Board of Directors Report
February 16, 2008

Toastmasters’ Board of Directors met during the week of February 11-16, 2008, and announced the results of its deliberations at an open briefing held at Toastmasters World Headquarters on Saturday, February 16. Here are some highlights of the Board’s announcements, especially regarding the status of the current governance reshaping project:

Strategic Planning Committee

The Strategic Planning Committee shared updates on the Shaping the Future of Toastmasters (governance) project: In addition to the Board’s published minutes from the November 2007 Board meeting and the Shaping the Future of Toastmasters question-and-answer document, the Board reviewed feedback from mid-year meetings, from districts not assigned to regions, and from many individual members.

The Board acknowledged the need for further research and is aiming to bring the governance proposals to the membership for a vote at the August 2009 International Convention in Mashantucket, Connecticut.

To manage the continuing governance reshaping process, the Board created master project plans that focus on specific areas at three different levels: 1) international 2) regions and 3) districts, including but not limited to the following items:

International

• Complete policy and procedure review
• Create master document and calendar
• Develop master communications strategy
• Create a detailed financial analysis of governance reshaping
• Create system and process for international director and officer evaluation
• Revisit mission, vision, values statements
• Develop policies for nomination of floor candidates
• Define policies and procedure for the International Leadership Committee (ILC)
• Create job description for ILC members and list of potential members
• Transition provision for two-year international director term to be 'counted' to run for vice president
• Develop electronic surveys for international officer and director candidates

Region

• Adjust and create all policies, procedures and manual as needed to support the Region Advisors.
• Determine exactly the support the proposed Region Advisors (RA) will receive from WHQ – the level and type of interaction, communication channels, performance expectations, and needed staffing and budget at WHQ.
• Determine Region Advisor and international director roles at mid-year training.
• Create policies and documents for Region Advisor application and selection process.
• Create board committee for Region Advisor selection.
• Further clarify the relationship between the international director, the Region Advisors and the district officers.
• Develop a process for selecting Region Advisors when there are no applicants or qualified applicants and for filling vacancies.
• Define exactly the nature of the June district-officer training and create new training materials (TLI style) for Region Advisors to use when training district officers.
• Define the role of the Region Advisor at the International Convention.
• Determine the internal hierarchy, if any, among the advisors in a region.
• Create materials for training the Region Advisors.
• Create a detailed calendar of Region Advisor activities such as visits and training.
• Create plan and budget for Region Advisor communication tools, such as Webinars, forums and conference calls.
• Create policy concerning Region Advisor finances and reimbursement.
• Create Region Advisor feedback and evaluation process specifics including documents, policies if needed, and implementation guides.

District

• Revisit elected vs. appointed concept for Lt. Governors including exact process and policies for approving appointments, etc.
• Create all district officer job descriptions, learning objectives, agreements, evaluation.
• Determine how recognition systems need to be implemented and modified at the individual, club and district levels.
• Develop communications plan.
• Define the District Leadership Committee - who, what, when, where, why and how.
• Conduct a complete financial analysis.
• Review district council meeting requirements and calendar.
• Define and create materials for additional August training district governors and District Governors Elect.
• Modify the District Administrative Bylaws and related policies and create new policies as needed.
• Determine what district officer tools and materials will be needed and create them.
• Improve and create district officer planning tools and documents.
• Create a district-level transition plan to help districts manage moving to the new officer structure.

The World headquarters staff in cooperation with the Board will answer the questions and create the materials and policies described in the partial list above.

The Board reviewed the plan to extend regions worldwide and created the following maps, acknowledging that these boundaries are subject to review and change:

Proposed Boundaries (PDF)

The Board concluded that the minimum requirements for a region conference should be to train district officers and conduct a speech contest. It considered the benefits of grouping regions together to enhance training and referred this to a future MAE committee discussion.

The Marketing and Education Committee focused on the continuing development of the Region Advisor concept and a review of the Distinguished Club Program.

