Date: February 7th 2010

Hello Fellow District 15 Toastmasters,
As we recover from the holidays, hopefully your resolutions are still intact. We have wrapped up the first rounds of our Winter TLIs, and will focus on finishing officer training through the month of February. You should also finish your club speech contests during this month.

As an incentive for submitting educational awards, I will give away some prizes at the Spring Conference. During the months of January � March, I am looking for the clubs that submit the most Competent Communicator and Advanced Communicator awards. To the clubs with the most submissions of each, I will give a $100 TI store gift certificate. If we have tied clubs we will resolve them through a random drawing. I also intend to give similar certificates to area governors who have the most Competent Communicator and Advanced Communicator awards submitted in their area.

The Spring 2010 Conference is officially open for registration. You may register online at http://conference.district15speaks.org/ to reserve your spot in Boise on May 14-15. We have an exciting line-up of top-notch speakers, great contests, and fantastic educational sessions. The early-bird special (all meals, contests, and educational sessions included) will run at $89 until March 15th. Additionally, the Boise Airport Holiday Inn is running a District 15 Toastmasters discount rate of $69 per night for the Spring Conference. You won't want to miss this one, Fellow Toastmasters.

Nominations for the District Offices (2010-2011) are open. You may read the position descriptions and submit your nominations at http://officers.district15speaks.org/nominations.php.

From the desk of our LGET, Peggy Carr, DTM: Believe it or not, fellow Toastmasters, it is time to start making plans for Spring Conference to be held May 14-15 at the Holiday Inn, Boise. Conference Chair Deborah Whitman and her committee are doing a wonderful job to make sure this is the best conference ever. They have lined up wonderful keynote speakers to entertain and to educate us. The meal selections are great. Registration and conference information are on the District 15 web site; check it out.

However, before we can attend Spring Conference there are a number of things we still need to do:

1.Club, Area, and Division Contests. The areas of competition for Spring are the International Speech Contest and the Tall Tales Contests. In order to compete in either of these contests, you must be a member in good standing of a club in good standing. Also, to be eligible to compete in the International Speech contest you must have completed at least six speeches at the time of your club's contest or be a charter member of a club that has chartered since July 1, 2009. There are certain restrictions on who can compete in a contest: if you are a candidate for a District Office or you are planning on making an educational presentation at the Spring Conference, you are ineligible. Detailed information can be found in the Speech Contest Rule Book which your club president has received or is available on the Toastmasters' web site. 2.Submit nominations for District 15's Hall of Fame and the Giant of the District. Do you know a Toastmaster who has consistently gone above and beyond what is required of them? If so, submit a nomination to Awards Chair Susan Baer (baer.susan@gmail.com). The deadline for nominating someone for the Hall of Fame or Giant of the District is April 15. All that is required is a narrative stating why you feel this person deserves the award. 3.Complete your education and/or leadership goals and submit the award application to Toastmasters International; if you complete three education and/or leadership awards during the Toastmaster year, you will be eligible to receive District 15's Triple Crown award at the Spring Conference. 4.Oh, and by the way, complete and record your club's officer training for the second half of the year if you have not already done so. 5.Have a great rest of the Toastmaster year.

Peggy Carr, DTM
Lt. Governor, Education and Training
Building Leadership, One Success at a Time

From the desk of our LGM, Emmy Jones, DTM: We all know if you keep doing the same things you have always done, you will get the same results. Let us work on getting better results by doing more to build our membership.

We have heard a lot about CHANGE in the past months.

Let us make the word CHANGE work for us as Toastmasters:

Challenge all members to "Talk up Toastmasters" this contest runs from Feb through March a good way to build membership. Have fun we all learn better and quicker when we are in a fun environment. Advertise your clubs. Arrange good quality meetings in the club, area and Division. Quality meetings attract good members. News about your club, area or Division. Tell us who the winners of your contests are. Have you put your clubs in your local papers? Goals get all clubs to work on their DCP, get their education awards sent in as soon as they are completed. Encourage all members to attend District Conference it's the place to be.

Lead by example talk about your club, Area, Division and District Speech contests. Announce it at every meeting.

Do you have fliers for your club contests. Do you know when your Area Contest will be held. Make plans to attend all your contests. Invite all your family and friends to the contests. Have fun.

The more you support each other the more members you will attract. Members want to know that you are aware of them let them know how important they are to you.

Invite other clubs to be the judges at your contests. The more you interact with members of other clubs the more the word of Toastmasters will get around. Your community need to know about you.

Make the change; build it and they will come.

Emmy Jones DTM
Lt Gov Marketing
Building Leadership one Success at a Time.

I look forward to seeing you at the Spring Conference. Although it has been a great year so far, I feel that we are just getting up to speed for even more success in the coming months.

Dave Manning, DTM
District 15 Governor
Building Leadership, One Success at a Time

--
District 15: Building Leadership, One Success at a Time