Scepticism – Challenge – Hobby

“There is nothing permanent except change”

Last few weeks have been very challenging for most of us and at the same time there were a lot of learnings too. While the whole planet stands united, in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic, each one of us adapted to a new way of living and working online, and at the same time staying safe in our homes. At Toastmasters, given the social distancing guidelines and not being able to do weekly meetings in person, we adopted to similar changes and evolved into much better version of ourselves.

There is always a fear of unknowns when we enter into a new regime, or a new environment. A similar feeling prevailed amongst the club members about getting online and attending weekly Toastmasters meetings. Members showed reluctance and scepticism to this change. Some of us had our reservations and inhibitions about this, never before tried, mode of delivering speeches. I, was one of them. At the same time, it was important that we did not lose time to this situation and continue delivering our speeches and thereby, completing our projects. 

Sensing all these concerns and dissent the Toastmasters dignitaries, right from Area to Division, from District to International level, all came together and shared guidelines on how to conduct online meetings, and simultaneously maintain the quality and standard of the discussions in the forum. We had to give it a try.

Very soon, the executive committee of the Club got into discussions on using the online platform by exploiting the power of online meeting tools available in the market and setting up agenda for the meetings.

Our first attempt, which was Meeting no. 39 of the home club went as smooth as possible. All the attendees were excited about this useful change and enjoyed the session thoroughly. At that time, I took upon a personal challenge. I estimated to attend 8 Toastmasters meetings in away clubs within the next 30 days, besides attending own Club meetings. To my surprise, I completed the challenge in mere 15 days. I had started to enjoy these sessions and soon, it was only about learning and connecting with other Toastmasters.

Today is the 30th day of the challenge and I have managed to attend a total of 20 Toastmasters meetings (7 home club and 13 away club meetings), and what a wonderful journey it was. With the help of this challenge, I was able to attend, few neighbour club meetings, a linkers meet, an area level meet, a rendezvous meet at division level, an inter-district meet at national level and to top it all off, couple of Global meets (as a part of the Global #24 event on 25th April), where one of the meetings was hosted in the Founder’s District, the birthplace of Toastmasters. I got a chance to be a role-taker in more than 10 instances and was awarded best Table Topics speaker couple of times. I also received appreciation for my roles as Ah counter, Timer, Toastmaster of the Day and General Evaluator on various occasions.

Through this journey, I learnt a lot of new ideas, creative ways to conduct meetings and take up roles, and got a chance to listen to some of the world class speakers. By now, you might have gathered that what was once a challenge, has now become a hobby for me. With Toastmasters meetings happening at every other hour, it has become easy for all the members to attend these meetings in any part of the world by just going online. I personally feel that these measures will do a lot of good to my growth and to Toastmasters community as a whole. All this was possible because of the rigour and passion of the members, which did not let the current conditions play a spoil-sport, even for a minutest of second.