The DEC meeting was held on Wednesday, August 26, 2015 at the tropical and beautiful Radisson Suites in Buena Park. Our District Director, Pan Kao, presided over the 2014-2015 year end awards/celebration.

Deborah Reisdorph gave an educational presentation about "Pay it Forward with New Clubs." She encouraged us to reach out to help other Toastmasters and illustrated the importance of mentoring through her inspirational presentation. She encouraged those in attendance to become a part of the committee or a cheerleader to help the District achieve their goal of starting 46 new clubs in the District during the 2015-2016 Toastmasters year. Are you willing be support this effort? If so, please contact Deborah for more details.

Fellow Toastmasters,
How do you benefit from Toastmasters' programs? Do you have a story to share with fellow members in our district? Send an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. if you have a personal story to share. If your article is selected and published in our website or quarterly newsletters, you'll receive a $25 Toastmasters gift certificate.

By trade, I'm an IT project manager. Leadership and communication are two must-have job skills for a project manager. Like most of you, I joined a Toastmasters club to learn communication skills. As it turned out, I found that Toastmasters was actually a better place to learn and practice leadership skills.

In other words, Toastmasters programs provide a safe environment for us to learn both communication and leadership skills. In Toastmasters, five clubs are grouped together as an Area (approximately 100 members), five areas form one Division (25 clubs, approximately 500 members), and the Founder's District has 8 Divisions (225 clubs, approximately 4500 members).