the promotion of the TMs clubs.

It has been ten years since I made my C1 Ice Breaker in TTC.  I used to read the manual objects written in Communication and Leadership Program several times before writing my speech scripts to make sure the presentation of my speech comply with the objectives and regulations as much as possible.  I have never taken the stage for my performance without practicing my speech at home over and over again.  Although I never was a great speaker to become a winner in our speech contests, I have never considered slowing down in my efforts in improving myself or dropping out of the life-time-competition in becoming one.  In a sense, I see myself as the tortoise running against the rabbit in the folk tale you all know.  The rabbit might take a nap midway before the finish line, or drop out of the contest all together, but never the tortoise.

It is my commitment to myself that I would always set a goal following with an action, and then keep working toward it until I achieve it. In this way, I would be aiming at the winning of a life-long-race not a dash.  In that perspective and spirits, I had finished all the requirements in communication track before I got all my CTM, ATM-B, ATM-S,  ATM-G, and CL two years ago. Soon after that, I began to make all the C level speeches once again to take my second-time CTM within 10 months. I just wanted to demonstrate it for our fellow TMs my commitment to keeping the promise I made 8 years ago of continuous improvement in my speech presentation.  I invited senior TMs to do the evaluation and testified for it.  The results of the speeches and feedbacks from those senior evaluators were very positive. They were very motivational to me as well as to all the FYTC fellow TMs.

I took initiative to take the position of Area 6 Assistant Governor Marketing in Taichung area.  After I finished my club presidency, I accepted the position of the Governor of Area 6. During my term of being the Division B Governor (2002-2003), I chaired the 2002 Fall Convention in Ta-Chia, Taichung.  It was considered one of the most successful Conventions ever held in Taiwan. I also took the action to build and sponsor five clubs as well as become the club mentor of another one.  I was awarded the President’s Distinguished Division Governor (2002-2003) after I finished my service tenure.

One year ago, I began to take on the “HPL-Program” and order the HPL-Program manual books from TI. I carefully studied the Program of Leadership, and it was my great honor to invite the two past District Governors, Jorie Wu and Athena Lien, to be my Mentors. They both gave me precious guidance to it. With my deep gratitude for them, I would have pledged myself to my work in the promotion of the TMs. I teamed up with my guidance committee to gather valuable advices and support for my HPL-Program: To Help FYTC Members and Their Families Achieve Their Goals and Have Fun. And I successfully sponsored to charter a new club, Wen-Chang TMs Club, in Ta-Chia, Taichung. I finished my program by recognition of the committee and applied for my Excellence Leadership Certificate from TI, and I was awarded DTM on 4/8/2005. At age 69, I was both overjoyed and overwhelmed at the moment when the DTM Certificate Plaque was handed to me.

I joined TTC and BTC at 59 and I am 70 years old now. After slowing making progress as the diligent tortoise for ten years, I have made part of my dream, which is, receiving the award of DTM, come true. Over the years, I have realized one thing, which is that most of you guys, my fellow TMs in Taiwan, can certainly do as well as, or even better than I do in Toastmastering as long as you stay with your commitment to Toastmasters. I’d like to take this chance to encourage you to go for it.

詹德聰 Charles Chan, DTM