Innovations

Cheers to Toastmasters

by Mai Lin C. Chua

We are proud to recognize the FM Toastmasters Club for achieving the award of “President’s Distinguished Club” for its first year of existence. This is the highest recognition a club can earn under the annual Distinguished Club Program of Toastmasters International. The program runs from July 1 through June 30 and consists of ten goals a club should strive to achieve. World Headquarters tracks the progress of the club and at year-end recognizes the club based on the number of goals achieved. Our Club met nine out of the ten goals. To view more information on the Distinguished Club Program go to http://www.toastmasters.org/fupload/media/2004-DCP-1111.pdf.

A congratulatory letter and an attractive ribbon for display were sent by World Headquarters to our previous President, Noel Bain. The ribbon is displayed in Schmitz Rm. 170.

In November, our Club sent a panel of four debaters to participate in District 2 Toastmasters Fall Conference Education Session. The debate topic was “Resolve that the National Security Strategy of the United States of America Should Change.” Our Club took the affirmative stand on the issue and our debaters were able to present strong points to refute and rebut. It was a challenging but rewarding experience for our debaters and all four of them were presented Certificates of Appreciation for the participation. Please give a big round of applause to our debaters: Diane Cooley, Teresa Crisostomo, Tess Domingo-Herrera, and Mai Lin Chua.

Our Club would also like to express its heartfelt gratitude to the EIT for its generous financial support. Our Club was considering hosting its first auction within Financial Management to raise funds for purchasing additional educational materials for our library and sending our members to training and educational sessions outside of our Club. With the generosity of the EIT, our Club will be provided with all the resources we need at this time – and so the auction will no longer be necessary. Our Club’s library resources will become a part of the QI library. The FM Toastmasters Club is fully committed to the Financial Management wide goal of all FM employees becoming knowledge workers. Toastmasters is one way to help staff acquire needed skills.

With the continuous support from the EIT and active participation from our members, FM Toastmasters Club is working to be recognized under the Distinguished Club Program for the second year in a row. We hope to be eligible again for recognition by June 30, 2005.