Recommended creating an evaluation process for the Region Advisors that would be used by the Board as a tool to assist in consideration of future appointment. This process would include:

• Written evaluation conducted twice a year
• Evaluation from individuals with whom the RAs work closely. For example, the Region Advisor Marketing would be evaluated by the LGMs, the International Director and the two other RAs.

The Committee also discussed qualifications for service as a Region Advisor and determined that candidates must:

• Be a Toastmaster in good standing, of a club in good standing, within the region of appointment.
• Have served as a district governor, or LGET, or LGM, or is uniquely qualified in the area of specialty.

Regarding the training of Region Advisors:

• RAs will receive a full day of training on the day preceding the June district officer training.
• The training will be created by WHQ and conducted by WHQ staff, the International Director(s) and International Officer(s) in attendance.
• Training may be held during the International Convention.

Distinguished Club Program

The Committee recognized that many clubs are unaware of the Distinguished Club Program (DCP) and suggested:

• The DCP wall chart be distributed free to all clubs each year.
• That TI produces training materials be used at all TLI’s and other district training events.
• The DCP be promoted to newly chartered clubs via club mentors.
• That districts promote the DCP instead of their own programs.
• That the proposed District Governor Elect coordinates this program under the proposed new Governance System. 

The committee did not recommend any changes to the DCP but directed World Headquarters staff to analyze modifications to the program to:

• Encourage participation and achievement by new clubs.
• Motivate low-member clubs.
• Achieve more distinguished clubs each year.

District Administration Committee (DA)

• Focused its work on the areas of district leader responsibilities and agreements, district leader evaluation and the Distinguished District Program.
• Recommended minor revisions to the district governor role to clarify the relationship between the Regional Advisor leadership and district governor roles.
• Approved the development of district officer agreements to facilitate in clarifying expectations and defining learning objectives for each position and asked WHQ staff define a template for district use.
• Explored adding an evaluation component to district officer roles and recommended that WHQ staff create Advanced Leader manuals for each officer role. Additionally, WHQ staff was tasked with conducting further research to identify an online leadership assessment tool that could be used as a starting point for determining an individual’s leadership path.
• Asked World Headquarters staff to conduct research of the Distinguished District Program in areas involving:

• Distinguished Clubs
• Club growth
• Membership growth

This would better align district goals with club goals and could remove the limit on the number of President’s and Select Distinguished districts.

Executive Committee

Effective July 1, 2008, the Board granted full district status to three provisional districts: 81P (Caribbean), 82P (India and Sri Lanka) and 85P (China).

As the Board brings proposals to the delegates at a future convention to approve the governance reshaping, it will identify areas in the Bylaws that will require amendment.

• The Board reviewed and studied the first draft of the proposed changes.
• The Board determined that decisions governing transitions, such as for filling vacancies in the International President and the International President-Elect positions, will be needed. These issues will be addressed in the next draft of the proposed Bylaws amendment.
  

A major part of the governance reshaping project is to ensure that the organization's policies and procedures support and govern the organization.

More than 100 policies and procedures were reviewed with the intention of identifying:

• Documents that need revision.
• Documents that are no longer needed.
• Documents that will need to be created.

Major policies requiring attention that the Board identified include:

• Region Advisors
• International Leadership Committee
• District Leadership Committee
• Proxies
• Regional Conferences
• District Administrative Bylaws
• Reimbursement policies at all levels

These will follow a master calendar of future work. Revisions will begin with committee assignments starting at the August 2008 Board of Directors Meeting in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

Approved a boundary change between reformed Districts 47 and 84, effective July 1, 2008.

Nominating Committee Report

The following international officer candidates were nominated for the 2008-2009 administrative year:

For President:                          Jana Barnhill, DTM
For Senior Vice President:    Gary Schmidt, DTM
For Second Vice President:  Pat Johnson, DTM
For Third Vice President:       John Lau, DTM
(in alphabetical order)            Michael Notaro, DTM                 

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