Beginning this year, the Toastmasters leadership of District 3 will recognize one member from each club as an Outstanding Club Member.

This singular honor is conveyed at the Spring Conference by presenting a special pin to the person, a certificate, and recognition on Friday evening during the banquet. The winner must be present at the conference to collect the pin. For those who cannot attend, a certificate will be mailed to them. It will be a truly memorable experience to receive recognition with fellow Toastmasters at the conference!

The beauty of this program is that each club can decide in its own way who will receive the Outstanding Club Member designation for the year. There are no set criteria. The club membership can set their own guidelines and use their method of choice for determining who will receive this special honor. Of course, such an award deserves thoughtful consideration. It is not too early to begin thinking about potential recipients for this year’s award!

The qualifying period for the 2009/2010 award is March 1, 2009 – January 31, 2010. Club Presidents will be responsible for sending in their clubs’ choices, and must do so by April 1, 2010. The submission should include a short paragraph on the reasons for the selection of that special person. Dual members will be eligible in one club only. Clubs will be contacted if there is an overlap.

Some suggestions for ways to choose your club’s Outstanding Member include:

§         Verbal nominations and voting at a club’s executive committee meeting

§         Request for written nominations from the members

Please be sure that the selection is made by the club membership, not just one person. Dual members will be eligible in one club only. Clubs will be contacted if there is an overlap.

Some suggestions for nominating criteria could be:

·         Time and effort given to the club

·         Membership and recruitment activities

·         Member mentoring and/or support

·         Cooperative and/or willing attitude

·         Officer role fulfillment

·         Attendance

·         Anything that is important to the success of your club

Example: Tommy Toastmaster has mentored many of us, both as speakers and as club officers. He is always there to give a member a word of encouragement when needed. He has such enthusiasm and a true love for the members and the success of our club. Tommy has never said "no" to anything asked of him by the club. Many times, he takes it upon himself to make sure the club has what it needs to be successful. We are proud to name Tommy Toastmaster as our Outstanding Club Member!

This program is one more way in which District 3 reaches out to its members and lets them know how important each one is. Please feel free to contact Rose Beeson, DTM, Lt. Governor Marketing, if you have any questions at "awards".  Reminder all emails are spam protected, to email use "title" followed by aztoastmasters.org.

All members are also eligible to submit an application for the District Toastmaster of the Year, for themselves or for someone else. The qualifying period is July 1, 2009 –June 30, 2010. The application form can be found in the Resource section of www.aztoastmasters.org.