Founder’s District’s Is Proud to Announce...

Jamel Thomas as 1st Place WInner in Semi-Final International Speech Contest

Jamel Thomas won 1st place in the Toastmasters International Semi-Final Speech Contest, competing with contestants from eight other Toastmasters Districts -- Canada, Australia, Sri Lanka, United Arab Emirates and the U.S.   The Semi-Final contest was held on Thursday August 18th, in Las Vegas, Nevada, in front of an international audience.

Jamel became a finalist in the World Championship of Public Speaking (see Toastmasters International's Facebook photo gallery).

 A large number of Toastmasters from the Founder’s District attended the Toastmasters International Convention at Bally's in Las Vegas, Nevada, August 17 through 20, 2011, and cheered for Jamel at the Semi-Final and final World Championship of Public Speaking contests.

Jamel’s journey began with winning the speech contest at his home club, ISD Toastmasters Club #585096 in Downey, CA. He  then competed at the Area E2 contest and advanced to the Division E contest. He won the division speech contest and advanced to the Founder’s District International Speech contest held on April 16, 2011. After winning the district level contest, Jamel practiced his speech “The But Stops Here” at a number of clubs and demonstration meetings, and consulted past speech contest winners to prepare for the Toastmasters International speech contest.

Congratulations for this outstanding achievement, Jamel

Founder’s District Toastmasters Judge 25 Community Events

By Avis French, Chair
TI Founders District Judges Bureau

The Judges Bureau for Founders District has completed another successful year of judging community events. From September 2010 to June 2011, members of the Bureau judged 25 events. The events ranged from organizational club events with only 2-3 judges to national events covering several days with “as many judges as you can supply.”

The Bureau had many returning clients, such as Rotary District 5320, Lions International, Academic Decathlon, Homeschool Speech and Debate, and the National Management Association. This year, we were pleased to support a new client, HOSA (Health Occupations Students of America). The HOSA competition was comprised of a variety of events where judges with varying skills and experiences were needed; for example, Extemporaneous Speaking, Biomedical Debate, Creative Problems Solving, Job Seeking and Interviewing Skill.

There were 77 judges who spent a total of 425 hours assisting our clients to conduct competitions that resulted in qualified winners. Our clients were pleased with everything we did. In fact, two of them have already scheduled events for 2012. Our thanks go to all those Toastmasters in Founders District who have shown the community what Toastmasters is all about.

The purpose of the Founder’s District Judges Bureau is to provide community service organizations and educational institutions with well-trained, impartial, and professional quality judges for their youth speech contests. If you are a trained judge, we invite you to join the Judges Bureau and contribute to the visibility of Toastmasters within your community.

Club websites and newsletters are very effective tools to serve your current members and to promote your club to attract prospective new members. Founder’s District will honor the Club(s) with the website and newsletter that best integrate the new TI brand and are the best promoters of the District’s public relations goals and objectives. The awards will be presented to the Club(s) representative(s) at the Fall Conference on Saturday, November 12, 2011.

Brand Stewardship Award - For the Brand Stewardship award, send copies of club meeting agendas, newsletters, flyers, open house announcements, web URL, and pictures of club meetings to showcase integration of the new brand and theme in your meetings. Founder’s District will honor the Club that best integrates the new TI brand in their club meetings and communication programs, at the Spring Conference on Saturday, November 12, 2011.

 

Diamond Web Award – This web award will recognize the key elements of a club website including  visual appeal, clear presentation of information about the club (including meeting time, place, location and contact person), ease of navigation, depiction of the culture and personality of the club, and overall integration of the Toastmasters brand.

Newsletter Award - This newsletter award will recognize the elements of a great club newsletter, such as visual appeal, quality of information, recognition of club member achievements, frequency of publication, and integration of the Toastmasters brand. Newsletters may be digital, print, email or blog format and may be issued monthly, semi-monthly or quarterly.

 

Please email all information and relevant materials for all contests by Friday, October 21, 2011 to:

Colette Gardner, DTM, Founder’s District Chair of Public Relations Awards & Recognitions, at: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it