For 16 600+ Toastmasters clubs worldwide the new term traditionally starts on July 1st. However for the district leadership team the year starts just a little bit earlier. It starts with a team-building, highly educative, business oriented and driving event that is called a BOOTCAMP!
The main goal of a bootcamp is to train new recruits so that they become both knowledgeable and motivated to perform their duties at best.
At District 108 bootcamp that took place in mid June in a small and cozy town of Hyvinkaa, Finland, 13 people gathered together for an intensive weekend to act both as recruits and as trainers.
Who was there? Let’s meet the whole team!
Well, first and foremost it’s the District trio:
- District Director – Gabriela Roivainen. She is responsible for the District 108 performance on the world Toastmasters stage.
- Program Quality Director – Elena Paweta. Her main duties are managing the educational processes in the District 108.
- Club Growth Director – Adriana Vasilaсhe. Her role is to maintain high quality membership programs and build new clubs in the District 108.
The 2nd part of the District core team consists of ‘administrative’ people:
- Public Relations Manager – Valeria Kholodkova
- Finance Manager – Leena Rantala (don’t mess with money! ;))
- Administration Manager – Heikki Siltanen
- Parlamentarian – Jacub Bronowicki
And finally the 3d part are the Division Directors, responsible for their respected clubs and areas performances throughout the toastmasters year! We have 4 of them and they are:
- Division A Director – Rafal Staszek Vel Staszewski
- Division B Director – Dovile Kurpyte
- Division C Director – Alicja Palinska
- Division D Director – Monika Szlachta
And of course, last but not least, our major supervisor – the Immediate Past District 108 Director – Piotr Chimko.
To add special zest to the first leadership meeting of the year a special guest was invited – the former District 95 Director and the current International Director for Region 10 – Tuire Vuolasvirta. Tuire gladly shared her experiences in this very specific and challenging role and inspired all the team by telling a story about her Toastmasters journey.
During this highly condensed weekend the core team members implemented the best practices, played team games, discussed the district goals and procedures, and planned tasks for the whole year in advance! And of course some space was left for networking and fun! 😉
This resulted in a number of new goals, initiatives and projects and we will be sharing them with you during the year but some should be mentioned specifically:
#1. The main goal of District 108 this year that unites almost 100 clubs in 5 countries is to become District Distinguished in April 2020!
#2. We are introducing fresh new clubs awards! Together with great prizes for achieving excellence and for outstanding performances! Stay tuned!
#3. A great initiative is coming this autumn – a mentoring & networking project (the super secret is yet to be revealed but YOU WILL LOVE IT!)
#4. The first District Executive Council Meeting (DECM) will be held in September, 14-15, 2019 in Kaunas, Latvia.
Although innovations and initiatives are great, some things are good when they remain constant. And one of them is the famous District motto that proved its quality and stability last year. No matter how many things have and may change, we stay STRONG TOGETHER!
Want to see more photos from the bootcamp – and we have them here!
Watch welcoming videos from our District Trio: Gabriela Roivainen, Elena Paweta and Adriana Vasilache.
Stay tuned on the upcoming news and events in our District Calendar here.
Your District 108 Public Relations Manager
Valeria Kholodkova
